Favourite makeup removers

Having experimented with makeup from the age of about 17 onwards I've tried lots of different products to remove both face and eye makeup.

When I first got into makeup all I used was kohl eyeliner and often I'd walk around college with panda eyes thinking it looked good. *hangs head* I've got small hazel eyes so I liked the look of black eyeliner around both upper and lower lash line. It did make my eyes look brighter but also smaller at the same time if that's possible. I always found it difficult to fully remove eyeliner, especially from the waterline area, until I discovered Simple wipes. I'm 24 now and I can say Simple wipes are still a staple item for me when I'm in a rush to remove makeup and they still work as well as they did 7 years ago. I've got combo-oily-sensitive skin (rather difficult to cater for with different parts of my face reacting differently to different products) and Simple wipes don't cause any adverse reactions on me, even around my sensitive eye area. I'd say Simple wipes are the ONLY skincare item I have gone back to again and again for the past 7 years and whilst I have branched out into trying other facial wipes (for eg from Nivea, No7, Olay etc), these are the only ones I go back to for value for money and efficiency.

My rating = 8/10.

£2.99 from Superdrug but often on offer for 3for2. Complete bargain.

I only discovered Bioderma in the past year or so because Pixiwoo recommended the brand. Since both sisters have amazing skin I always research their recommendations to see if any would be suitable for my skin type. I couldn't find Bioderma available anywhere in the UK so I bought a bottle of their Micelle Solution cleanser/makeup remover from eBay for combo/oily skin. Personally I hate buying skincare from eBay but I found a seller from France who sold the genuine product so I thought I'd give it a go and I have to say this is my favourite makeup remover of all time. It's a watery solution that removes makeup SO gently and very effectively. I pour a few drops onto a cotton pad and sweep over my face and it glides over the skin better than olive oil could. There is also a sensitive solution version which I also tried and liked but I found the combo/oily skin solution worked better for me just because I needed fewer swipes to remove eye makeup but I'd still recommend both, depending on what skin type you have.

My rating = 10/10.

My final favourite makeup remover is a product I only bought recently to replace the Bioderma solution. I decided not to repurchase on eBay just to see if I could find something similar to Bioderma in shops and I think I have. Boujois' eye makeup remover is £4.99 from Boots and seems to have a very similar formula to Bioderma's. Bourjois' version looks more similar to Lancome's remover in that there are two blue solutions which you shake up before pouring onto cotton pads. I was very pleasantly surprised by it because it was quite gentle and didn't inflame my sensitive eye area. Although it's specifically designed for the eye area I still liked the way it removed my face makeup also and I've had no adverse reactions so far. I'm not sure what it is about the Bioderma that I like better but that remains my favourite and if I could buy it as easily as I can with Bourjois and Simple products I would definitely stick just to Bioderma. Since I can't the Bourjois remover is the next best thing. Again I'd recommend this to all.

My rating = 9/10.

Sleek Suede Effect Powder - I don't like it

I initially really liked this powder as it really does feel like suede to touch. It also isn't too opaque (which is a quality I like in powders - I prefer them to be sheer or translucent). I've also got to admit that as a massive Sleek fan I tend to say "Ooh it's Sleek so it must be good!" to whatever Sleek item I buy and I did that with this but I have now completely u-turned my view of this product.

natural light

close up next to window

Today was the first day I returned to work after a lengthy 6 week break and I used this powder over my usual foundation. Even on scorching days I can go at least two hours without having to use oil blotting sheets but not so today and the weather was reasonable. I was embarrassingly oily after a single hour - I mean it looked like I had used vaseline for my moisturiser and I am not exaggerating. I had to keep checking my face in the mirror to blot and then re-powder and it's difficult to do that every hour at work as well as being an unnecessary inconvenience.

I feel bad being so negative about a Sleek product since I champion the brand so much but I had to be honest. This is such a dud product. I feel like I just wasted £7.

There are some positive reviews online so maybe it works better with dryer skin types. But for normal to oily skin I would not recommend it.

I'm going to have to repurchase my old favourite Bourjois powder after work tomorrow - I can't put up with any more olive oil faced days!

Fashionista Blush Palette Review

Fashionista is still a relatively new makeup brand in the UK sold in Superdrug. It's famous for its mini palettes, as well as its eyeshadows and blushes that can be bought in single form and then popped out and placed into either red or plain black palettes.

I bought a plain black palette which is £5, alongside 4 blushes at £4 each. However if the palette and 4 items (there can be a mix or eyeshadows and blushers) are bought at the same time then the palette and fourth item is free which is rather a good deal.

 The palette is sturdy and nice enough. Inside there's a large mirror which is a plus.

 Here's the back of my palette once I've put the blushes in.

shades clockwise from top left: Butterscotch (matte), Glowing (shimmer), Flush (matte) and Cinnamon (matte)

I chose similar colours because I wanted colours I knew worked for me. The first and second shade here look exactly the same but the second shade does have some shimmer whilst the first is matte.

swatches natural light from left to right: Butterscotch, Glowing, Cinnamon, Flush

swatches w/flash

The blushes have good pigmentation which is buildable and blends out for a sheer or heavy finish. They don't blend as easily as my beloved Sleek or GOSH blushes but compared to many other blushes these ones aren't half bad. A range of shades are available in both matte and shimmer finishes. I'd say the blushes are better suited for light and medium skin tones. I'm not sure how well these would fare for very fair or very dark skin tones.

Some of the colours, like I said, are a little similar and lean on the pink side so I wish there were a few more coral or peach shades available.There's nothing here that's really unique or stands out, it's just bog standard pinks and if that's what you like these would be perfect for you, otherwise Sleek blushes would be the way to go.

Overall I like these blushes and would recommend them especially to those who like pink or are on a budget.

Summer makeup/perfume haul

I didn't think I'd keep to my New Year's Resolution of a no-makeup-buy but I was very good this year and decided I would splurge this summer as I've used up a lot of my makeup.

First up I purchased the Sleek Suede Effect Powder in Shade 01 (the lightest) which was £7 for 10.5g. I finished the Bourjois powder I loved and was going to repurchase it when I saw Sleek's powder. I've tried one of their powders before but it was a luminising powder and since I have oily skin (which is plain old greasy in the summer) the luminising powder did not help at all. This Suede Effect powder, however, has a mattifying effect without being mask like. You can also build up the coverage you want (as seen by finger swatches below). It has SPF15 which really doesn't do much at all but I'm not fussed either way.

Comes with a little sponge

Heavily and lightly swatched

I'm definitely tempted to pick up a darker shade to use for contouring. There are four shades in total.

Next up I bought another GOSH blush for £6.99. I now own one cream blush, 5 powder blushes and one bronzer from the brand and I love them all. They have a nice subtle but buildable coverage and last quite well on my skin. I also love the fact that they don't have shimmer or glitter in them. Sleek blushes have fantastic pigmentation and come in an array of shades but when I need something easy to work with that doesn't require too much blending I always go straight for GOSH.

I hate Superdrug's sticky security tags :(

I bought my first ever Collection (formerly Collection 2000) single eyeshadow. I decided to try a safe highlight colour and it's decent enough for £2.19 but I can find better and cheaper eyeshadows from MUA so it's safe to say it's my first and last foray into Collection eyeshadows.

Talking of MUA here are the two single eyeshadows I bought at £1 each.

The matte purple is pretty good for a drugstore eyeshadow although of course it doesn't rival better mattes from higher end brands like Inglot. But I mean for a pound it's quite impressive. The shimmer brown/dual chrome eyeshadow looks grey in this picture but goes on brown with a hint of blue/green, similar to MAC's Club eyeshadow.

Obviously I've mismatched my swatched fingers but here you can see they have good pigmentation, especially the shimmer shade.

I picked up the MUA BB foundation for £4 in the shade Medium. It has good coverage for a BB cream but made me an oil slick within 5 minutes so it's completely redundant on me :( I will save to use on my dry skinned pals when I do their makeup but I wouldn't recommend for oily or combination skin types.

The August edition of Marie Claire magazine came with  a free Avon mascara. I chose a copy that had Supershock in it only because it's the only mascara I had heard of and I'm glad I did because this mascara is usually priced at £10 and the magazine was less than £4 so I made quite a saving.

Barry M currently have a 2 for £5 deal going so I grabbed 2 of their glitter nail polishes and LOVE them. Unlike a lot of glitter polishes that deliver a clear polish with very little suspended glitter in them these cover the whole nail in two coats. I am certainly going to go and purchase some more Barry M polishes because I now see what the buzz was about.

Finally I purchased Hugo Boss Boss Orange Woman Eau de Toilette. I had a look on the Debenhams website and it says it's £29 but when I bought it in store a few weeks ago it was £24. I also got £10 off with my Debenhams beauty card so I think this was well worth it for £14 :) It's subtle, soft and feminine which are the adjectives I go for with perfumes (I hate overpowering and heady scents) and has a hint of sweet oranges as the name implies. It doesn't last as long as I wish it did so I think I will invest in parfums rather than eau de toilettes in future.

The side of the bottle

I love getting free samples.

The end :)

Crazy lip haul (collective hauls combined)

I've always been a massive eyeshadow fan and when I'm in a rush in the mornings but still want to wear makeup I often ignore blush and lipstick and prefer to glam up the eyes. Recently though, I've gotten really into lip gloss and with so many affordable makeup brands churning out even more affordable lip products I have to admit I've overdosed a little on lip products in the last month.

MUA is Superdrug's best product-for-your-buck brand. Everything is so affordable whether it be lip, cheek or face product and there are always lots of deals going on their website. I also noticed that they are currently selling their Going for Gold and Undressed palettes for only £3 in store, making and already inexpensive item even more of a bargain. Whatever way you look at MUA it is a very cheap brand without the stigma associated with cheap products.

I decided to try a few of MUA's lip glosses to begin. On one trip I picked up 3 of their £1 lip glosses. I have to say I was expecting really rubbish formulas, perhaps smelling like plastic as some ELF glosses are prone to but I was happy with both the formula and scent of these lip glosses. The squeeze tube glosses are slightly on the sheerer side and provide a nice hint of colour and shimmer. The tube glosses have a more opaque finish. Very well worth it for the price.

One thing to note about the amount in the glosses is that the tubes contain a whopping 14ml of product whilst the doe foot applicator lip gloss contains only 2.8ml, so make sure you don't assume you will get the same amount in both (as I did since I picked them up without reading the label - doh!)

On the next trip I picked up some more MUA glosses but also decided to foray into Collection (formerly Collection 2000) products.

I got another MUA lip gloss tube as well as their Out There Lip Plumping Gloss priced slightly higher than the usual range at £2. I had a look at the packaging as well as the website but there seems to be no mention of how much product is in the tube which is odd. I got it in the shade Nude and have to say I did notice my lips looked slightly more plump but it didn't last long and I didn't like the stinging sensation I felt when initially applying it. I still like the actual lip gloss however.

The new Colour Pout pens from Collection are like lip stains. They are priced at £3.99 and while they do deliver nice colour payoff I can't use them alone as the scent and taste are extremely unpleasant. I usually end up topping them with the MUA glosses. I will not be repurchasing these.

Sleek is one of my favourite brands for blush and eyeshadow but I've never purchased any of their lip products before. I decided to try a Pout Polish for £4.49 per 10g. I don't usually like products that come without applicators (I'm germaphobic) but I decided to try one anyway because I really liked the colour.

 Pink Cadillac! I like the name. I also love the glass package.

This one is a really bright colour. To be honest I think there are lighter, more warm colours that suit me better but I love this one anyway, it's just so fun. It's very glossy and highly moisturising and when I use it before bed I always wake up with the softest lips. I will defo be looking to pick up a few different shades.

Finally I went a bit crazy in Superdrug after Revlon Balm Stains were released:

Yes I bought 5! I can hardly believe it myself! As you can see these are sealed up very well so no sanitation issues here.

The Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stains (ridiculously long name IMO) are currently at the introductory price of £5.99 (usual price will be £7.99 I believe).

My favourite shade is the red (Romantic) and I also like the orange and berry shades. I could have done without the pinks, just because they are cool toned and don't suit me as well as the other shades, but I still like them and will get lots of use out of them. A more detailed review to follow shortly.

Finally I got a few more MUA goodies. They are so affordable priced I don't feel bad splurging. I got another plumping lip gloss in Buff as I liked the Nude shade I purchased, another single lip gloss, another nude tube gloss and also a lip stick.

I'd recommend all the items I bought to all minus the Collection lip pens. I do love Collection makeup (especially their concealer) but the smell and taste of the Colour Pout Pens are too off-putting. If they deal with that and change the formula for future pens I'm sure I'd recommend them.

Sleek's limited edition 2012 collection (My 2 cents)

Popped into Superdrug last week to see Sleek's latest collection on the stands. Everything was a complete mess as it often is in Superdrug and there were literally about two products left because everything was sold out. With Sleek, if you don't get there quickly with limited editions they tend to get snapped up within the first couple of days, or they do in my local Superdrugs anyway.

I had a quick look at the items and I have to admit, I am not a fan. Now this is not a reflection of Sleek as a brand as I have to say Sleek houses my favourite face products (I own 11 of their blushes incl. single and trios) and my addiction to drug store makeup began when they launched their eyeshadow palettes. I cannot get enough of Sleek and always get excited whenever they launch something new. But the colour scheme of the 2012 collection just doesn't work very well for my skin tone.

Wish I could say I like the promo image - but I don't! She looks a little creepy to me!

First off, the blush named Honour (British spelling!!) (£4.49) is a shimmery bronze colour and is one of the darkest peach-brown blushes I've seen on the high street (usually high street/drugstore blushes tend to be on the pink or light peach side). Sleek very much love their unique shades and this is no exception. As with all Sleek blushes it's pigmented, a soft texture and blends well. It does however look extremely muddy on my medium (NC25/NC30) complexion. I can see it working on darker skin tones but for the fair and light medium this won't be a natural looking blush. I also think it's similar to Sleek's Muscovado in the Sugar Blush by 3 palette which I already own so no need for a dupe there.

Now on the promo image there it does call itself a bronzer which explains why it leans more brown than pink for a blush. Nevertheless it is so packed full of shimmer my oily-combo skin would not like it. Defo one for those who like a shimmery bronzer rather than matte finish. This would be ridiculous as a contour shade so steer yourself towards Sleek contour duo/trio palettes if that's what you fancy.

The Pout Polish - Pride (£4.49) seems a nice neutral. It's a slightly burnished colour with sparkly gold shimmer.

The eyeshadow palette, named Glory, is sold at the now hiked up price of £7.99 and it seems all of Sleek's old and current palettes have been increased to £7.99.  (Remember the days when they were £4.99? Yeah, that was before Sleek became mainstream and American YouTubers got in there).

This one is an odd combination for me - some medal inspired shades in the top row and brights at the bottom (inspired by flags? IDK). I swatched these in store and as always pigmentation was amazing but it still didn't tempt me into purchasing. I like palettes to have some cohesion between the shades so I can mix and match colours for looks but this palette was a little all over the place for me.

I still think Sleek have outstanding palettes for newbies and collectors alike but for those who already own a lot of palettes I can't say this one is a must-have. I'd still definitely recommend it for those building up their collection.

L'Occitane

L'Occitane is a natural beauty brand that used to house some of my favourite skincare items ever. As a sufferer of oily, blemish prone skin I have seen a marked improvement using L'Occitane's Red Rice range.

Now that they've discontinued the range I am at a loss as to what I should attempt next. For a long time I shopped around and bought countless moisturisers in an attempt to prevent excess oiliness and also the pimples that go with greasy skin and in the process I did end up breaking out a lot. 

I assume there wasn't as great a demand for the Rice range so they had to cut it. Of course I'm a little angry that I found what seemed to be the best moisturiser ever, only to have it taken away from me as soon as my skin started to improve. Nevertheless I can't be angry with the brand. They still offer a lot of products that are slowly becoming my staples.

First off I love how L'Occitane's products are heavily scented. Usually I hate skincare with artificial fragrance but I never seem to react to L'Occitane's fragranced items (maybe because they are of natural origin?) and also they smell AMAZING.

The Plum Blossom Polishing Shower Gel is a scrub that helps slough away dead skin without being too harsh on the skin. Currently on sale for £5.40/200ml on the website it's still a little more expensive than the shower gels and scrubs I usually use (I tend to shell out for face care and go for cheaper items for body skincare) it's still well worth it.

 L'Occitane have some of the most feminine perfumes I've ever come across. They are rather pricey though, so instead of taking the plunge and buying a large bottle only to find the scent doesn't last for very long and needs constant topping up or other issues, I decided to try a small rollerball perfume just to test one out. I got the Plum Blossom Intense Eau de Toilette Roll-on which is £10.15 for 10ml.

 

 This has a slightly fruity floral scent that I really love. It also lasts all day on me.

Another item I've never tried before is solid perfume so I decided to try the Cherry Blossom solid perfume at £7.50 per 10ml.

 Looking at the ingredients you can see why it resembles Vaseline so much.

I love the idea of carrying a little tin of perfume around for touch ups during the day if necessary. Again this is another very feminine, floral, soft scent and it doesn't have the sharpness of an eau de toilette rollerball has. I am definitely going to purchase the eau de toilette version of this in future though. It's rather expensive at £38/100ml but perfume is one of those things that I don't buy very often or use up at lightning speed so I'm more than happy to invest in it.

So while I'm unhappy that my favourite skincare range has been discontinued, I'm more than happy to continue trying out all the other gems this brand has to offer.