Concealer-aholic?

I'm one of those people that likes to cover all those pesky spots and blemishes over a bold lip and busy eye makeup anyday. I feel like if you don't have a good concealer, well its just not the same, at least I tell myself that to justify spending yet more money on base makeup, more importantly concealers! I know everyone swears by the Collection concealer and to some extent I do too but I wanted to branch out a little incase I'm missing out on something wonderful AND I hadn't owned a high end concealer so I thought I'd go all out and buy two at the one time....  

The two I decided on are actually quite similar as there both creamy and without a wand, the first was the MAC Studio Fix Concealer in NC15 and the second was Benefit's Boi-ing Concealer in 'Light'. Now I'm usually not an NC at all in MAC, I'm a NW but this actually works on my skin, having pinky undertone foundation and concealer would probably be a bit too pink, so this balances everything out nicely. The Benefit one doesn't go by undertones, instead it just uses the usual light, medium, dark and of course I'm light, if there was an extra light I would probably be that.  

At first I wasn't sold on the potted concealer as such, opting for a wand everytime just for handiness but after loving my 17 phwoarrr paint I realised they aren't actually too bad, in fact they were easier and I found myself reaching for that more often than my ordinary wand concealers as the coverage was just as good, if not better and it included a little mirror so I'm hoping I'll adore these two just as much, I don't fancy using my fingers, especially as the warmer weathers approaching, they'll probably melt slightly but by using a smaller brush I'm hoping they'll blend like a dream and give me the coverage that I really need, I'm sure I'll share my feelings on them at some point, I always do :)

The only major thing I noticed about these two is that the Mac concealer has a lot more product (7g) compared to the Benefit concealer which has (3g), now for the record Benefit's is slightly more expensive around the £17/18 mark whereas MAC ranges around £15/16 so its a lot less for your moneys worth and I actually prefer the lid on the MAC concealer as theres no chance of it falling off, hopefully it won't make a difference to the product inside and I can't wait to get using them both. (It's almost as if I'm asking for bad skin to test them out, I promise I'm not)  

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

P.s has anyone tried these two? or any other high end concealers that they love? 

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Seventeen Stay Time Concealer / Review & Swatches

With the lighter days rolling in now and Spring supposedly on its way, if we ignore the snow thats currently lying outside my house a lighter base is something that I strive for. I've always had a weakness when it comes to lip products but lately I'm finding myself down the concealer junkie route instead & thats where the Seventeen Stay Time Concealer comes in!

Probably the worst swatch ever but hey you can see how pale I am and it still blends in perfectly.
Seventeen Stay Time Concealer - Link 

I'm determined to find myself the perfect concealer, it shouldn't be too hard really to find something that'll brighten my skin on dull days, last all day long, not dry my skin out and most importantly cover all those dark circles and pesky blemishes, right? I'm not too fussy about whether its high end or drugstore as long as it does the job - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind paying that little bit more if I knew it was going to work. I actually asked on twitter for a few drugstore options and this Seventeen one kept coming up time and time again so it was next on my trial and error list.

 The Seventeen stand is something I don't pay enough attention to and I ought to, they have so many beauty gems that aren't praised enough so I was happy to try out this concealer as their Phwoarrr Paint is a firm favourite of mine. First impressions, the packaging is very similar to the Collection concealer but then again most drugstore concealers do look very same-y, except theres a heck of a lot more product in the 17 offering and so far the packaging hasn't rubbed away - the one thing I can't stand on products is the writing disappearing.

It claims to have over 18 hour wear time but of course I haven't worn it that long, it has however lasted me the majority of my day, from 7am to 5pm without any top ups which is quite admirable in my book! It has a doe foot applicator which I prefer as you can easily blend with a brush - I haven't been converted to cream concealers just yet and its very creamy so its easy to work with. I have used it under my eyes but I feel like I need a smidge more coverage for those dark circles and combine it with my Collection concealer just to be safe.

I by mistake picked up the shade 'fair' thinking it was the lightest shade as the name would suggest you couldn't get much lighter than that and it blends perfectly into my skin and covers everything I need it to. If you are extremely pale skinned there is an 'extra fair' though which I think would be too pale for most but its nice that they've catered to paler gals if they need it as most drugstore brands tend to forget about them - trust me, I'm usually one of the forgotten ones. Its just a lovely concealer and priced at £4.49 its a steal from the drugstore and I'm glad I picked it up but I still think I'll stay on the hunt for that 'perfect holy grail concealer'. 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo
P.s whats your favourite concealer of all time/holy grail?

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Drugstore Concealer Post

I've never really been a concealer kind of girl until about a year or so ago, I luckily didn't wear makeup on a daily basis to school (which I think saved my skin), didn't suffer from any bags under my eyes or mass breakouts and honestly I didn't think it made much of a difference if I had a high enough coverage foundation on my face. Oh how wrong was I?

Most University students suffer from a lack of sleep, although you'd think it would be the opposite... mine usually stemming from the early morning lectures, others usually because they were enjoying themselves far too much the night before but still, concealer has became a miracle cure to help me some how not look like death warmed up in the mornings. As of yet I haven't tried any high end concealers as I find these do the trick just fine and are super affordable for all budgets so I thought I'd compile a few of my favourites at the moment.

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer: If you haven't heard practically everyone and their mother raving about this, I don't know where you've been. This concealer is raved about all the time and for good reason, before I even started reading blogs this was my concealer of choice mainly because it did the trick and was so budget friendly but I'd no idea everyone felt the same way. It provides the best coverage and the shade 'fair' is a perfect match for my skin, it doesn't emphasis any dry patches and lasts throughout the day. It hands down is my favourite concealer I've tried to date, the only downside being that the packaging rubs off and is left a bit unsightly as you can see in the pictures, or you could say well loved.

MUA Hide & Conceal: This is an old concealer that I had lying around in my makeup stash but its well loved nonetheless as its almost empty, I think I picked it up on a whim one day in Superdrug. Its a close match to my skin tone and I used it not as a concealer as you might think but rather a highlight around my eyebrows and above my eyes in case I needed to fix something or brighten it up a little. Its slightly drying but I didn't use it all over my face so I guess thats a good thing, honestly for a £1 you can't really expect it to be faultless but who knows it might work better on others than it did for me.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer: This concealer is slightly darker than my skin tone, similar to its foundation but its ever so creamy in formula. As strange as this seems I don't actually like covering blemishes with it as similar to the foundation it provides a 'radiant glow' and emphasis them rather than hiding them. Therefore it is now my beloved under eye concealer/highlighter and it makes all the difference in the mornings giving the impression that I'm wide awake and got a whole 8 hours sleep instead of 5.

Seventeen Phwoarr Paint: I popped this concealer into my basket mainly because the packaging intrigued me, until recently I'd only used concealers that had a wand and this was something completely different. At first I wasn't really fussed with it because I couldn't for the life of me work out how to get it to sit right but after some playing about and a little warming of the product it is now my go to blemish concealer. It states that its 'heavy duty' and originally for under the eyes but I don't like anything too heavy under my eyes so this works just fine. I thought it would be a little drying but its sooo creamy and lasts all through the day, a lovely surprise! :)

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo 

Beauty Haul

You know you have a problem when you go in to Boots to buy the Stay Matte Powder and you come out with a heck of a lot more. There's so many amazing offers across all of the brands at the minute and I couldn't help but be lured in yet again oops. 

When I walk around the drugstore I tend to forget about why I actually went in and get distracted by all of the other amazing products instead - I really should start making shopping lists. Firstly I picked up the MUA eyebrow pencil in blonde, this may seem a little odd since my hairs now been dyed brunette but strangely enough it still suits and does all an eyebrow pencil needs to do and more. I then saw a huge stand in Boots advertising the new LOreal Paris Miss Manga Mascara, this and the numerous adverts on my t.v (I'll blame them) made me pop it in my basket. My lashes are quite short so I'm always on the look out for something which will both lengthen and volumize them so here's hoping. Once I've used it a couple of times I'll be sure to post a review letting you lovely readers know whether its been a success or not.    

Also Rimmel in particular has loads of great offers on at the moment and I was able to repurchase my trusted Wake Me Up Foundation in the shade 100-Ivory as my one at present is definitely on it's way out with it being my everyday go to foundation and all. Then I popped in my basket the famous Stay Matte Powder (the one thing that I actually needed) - an essential for every makeup bag. Whilst at the stand I realised that although the foundation is one of my favourites I'd never tried the Wake Me Up Concealer and with it being £2 cheaper than normal I decided this would be a good time to, picking up the same shade as my foundation 'Ivory'. Since I was going a little concealer crazy I also picked up the MUA concealer stick in 'fair', I remember buying this months ago and I haven't a clue where it disappeared to so hopefully this one won't do the same. 

Finally I decided to purchase one of the new(ish) Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipsticks. There was an offer in which these ever so popular lipsticks were only £4 something and when I popped in to the shops there were very little left, maybe I just picked the wrong day to go shopping. As there were so little I was only able to pick up one in the shade '180-Vintage Pink', it's the most amazing colour and it really stood out to me as a nice wearable everyday shade. I'm definitely going to purchase a few more of these and I'll be sure to write a little review when they've been tested out properly. 

So that's a couple of the things that I've picked up over the past week (I know its a lot but I got my student loan in and treated myself). Has anyone else been bought anything nice lately? Or any of the above products? Let me know :) 

Thanks for reading, Jenny xo