Lancome Grandiôse: First Impressions

// Lancome - Grandiôse Mascara - £24.50 //

This mascara is one of my recent beauty buys, and I had to feature it on my blog. I've never spent so much on a mascara as I could never justify buying a high-end one when drugstore brands sell such good quality ones, however I ended up buying this spontaneously the other day after remembering hearing Tanya Burr rave about it. I'm not usually one to buy high end products on a whim as I hate wasting money, but this time I'm glad I did. I would go as far as saying this is so far the best mascara I have ever used in terms of the way it makes my lashes look. After even just one good coat they are easily comparable to false ones. The swan neck shape of the brush means you can fan out the lashes and add curl, length and volume, like most new mascaras, the brush picks up too much product on the first fe uses, but as with other mascaras once it has had time to dry a little this problem is solved. 

This product is worth the high price point, after all, as with a lot of makeup, you do tend to get what you pay for. If you are looking to find a new favourite mascara this would be at the top of my list of recommendations and I can see myself repurchasing this, I'm even contemplating buying a waterproof one in preparation for the summer already.

Thanks for reading!

Alice

xxx

MAC Face and Body Foundation

As requested on my instagram, I'm going to do a quick review of the MAC Face and Body foundation, which is my current favourite, and is massively hyped up by many beauty bloggers/vloggers. 

This foundation is a light to medium coverage with a slightly dewy finish. I think its perfect for summer as it gives the skin such a healthy looking glow, and isn't too heavy for those warmer days. I know that this foundation is talked about a lot, and since I've bought it I can see why. Despite being a lighter coverage than I've loved in th past, recently this foundation is the one I've been reaching for pretty much every day. I think its perfect for school, work and everyday use as its not going to look like foundation, but rather more 'your skin but better'. If you'd like to the finish, I have it on, in my last post on "Two Trends".

I do find that I need to powder more with this foundation, as I feel that it can sometimes look too dewy without a brush over. It also lasts longer with a powder thats going to fix it in place (my favourite is Rimmel Stay Matte, surprise, surprise). Personally I wouldn't recommend this for someone with oiler skin as it would probably 'slide' off the face, which is the opposite to a flawless finish, but I do think that this works perfectly on normal/dry skin and leaves it looking naturally beautiful.

To apply this foundation I just put a small drop on the back of my hand, before dotting it over my face and then using my Real Techniques Buffing Brush to blend it out seamlessly.

Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this style of post, leave a comment below of any other products you would like me to review or any dupes of this foundation that you have discovered!

Alice xxx

Spring Lips

In my mind it is definitely spring now. The suns out, and so are the spring fashions. This means one thing, my makeup bag gets a new lease of life. After months of darker toned lip colours, eye shadows and blushes, the brights come out to play.

I think that bright lips are an essential part of spring trends, and this season i'll be sporting bright pops of colour and strong pink nudes. Two of the biggest colours this season are going to be 'tangerine' and pastel shades of quirky colours.

//From front to back // MAC - Viva Glam Nicki 2 // Rimmel London Kate Moss Matte Collection 101 // MAC Morange //

These three are my current spring favourites! The purple Nicki Minaj lipstick won't be for everyone but its been in my collection for over a year now and I still love it. The Kate Moss colour is the perfect pink for everyday wear, if your looking for something a little less garish. Finally MAC Morange is the perfect orange for a lost all skin tones, pus with orang lips being one of the biggest trends of S/S 14 you can't go wrong!

Alice xxx

Spring Prime

I'm back! Im ashamed to say that it's been exactly 3 months since my last blog post. Unfortunately as it always seems to do after christmas life got in the way a little when it came to blogging and instagraming and so both have been absent from my life for a few months. I've been so busy with school recently, I'm currently revising for my AS exams in May, and the time seems to be passing far too quickly for me to keep up with! Hopefully i'll be back and posting on a regular basis, as when I get the time I love blogging!

For my first post back I wanted to show you a product I've been obsessed with ever since I bought it. The Loreal Paris Lumi Magique Primer, is a light and glowing primer that leaves your skin looking naturally luminous (hense the name) and perfectly primed.

I'm aware that I'm a little late on the bandwagon with this product, I'd seen it being raved about by so many people a few months ago but never got round to buying it until recently (it was on offer in my local Boots store and I couldn't resist). I know that this had divided opinions and I can see why. Those with oily skin would never get on with this primer. Its not going to perfect your pores or mattify your skin, its not what it was designed to do, but it does give dry to normal skin a gorgeous, natural glow.

I'm not sure how far this primer goes to make your makeup stay all day, but I'm really enjoying it for enhancing the way my skin looks! I've been using this for nearly a month now and I feel that I can now review it knowing how it really works. This is an essential for summer skin, so if your on the lookout for a new 'beauty in a bottle' product give this a try!

Alice xxx

Review: Stila Sparkle Luxe Eye Shadow Palette

Today I've got a review for you. I hate the fact that because this palette was limited edition, its no longer available because I am in love with these shades! Although this palette isn't available anymore, I'm hoping that this will let you all know a little bit about the Stila eyeshadows and about the quality of the products (since originally writing this I believe the palette is back on sale at full price). Also I know that this post is up late! After I'd made a big deal about the fact that this post was going to be up yesterday, something came up, which meant I didn't have access to my computer, so sorry about that!

I found this palette in the Stila sale, where it was reduced from £30 to £7.50, and I just couldn't resist. The price was amazing and they had lots of other great looking products reduced so I'd definitely advise you all to keep your eyes peeled for the next sale that comes along.

First of all I want to quickly talk about the packaging of this product. Its beautiful. The light blue case is dotted with silver glitter, with the classic Stila text in a silver, mirrored font. You'd probably expect the outer shell of this product to be rough due to the glitter, but its anything but, which I'm happy about as I hate the feel of glitter. The packaging also seems to be quite substantial and I expect that it provides a lot of protection to the shadows inside.

The palette comes with 3 nude matte shades and 6 cream to powder, glitter shades. I think that these colours are all really wearable despite the fact that lots of them are bright colours, as they can all work together to create either a subtle or bold look. Thats another great thing about this palette. All the shades work on sort of a mix and match basis, in the respect that they can all be used with each other, meaning that theres tons off different looks to be created with just 9 shades. 

The quality of the shadows can't be faulted. They last on the lids for a long time, even without a primer and the colour pay off is amazing. Below I've swatched wall the shades so that you can see how they look on. My favourites at the moment are Bubble Bath, Marylin and Bordeaux. Bubble Bath is the perfect base colour for me as it creates such a nice nude tone.

Finally, this palette also comes with a Smudge Stick waterproof eyeliner in Lady Fish. I'd describe the colour of this pencil as a very deep purple, with tiny specks of pink glitter running through it. Its not a colour I'd normally buy, but I've actually used it quite a lot and it goes really well

 with all the shades in the palette. 

After buying this palette, I'm definitely going to be purchasing some more Stila products. I've got my eye on the In The Light palette and their Stay All Day liquid liner.

Thanks for reading guys, I hope that this wasn't too boring for you as I know that its annoying that this palette isn't actually available but I still hope it was a good read for you. As always I love reading your comments so please pop them below and don't forget to follow me!

Love Alice xxx

Small Piece of Golden Perfection

Hi Guys!

No I've not gone mad, if you're looking at the title, I've just fallen in love. I went on a lovely sales shopping spree in Leeds with my bestie and bought one if my favourite products to date. So it want actually a sale item (which defeats the point of a trip to the sales) but I've had my eye on one of these wonders for a while. 

Presenting the YSL Rouge Volupte lipstick in shade 1...