NYX Cosmetics; Conceal, Correct and Contour Palette!!!

Foundation Files; This is where I test out different base products, from concealer to powder, tinted moisturiser and foundation etc, over a period of 7-14 days and post my findings. (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Bloglovin so you don't miss a post) So let’s get started!!!

First off some information about me; Skintype: Combination (leaning dry in winter and Oily in Summer). Shade Reference: in between MAC NC45-50/NW43. Undertones: Yellow/Neutral.

Brand: NYX Cosmetics

Name: Conceal, Correct and Contour Palette

Coverage: Medium

Shade: Deep

Swatch:

NYX Cosmetics Conceal, Correct and Contour Palette swatch

What The brand says: Colour-match your skin with this perfecting and correcting palette to conceal correct or contour. With six shades to choose from in each set you can cover up problem spots, even-out imperfections and accentuate your best features in a flash. Use these buildable colours on their own or combine them to create the ideal tone.

Wear time (with/without primer): This has really good weartime, especially when worn on skin rather than over the top of foundation, it does require a touch-up or two thorughout the day to keep it looking it's best.

Price (ml): £10 for 1.5g

Pros: Affordable
Great for travel
3 palettes for different skintones

Cons: May not use all the shades in the palette

2 shade in the palette are very similar
Could use an extra palette for even darker skintones
Hard to get hold of in the UK

Suitable Skin Types: All

Ingredients: Will update soon

Oxidation: None

Any Other Information: Nyx have a pop up stand in Selfridges in London for about 6 weeks (Ending around mid November), some of the items are also available on selfridges.com, so if you've been meaning to get your hands on some Nyx products I wouldn't wait around.   

Conclusion: I really like this palette, it has all I need for colour correcting, concealing, highlighting and contouring in a palmsized travel friendly palette. I'm a little unsure of how to use the yellow shade, but I've been mixing it in with one of the lighter shades (which I use interchageably) to highlight with and that's worked well.

*Rating: Love

*Ratings; Hate, dislike, Like, Lust, Love

Aallexxy's FoundationFiles; Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow

Foundation Files; This is where I test out different base products, from concealer to powder, tinted moisturiser and foundation etc, over a period of 7-14 days and post my findings. (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Bloglovin so you don't miss a post) So let’s get started!!!

First off some information about me; Skintype: Combination (leaning dry in winter and Oily in Summer). Shade Reference: in between MAC NC45-50/NW43. Undertones: Yellow/Neutral.

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow

Brand: Charlotte TIlbury

Name: Filmstar Bronze and Glow

Coverage/Pigmentation: Medium

Shade: Medium-Dark

Swatch:

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow Swatch

What The brand says: This is a secret that silver screen sirens have kept to themselves for years – and once I share it with you – so will you! With FILMSTAR BRONZE & GLOW you can slim, sculpt, shorten, trim and highlight your features. It’s amazing what clever shading and highlighting tricks can do to your facial framework - it’s an illusion that I use all the time, particularly for red carpet scrutiny, and my clients can’t get enough of it. Take what you were born with and maximise your assets with FILMSTAR BRONZE & GLOW!

 
This shade is perfect for medium to dark skin tones, or deep tans, to contour features and mimic a sun-kissed complexion.
• The bronzer is the perfect universal blend of pearl and pigment to contour features and mimic a sun-kissed complexion.
• The highlighter is built up from a golden base that flatters any skin tone, and uses Light Flex Technology to capture light and radiate it out for a luminous complexion.
• Colour-rich pigments are rolled into elastomer pearls that smooth & buff the skin for excellent blendability & perfect colour uniformity.
• Paraben-free

Wear time (with/without primer):

Price (ml): £49 for 16g

Pros: Gorgeous packaging
Highilight shade very flattering for darker skintones
Travel friendly

Cons: Contour/bronze shade is not dark enough for it's purpose

Contour shade is not matte
Pricey

Suitable Skin Types: All

Ingredients: Talc, Mica, Isononyl Isononanoate, Oryza Sativa (Rice) Starch, Dimethicone, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Zinc Stearate, Caprylyl Glycol, Phenoxyethanol, Dimethiconol, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Hexylene Glycol, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Silica, Tin Oxide, Trimethylsiloxysilicate, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)

Oxidation: N/A

Any Other Information: The sculpt shade in this palette has shimmer running through it and it's warm toned , however the shimmer is not that evident on the face, none the less if you prefer a matte cool toned contour this is not for you. I did not think I would like the highlight shade, as it looked too orangey gold for my liking, but on the skin it creates a gorgeous, glowy sheen, that I think would look even pretty the deeper your skintone is.

If you contour with a liquid/cream product and then apply this after, you obviously won't need it to be as deep, and this can help set your contour as well as add a subtle glow to your features. But as you can see from the swatch above, the contour/bronze shade is not very deep at all, it does create a very subtle shadow when applied to my face, but does not bronze my skin.

Conclusion: I'm a little frustrated that it's taken so long after the original was released to produce a darker shade and on top of that the shade is just barely deep enough for me to actually contour or bronze with. I also bought the Powder and Sculpt brush which is often referenced to be used with this, but in order to build up the colour on my face quickly I end up using an angled more densely packed brush, however the Charlotte Tilbury brush is perfect for the highlighting portion of the palette. I think those no darker than an NC48ish and/or Asian skintones may benefit from the sculpt shade if you like a very subtle contour/bronze, while the highlight shade is more suited to a variety of skintones.

Personally there are more affodable options that will do a better job on deeper skintones, however I cannot fault the feel of the powders and the packaging, also the highlight shade is gorgeous, for this it gets a like rating. But if I was to rate the shades in the palette seperately, the sculpt shade gets a dislike rating and the highlight shade would get a love rating, so I split the difference.

*Rating: Like

*Ratings; Hate, dislike, Like, Lust, Love

Aallexxy's Foundation Files; House of Glamdolls Glambase Wheel

Foundation Files; This is where I test out different base products, from concealer to powder, tinted moisturiser and foundation etc, over a period of 7-14 days and post my findings. (Follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Bloglovin so you don't miss a post) So let’s get started!!!

First off some information about me; Skintype: Combination (leaning dry in winter and Oily in Summer). Shade Reference: in between MAC NC45-50/NW43. Undertones: Yellow/Neutral.

House of Glamdolls Glambase Wheel 2

Brand: House of Glamdolls

Name: Glambase Wheel

Coverage: Light - Full

Shade: 2

Swatch:



House of Glamdolls Glambase Wheel 2 Swatches

What The brand says: Created by David Horne, The GlamBase Wheel is a mixing revolution for complexion enhancement. The wheel contains 6 shades that have been blended for easy complexion perfection every time. The GlamBase Wheel 2 is presented in a windowed compact. 35g;

1. Radiate: The centre shade Radiate is a copper iridescent cream highlighter.
2. Caramel: A cream pigment designed to illuminate and lift features.
3. Toffee: A cream pigment designed to use as a lid neutral base and to highlight and sharpen features.
4. Chestnut: A cream pigment designed to use as a mixing beauty base shade and to shape and sculpt features.
5. Truffle: A deep neutral pigmentation concealer designed to conceal pigmentation and enhance the complexion.
6. Shadow: A deep olivine brown concealer and contour.

Wear time (with/without primer): The wear time on this is good on my combination skin, you will need to touch up through the day, to keep it looking at it's best even with a mattifying primer. Although when my oils do push through it gives more of a glow than an oil slick look.

Price (ml): £25 for 35g

Pros: Great for travel
6 Shades in one compact
Multi-purpose i.e. concealer, contour, highlight, base etc.
Reasonably priced
Will last a long time
Compact and lightweight
Great for Makeup Artists

Cons: No ingredients lists on the website

Suitable Skin Types: All, extremely oily skins prep accordingly.

Scent: A lightly subtle floral scent that I can only smell when i stick my nose in the palette and not on my face.

Ingredients: Not stated on the website, on the back of the product, but each shade has a slightly different ingredient list.

Oxidation: None

Any Other Information: I was initially scared of the Shadow (olive Green Brown) shade in this palm sized wonder, but I got a tip on Instagram from David Horne himself, who suggested I mix it with the more red based shades (Truffle or Chestnut depending on your skintone) to make the perfect neutral contour shade. Which made perfect sense, once he said it.

This palm sized compact is lightweight with it's plastic packaging, but secure due to the screw top lid, with a clear pane you can see the product through. The radiate shade is also perfect for the current craze 'Strobing', aka highlighting, on darker skintones for that lit from within, hit by the light in the right places glow.

Conclusion: This is a great product if you love highlighting or contouring or if you struggle to find your base shade, it has everything in it for a flawless complexion, all you need in addition to this is powder. I think this is a great buy for it's multi-purpose function and practicality, there isn't a single shade in this that I cannot find a purpose for, which is unusual for a palette you haven't personally picked the shades yourself.

*Rating: Love

*Ratings; Hate, dislike, Like, Lust, Love

black|Up Paris Cosmetics

Black|Up Paris is fast becoming one of my favourite brands, it was founded in 1999 by an African makeup artist, and was the first upscale beauty brand to cater especially to black and mixed beauties. It pairs professional quality products with ease of use, it promises to provide a non-ashy finish and includes makeup, skincare and fragrance. I had heard about this brand for a while, but only dabbled in it recently when I tried and loved the CC cream, reviewed here.

I’ll start with the contouring sticks, this is a dual ended stick, think 2 stick foundations merged. One end for highlighting and the other for contouring and comes in 5 shades. I received shades 3 and 4. The contouring shades are identical and I can use these interchangeably, they are also quite warm toned and not as cool toned as a contour colour should be, but I feel on darker skin we can get away with this. The highlighting shades are very different, for this I need shade 3, these blend like butter, I love these. They cost £29 each, and if you know what shade you are in the CC cream, this is the shade you’ll be in these. 

 

 

Next is the Radiance Sublime Powder, I thought this would be extremely shimmery on the skin, but it’s quite subtle and adds a nice warm glow. It's developed with a new extra fine texture that blends easily, combining pigment and shimmer, it’s oil free, fragrance free and paraben free. The 5 shades are designed to match different undertones, I have shade no4 and it cost £26.

The 5 Colour Eyeshadow Palette is £32, each palette is designed to work in harmony, and structured around 3 looks a nude look using the matte shades, a day time look using the colour trio that can then be turned into a smokey night time look using the darkest matte shade. The palettes consists of 4 different textures, this one consists of 1 metallic shade, 1 satin shade, 2 matte shades and 1 glitter shade. I love this palette, it’s compact and great for travel, even though it’s structured around 3 looks, a multitude of looks can actually be created, I have palette no4 out of 5.

Finally are the mono eyeshadows, which have been developed in a new formula, and come in either a matte or metallic finish. Shade 02 is a light, bright orange shade, which is pigmented and blends beautifully. I’ve used this both on the eyes and cheeks, and it’s absolutely gorgeous, definitely a shade a brownbeauty should have in her stash. Then shade 12, which is a vibrant, light turquoise blue, not an everyday shade, but great for when you want a pop of colour. Again pigmented and blends beautifully, especially for a matte shade.  There are 15 shades in total, they don’t have names just numbers, and cost £15.50 each.

black|Up Paris is available on their website or Debenhams.com.

Thank you for visiting the blog today.

Alex

Tom Ford A/W14 Limited Edition Collection

The high end luxury brand Tom Ford, require no introduction, and I'm sure you've seen the latest limited edition A/W launch from the brand. My Tom Ford collection is growing slowly, see unabashed review here, but I'm constantly intrigued by the brand despite the high end price tag.

Tom Ford Cheek Color Duo and Black Cherry Nail Polish

I picked up 2 pieces of the collection from the House of Fraser website, the contouring cheek color duo in softcore and a nail polish in black cherry.


Tom Ford Softcore Contouring Cheek Color Duo

Softcore cheek color duo contains 2 shades; a more matte shade to add definition to the face, although this shade I would say is not completely matte and has a slight sheen to it, especially as it catches the light. And a second pearlescent shade to highlight, these shades are extrememly pigmented and the highlight shade can appear a little frosty if applied too much, so I use a fan brush to apply. This isn't strictly a typical contour shade, I apply it slightly lower down on the cheeks and not directly in the hollows and blend upwards so it gives shape and colour to the face.

Tom Ford Black Cherry Nail Polish

The black cherry nail polish shade is my ultimate nail polish colour, I love deep dark plum shades. It's especially fitting for the autumn/winter season, although I can be seen in variations of this shade all year round. This is my first Tom Ford nail polish, and it's extremely pigmented, applied right you could get away with one coat, but I prefer 2 lighter coats.

These are selling out fast, and may prove difficult to find now, as they are limited edition. They may however still be available at your local counters, and as of writing this, both items were still available on harveynichols.com, the cheek colour duo costs £56 and the nail polish is £26.  

Have you or will you purchase anything from this collection? What are your thoughts?

Thank you for visiting the blog today

Alex.

Benefits fake up!!!

Hello everyone,

By now most of you would have heard of Benefits latest release, the hydrating crease-control concealer, Fake-up. I was in need (want) of a new day-to-day use concealer and decided to try this one, especially as asos had 30% off all beauty on there website, which meant this £18.50 concealer was even cheaper. This concealer is different in that it is surrounded by a hydrating ring, which contains vitamin E and apple seed extract, benefit claims it hydrates, conceals, is long lasting and won't crease among other things. The shade range is limited, light, medium and deep, I knew I would be using this as an under eye concealer so opted for the shade medium to brighten and highlight my under eye area.














I love Benefits quirky packaging, which makes this concealer easy to use and travel/handbag friendly, great for touch ups throughout the day. I dab it straight from the tube under my eyes and blend it out with my finger, I then set it with either my MAC mineralise skinfinish powder, my hourglass ambient ligthing powder in Dim or both.

With FlashWithout Flash

Initially when I applied the concealer, it creased a very tiny bit, but I blended it out further with my finger and it's not been a problem since. I really like this concealer, once blended it doesn't crease and is long lasting, I was worried it would make my combination skin look greasy and oily, but it gives a gorgeous, luminous glow to the skin. I can't comment on whether it conceals dark circles, as I am using it as a highlighting concealer and my dark circles are only bad when I've had periods of poor sleep.

Set with ambient powder in Dim.

 

 

Have you tried this concealer yet, what did you think? Any further questions please feel free to post a comment below.

 

Thanks for visiting the blog today.

 

Alex

 

Maqpro Mandy Gold Palette!!!

I have heard Wayne Goss (gossmakeupartist on youtube) talk about maqpro products for quite a while, so I finally decided to take the plunge and buy the mandy gold palette from preciousaboutmakeup.com (PAM), especially as I've been in need of a corrector. The palette consists of 6 shades totalling 55 grams of product, for £27.50, which is great value for money. These foundation are wax based and suppose to be suitable for all skin types, my combination skin is currently a little dry and this foundation feels great on my skin, I look forward to using it in the summer when my skin is a little more normal-oily as it's meant to be great for oil control.

                 
 

Maqpro is a french based company, not to be confused with Mac cosmetics, I think there products were more tailored to make-up artists but are becoming more accessible to us mere mortals. As you can see the packaging is nothing fancy, but it's very sleek and flat so I can imagine great for make-up artists to travel with, I'm not sure how sturdy the plastic is I've had it for about 2 weeks and it's fine, but I don't tend to carry my foundation around with me.

     With flash and without
 

















The orange shade is the corrector, if you are of a deeper skintone and have areas of pigmentation, any the orange shade can brighten these areas prior to applying your foundation. It also great for dark under eye circles, I always have my foundation go ashy around my mouth area and this prevents that. This palette contains all I need for concealing, highlighting, correcting, contouring, bronzing, blusher and foundation, you can also tailor it to the amount of coverage you want/need, great and compact for travel. I have found a use for all the shades except one, 3rd on along on the top row, but this will probably depend on your skintone. I can also use the orange and bronzing shade (2nd on the top row) as a blusher, the 3rd shade on the bottm is a great contouring shade due to it's grey undertone, but the shades can also be mixed to create the perfect colour for what ever you want.

 

Foundation a few hours after application.

 

The foundation goes on beautifully and blends like a dream, you don't need much, but initially you might think you are not picking up very much product due to it's consistency until you start to notice all your flaws disappearing. I have used both the beauty blender and the real techniques expert face brush and they both work great to blend and buff the foundation into the skin, you can set it if you need too, but I've worn it both ways and it looked great.

 

This palette is catered to darker skintones, but there are others on the website for other skintones, lighter and darker. If you're in the market for a new base, and also in need of a corrector, I highly recommend this product.

 

Have you tried any Maqpro products before? Let me know what you thought.

 

Thanks for visiting my blog.

 

Alex

 

Ben Nye Translucent Face Powder in Topaz

Now the Ben nye banana powder is infamous across youtube and blogging communities, but the one you don't hear as much about is the translucent face powder in Topaz. This is a orange tinged powder than can be used to set the entire face or your under eye highlight depending on your skintone, also the hint of orange is great at reducing ashy areas that can happen due to hyper-pigmentation on asian and deeper skintones or using white based translucent powders, also great at reducing flash back in photography.

                                                             

I bought this powder from makeupeffects.co.uk for £8.10, which is amazing value for 2.85oz/80grams of product, it comes in a sifter type bottle which can cause some waste, but I tap a little into the lid section of my mac mineralise skin finish powder. I also have the banana powder, but I definately reach and use this more often to set my entire face, you can also tap a little onto your current face powders to brighten the complexion, warm up the complexion etc depending on your needs and skintone.

   Heavily swatched                                  Blended out slightly.

I absolutely love this powder and happy that I got my hands on it, I thought I would use the banana powder a lot more, but this one is definately slipped in my day-to-day routine as I don't like over highlighted looks for daytime. It helps with oil control, but won't cling to dry patches, as long as you don't apply too much, if you do just spritz your face with a bit of water, Mac fix plus or the like. Have you tried this powder or any other in the ben nye range, what are your thoughts?

Thanks for visiting the blog today.

Alex