L'oreal Rouge Caresse in Impulsive Fuchsia

Hi everyone!

A few days ago I picked up one of the new L'oreal lipsticks, a Rouge Caresse in Impulsive Fuchsia. These are basically L'oreal's answer to those Revlon Lip Butters, and whilst I haven't tried the Revlon versions to compare, I have to say I really really love the formulation of the L'oreal lipsticks!

L'oreal Rouge Caresse in Impulsive Fuchsia - £7.99

I think I read somewhere that these are comparable to the Dior Addict lipsticks that Kate Moss was the face of last year, but at a fraction of the price.

The shade that I have, a bright fuchsia colour, is incredibly pigmented but can be worn both sheer and opaque. It fades evenly and lightly stains the lips and I find it's quite moisturising

It reminds me a lot of a sheerer, easier to wear version of MAC's Show Orchid and Revlon's Fuschia lipstick in their Colorburst range

I really do like these, and I may pick up a couple more as Superdrug currently have a buy one product get your second  half price deal on L'oreal or something like that...

Have you tried any of the new lip butters? What would you go for, L'oreal or Revlon?

Love Sophie xx

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Luminizer Mascara

Hey everyone! 

Back with a review for you today of the L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Luminizer Mascara in Blue Eyes. The idea behind this mascara is to 'boost your eyes according to their colour'. They have a green mascara for green eyes, a blue for blue eyes and a purple for hazel eyes. 

L'Oreal Volume Million Lashes Luminizer Mascara - £11.29

What I love about this mascara is the fact that the blue is quite subtle. In reality it's just a black mascara which can look slightly blue in some lights. But what does it look like on?

I love this mascara! It can hold a curl, give volume and length and as you can see in the photos it does have a slightly blue tinge to it. The way I apply it is to give it a few coats and let it dry, then close my eye sweep the brush on the top of my lashes which adds a lot more volume

The only problem with this mascara is the price, at over £11 its quite pricey but as always I bought this off ebay for just over £4 here. I've had some comments in the past from people worried about buying fakes off ebay, but this really isn't so much as an issue for drugstore make up. A lot of the time it's sold by wholesalers which means they can sell it for a much lower price than shops such as Boots and Superdrug, which have huuuuge overheads to cover (think how much it costs to rent a shop and pay all the staff!)

Have you tried this mascara yet?

Love Sophie x

Current Faves

Hello everyone!

Today I moved into my uni halls and I've now got a laptop of my own, (with an SD card port!!) and a fully functioning camera, so I will definitely be posting a lot more frequently!

Just thought I'd show you some current favourites that I've picked up

Collection 2000 Cream Puff Moisturising Lip Cream in Cotton Candy 1

Max Factor Weightless Foundation in Light Ivory

L'oreal Glam Shine Lipgloss in Juicy Rose Glow

and the obligatory rubbish hand swatches... 

The foundation is really lovely, and a perfect shade. It feels really silky and I love the slightly dewy slightly matte finish. The lipgloss I ordered off Ebay after falling in love with it in Superdrug. Seriously guys, if you see something you like, especially if it's a slightly older product make sure you check Ebay first. A lot of wholesalers sell their products on there for much much cheaper. For example, my fave mascara Max Factor 2000 Calorie is about £8 in the shops, I picked up a brand new one for under a fiver. 

I really like the consistency of the lip cream, and the taste is just yummy! It's kind of filling my MAC Impassioned void, which I really want but can't justify spending £13.50 on. Seriously MAC, ya didn't need to put the price up.

Also loving Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer (along with the rest of the world)

HD Brows Kit

YSL Rouge Volupte in no.2

Hope you're all well!

Sophie xx

Ombre Update And New Products

Well it seems my Ombre post was my most popular ever! Thought I'd keep you up to date with how it's doing, the semi permanent dye seemed to fade reeeally quickly so I popped on some L'oreal dye, Excell 10 in Frosted Blonde. A few of you have asked so here is what I would recommend doing, but this is a personal process so I do recommend reading my previous post for more details

1. Test a strand with bleach mixture, find the correct time for you by washing off the bleach and then blowdrying the hair (because who really has the time to air dry?!), if not light enough apply for a bit longer and wash and blowdry again.
2. Add a blondey light brown (turns out ashy shades work quite well) to counteract the brassy gingeryness
3. If you like it, do it to the rest of your hair!

I was asked if I applied the blondey light brown dye all over, no, I just applied it to the bleached ends, but I did take it a bit further up so it looked more gradual

Here it is a few weeks on...

And those products I've been loving??

 The Porefessional and Rimmel's Lasting Finish Foundation

I used to hate the Porefessional but it works quite nicely with this foundation

 MAC Cream Colour Base in Luna

I LOVE this so much, it looks quite dirty but it makes the perfect highlighter, love it especially with the foundation!

Natural Collection Apple Blossom and Max Factor cubey lipglossy thing in Soft Rose

On their own these products (for me) are a bit nothingy but I love the combination they make together. It really reminds me of YSL's Rouge Volupte in Sensual Silk (which I have but I have to ration it because THEY DISCONTINUED IT!) and MAC Hue. I'll do a comparison post soon! 

Here's all the products together, taken using hipstamatic

I'm loving brown smokey eyes at the moment, maybe I'll do a post on that too!

Love Sophie xx

My Hair History (and Cheryl Cole Mahogany. . .)

I actually love these posts, so thought I'd do one too. I then realised how boring I am with my hair but oh well!

Okay for about 12 years of my life I had really long, mid brown hair with a centre parting. We don't need to see that. But then it all changed and I decided to get a side fringe;

Then I cut it all off (kept the side fringe though)

Had a very awkward regrowth stage. . 

But kept growing it anyway, discovering curling tongs and blackish brown hair dye on the way

Cut it a bit shorter, and decided to use Sun-In. On almost black hair. NOT A GOOD MOVE PEOPLE.

 Only sun in'd the top layers so ended up with a gross gingery brown colour with mousy brown roots and dark brown bits underneath. Oh dear indeed.

Dyed my hair dark dark dark (even though the instructions said don't dye pre-bleached hair, I'm a rebel like that) and stuck in some Primark hair extensions (yes really)

 Got my trusty side fringe back, only for the hairdresser to cut it in a really weird way, so that my only choice was to pull it over in to a 'full' fringe

Spent about 6 months wondering how to get this new fringe (that was supposed to be a side) to work

But gave up and got a full fringe. In summer. High maintenance or what!? (also I think I was pulling a weird face in this photo. . )

 Full fringe got too much so yet again started sweeping it to the side (vicious circle)

By winter got so annoyed at this fringe business I found new ways to keep it off my face (something which my 14 year old self would NEVER have done)

Oh and what do we have here, 5 months later, in the Spring of 2010 I got a fringe back.

And yet more awkward fringe business (september '10)

Most recently, I kept pretty much the hairstyle up there, but added in flicky layers which I LOVE. This is taken a few weeks after I dyed it with the Nice n' Easy foam. IT HAD NOT FADED and it's darker than this IRL. Beyond impressed. .

And then I decided to put the Cheryl Cole hair dye on (L'oreal Casting in 550 Mahogany)

on dark brown hair and it's given me a reddish tint which you can see in the light and I love it as it gives my hair an 'edge' and makes it look less flat and I may consider doing it permanently

And that's my hair history, I hope I didn't bore you to sleep, and please link me yours if you have one!

Love Sophie xx

Look Who's Back In Your Dashboard: Made For Me Naturals Lipstick

Bet you weren't expecting me any time soon? 

Thought I'd come back with a bang for my 100th post (okay not really a bang, but I've got some nice lipsticks to show you?)

These lipsticks are the L'oreal Made For Me Naturals (I think they're part of the Color Riche range?) and I love love love them. They don't get much loving on the internet (absolutely NO swatches anywhere) so I thought I'd do a post.

235 Nude on the left and 240 Dune on the right

After some Googling for a nude lipstick (and by nude I mean flattering and not concealer coloured) I thought I'd give these a try. If you watch Coronation Street, I have been lemming after Carla Connor's lipstick for a long long time. I'm terrible at finding things that match my skin tone, so with this range I reckoned not much could go wrong. I originally bought 240 Dune from Boots for around £8 so they're not cheap, and it's the lightest (I think) lipstick in the Dark Brunettes range.

I apologise for the poor photo conditions, I've just taken them and it's pitch black outside. This has a slight shimmer but it looks lovely with brown smokey eyes.

And that is where my love affair with these lipsticks began. I watched a video where L'oreal shows you how to get 'glamorous lips' and after much pausing and peering I noticed that they use the lipstick 235 (which I later found out was called Nude) and fell in love with the shade. However Boots being Boots didn't stock it so it was up to Ebay, and I managed to get my hands on it for less than half the price I paid for Dune.

This lipstick is (I think) for Blondes, but the model in the video is Brunette so I don't care. It's more pink than Dune and has more of a satin finish. 

I really recommend having a look through these (and then buying them off Ebay)

Let me know what you've been up to, and here's hoping I don't disappear again

Love Sophie xx

Loves And Hates of September

Sorry I know it's a bit late but I lost my memory card, I was so upset at losing it I even dreamt about it :(

But I've found it so I can get on to doing my loves and hates of September. 

Loves

L'oreal Voluminous

Can you believe I only recently bought this? I have the original grey tube version but it pales in comparison to this. I love black black eyelashes as I'm quite pale and the greyish tone that the other voluminous had did me no favours! This is so much nicer

L'oreal Super Liner

Why is it that every other range in Boots seemed to have a 3 for 2 except L'oreal? Either way I love this eyeliner it is so so easy to use, lasts ages (even in the rain) and I'm just in love with it! Perfect and quite cheap too (£5.99 I think)

 NYC Smooth Skin Loose Face Powder

I did a post on this quite recently and I'm still showing it some love. I think its great in that it's translucent so it doesn't look patchy. And a super huge bargain at around £2.50

 Neutrogena Concentrated Hand Cream

This stuff is AMAZING. It lasts forever as the tiniest blob can cover your whole hand. I use it on dry patches of skin and on my lips. It's perfect to put on your lips before using matte lipsticks as it's not a cream as such, more a gel so it dries quickly and isn't greasy.

Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Virgin

I love love love this colour. It is so heavily pigmented it's unbelievable. If you put it on top of black eyeliner it turns your eyeliner silver and as a testiment to how pigmented it is, it can pretty much blank out Mulch.

Hates

Okay I use the term hate loosely, I don't hate these products, they're just not getting much use lately

 
MAC MSF Natural

I love this powder I really do, but after getting back into my NYC powder this just feels too expensive, and not in a Tom Ford luxurious kind of way, but a why did I spend so much money on THIS kind of way. It's also a bit orangey for my liking.

Bourjois Smoky Eyes Trio Eyeshadow

These eyeshadows look really pigmented but they're not. Use a brush with these and you might as well not be using them at all. And I hate sponge applicators! Really nice idea and I love the packaging but the quality isn't that great. Also when I followed the instructions on how to get the smoky eye it was just so WRONG. No crease work, nothing. The darkest shade is to be used on the lash line. Dear me, that's what eyeliner is for!

Link me up to your monthly favourites!

Hope you had a lovely weekend,

Sophie xxx

Loves And Hates Of August

Wowee I can't believe I've been blogging for over 3 months! Anyways, on to my loves and hates

Loves

Models Own Nail Polish in Purple Grey - £5

I bought this in the Models Own Sale they had last week, and I love it. I love the colour (it's apparently a dupe for Paradoxal, not quite but not far off) Quite a bit of tip wear, that's after one day, but they did endure a long day at work. I wouldn't pay the full £5 as the fact they can sell them for £2.50 in the sale shows that they're not worth that much

Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat - £4.49

I bought this with my advantage points so it was essentially free. AMAZING product, goes on shiny and dries super fast to a beautiful matte finish. And so smooth to touch!

St Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mousse - £2.49

So totally deserving of the hype, this product is so so good. It's a greeny browny mousse that looks like chocolate and gives an instant brown tinge. After an application (well, my idea of an application is do it, let it dry, do it again, sleep and hope for the best in the morning) this is what it looks like compared to my natural skin colour (my legs the pale one), NO ORANGE IN SIGHT!

L'oreal and Prestige Lip Pencils - between £3 - £4

I love love love these. Nude lip pencils are so much easier to come by than a good nude lipstick, as there are much more pinker tones which suit me more. Also I have a slight loss of pigmentation around my lips so these are great to fill that in

Hates

Garnier Pure A Intensive Night Gel - £4.49

Ah! I thought I would persist with this, but it has made NO difference whatsoever despite all the rave reviews on Ciao. I bet Garnier uploaded them. . 

St Moriz Instant Self Tanning Mist - £2.49

I couldn't get on with this. I had to use it in the shower and I felt like Ross in Friends with the spray going everywhere (love that episode!) And it didn't rub in. In fact I was so scared of it drying streaky I washed it off. The mousse is a billion times better.

Benefit The Porefessional - £23.50

 I won't go on too much about this, as I've already done a post. All I'll say is that's £23.50 I'll never see again

Let me know if you've got any loves or hates, and if you love or hate anything I do!

Love Sophie xx

I Need Your Help (AGAIN!)

Hello lovely ladies

As I'm sure you're aware, I have a fairly English Rose complexion. This is why I cannot get a high street foundation to work for me without me going 'ooh, a bit yellow' (in the words of a House Of Fraser MUA). It's also the reason why I can't really pull off nude lippie

So I came up with my own 'nude' lip, and I really want to know what you think of it on me. Do I look a bit weird? Do you think it suits me?

I personally quite like it, but I was wondering if I looked like a 90s throwback. You know, just watch ANY American film from that era and you'll see what I mean. . 

Oh and if you were wondering, I used

L'oreal Infallible Lipstick in Golden Grape
Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Heartbeat
L'oreal lip liner

Oh and this really made me giggle

Let me know what you think of my alternative nude!

Thank you, Sophie xx