It’s that time of the month where I am back with another monthly hits and misses and I realised as I was writing this post, that is in fact, my last one before Christmas!! The summer really flew by, I won’t complain though, I am really, really looking forward to the festive season and build up to Christmas! I love Christmas and the whole festive season! It’s my favourite time of the year (apart from summer 😜).
Anyway, enough of my rambling 😜 I’m here to share a few products I have been thoroughly enjoying for the past few weeks. There aren’t many as I was really busy throughout the past number of weeks, so I’ve just been grabbing products without really thinking about what I was picking up. That said, I’ve been absolutely loving these products, some are newbies, some are oldies (but goodies…. 😜).
Hits
Anastasia Beverly Hills Sultry Palette — This is a stunning palette and one I’ve been gravitating towards a lot lately. I’ve been really enjoying the cooler tones in this, which for me, is unusual because I usually prefer warm tones, they’re my favourite. I love the shade Twig through my crease and on my outer corner, then over my lid I love to use Cinder, Ember or Teak.
If I am doing a warm toned eye, I like to take the shade Birch through my crease and and on my lids Gleam Girl by Marc Jacobs Beauty. I love how they look together.
Catrice Ten!sational 10 in 1 Dream Primer — I’ve seen this absolutely everywhere and had to try it for myself and oh my goodness, this is one of THE BEST affordable primers on the market today. This makes my skin look and feel amazing. It feels very hydrating and moisturising on my skin and gives a beautiful radiant, healthy glow to my skin also.
It has a gorgeous creaminess to it, that’s not sticky or uncomfortabe and doesn’t feel heavy on the skin, either. Any foundations I have applied over this, have all applied perfectly and perfrmed as normal, but they’ve all had an extra glow about them, not too dissimilar to the glow given by Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter (review here).
It doesn’t give the same level of glowiness, but it certainly isn’t far off, and given the price difference between both, this is well worth checking out if you were considering purchasing Charlotte’s Hollywood Flawless Filter, but were unsure about it, especially given how much it costs.
This primer costs €6.80 and Hollywood Flawless Filter costs £32 / €40, so there is a major difference in price, for something that gives a similar effect to the skin. Review here.
ColourPop SuperShock Highlighter in ‘Parallel’ — I got this highlighter a while ago (maybe a year ago) and recently I rediscovered it and have been pretty obsessed with it, however I wear it as a blush and not a highlighter. It’s pretty much the only blush I’ve been wearing solidly for the past while. It’s absolutely stunning.
In the pan, and when swatched on my finger, it looks slightly scary, but once applied with a fluffy brush, it just gives a nice flush of colour. My preferred brush for applying this is my Blank Canvas F15, because it’s fluffy, it gives a sheerer, more diffused finish and therefore, it looks a little more natural.
It is an icy-pink that is very glowy (but not over the top) that gives a beautiful flush of colour to my cheeks, but doesn’t give me ‘clown cheeks’ (if you know, you know😂). I love how glowy this is, I don’t need to wear highlighter when wearing this because it gives so much glow to my cheeks, that highlighter would be a tad too much, for me personally.
Essence Brighten Up! Banana Powder — Setting my under-eyes is something that I never skip — it is imperative for stopping my concealer from creasing and making me look older than I am. I have so many powders that I really love to use, however, this one, tops them all. I picked this up in Penneys months ago and started using it in September, and so far, I am seriously impressed with it.
A tiny bit on an eye blender brush (Blank Canvas E26 or similar) just lightly swept across my under-eye and my concealer does not budge an inch. Not one inch. I would sometimes have issues with some concealers creasing minimally on me, but when I use this, absolutely no concealer creases or moves.
Because it is a banana powder it adds a little brightness to my under-eye, but it’s not obvious or stark by any means. It doesn’t cause my concealer or under-eye area to look dry or cakey. It gives almost a satin finish. I really love this and it’s so affordable, too. I can’t remember the exact price of this, but it was under five euro. I mean for that price, you really can’t go wrong. It’s also available online from Amazon UK, ParfumDreams.co.uk, Parfum Dreams.ie and Ulta, as well as in store in Penneys/Primark stores and pharmacies nationwide.
Embryolisse Lait Crème Concentré — I got this purely because of Aoife Crossan Makeup. Aoife regularly talks about this and a while back Aoife showed two photos of the Bare Minerals Bare Pro foundation with this underneath it in one, and a different primer underneath it in another, and I could not get over just how glowy the foundation was with this underneath it. It was honestly like she had two different foundations on. The difference was unbelievable.
If you know me at all, you’ll know that I absolutely live for a glowy base. I have dry skin so anything that promises a glow, I am all over, and this is no exception. It’s a gorgeous thick, rich creamy consistency that is slightly runny. Despite having a rich consistency, it is not at all greasy and it doesn’t feel heavy on the skin.
I love to use this under foundation and mixed in with foundation, particularly matte foundations (Fenty Pro Filt’r Original I’m looking at you👀) because it gives a lighter coverage, but really takes away any matte appearance, and gives a much more radiant and healthier look to my skin, which I adore. Highly recommend this, especially if you have dry skin.
NARS Orgasm Oil-infused Lip Tint — I had been dying to try this for ages as I had heard so many great things about it, and it did not disappoint, at all! This is absolutely beautiful on the lips. It’s supposed to give a tint, but for me anyway, I don’t find that it does, however, it does feel absolutely beautiful on the lips. Despite being oil-infused, it’s not oily or greasy, it feels more like a smooth balm that gives a gorgeous shine to my lips. I adore this over a lipliner if I want a shine off my lips, but don’t want a full-on glossy effect and don’t want to wear lipstick.
It has a nice sized doe-foot applicator, which applies just the right amount of product, not too much and not too litle. It doesn’t get product everywhere, either, which for me is a plus as I sometimes find that doe-foot applicators apply a lot of product and it tends to gather at the edges of my lips.
In the tube this looked shimmery, but on the lips, there is no shimmer, to my eye at least. It is extremely comfortable to wear and it lasts quite a while too before I need to re-apply. It’s expensive for what it is, but for me at least, it is worth it.
SoSu Eye Voltage Liquid Eyeliner Pen — I love a good liquid eyeliner, especially when they are affordable, my favourite one being Catrice’s It’s Easy Tattoo Liner (spoken about here, here and here). It is superbly pigmented, longwearing, easy to use and it doesn’t pull, scratch or drag on my eyelids, it doesn’t fade, flake, feather or bleed either and best of all, it costs less than five euros, so I was eager to try this one from SoSu by SJ given that it is also an affordabe eyeliner, albeit slighty more expensive, but still cheap at under ten euro.
Just like the Catrice eyeliner this one is super black, easy to use, doesn’t scratch, pull or drag on my eyelids, doesn’t skip, lasts well and doesn’t cause any irritation. It also doesn’t fade, flake, feather or bleed. I’ve been using it non-stop lately and I am thoroughly enjoying it and it’s one I would recommend and repurchase.
As I said above, it’s just shy of ten euro, but even at that price, it is still inexpensive, and frankly, better than some high end ones I have tried such as Marc Jacobs and Tarte, to name a few. It’s widely avaiable and reguarly on offer, too. If you’re in the market for an affordable black eyeliner, this is one to check out, I highly recommend it.
Misses
Avène Soothing Eye Contour Cream — I ran out of my Decléor Aroma Lisse 2-in-1 eye cream and started using this one by Avène and frankly I don’t like it as an eye cream. It is very thick and just doesn’t feel nice on my skin. It tends to sit on top of my skin rather than absorb into it and it just smears around.
Whenever I apply makeup on top, it doesn’t apply, blend or sit well. My concealer creases and if I apply powder, my under-eye looks dry and cakey. I’ve given up using it as an eye cream and now use it as a lip balm/cream, which it works well for. It’s nice to use before a lipstick to prep my lips.
It’s very inexpensive, but I wouldn’t recommend it to be quite honest. I think it if absorbed into my skin and didn’t sit on top and cause issues with my makeup application etc. then I probably could recommend it, even as a stop-gap, but because of the issues, I can’t unfortunately.
Dr Paw Paw Original Balm — I picked this up on a whim as I needed a lip balm for my bag when out and about and given that I’ve seen plenty of people rave about it and recommend it and it was only €3 I figured it was worth a try, unfortunately, for me, it did nothing, nothing at all for my lips.
It felt uncomfortable on my lips. It was quite slippy and slightly greasy. If I applied it over a lipstick, it would cause it to smear and bleed. If I applied it on bare lips, no lipstick would apply properly over it. They would smear and just look awful frankly. I’ve heard many great reviews on these Dr. Paw Paw balms so expected great things, unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. I’ve since binned it because it was so awful.
Drunk Elephant Lippie Balm — I got this as part of a Drunk Elephant set a while ago and finally tried it for the first time recently, and was very disappointed with it. It left my lips drier than they are usually — and they are very dry normally, so you can imagine how dry they were when I used this.
I used it a few times and after about four days I had to stop using it as the condition of my lips was worsening and it was down to this. I have since gone back to using my trusty Nuxe Rêve de Miel which has greatly improved the condition of my lips and has really helped to moisturise them and take down the further dryness caused by the Drunk Elephant Lippie Balm. I don’t recommend this and I won’t be repurchasing this either.
That rounds up my Hits & Misses for this month. If you have tried any of these products, I would love to hear how you found them and what you think of them. Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear from you.
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