My Make Up Staples

I thought it was time to show you what I mean when I say my staple products. Although sometimes I vary them a bit (eg. if I need waterproof mascara or a foundation with less coverage), but generally these are the products I reach for most often nowadays.

Guerlain Blanc de Perle foundation in 02 Beige Clair. Guerlain Divine Pressed Powder (this is an oldie!), Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Mac highlighting palette (homemade and no idea which shades it contains), Cargo Last Activator mascara in black and Mac Brow Set in Show Off,

So now you know what I mean when I say my staples.

Beauty Must Have: Too Faced Shadow Insurance Anti-Crease Eyeshadow Primer

I've been meaning to blog about this product for ages and finally I've got around to it. I mentioned it in my 2012 Favourites post, but I thought it deserves its own review because it's a fantastic product. I used it every day and it never lets me down.

Too Faced Shadow Insurance (TFSI) is an eyeshadows primer that helps keep your eye make up looking vibrant and stay creaseless. It is a light skin coloured cream product that once blended out is practically invisible. I use it under every eyeshadow and it works really well for me. It is very similar to Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP), but I prefer this Too Faced version mainly due to the packaging. Unlike the UDPP genie lamp style hard tube TFSI comes in a soft plastic squeezy tube. I always find that when I think my UDPP has run out, there's actually still tonss of it left in the tube, and once I cut it open and scoop out the contents, it dries out very quickly. I know the UDPP tube has now been redesigned and it also comes in a squeezy tube now, but I still have several genie bottles left from palettes that I now can't be bothered to use.

I have been using my current tube of TFSI for years now (on and off) and the texture of the primer has not changed at all, it hasn't dried out one little bit and amazingly there's still lots left in it. You really only neeed a little bit at a time, so an 11 g tube goes a very long way. I also have it in the Candlelight version which is a slightly shimmery, frosty version that is recommended to use under shimmery eyeshadows, but I usually forget about it and just use the normal version more often than not.

This is an absolutely must have product if you wear eyeshadows and I can wholeheartedly recommend it. An 11 g tube costs £16.50.

See more pictures after the jump!

Want It! Guerlain Terra Ora Collection for Summer 2013

Guerlain always has me with their new collections and of course it's no different this time around. Thanks to Tavia I have details of the upcoming summer collection called Terra Ora.

The face of the collection once again is the ever beautiful Natalia Vodianova. The theme of the collection is gold, golden bronze. The star item is the limited edition Terra Ora bronzer that comes in a wooden compact like last year's Terra Azzurra powder. I'm also interested in the golden version of Guerlain's Meteorites Perles primer and the new BB cream. There's a new foundation as well as 2 new Shine Automatique lipsticks, new nail polish shades and a new lipgloss formula, Gloss D'Enfer that British Beauty Blogger has swatched for us already. Not part of this collection, but there are also 6 new shades of Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzing Powders that might tempt me too.

Coming to a counter near you sometime in March or early April!

See the full collection details and more pictures after the jump!

2012 Favourties - Part 2: Eyes

I buy and wear a lot of eyeshadows, eyeliners and mascaras, that is one thing I don't think I'll ever be able to stop. I have very undefined eyes, so I cannot be without eyeliner and mascara, eyeshadows are more of the fun part, I really enjoy playing with colours and have got pretty good at doing quite fancy looks.

I'll start with eyeshadows. One of the brands I mostly raved on about on here in 2012 is L'Oreal, I love their Infallible eyeshadows. Nowadays I tend to gravitate towards high end eyeshadows, but every so often cheaper brands that come out with something amazing and I'm not that much of a snob not to check them out. I did a series of reviews as I bought 20 shades of them, here's the recap post that is linked to all the reviews.

My other favourite eyeshadows that I often compare the L'Oreal Infallibles to were Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill and Chanel Illusion D'Ombre eyeshadows. You can find several reviews of these on the blog as well, just do a search. I loved the Infallible eyeshadows most for their affordableness and big colour selection (although we don't get quite as many in the UK, but thank God for eBay and US sellers).

Carry on reading after the jump to discover which other products I loved in 2012!

Too Faced Shadow Bon Bons Review and Swatches

I have another pretty palette from Too Faced to show you, this time it's the Shadow Bon Bons palette. This one is also a very good value offering. Of course it's not just abut value, it's also the quality that counts. Luckily this is also a great quality palette. Well done Too Faced!

Shadow Bon Bons contains 12 eyeshadows, a trial size Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer and a full size LashGASM mascara. I have to admit, I actually bought this palette for just one of the eyeshadows (and the fact that I got £17 worth of points on my Advantage Card in Boots when I spent £50). I'm happy to say that all the eyeshadows in the palette are actually very nice, with the exception of Nude Beach which has quite bad fallout, although it's a pretty shade. This palette isn't as colourful as the Sweet Indulgences palette, so better for those who prefer neutral looks, but there's still plenty of variety in there. Not just colourwise, but also regarding the finishes, there are matte, metallic and shimmery shades.

Some of the shades in this palette can also be found in the Sweet Indulgences palette (Peach Fuzz and Lovey Dovey) and I'm pretty sure I've come across some of the others before too, but this is such a nice, comprehensive set, and not too bulky to travel with either.

The Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer has a nice golden sheen, so it's great under shimmery shadows. It grabs onto eyeshadows and makes them stay vibrant and creaseless all day long. The LashGASM mascara gives me nice lenght, although not much volume. It has those plastic bristles/spikes I like and the brush is a nice size, not too big at all. The formula is pretty nice too.

All in all, a great set and well worth the £33 price tag. According to Beauty Bay the value of this set is £130. It contains 10.8 g eyeshadows which is £95 value, plus the full size (12 ml) LashGASM mascara £16.50, and the 5 g Candlelight Shadow Insurance primer is an extra £7.50 value, which makes it £119 in my books, but either way, it's great value.

Have you bought anything from Too Faced's holiday collection yet? Or are you waiting for Santa to bring you something nice? Let me know in the comments! Also see if you can guess which one is my favourite shade in this palette? And which one is yours?

See lots more pictures including swatches after the jump!

Too Faced Sweet Indulgences Set Review and Swatches

I have always liked Too Faced, especially the special edition pretty palettes, but this year they've really stepped up their game. This is the second palette I've bought from Too Faced recently and this is yet another excellent value, fantastic quality palette.

In this set you get 16 eyeshadows, a full size Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer, 2 bronzers, 2 blushes, a highlighter and a double ended eyeshadow brush/applicator. Too Faced have also thrown in 3 looks cards. The whole lot comes in a double layer tin. The top layer includes the 16 eyeshadows, the bottom layer has everyting else. The top layer is easily removable, can just be lifted out of the tin. It's not portable on its own, but at least you can hold it while applying the eyeshadows, rather than having to hold the whole tin. The bottom layer is also removable, but less easily.

First of all, the eyeshadows are great. Most of them are shimmery or metallic, but there are a few matte/satiny ones. Some of these shades have been included in pretty much every holiday palette Too Faced have done, I recognise a few of the names, but some of them seem new. I can't find this palette on the Too Faced website (I think this might be a Sephora exclusive in the US) and the Beauty Bay website doesn't have much info. Anyway, the eyeshadows included are: In the Buff, Peach Fuzz, Marshmallow, Lovey Dovey, Copper Peony, Teddy Bear, Gum Drop, Malted Milk Ball, Satin Sheets, Nice Stems!, Nice Ash, Cherry Cola, Honeymoon, Pastille, Cop a Teal, Black Sugar. You get 1.6 g of each colour, so that's a total of a whopping 25.6 g of eyeshadow.

I haven't worn them all yet (in fact I've only worn 4), but I have swatched them all (see below) and they all swatched really nicely. The shimmery ones didn't have much fallout (if any) and the matte ones weren't at all powdery. The shades I've worn (Peach Fuzz, Gum Drop, Satin Sheets and Cherry Cola) stayed on my lids all day (with Shadow Insurance underneath, of course) and didn't crease at all. I hade some glitter fallout, I think from Peach Fuzz, but it wasn't too bad and I only noticed it several hours later.

The bronzers are both pretty nice, the exclusive shade is darker, more matte and less pigmented than the Sun Bunny Light Bronzer which is just gorgeous, smooth and pigmented. Another favourite of Too Faced's is La Vie En Rose blush, I'm sure I have it in almost every palette that's come out in the past 2-3 years, but it's a pretty pink slightly shimmery blush, so i don't mind. Papa Don't Peach blush is really nice, more pigmented than La Vie En Rose and has a lovely glow. You also get a small Candlelight Glow highlighter (another palette essential).

The brush/applicator is alright, I have only tried the brush, I'm not usually a fan of applicators. It's okay, but it doesn't add any value to the palette for me. The full size Shadow Insurance primer is great and I'm happy to own another one. The tube I'm currently using is several years old, yet it's still not empty and hasn't changed consistency one bit. I have now fully converted from Urban Decay Primer Potion.

The tin is a nice idea and could be used for storing other things when you used up all the products, but quite frankly, that's never going to happen, is it? There's no mirror in the lid, and the lid itself is a bit flimsical, mine has changed shape a bit, although still closes fine.

The palette costs £42 which might sound a bit much for some, but according to Beauty Bay it has an actual value of £133. Sephora says $381 value (approx. £236). Either way, it's a great deal. The primer costs £16.50 and a single 1.7 g eyeshadow costs £15, so that adds up to a £241.50 value alone. I think even Sephora has underestimated the value!

That's enough of the maths, let's see some swatches I hear you say! Coming up right after the jump together with lots of product pictures!

Too Faced Return Of Sexy Palette Review and Swatches

I've been meaning to show you this palette for a while, but never got around to it, which is a shame because this is possibly the nicest palette I've bought this year. When I first saw it and swatched it in Boots, I fell in love with it. You will see in a minute why.

The palette contains 15 eyeshadows divided into 3 sections to create looks suitable for day and night. You have neutrals, purples, greys and blacks for smoky eyes, so you can create work friendly looks as well as looks for a night out. It's like Urban Decay's Naked Palette, just better. Seriously. I like the Naked Palette, but this has so much more to offer. I could use this every day for two weeks and still be creating different looks with it and not get bored because it's not just neutrals.

The eyeshadows are buttery soft and smooth, and even those with glitter don't have fallout. Most of the eyeshadows are shimmery or metallic, but you can still create a subtle look with them, and of course you can go crazy. All of them are very nicely pigmented, don't fade or crease for hours on end (I wore them for 12+ hours). They can be used wet or dry.

You get 3 looks cards with the palette with look ideas for day and night that can be created using each section of the palette: The Ingénue (chic neutrals), The Icon (girly pinks and plums) and The Bombshell (classic smokey greys). Of course you don't have to follow them, but for someone who is a bit inexperienced in applying make up they can be very helpful.

You also get a trial size (5 g) Shadow Insurance Eyeshadow Primer and a full size Perfect Eyes Waterproof Eyeliner in Perfect Black, as well as 15 g of eyeshadows, so it's a great value palette. It costs £38.50. It's a little hard to work out its actual value because Too Faced doesn't do many single eye shadows, and these shades are not available separately, but based on the value of their Exotic Color Intense Eyeshadows that cost £15.00 per 1.7 g, that would make just the eyeshadows worth over £132. The eyeliner costs £14.50 and the primer is £7.50 for that size.

So as you can see, this is a great value palette, with great eyeshadows, a brilliant eyeliner and my favourite eyeshadow primer of all time. The eyeliner pencil is a great product, very pigmented and longlasting. My only complaint about the palette that it feels a little too bulky and heavy for my liking, but aestethically it's actually very nicely done.

See lots more pictures including swatches and a look I created with this palette after the jump!

Looks Featuring Urban Decay's Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set - Part 2

Here's another look I did with my new Urban Decay Vice Palette and Ocho Loco 24/7 Eye Pencil Set. This time I used some of the neutral eyeshadows, which are actually really really nice. Again I felt this would've looked nicer with a more shimmery highlighter, but I wated to stick to the palette.

To create this look I used the following:

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Greed
Urban Decay Vice Palette Echo Beach eyeshadow in inner corner and above crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Nevermind eyeshadow in outer corner
Urban Decay Vice Palette Muse eyeshadow in crease
Urban Decay Vice Palette Anonymus eyeshadow on browbone to highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil Hustle on lower lashline and waterline
Cargo Lash Activator mascara (aren't my lashes looking great by the way?)
Mac Show Off Brow Set

Face:
Ginvera Green Tea Nude Cover BB Cream
Guerlain Voilettes Invisible Skin Fusion Loose Powder in 03 Beige Naturel
Mac Dollymix powder blush
Mac Perfect Topping mineralize skinfinish

Lips:
Nars 413 BLKR Velvet Matte Lip Pencil 
Urban Decay Stardust Sparkling lipgloss in Glitter Rock

See more pictures after the jump!

Paul & Joe Pearl Foundation Primer Review

I showed you this beauty in my haul post and had a couple of requests to review it, so here you go. Firstly, this primer is so pretty with the colourful little pearls inside. Reminds me very much of Guerlain Meteorites Pearls primer, which is also made up of little pearls and is also silicone free. It has a lovely smooth, slightly runny texture that spreads easily and a little goes a long way. It is mattifying, but also contains some very fine shimmer.  

The colourful pearls are in a colourless liquid and once you pump the primer out, the pearls get crushed by the pump, so you get a smooth, cloudy runny gel as a result. I can't say how mattifying exactly it is, or how long it makes your make up last because I haven't tested it long enough, but it certainly has some effect and I do love how smooth it makes my skin once it's applied.

At £23 per 30 ml it is a much cheaper alternative to the Guerlain Meteorites Pearls primer, so if you always wanted to try that one out, but didn't want to pay the high price tag (I think the Guerlain one is now £42!), then give this one a go. I bought mine from BeautyBay, I don't know if it's limited edition or not, but at the moment it's not available on the site. Hope it's not limited edition, because I would definitely repurchase this when I run out.

See more pictures after the jump!

Inglot Under Makeup Base Review

I was given this sample when I went to the Inglot shop in Westfield shopping center last October and finally got around to trying it out and reviewing. To be honest, I always find reviewing products that are just so-so a bit tricky. The ones I love or hate I feel passionable about, the ones that are just a bit meh I don't feel very interested in reviewing.

So by now you might have guessed that I wasn't too keen on this. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't like it much at all. This primer has a very slippery silicone feel to it and it didn't do anything for me, didn't make my skin matte and it didn't help with keeping oil at bay either. I just didn't see much difference to my skin's appearance or how well my make up lasted. All in all, I prefer non-silicone based primers, so I am pretty sure I won't purchase the full size product. If you want, you can buy it from Inglot for £13 (for a 30 ml tube). 

Have you tried this primer? How do you feel about silicone based primers? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

2011's Favorite Products: Part 2 - Face

To continue from yesterday's favourites post I have the face products I loved the most this year to show you. Like I said in yesterday's post, it's hard to compose these lists because current favourites can easily make it in there even if you were using something  else for 11 months. Despite me not wanting to include products that have only recently made it into my most used and well loved products, I have gone against it and included a couple of products that are very new to me but have become firm favourites. Read on to find out what they are.

First up is my favourite face primer, Guerlain Meteorites Perles Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer. It smells amazing and gives a smooth base, it's not slimy and slippery like some silicone based one, love it. I have reviewed it, so click on the link above.

Keep reading to find out which other face products I loved this year!

2011's Favourite Products: Part 1 - Eyes

As 2011 is drawing to a close, I decided to do a series of posts about my favourite beauty products of the year. To be honest though, I do find it quite difficult to do posts like this, because a year is a pretty long period and I often find if I think of my favourites of a certain period, the latest favourites will most likely be included rather than the ones I was crazy about 6 months ago. But I will try to be as objective as possible. I'm not doing detailed reviews on everything since I have actually reviewed a lot of these products, so I will just link them back to the posts if they've already been reviewed.

First up are base products. My favourites are in no particular order: Barbara Daly (for Tesco) Even Smoother Eye Base, Mac Paint Pots and Rimmel Colour Mousse 8hr eyeshadows. Click on the links for the reviews. The only one of these three that I haven't reviewed yet are the Mac Paint Pots. I don't know why, I've just never got around to doing it. I actually own a lot of them, having bought 10 with the last 2 Mac collections and also the permanent ones, or older limited edition ones that I'd already owned. They can be used as primers as they don't crease at all or just on their own for a subtle (or in some cases not so subtle) colour. My only problem with them is that my older ones are beginning to dry out, even though I keep them upside down and sealed properly. They are the most expensive of the bunch at £13.50 for 5 g.

Keep reading to find out what other eye products made it into my favourites this year!

Finished! The November Edition

I managed to finish a lot of products this month, so I'm pretty pleased with that. Of course most of them are skincare products as usual, but I did finish two pieces of make up, so it's alright.

First up is the most expensive face cream I've ever owned, it's Guerlain Orchidee Imperiale Exceptional Complete Care Cream. This is a 50 ml size and it currently retails for £255. No, I've not gone mad, or maybe I have! I didn't pay nowhere near as much as this was actually a tester that I bought on eBay and the lid actually looks pretty worn, although don't know why because the cream inside was untouched. I've had this for quite a while, especially as I tended not to use it in the summer as it doesn't have any SPF. Also you really only need a tiny bit, so it does last forever. It's really lovely, but I don't know if it's 25 times better than my Nivea face cream that I've also finished. So I won't be repurchasing this for now, although I do actually have about 15 samples of it as well for travelling, so I'm okay for now anyway.  

See what other products I've finished after the jump!

Finished! The September edition

Not too many things this month I'm afraid as I finished an awful lot of products last month and there are quite a few products that I've been using every day and they refuse to die. Hopefully there'll be a lot more next month.

First up is actually a product that I was planning on including in last month's Finished! post, but it simply refused to run out. I used it pretty much every day and it still lasted another month. Actually it still had some life left in it, but since I'd actually had it for about 2 years already, I decided it had to go. It's Givenchy Phenomen'eyes mascara, one of my HG mascaras, I love it, it really works for me. I have reviewed it already, so read this post if you want to know more about it.

See which other products I've finished this month!

Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. 4 Review and Swatches

So here it is, Urban Decay's latest offering, the Book of Shadows volume 4. Well, really it's 5, because there was also the Alice in Wonderland palette, but anyway. It cost £46 and for that you get 16 just over half size (of the Urban Decay singles) eyeshadows as well as a full size 24/7 Waterproof Liquid eyeliner in Perversion (black), a travel size Supercurl Curling Mascara (black), a travel size Eyeshadow Primer Potion (original), as well as a mini speaker and cables to connect your smart phone, and a card with 5 QR codes. I don't have a smart phone, so can't test the technical side of it, but I will tell you all about the make up.

First of all, the palette is HUGE. It's probably one and a half times the size of the original Book of Shadows and some people tought even that was pretty big. This one measures 22.5 cm (length) by 15.5 cm (width) by 4.5 cm (height), so it is pretty bulky. The palette comes in a cardboard box which is different from the older Books of Shadows because those came in plastic sleeves with an extra card showing the contents of the palette, whereas we have that all printed onto the bottom of the box. The design is butterflies and rays of light, which is actually very pretty. Inside the box you have the palette with the same design which is nice. It's got a pop-up lid with a smallish mirror and a fold-up pocket for your smart phone as well as the Get the look card, and some more butterflies that are supposed to go boing up at you when you open the lid, but mine are just flat, sitting still at the bottom. Ah well, never open the lid of my Books of Shadows anyway when applying my make up. You also have the usual drawer with the eyeshadows and extras.

Now the eyeshadows are a bit dull to be honest. The bottom half of the palette is practically just neutrals (which is great I guess if you love neutrals, but you have the Naked Palette and half of the 15 Year Anniversary Palette for that already). The top half has some colours, but it's greys, blues, greens and browns and not really the vibrant variety either. There are some shades I like a lot, including Gravity, a blueish purple, Blue Bus, a nice blue, Baked, a lovely orangey copper (permanent by the way), Sin, a gorgeous pink champagne (permanent), and Skimp, a flesh toned satin textured highlighter. The good thing about this palette is that it's not glitterfest. It does include some shimmery shades yes, and it does include Midnight Rodeo (from the 15 year anniversary palette) which does have major glitter fallout, and Midnight Cowgirl, but most of the shades are not glittery. I have to be honest, when I hear the words Urban Decay and Midnight, I immediately know there will be lots of glitter involved, but Midnight Cowgirl is actually a pretty good distant cousin of the Midnight Cowboy family and is a very pretty, only slightly glittery shade.

I did have some issues with Crystal which just doesn't seem very pigmented at all, and Blue Bus needed a few layers to make it work, but most of the eyeshadows are pretty good quality. I personally would say if you can only buy one palette and you have to choose between this and the 15 Year Anniversary Palette, then I would definitely recommend skipping this one in favour of the other one. At £46 however, it's still good value, since the 16 eyeshadows (0.8 g each) would already add up to £110.93, plus the eyeliner is worth £14, the mascara worth around £8.50 (don't know how big the full size one is, but this is pretty decent size), and the Primer Potion, so we are easily looking at £140 or so. I think the question is whether it's worth £46 to you? I bought mine mainly because I have all the other Books of Shadows and thought I'd probably regret skipping this, but in all fairness, you could quite happily live without it.

As for the extras, the eyeliner is very nice and easy to apply, lasts all day and is definitely waterproof (took a while to remove with my Estee Lauder Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, probably need something like Lancome Bi-Facil instead). The mascara doesn't do it for me I'm afraid, it doesn't add any volume and only adds a little lenght, and since my lashes are naturally curly, no matter what mascara I use, I don't really need a curling mascara (and can't really say if it does a good job at curling or not). The Primer Potion is a very good base, I use it all the time, and it's nice to have a travel size one to take on holiday, etc.

Okay, enough of the rambling, there are lots more photos, check them out after the jump! I will be posting a couple of looks soon, so be sure to check back!

Back To The Bases

In the light of Mac's new Flighty collection I've decided to check out what cream eyeshadows and coloured eyeshadow bases I own and created this video. Enjoy!

My new Urban Decay goodies

When I went to Florida, I was very excited to be able to check out all the Sephora exclusive Urban Decay eyeshadows (little did i know that they'd immediately become available in the UK from Debenhams, they are still cheaper in the US though) and also some of the new releases that are either not available yet or I've not had a chance to check out in person as there's no Urban Decay counter near me unfortunately. So I came back with a whole load of Urban Decay goodies and I thought I'd show you in detail what I got. (You can also check out this post where I showed you my amazing huge US haul.)

So there they are: 5 eyeshadows, 3 eyeshadow pencils, a glitter eyeliner and Primer Potion in Eden. I'll start with the eyeshadows. There were 6 shades released last year as Sephora exclusives and I'd been wanting to get them ever since. Two of them, namely Psychedelic Sister and Haight were released in the newest Book of Shadows, so I had them, and I didn't get Woodstock in the end because it's coming out with the Rollergirl palette that I really want (anyone knows when it's coming out in the UK by the way?). So in the end I got Dashiki, Free Love and Aquarius, and also Hot Pants and SWF that were also not available in the UK before.

Find out what else I got, see lots more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Sleek The Primer Palette review and swatches

I really like Sleek Cosmetics and especially their 12 colour eyeshadow palettes, I own almost every one of them, so when I heard about their new Primer Palette, I decided to get that too. It's also a 12 colour palette, but instead of eyeshadows, it contains 12 coloured eyeshadow primers.It also contains a full size mirror and a double ended brush for application (not too great quality though).

The colours are great, there's a very good variety, you basically get every colour in the rainbow and some. The quality of the primers, well, I'm less certain about. So far I have tried about 4 shades (apologies for not taking photos before I tried it out) and found that some were better than others. The blue creased somewhat rotten, the pink, beige and silver one worked better (crease free for 6-8 hours). I guess it also matters what eyeshadows you put on top, but in any case, a good primer should prevent the eyeshadows from creasing no matter whatthe qulaity of the eyeshadows is, right? I think all in all it's a nice idea and for £7.00 you can't go that wrong, but I personally would rather stick to my Mac paint pots and Urban Decay Primer Potions and cream eyeshadows for bases.

One more slightly annoying thing about this palette is that although they named the shades, they completely mixed them up, so the beige one is called Noir and the purple one is called Pink Frost, etc. Or maybe it was intentional, but in that case I don't get the joke.

Available from Sleek Cosmetics and Superdrug, RRP £7.00.

See more pictures and swatches after the jump!

Finished! The January edition

You might recall that I started this series last month when I managed to finish several beauty products (which doesn't happen very often, I'm telling you!) and to my surprise I'm back with another post of yet more finished products. I don't want to include basics like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in this as I always go through those, will just stick to skincare, make up and fragrances.

First up are my beauty basics:

Mac Brow Set in Show Off is the only thing I use on my brows as I don't like brow pencils (too harsh) or powders (too obvious). This is a brown shade that just gives a bit more definition to my brows and holds them in place. I came across this product when Blonde, Brunette, Redhead collection came out in 2009 and I have loved it ever since! I actually think this was my original one, so it lasted me over a year, although I did move it to my downstairs cloakroom a while ago as it was running low (that's where I keep my emergency make up items for day when I have no time to apply my make up in my bedroom), so I guess I hadn't been using it so regularly lately ( have a new one in my bedroom). It never dried up though, just ran out. I love this stuff and have already repurchased it and will continue to do so. £11.50 from maccosmetics.co.uk.

Continue reading to see what other products I've finished last month!

Finished! The December edition

I have seen this on other blogs and thought it's such a great idea to review products that I've finished over the course of the month, however, I'd never got round to it (I did a Hitting Pan post a while ago, but that's as far as it got.) As I have such a big stash, it's not very often that I use up anything, so it's pretty unusual that I've actually managed to finish 4 products pretty much at the same time. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to show you the products I've finished, tell you how I liked them and whether I'll be repurchasing them. I will try to make this into a regular feature on the blog, but we'll see how it goes since I don't often finish products.

First up it's my favourite face primer, Meteorites Perles Light Diffusing Perfecting Primer by Guerlain. A very light gorgeously scented (parma violets, mmm!) slightly shimmery quite runny liquid that gives a nice sheen to your face while mattefying it (I know, it sounds odd, but it works) and helping your make up last through the day. It's expensive at £40 per 30 ml, but you don't need a lot, one press of the pump dispenses enough for your whole face. It's very interesting, you have loads of little balls filled with primer and the pump sucks up one or two balls and squeezes them out onto your finger. The outer "shell" is so soft it just disintegrates, so you get this gorgeous smooth wonderfully light shine controlling illuminating primer. Do you get the impression that I love this stuff? 

Here is a picture of how it looks when full. The bottle is heavy glass, it feels luxurious just as much as the primer inside does. Will I be repurchasing it? Of course. For now I have 2 back ups, so I'm okay, but I'm always looking for good bargains on this, so might stock up again soon.

Find out what other products I've finished after the jump!