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!

NOTD: Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish Mermaid Spell

As I said before, I'm always on the hunt for good holographic nail polishes, so when I saw Charlotte blog about these polishes, I knew I had to pick some up myself. I ordered 4 of them including a beautiful purple that I'll be showing you later, but for now here's another one: Mermaid Spell.

The picture above was taken in indirect sunlight, so the holographic effect isn't that strong, but even so, it is way more noticable than the Color Club polish I showed you the other day. It really comes to life in direct sunlight or under a strong indoor light, which you will see towards the end of this post. The colour is a really pretty light blue/turquoise. The consistency itself was fine, I think I did 3 coats, two below and one over the Seche Vite topcoat (to prolong wear and make sure the topcoat doesn't dull the holo effect). It chipped on me fairly quickly (day 2), but it's so pretty, I can forgive it.

I bought mine from Simply Occasions and they cost £11.25 each (so not cheap), and you get 10 ml for your money. Postage is free on orders over £21 (so that's two bottles of this). Well worth checking out if you like holographic polishes.

See more pictures aftre 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!

Mac Hot Gossip Lipstick Review and Swatches

It's very easy to forget about what you own when you have a big stash like mine, and the other day I managed to pull out a lipstick that I bought, put in the container with the other lipsticks and promptly forgot about. I can't remember now which blog I was readingthat mentioned this lipstick and I though "ooh, this is pretty", only to realise I actually own it. That's bad, right?

But anyway, I put it on and I decided to review it on here because it is one of those rare Mac products that are permanent and you can actually purchase them any time, rather than having to rush to the counter on the day of release in fear of it selling out.

Mac Hot Gossip is a cremesheen finish and is described by Mac is mid-tone pinky plum which I guess is about right. I'm not an expert on Mac lipstick finishes, but cremesheens are supposed to be more creamy than lustres I think, and Hot Gossip is definitely creamy and feels really nice on the lips. It is well pigmented and lasts for a good 2-3 hours on me or even more if I'm not eating/drinking. I love this shade, it's just so flattering and I love the subtle sheen it has.

Mac lipsticks are £13.50 and you get 3 g for your money which is the lower end of lipstick weight (most are usually 3.5 g aren't they?).

See more pictures including hand and lip swatches and a picture of me wearing Hot Gossip after the jump!

Last Month I...

Following on last month's post idea here are the things I did / liked / loved / hated / finished / threw away / etc. in the month of March beauty wise. So here you go:

Last month I...

• finished 6 beauty products including a fragrance (The Body Shop Cherry Blossom perfume) which is especially great because I have put myself on a fragrance no-buy until I finish at least 5 fragrances since I have about 50 bottles on my cupboard and I need to get through them eventually. I didn't actually like the Body Shop Cherry Blossom perfume anymore, which is a shame especially as this was my second bottle because I initially loved it and I bought a back-up, but never mind, finally it is gone!
• having finished one I didn't like so much I gave some love to my all time favourite perfume, Paris by Yves Saint Laurent, in particular one of the limited edition springtime variations: Jardins Romantiques. I have loved Paris for so long now and I used to buy the limited edition springtime fragrances in the past, but they seemed to have stopped releasing them which is a shame. The bottle's massive though (125 ml), so it should last me through a couple of springs though. And just how pretty is it?

To find out what else I did last month, carry on reading after the jump!

Christian Dior 5 Couleurs Eyeshadow 834 Rose Porcelaine Review and Swatches

Dior came out with some new permanent eyeshadow quints a couple of months or so ago, and they are supposed to be a new formula. To be honest I'm not sure how the formula is different, but in any case, it's very good and the Rose Porcelaine quint appealed to me most colourwise, so here it is.

Housed in the usual dark blue compact there are 5 colours ranging from light yellow highlighter with a pink sheen to a dark eggplant/aubergine shade. The two pinks are quite close to each other in colour, but otherwise there's a nice colour selection. I particularly like the egglant/aubergine colour which makes a very nice eyeliner or crease shade if you're looking to do something more dramatic. The light yellow highlighter has a lovely pink sheen to it, actually it reminds me a lot of Mac Vanilla pigment but with more pink sheen. The middle shade is a bit more peachy pink, but even that is quite close to the other pink shades. The colours are quite sheer and very frosty with the exception of the dark eggplant/aubergine, so I appreciate this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I like it.

The eyeshadows are the standard Dior quality, they stay on for hours and hours without creasing and are very soft and easy to apply and blend. You get 6 g of eyeshadows for £40, so it is now cheap, but after all, it is Dior.

See more pictures after the jump!

NYX Matte Blotting Paper

I don't normally do favourites posts because I tend to use different things all the time, however there are certain products that I always go back to simply because I haven't found anything better. NYX MatteBlotting Paper is one of them. I just love this stuff, it's so simple, but works so well.

My skin is a lot drier now that I'm older (also think Lancome Genifique has helped with controlling the oil, it's bloody brilliant that stuff!), but I still get the oily T-zone depending on which foundation I use, what I do and how hot I get during the day, so around 3 pm I need to mattify my face a little. And that is what these little sheets do, just one sheet is enough to absorb the oil from my face, then I add some finishing powder and job done, I'm good for another 5 hours (by which time I usually don't care what my face looks like anyway).

You get 50 sheets in a pack, the sheets are around the size of a credit card and very very thin. I don't know how much they normally cost in the US, I buy mine from eBay for a couple of quid each and I tend to bulk buy since the shipping costs on something this light tend not to be high.

Do you use blotting paper? Which ones are your favourites? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!