Maybelline Dream Bronze BB Review and Swatches

Maybelline Dream Bronze BB (£6.99) is an 8 in 1 BB cream that adds a sunkissed glow to your skin, this sounds perfect to me as someone striving to always look bronzed. Let's have a closer look...

Dream Bronze claims to give you eight benefits in one product: 

1. Illuminates
2. Warms skintone
3. Evens
4. Veils imperfections 
5. SPF 25 protects
6. Hydrates
7. Smoothes
8. Refreshes

It comes in two shades: light/medium and medium/deep and I went for the light/medium as I have quite a fair skin tone. I was quite pleased that there were two shades as a lot of the time there is a "universal" shade which is always certainly too dark for me. 

When you first apply it to the skin I feel that it comes out extremely dark, much darker than my skin tone is. 

This is what it looks like indoors, as you can see it had a bit of an orangey tone to it compared to my skin tone which is not necessarily a bad thing as long as it is not too orange. 

Here it is against my skin tone here a little more blended out, it is still looking rather dark and not very natural. 

After blending it in completely it looks a lot more natural in colour but one thing I can tell you and unfortunately the camera hasn't picked it up very well is that is has particles of glitter in. This is definitely not what I was expecting or looking for. The one look I was not going for was a sun kissed version of Edward Cullen. Although I am impressed of how well it has blended out baring in mind the initial colour. 

So if you want a bronzing bb cream with glitter particles in then this is for you, if not maybe try something different.

Does anyone know of any dupes of this? Let me know. 

See you tomorrow. 

Jess 

Back on the Lip Liner Train

Towards the beginning of the year I started to fall in love with lip liners. I love what a difference they can make to your lips and make them appear much more juicy than they actually are. But for some reason towards the latter part of this year I just stopped using them. I don't know whether this was because I had become lazy or whether I just didn't want my lips to look like that any more. 

In comes the Maybelline Colour Sensational Lip Liner in Midnight Plum, this is the perfect lip liner for the winter season, it matches nearly all of my dark lipsticks and also lasts a very long time, even when may be my lipstick hasn't lasted as long. It also has a great consistency not so soft that it just breaks but not so hard that it hurts to put on. Now that I have this one I tempted to go and purchase the rest of them at £3.99 you really can't go wrong. 

Have you got any lip liner suggestions for me? 

See you tomorrow. 

Jess

x

My Beauty Haul

Hi,

So last week it was my birthday, of course this meant that I decided to do a bit of beauty shopping (obvs). Being a bit of a newbie to blogging I have been taking part in a lot of blogger chats on Twitter (@JessieLou33 if you care) and this has made me write a list so long on my notes pages on my phone that I barely know where to start with. Here is a selection of things that I picked up when I went into the aisles of Boots and other such places that I am excited to tell you about...

The first product in my haul is this Ted Baker Body Wash. I have never tried Ted Baker body products before and so when I browsing Boots, these beautiful products caught my eye. The packaging alone is beautiful and could probably persuade me enough on its own as I am a lover of pink. The smell is also divine it is quite fruity and floral smell and is described as a mix of grapefruit, mandarin, mango, neroli, jasmine, patchouli, sandlewood and musk. Personally I think it is the jasmine that makes me like it so much as that is one of my favourite scents.

On a similar sort of vein this is the matching Ted Baker Hand Cream. This has the same brilliant scent as the body wash but in hand cream form. The one that I have is perfect for fitting into any handbag due to its small size although I can't find the small one on the website so it might just be in store unfortunately, Now all I need is the matching body spray and I can smell of the divine scent all of the time. Maybe that will be next on my list.

The next product that I have bought is the Maybelline Baby Lips Dr Rescue in Coral Crave. Although I have bought baby lips before in the normal range and was not too impressed with them I still wanted to try the Dr Rescue range. I don't necessarily want it for the colour pay off although I am big fan of a nice coral colour. I wanted it to see if it would moisturise my lips and keep them moisturused. Although I am yet to try it so I will get back to you on that one.

After reading up on what make-up Little Mix were wearing in the latest music video, I had to run out to the shops and buy these two products. I was actually surprised at how many drugstore products that they used. First up is the Barry M Light Me Up Highlighter, which is a lovely golden highlighter, which is perfect for the cheek bones. I have also used it to give me a bit of a sheen on my eye lids too when I can't be bothered to apply proper eyeshadow. It makes the skin nice and radiant and like you have a glow from within.

The last product in my haul also my Barry M is the Barry M Make Me Blush Cream in Rhubarb Crumble. This is a lovely natural pinky flush of colour that is not too obvious. As it is a cream formula you make it blend easily and seamlessly into the skin, to make it look very natural. I use a stippling brush straight away after I place the blush on my cheeks to blend it in. I like this so much that I may have to get the other two colours as well.

Is there anything that you have bought recently? Tell me in the comments below what you bought, so I can make my wishlist longer.

See you on Monday!

Jess
x

Dark Lip Essentials

Hi,

Now that it starts to get dark at like 5pm and all the Christmas stuff is in the shops it is officially dark lip season. Here are my essentials for getting the perfect dark lip.

Lip Scrub 

A good lip scrub is essential to any dark lip. You don't want your lips covered in dry skin as otherwise whatever you put over the top will not look very good as it will all stick. My favourites are both from Lush the Mint Julips and the Santa's lip scrub, they are fantastic for getting the dead skin off and they also taste delicious. 

Lip Balm 

After scrubbing your lips, a good lip balm is an essential to make sure that your lips will take to the colour well. I usually put it on before I start putting my make up on and by the time I get round to doing my lips, it has sunk in. My faves are from Burts Bees Beeswax Lip Balm in either the original or coconut and pear scent the as they have no colour to them so don't interfere with the colour of the lip and they are nice and moisturising. 

Lip Liner

To get a good dark lip I feel a lip liner is essential, I usually outline my lips with the colour and then fill them I find that doing this makes the lip colour last a bit longer and when it starts to fade it doesn't look patchy. I really like the Maybelline Colour Sensational in Midnight Plum and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil in Wicked, although the Urban Decay one is not a extremely dark it does go well with the lighter berry colours. They are both good at making your lipstick last just that little bit longer.

Lip Stick

Now for the most important part of a dark lip, the lip stick. Obviously there are thousands of different dark lips on the market but these two are my faves. From the drugstore is the Maybelline Colour Sensational Mattes in Divine Wine  this is a true dark lip colour and being a matte formulation means that it does not budge from the lips, deffo one to look into if you don't want to splash out a lot on a dark lipstick. Another one of my faves is a Mac lipstick in Plumful, this is what I would call an everyday sort of dark lip as it is not too dark but can be built if you want to, say if you are going out in the evening. 

What are you dark lip essentials? Tell me in the comments what your favourite dark lip is. 

See you tomorrow!

Jess 

x

Autumn Lip Wardrobe: Budget Edition

Hi,

In one of my last posts I wrote all about an autumn eye wardrobe (here), now its time to move on to the lips! I wanted to make this a budget edition too as I have very few high end lipsticks as I want to be sure that they suit me first so I tend to stick to drugstore dupes.

Maybelline Colour Drama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in Nude Perfection - now I know that this is meant to be an autumnal post but I couldn't resist putting at least one nude in, for those days when you are just not feeling a bold lip, this is my product of choice. Having being declared a dupe for the Nars velvet lip pencils they are quite hard to get hold of any of the shades but definitely worth it.

Maybelline Colour Sensational Matte Lipstick in Divine Wine - another helping from Maybelline, this time in the form of an actual lipstick it has only just made its way to my lipstick collection. This is a true autumnal colour with a lovely brown undertone which I feel would suit many different skin tones although definitely on the bolder side of things.

Nude Perfection

Divine Wine

Eva's Delicate Rose

Plum Russian

Sultry





L'Oreal Colour Riche Eva's Delicate Rose - again I know this isn't an autumnal shade that you were all expecting, but what can I say I am a pinky nude girl through and through. Again I feel this shade is more appropriate for the autumn with a darkish undertone. Although one negative I would say about these lipsticks is that the smell might put you off, not one of my faves.

Bourjois Colour Boost in Plum Russian - back to the darker more plum based colours. This shade is a much darker lip shade but is not a matte formula, so if you like the look of the Maybelline one but finds matte lips uncomfortable to wear, maybe you should go for this one. I just love the colour of this one although I do find using a lip liner underneath makes it last a bit longer.

Revlon Colour Matte Balm in Sultry - I know, I know this isn't really your classic autumnal shade again but maybe I am just a little scared of the darker lip, I feel like everyones looking at them when I wear something bold. Anyway, this shade I like to wear when I'm going out, again it has a brownish undertone and has a bit of a Kylie Jenner lip look about it, which I love.

What budget lip colour would you recommend, I feel I need to be a bit more daring.

See you on Monday!

Jess
x

Review and Swatches: Two Concealers

Hi!

Trying to find the perfect concealer has become an absolute quest for me over the last few months. As there is nothing worse than having a concealer that does not match my exacting standards. So, here are my reviews on a couple that I have been testing.

Barry M Flawless Light Reflecting Concealer in 2 

I am in love with this concealer, and it has replaced my love for the classic Collection concealer. It is nice and light but has a good coverage to it and it does not cake up or crease. On the down side I think there are only two or three shades so not so good for darker skin tones. 

Maybelline Anti-Age The Eraser Eye 

Again, this has become one of my favourite concealers for under they eyes as the name would suggest. On a side note I have tried this on spots and red patches and although it is not terrible I feel there are better ones out there, such as the Barry M. This concealer I would recommend to literally everyone it is perfect for covering those dark circles.

So there we have it, short but sweet I suppose. I don't like to try too many new products at once as my skin is super sensitive. 

Do you have any recommendations? 

See you tomorrow!

Jess

x