Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Glow Sheer Powder - No50!!!

I'm sure most of you have heard about the latest release from Chanel, the healthy glow sheer powder from the Les Beiges collection, inspired by freedom and light as air make-up. I had a £10 Debenhams voucher and decided to put it towards the purchase of this £38 powder, I'm getting a litle bored of my MAC mineralise skinfinish and with these new powders on the market claiming to prevent cakey over powdered application, while mattifying and giving the skin a glow all at the same time I had to see what it was all about. I have the hourglass ambient lighting powder (review here) and absolutely love it, but due to the universal shades it offers no extra coverage when setting make-up. My skin is a little crazy at the moment, I have some horrible blemishes on my cheeks that refuse to fade, so I need something that will work towards disguising them without having to wear a full coverage foundation. Saying that the powder is incredibly sheer, so coverage is minimal, which is great if your wear little make-up and/or have great skin. I use this powder to set my foundation and concealer, it also has SPF 15, which is personally a bit low for me in the summer months, but can help to top up your SPF throughout the day (better than nothing).

The packaging is gorgeous and chic, the powder feels soft and buttery to the the touch and it comes with a large mirror and brush for touch up's on the go. I have used the elf powder brush and real techniques buffing brush to apply this, but my favourite at the moment is the elf mineral powder brush. I love the feeling and finish of this powder, it never leaves me looking over powdered or cakey, it does have a strong scent, but I don't notice this once it's been applied to my skin. I got the shade No50, but think in the winter I would need No40, however the powders are incredibly sheer so I could probably get away with either shade. The powders can also be used as a bronzer if you purchase a shade or two darker than your skintone. The shade range goes upto No70, but I'm not sure how many of these shades are available in the UK, the darkest shade the counter I purchased mine from seemed to be the No60.

Heavily swatchedSlightly blended out

It looks light initially, but blends out beautifully to give a demi-matte, sort of satin smooth finish to the skin. I believe these powders will be realeased in the USA in August, I can't wait for the cream blushes that are already avalable as part of the fall collection in America to launch here in August.

The powder with Laura Mercier's secret camouflage concealer

Do you have any chanel make-up, have you tried this new powder? Share your thoughts and any questions below.

Thanks for visiting the blog today.

Alex

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder - Dark Skin

To date this is one of the most confusing things I've had to test out for review, when I heard about the hourglass lighting powders I was super excited (sad right?) and couldn't wait for them to come to the UK. I wanted to see them in person, being a darker skin girl when you hear 'universal shade', you're always sceptical. I called my local Spacenk and was informed the powders were not in store until May and I could join the waiting list (WHAT???), the beauty consultant however reassured me that she had seen them on all skin tones and they were fine. With this information and armed with £5 Ndulge reward I ordered Dim light online, the one that seemed to be the most suited to darker skin tones with minimal shimmer. This powder costs £38 for 10 grams, which for hourglass is not too bad, it's paraben, talc, fragrance, gluten and nanoparticle (whatever that is) free.

Box

Hourglass' claims:
A wardrobe of six universal finishing powders that recreate the most exquisitely flattering light, powders capture, diffuse and soften the way light is reflected on skin, brighten the appearance, and conceal skin imperfections infused with technologically advanced soft-focus particles that help make skin appear younger, even-toned and radiant. Unlike traditional powders that use opaque pigments, Ambient utilizes “photoluminescent technology” – micron-size spherical particles that refract light and create transparent coverage, while each can be worn for day and night.

ETHEREAL LIGHT is an opalescent sheer, cool white powder that mimics a moonlit glow – even in broad daylight
DIFFUSED LIGHT is a soft, warm, pale yellow powder that conceals redness and gives skin clarity – like a soft ray of morning light
DIM LIGHT is a neutral peach beige powder that blurs imperfections and highlights a radiant complexion with the perfect balance of warm and cool tones
MOOD LIGHT is a soft, sheer lavender pink powder that mimics the softest most forgiving light and reveals your brightest complexion
LUMINOUS LIGHT is a champagne pearl powder that creates a soft, incandescent candlelit glow – day or night
RADIANT LIGHT is a sun-kissed golden beige powder that enhances the overall complexion with believable, subtle warmth, and also extends a summer glow.

Compact

The packaging is nice, but not as heavy as I was expecting from the luxury brand, and it's very susceptible to finger print marks. Each time I used the powder I felt differently, sometimes I felt I could really see the blurring and soft focused effect and other times I wasn't so sure. I used it to set my make-up, but also as a finishing powder after make-up had been set with another powder (worst result), it seemed to work best for me as a setting powder. My combination skin is currently normal to dry at the moment and this powder gave a nice satin finish to the skin, not as glowing as I was expecting, but great for all over the face and something I'll appreciate once my skin gets oilier with the changing season. I tried this over different bases, Sleeks BB cream, lancome's teint visionnaire and my maqpro palette (click the links to see reviews), but I really noticed exactly what it was doing to my skin when I tried it on alone.

 

PowderNo Powder

Above is the powder on my skin with no other make-up on whatsoever (Scary!!!), I noticed how it really blurred the imperfections and gave a lovely satin finish to the skin, it doesn't flashback or leave a white cast on my deeper skintone.



 

This is a picture of the powder over my maqpro palette foundation. I am really loving this powder, my first hourglass product and now want radiant light, hourglass also have a brush they are selling with the powders for £30, but I have been using Elizabeth's Arden mineral powder brush (had it a while) and its been fine. The idea is you lay the powder across the skin, rather than buffing it in, so it can reflect light.  

 

Have you tried any of the ambient powders, what do you think, which one did you try.

 

Thanks for visiting the blog today.

 

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

Sleek have done it again!!!

The search for the perfect foundation voyages on, but I think I may have come across a serious contender, and guess what?! It's a drug store brand!!! Sleek have brought out the Base Duo Kit, they describe as a 'moisturising creme liquid foundation and ultra sheer transforming setting powder', two products in one practical clutch size compact!!!



Foundation

Swatches; heavy ans slightly blended out

Ingredients on the back of the box

Front of compact

Side view of compact

Box compact is contained in

Setting Powder

My shade is terracotta 343, which I think is a great match, the setting powder is not made to match the colour of the actual foundation as it's very sheer. Sleek explain that 'each foundation has been expertly coupled with an ultra fine transforming setting powder, that is not matched to your skin tone, but intelligently transforms the shade of the foundation ever so slightly in order to give the most natural finish'.

 

The foundation is light to medium coverage and looks quite natural even when layered, if you have oily skin I would recommned a good mattifying primer underneath, in winter my skin gets dry and this foundation gives me a nice glowly finish although initially goes on matte, which may look more shiny on oilier skin types. The foundation also have an SPF15 and doesn't flash back in photography, although if you apply the setting powder too heavily it can initially leave a very sllight white cast on the skin, but once your natural oils blend with the foundation this is not noticable.

 

The compact is great for on the go due to it's small size and has two mirrors in it, I initially used a powder brush to dust the setting powder over my face, however the oils from my skin very quickly transferred onto it, making it difficult to get any powder onto the brush. If this happens you can gently scratch the top of the powder to release it and then dust onto face with a brush or revert to using a powder puff, which is what I've done and pat onto face to set the foundation.

 

I bought this foundation from Superdrug (currently offering 3 for 2 on cosmetics) for 12.49, you can also purchase this from sleeks website for £13, with a vast 18 shades to choose from.

 

Have you tried this foundation yourself yet, if so what do you think?

 

Thanks for visiting my blog, if you have a further questions please leave them in the comments below and I will do my best to answer them.

 

Alex