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

Hema CC Perfecting Foundation and Pretty Lips Lipgloss

Hema; the Dutch equivalent to Ikea, except with beauty item launched in the UK in September 2014, they have everything from clothing, toys, kitchen utensils as well as furniture and the aforementioned beauty. There are 3 UK stores in Victoria, Bromley and Kingston, as well as an online store. The beauty range offers a wide variety of products from Mascara, makeup brushes to blusher, makeup bags and foundation, at an affordable price. I received the CC Perfecting Foundation and Pretty Lips Lipgloss, both with SPF15.

Hema Foundation and Pretty Lips Lipgloss

At £12 the CC Perfecting Foundation is one of the more expensive base products that Hema offers, so it’s definitely an affordable range. This base product claims to firm the skin, with the addition of natural oat extract , while giving a flawless medium to full coverage, mattifying finish and added SPF15. The SPF 15 can also help to prevent sun damage, it does not flashback in photography or appear ashy on the skin. It’s housed in a clear plastic pump bottle, with the standard 30ml of product with no added perfume and comes in 9 shades. I have shade N0 7, which is a perfect match for me (I usually fall between NC45-50 depending on the season). Being a colour correcting (CC) base, it has a good mixture of yellow and orange undertones, which help to balance out pigmentation on the skin and prevent those areas going ashy. I am absolutely loving this foundation, it’s a good colour match, lasts well and has buildable coverage. I do find that I require a touch up or 2 throughout the day, especially in my T-zone, but still feel this will be suitable for most skin types.

Hema Foundation Swatch

The Pretty Lips SPF15 Lipgloss is a new addition to the Hema lip range and actually looks like a tinted lipbalm, so I was initially confused as to why it was called a lipgloss. Hema state it’s a combination of lipstick and gloss and comes in 8 shades, it’s housed in a colour coded lipbalm type tube, that twists up to reveal the product. I received shade 17 Spicy Brown, which is a muted pinky brown shade, that is quite perfumed, but that dissipates quickly once applied. The pigment on these is very sheer, the gloss has a lot of slip to it and a glossy finish that’s comfortable to wear, but not as hydrating as a balm.

The Hema beauty range is available at hemashop.com. The foundation range starts from £3.50 and the Pretty Lips Lipgloss is £5.50, but I couldn’t actually find these on the website.

Have you tried anything from this range?

 

Thank you for visiting the website today

 

Alex

Clinique's Superprimer!!!

So Clinique have released a line of primers, 6 in total, one universal shade and 5 tinted variants to cater to differing needs. I purchased the peach tinted shade aimed at correcting discoloration, it's a 30ml tube, and cost £20.

 

I normally use an orange corrector around my mouth area as this area can go grey and ashy under foundation due to hyperpigmentation, but sometimes in the morning when I'm rushing out the door to work it's just an extra step I don't always have time for, so to find a primer and corrector in one was next on my list of beauty purchases. As you've probably heard, peach tones correct pigmented areas of the face including dark under eye circles, based on the colour wheel theory. The lighter your skintone the more pinky/peach the shade should be, and the darker your skintone the more orange it needs to be.

Ingredients

This primer is obviously more along the peach shade spectrum, rather than the bright orange shade I normally use, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it did make it easier to conceal dark blemish marks and helped brighten the pigmented areas around my mouth, though not as much as my orange corrector. This primer made my skin feel silky smooth and foundation definitely glided on more smoothly, and it increased the longevity of my foundation.

All in all it's a great primer, and a great way for me to cut my morning routine down by a step, while offering extra longevity. Have you tried any of the clinique superprimers? What did you think?

Thanks for visiting the blog today

Alex

Clinique Moisture Surge SPF 30 CC Cream!!!

We had BB creams and now CC creams, next it'll be DD creams lol, but seriously I actually read somewhere that this is next on the market. I've only ever tried one BB cream, the sleek be beautiful blemish balm, review here. Let me predicate this post by saying, I think some of these creams are labelling and hype, so I just think of them as tinted moisturisers or bases with added extras. So for my first ever CC cream, I went with clinique, the shade range of CC and BB creams are usually quite limited compared to foundations. Clinique have 9 shades for their moisture surge CC cream, but most beauty counters only stock the most common 6, the darkest shade Deep was the closest match for me. So if you're darker than an NC55 you may not find a shade to match, saying that the coverage is light-light medium and can be used under foundation, so if used like this colour match isn't as important.

 

The cream is very thick and almost feel like it would be difficult to blend, but it does blend, I use fingers and/or a brush. This will not cover blemishes completely and if applied over a heavy moisturiser or sunscreen with leave you looking very shiny, oily skinned gals beware. I find it applies best on my combination skin without moisturiser or sunscreen, the product offers good hydration and has good lasting power like this, it evens out my complexion nicely.













I like this cc cream and how clinique don't claim that the product will do a million and one things for your skin, just hydration, SPF protection and colour correcting. My skin always feels soft when I take this off, for a little extra coverage I set it with MAC's MSF, otherwise I just use my Hourglass ambient lighting powder (review here). But it doesn't really need to be set, depending on your skin type. I do think the shade range is limiting for a darker skin girl, but clinique offer more shades on the whole than some other brands with similar products.

I love how it evens out my skin, with a supper natural, my skin but better look!!!

Have you tried this CC cream or any similar product, let me know your experiences?

Thanks for visiting the blog today

Alex