that day. that one day, post-christmas, where you have to return to society. whether it be work, school, university or a grocery shop, the 3am bedtimes and lie-ins are over and you have to become reacquainted with your worst enemy: the tube. unfortunately i am still recovering from the traumatic ordeal that is the central line, and so this will be a simple fotd post.
face: l'oreal studio secrets primer, mac studio fix fluid (nw30), collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer (#2), mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus). eyes: illamasqua cream pigment (hollow), rimmel exaggerate liquid liner, maybelline gel liner, mac studio fix lash (black), mac eyebrow pencil (stud). cheeks: topshop (pop). lips: collection 2000 creampuff lip cream (fairy cake).
i am so horrifically tired and feel really rough as i type this. it's like having an exhaustion-induced hangover. sleepover? no. fatigover? no. hmmmm. i will need to work on this. come back to me later.
(see the rest of me looking pregnant in the background?)
i haven't really been doing much make-up wise recently, just keeping it simple. it's a little matchy-matchy - but i'm just not feeling anything remotely different right now. i think it's definitely the exhaustion and bad skin talking. saying that, i do have my eye on a headband with spikes poking out of it so i'm sure the old me (the old badly-dressed-with-questionable-taste me, that is) will be back soon enough. make-up wise, i'm just going for a look which makes me appear energised, well-rested and basically not rough. and i must warn you, this is an extremely difficult task.
now excuse me while i doze off....
face: 17 primer, mac studio fix fluid (nw30), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light), collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer (#2), mac mineralize skinfinish (medium plus). eyes: urban decay primer potion, urban decay eyeshadows (blunt, chopper, twice baked), maybelline gel liner, max factor false lash effect mascara, rimmel kohl pencil, mac eyebrow pencil (stud). cheeks: no 7 illuminator (peach). lips: no 7 lip pencil (melon), vaseline.
MEGA POST FOR A MEGA PRODUCT. i love gimmicks. i love it when brands promise that you will look amazing/stunning/perfect, and i suppose i also love how they lie (i'm like, SO rihanna~). have you ever walked past a new product and wondered which mug would fall for that? nine times out of ten, i am that mug - but i am not ashamed. my latest gimmick of choice is illamasqua's skin base foundation. i like to think i escaped the immediate hype (there seems to be many tales of the foundation being sold out everywhere) and in my own defence, i am genuinely in need of a new foundation and so i figured i'd give it a go.
nails - model's own (nude beige).
i went to selfridges, and was just in luck. at the time when i went, illamasqua was offering 10% off the foundation. the girl applied it on my face and admittedly it looked beautiful, given that as of late my skin has been completely and utterly shit. after much ooh-ing i happily bought it, and trotted off on my merry way. went to exit the building, and in true typical british fashion, it was POURING down. i'm not a wuss when it comes to rain, but this was monsoon-standard downpour. having stood outside for twenty minutes hoping that the rain would at least calm down, it didn't, and so i had to brave it whilst wearing crochet shoes and the world's biggest frown. i had pretty much assumed that my beautifully applied foundation had basically been washed off, after 25 minutes of walking in the rain...
WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2.10 ONWARDS WA
... but - nope! later that evening when i went home resembling a soaked cat, i went to cleanse my face and lo and behold, most of it was still on my face. how brilliant is that?! i therefore love it.
application-wise, i don't think it's something i could apply with fingers or my usual brush without blotching it up. i don't know if this is just down to my own incompetency or whether it's to do with the formulation of the foundation. i don't see that as a bad thing though, i'm just sayin'. when i use this, i apply it with a kabuki brush (£16, the body shop, money-grabbing or what). that way you can buff it into the skin and get the natural finish the product aims to achieve. as dumb as the prices are for body shop brushes, i absolutely swear by them and think they are hands-down the best brushes on the high street - so whatever you pay, you're safe in the knowledge in that these brushes will last you years without shedding a single hair.
here is my make-up whilst on holiday (taken with flash). my hair is wet from a shower five minutes beforehand, i'm probably melting*, and i'm wearing a buttload of new products i'd like to review when i get the chance. i'll also wear it and post a photo whilst in natural light at some point, i'm sure.
skin: sephora smoothing primer, illamasqua skin base foundation (no 10), clinique airbrush concealer (03 light). eyes: collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer, rimmel exaggerate liquid liner, no 7 lash adapt mascara, nars highlighter (albatross). cheeks: nars bronzer (laguna), sleek blush (rose gold). lips: max factor (bewitching coral).
and lastly, i'd like to respond and give my take on recurring criticisms i've seen in other reviews, as i'm sure anyone reading this will have probably googled and read a variety of reviews.
- it is not longlasting - gurl, u trippin.
- there is little connection between this and bb creams - i wholeheartedly agree. i am by no means a user of bb creams anyway, but this is such a strong product that it should be praised on its own merits. i am not sure why illamasqua tried to push the bb cream connection in the first place. maybe to branch out into azn markets? who knows. - it made someone's skin oily - i don't understand how this is possible unless your skin is massively oily. it sinks and sets into the skin without feeling heavy, and i wore it in the craziest hot weather. - it highlights dry patches on the skin - i think this is a lazy criticism. it takes less than a minute to moisturise before you put on your make-up. if your skin is still dry after moisturising, then it's the cream you're using which needs to be looked into. - the comparison chart on the illamasqua website is inaccurate - according to the chart, i am supposed to go for shades 9 or 10. i deliberately kept this to myself as i was curious to see if the mua would match me up correctly herself, and sure enough, she did. maybe i was lucky, maybe the chart works better for olive skin tones, who knows.
all in all, i bloody love this foundation. i think i've found the one.
* if you live in a country where the heat is very strong and very humid, i would recommend mac studio fix fluid over this as it will stay in place for longer.
errrrrrm, why did this not post? this was meant to go up whilst i was abroad (more on that another time). what has changed since? well, i am now broke. completely and utterly penniless. if this had gone up when it was supposed to, i would not be wittering on about financial woes - especially when i'm supposed to be going to bestival and have zero camping stuff. maybe i shouldn't have gone. £180 would be so good right about now... and to think, i had £180 at one point. :'(
my latest plaything is cheap though, so all of you fellow broke ass bitches better listen up. it retails for £2.99 (or did, when i bought it) and off the top of my head, is the cheapest piece of make-up i own. i can't claim to know much about collection 2000 but was really excited by the concept of a matte lipgloss, the cutesly-named "cream puff lip cream". eeeee cream puff. eeee shade called "fairy cake". eeee fat. i love matte lipsticks (the ones by revlon are my favourite) but their biggest problem is how drying they can be, and so i was curious to see how that problem would translate in gloss form.
i'm not going to lie and say that this is the most hydrating thing to ever touch my lips, but it's pretty damn good. for £2.99, even better. it also smells delicious. fortunately i didn't find this to be drying at all like regular matte lipsticks, and i absolutely loved the bright pink-coral shade. however, it does present the same problems in that your lips have to be in tip-top condition before you apply it, otherwise it will look terrible. it also won't last the entire day - i think i got about two or three hours out of it. all in all though, i think it is fabulous and would urge anyone to try it, especially if they are put off by matte shades in lipstick form.
my only real disappointment is the colour choice: there are four shades in total, and i'm going to be blunt and say that if you are not white, then two out of the four will possibly work with your complexion (this one, and another more nudey tone, the name of which i do not know). however, this is an issue with cheap brands in general who don't cater for a wider variety of skin tones, and so i'm not going to specifically hate on collection 2000 over it. i'll just have to hope that this will be a great success and that they'll branch out with more universally flattering shades!
