Garnier Pure Active

Garnier's Pure Active Range is said to help fight spots and fade marks. Superdrug had a 2 for £5 offer on Garniers skin care range a couple months ago so I decided to get the make-up remover purifying gel and intensive charcoal scrub (each £4.99, so at the time I got one for 1p. Bargain!)

The make-up remover works quite well at removing all my make-up apart from the mascara needed a bit of a extra scrub. The scent reminds me of beauty college when we used dermologica products and so does the texture. I wouldn't not buy this product again but I wouldn't rush out to get it in a hurry. 

Now the charcoal scrub, that's a little different as it's something I would repurchase. It says you can use this daily but I've been using it 3-4 times a week over the last couple of months and I must say it has improved my skin. Since recently coming off my contraceptive pill I've been getting spots on my chin but this seems to help clear them up, although not prevent them. They don't magically disappear but my skin does feel nice and clean afterwards. The scrub foams up little and is easily washed off after you've had a good scrub. The product is not too harsh on skin and doesn't dry my skin out at all or leave it feeling tight.

It's now officially out with the make-up wipes and mission on to get a good skin care regime going. What are your favourite skin care products?

Charissa x

Long time, no post!

I must apologise to my followers and readers for the lack of posts and replies lately! I've been pretty busy starting my new job at a health & beauty store over the last couple of months and on top of that there's been a lot of family stuff so I've not had time to sit down and write some decent posts. No posts is better than bad posts, right? Well anyway I promise I will get some written up asap. I've still been checking out all your blogs so don't worry you've not been forgotten about! Hope everyone's well. 

X

Have I found the perfect foundation?!

Like most of you, I have tried so many drugstore foundations it's pretty ridiculous. Recently I had a clear out of my make up and had a ton of 3/4 used bottles all from the same brand and I asked myself why on earth do I keep purchasing these foundations I'm not that happy with. I guess it's just easy to be like 'oh it works alright I'll just buy this again' so I took some time to look for a foundation I thought would become my make up bags new best friend.

One thing I hated about my old foundations is after about 4-5 hours wear my skin would look shiny and it literally looked like it was sliding off my face despite the use of primer and powder! I began looking at foundations suitable for combination skin and that's when Revlon Colorstay seemed to be a perfect match as it's also a medium to full coverage foundation. I don't think I can recall ever buying anything from Revlon so I didn't have any bias opinions previous to my purchase.

Revlon Colorstay comes in formulas for normal/dry skin or combination/oily. I picked the oil free formula for combination skin after swatching Buff it seemed the perfect shade. Usually even the palest foundations I seem to try still have that dreaded tangerine tint and myself being pale but having a freckly face it's pretty hard to find a good match. On Revlon's website it claims Colorstay will last for 16 hours and your skin will still look fresh. Sounds good to me, so now see if they're telling pork pies or not.

Before

& After

I applied Revlon Colorstay at around 6am on top of primer with a foundation brush knowing I wouldn't be in from work that day until around 12 hours later. The first thing I noticed was not the coverage or the colour but the smell. It had a slight paint smell (after a few uses I cannot smell anything at all so I don't really know why the first application did have this strange scent!). Next was obviously the coverage and how it blended on my skin and all I can say is simply amazing! I was finally blessed with a full coverage and a shade that matched my skin tone. Next up, round 3 ding ding ding.. time to test the staying power. 12 hours after application and a full day at work I must say I was impressed. I did have a little shine on my chin and forehead but it was no where near enough to feel the need that I had to re-do my foundation and something just a little powder could fix! Any cons? Well it doesn't have a pump so you'd need to buy one if you insisted on using one but to be honest I think I prefer just using a brush as it gives more control over how much you are applying.

I am really impressed with Revlon Colorstay and it will be something I will repurchase without a doubt. It retails at £12.49 which you can buy from your nearest Boots or Superdrug.

Have you tried Colorstay before? How does it compare to the likes of Mac?

x

Barry M's Lip Paint, Touch Of Magic.

After my last dissapointment (see review here) I decided it was time to see if BM's make up could impress me. Barry M has always been my 'go to' brand for nail polishes but I've never thought to try any other  cosmetics from the stand. Lipsticks seem to be my new favourite product recently although I have never been that bothered about them before so I am still trying to figure out which shades and tones I prefer. Barry M's touch of magic lip paint once applied is a different pink for each individual person. Yep, I said pink, even though it's a bright green bullet so don't be scared thinking you're going to look like your off to a Halloween party.

The lipstick comes on clear so be careful how much you apply as the more you put on the darker it is obviously going to go. I put quite a few layers on as I wanted to see the maximum colour it would give me, plus I was wearing it for a short 4 hour shift at work to test it's staying power. Once applied I saw the pink colour bursting onto my lips, a very bright pink with a little red tint! I did like the shade and it wouldn't be one I would usually pick so thumbs up for the magic colour change. As for the staying power, Barry M claims touch of magic lasts for 8 hours so a 4 hour shift at work seemed a fair test, right? Well. By the time I'd finished I was just left with a stain in the middle of my bottom lip and all colour had vanished!

I do really like this product but I think in future I'll only apply it when I know I can keep on top of reapplying it. Touch of Magic retails at £4.49, you can buy it from the Barry M website or your Barry M stand at your local Boots or Superdrug.

Barry M Sequin Nail Effects.

Barry M has released yet another nail effects called 'sequins'. You've probably seen a few bloggers reviews as it was officially launched Superdrug on the 5th of June and will be available from Boots tomorrow and retails at £3.99.

I did spend a little while wondering if to choose pink, white or black. The pink and white colours have the same coloured sequins in (green, blue, red, silver and gold) whereas black has only gold. Natrually I chose pink over white and I couldn't wait to get home and see if Barry M had ticked all the boxes again.

Firstly I applied 'Strawberry Ice Cream' nail paint as my nail varnish remover seems to have disappeared and I already had some chipped nail paint on, opps! Barry M says sequin nail effects will give your nails a textured sparkle, which I didn't even think it would be as for some reason I pictured it being a smooth finish. It took a couple of coats to get enough sequins on my nail I desired but I quickly saw the gritty effect that came along and after my nails dried the feeling made me shudder a little.



Now I know that sounds dramatic and I don't know why I find the texture so horrible but I really do. As I've said before I am a huge fan of Barry M nail polishes so I feel a little guilty saying something negative. The piles of sequins just make it look gloopy. Barry M's textured effects nail varnishes have more of a fine grain of sand feel. Sequins feels like boulders. Sorry Bazza but unless you make this less grainy I don't think I'll be repurchasing! :(

Have you tried any of the sequins? What's your opinion?

B. Pure Micellar Water.

If you haven't heard of micellar water then where have you been hiding?! To cut all the science out and long confusing words micellar water contains oil molecules that will cleanse and tone without interfering with skins pH balance.

Lately I've become a little lazy in my evening skin care routine and taken to laying in bed with a packet of make up wipes. It was time to stop and swap for a few cotton pads and a bottle micellar water by Superdrugs new premium brand, B.

B micellar water is a 3 in 1 cleanser that claims to dissolve impurities in a single sweep. Simply get a cotton pad, put a few drops on and wipe with no rinsing required. Now I do wear more make up than I probably need for example eyebrow pencil for my power brows, a ton of black liquid eyeliner for my mini Amy Winehouse -esque flicks and a load of mascara (2-3 different brands at once) so removing my eye make up is definitely my biggest pain.

So could B micellar water actually remove my make up using just a couple of cotton pads? Yes and no. I've seen a few reviews by bloggers having used this product saying it stung their eyes when removing their eye make up. Well you crazypants the bottle says avoid contact with eyes. Nevertheless I decided to see if it really did sting my eyes and to be honest it didn't but it was awful at removing my liquid eyeliner and mascara and I gave up trying and used a different eye make up remover. Next up was removing the rest of my make up and it was time for the micellar water to live up to the hype and which it did indeed! It removed the rest of my make up amazingly with one minor negative; after removing all my make up my face felt slightly sticky even though you don't have to rinse your face afterwards. There was no sign of any sticky face in the morning and my skin looked so soft and thoroughly cleansed. B. micellar water is a much better alternative to removing my make up than wipes and it requires the same amount of effort.

A little fact that scores major kudos in my book about B. is that all products are cruelty free! I've yet to try anything else from B but the micellar water has single handedly impressed me enough!

B. micellar water retails at £4.99 for 150ml. You can purchase it online or from selected Superdrug stores.