| Review | Real Techniques Core Collection and Expert Face Brush

Hey beauties!!! Hope you are all having a nice chilled Sunday?

Am sure you've all heard of the Real Technique brushes...if you haven't click here for more info. So after reading many many great reviews, I decided to get some and add to my growing brush collection. To start my Real Techniques love, I got the Core Collection and the Expert Face brushes. 

The Core Collection is a set of four brushes ideal for applying your base to achieve a flawless HD finish. It also comes with a brush roll which can be turned into a brush stand and notes/ideas on how to use each brush on the back packaging. The brushes in this set include: a detailer brush, a pointed foundation brush, a buffing brush and a contour brush. 

These brushes are extremely soft, dense and feels amazing on the skin, it doesn't scratch or irritate my skin as some brushes do and blends the makeup seamlessly to give a skin-like finish. These brushes are perfectly shaped for easy product placement. My favourite from this set has to be the buffing brush which is great to use for liquid and cream products and gives me an air brushed finish. They haven't shed yet (I've only washed them twice) and cleans easily. The black bristles doesn't bleed or stain the white tips unlike some of the other brushes I own and oh yeah they don't leave hairs on my face which is a massive plus.  

The expert face brush is a newer release and not featured in any collection. It is perfect for applying liquid or cream products and it's oval/dome shaped design with soft bristles allows you to move the brush seamlessly around the contours of your face for an even finish. I really love this brush and will be getting another as a back up.

The Real Techniques brushes can be found at Boots but I purchased mine from lovemakeup. The core collection retails for £21.99 while the expert face brush retails for £9.99.

I think these are a must have in every makeup lovers brush collection and I hope you beauties agree with me...next stop The Starter Set. 

♥

Beny

Thoughts: Sleek MakeUP Ultra Matte Dark Palette v2 + |Swatches|

Hey beauties!!! Hope you all had a good week and enjoying this sunny weekend. It is finally summer here in the UK and it is hella hot..can't say am loving the heat though.

On to this post...A few weeks ago, Sleek MakeUP released two new i-Divine eye shadow palettes called Ultra Mattes v1(brights) and v2(Darks) palette. I love matte eye shadows so when I heard about these two palettes, I knew they have to be in my collection. As with previous palettes, they come in a matte black casing with the Sleek logo embossed in front with 12 eye shadows each containing 1.1g of product. 

            Top row (L-R): Orbit, Ink, Highness,Noir,Dune,Pillow Talk

              Bottom row (L-R): Thunder, Maple, Flesh,Paper Bag, Villan, Fern

Instead of ordering online, I decided to go in store and swatch the colours and I am  so happy I did. I was disappointed with the colour pay off of the shadows from the "Brights" palette so decided to get just the "Darks" palette as it is more versatile and will be more useful to me. 

Below are swatches of the Darks palette:

                        Thunder &Orbit                      Maple & Ink                   Flesh & Highness

                   

         

 Paper Bag & Noir                                                     Villan & Dune                              Fern & Pillow Talk

             

                                                                  

These colours were swatched without any base/primer and has great pigmentation but some of them has greater colour pay off than others which is expected in a palette. Unfortunately as these are matte, there's a great deal of fall out but this doesn't bother me at all. If you can't deal with fall outs then you can use paper towel to catch the fall outs or apply your eye makeup before your face makeup. 

I will definitely recommend this palette. It is a good value for money (retails for £7.00) and perfect for creating various looks which will be perfect for the Summer sun.

so what do you think of the Sleek Ultra mattes palette? and if you have the Brights palette please let me know of your experience with it as I am considering getting it as well.

♥

Beny

MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick...

Hey beauties, 

Last week saw the pre-release of  the new Mac Viva Glam lipstick launch by Nicki Minaj. As I am registered with the website,  I received a code to order one before the collection goes live today (1st March) and I leaped without thinking twice. The great thing about purchasing one of these is that all the proceeds made will go to the MAC aids funds. 

It comes packaged in the usual MAC lipstick casing/tube with red rims instead of silver and has Nicki Minaj's signature on both the inside and outside. It contains 3g of product and will retail for £13.50 as with all MAC lipsticks.

This is a very very bright coral-pink lipstick that will be perfect for the upcoming spring/summer, it has a satin finish which isn't too matte on your lips but keeps it moisturized for a while (always moisturize before using any lipstick) and has an opaque look on the lips. 

The colour looks more coral than pink in the tube but looks very barbie pink on my lips and I was kinda disappointed with that because  I was hoping to get that coral-pink mixture on my lips. 

With that said, I am loving Nicki (the lipstick) right now and I have been wearing it every single day since I received it. It smells really good - not too strong and it goes on really smooth on the lips but make sure you apply with a light hand to avoid wasting product by wiping away excess.

I will definitely recommend this lipstick. It is a beautiful summer lipstick that am sure will suit most people and skin tones and you'll be giving to charity at the same time. 

Will you be buying?

If you have, What do you think of Viva Glam Nicki?

♥

Beny

Fashion Fair True Finish Concealer Trio

A few years ago, I came across an article on beauty products that Ciara(the Like-a-Boy songstress) loves to use and this was one of them. I loved her review on this product but as I wasn't a fan of cream products at the time, I decided to pass.

Well towards the end of last year, I was looking for a new concealer to cover all the excess baggage under my eye and I came across the concealer trio again so I decided to give it a go.

The concealer itself is very creamy and requires a lot blending to avoid the patchy look but it does a good job in hiding away my imperfections giving a matte finish afterwards.


The Good News: the concealer comes in a light, medium and dark shade. The medium matches my skin tone exactly and I use that the most. The light shade can be used to highlight underneath the eyes, the medium shade to conceal and the dark shade to contour. The dark shade has a reddish tone which I didn't like but the good thing about this trio is that I can mix the three shades to achieve whatever I want.

The Bad News: The concealer trio is now discontinued by Fashion Fair but it is still available at Debenhams website (not sure how long it'll be there).

Verdict: as this is my first cream product, it took me a minute to get use to but eventually I got a hang of it and I am liking it.  
PS: I am a liquid foundation fanatic but from the success of this, I am thinking of getting a cream foundation to see how it looks on my normal to dry skin. 


Have you used any Fashion Fair product or the Concealer Trio? What do you think?
What cream foundations would you recommend for me to try?

♥

Beny

Nail of the Day (NOTD): Wired

Wired is a deep blue coloured polish by L.A.Colors. I purchased this a while ago but have only used it once as I do with all of my nail colours because they don't seem to last on my nails for more than a day before they start to chip away which is très annoying. 

Wired gives a great colour pay off after two coats which I love and the brush enables easy application of polish although the handle is a little short and chubby (if that makes sense).

Price: 99p (a bargain and a half lol)

Where to buy: any hair and beauty supply store e.g. Paks Cosmetics 

Verdict: I love but will give it a B-

Do you have any tips on how to stop my nail colours from chipping away?

Have you tried any L.A.Colors nail polish?

♥

Beny