Whats in my makeup bag? - Plus mini reviews

I thought I'd show you what currently lives in my makeup bag which I use every day when I'm just going to work and don't have time to do much with my makeup. I need to just get it on and get out the door. There is a mixture of higher end makeup and drugstore products - one of which has become one of my favourite mascaras from No 7 which I will be repurchasing.

Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation, Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer and Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer

Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation - £30
Lightweight and like the name says, looks like skin. Blends effortlessly and has a light to medium coverage. It is best suited to normal/dry skin. I really like this foundation, in fact I love the range of Bobbi Brown foundations as there is something suitable for everyone. Considering I am shade 3 in the colour range (I have a light/medium skin tone) which is the 5th shade from lightest, there are plenty of shades to try - Alabaster (0) being for the fairest skin and going to deep dark skin with Chestnut (9), a total of 16 shades!

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer - £5.49 Boots
This has what Rimmel are calling an 'Anti-Fatigue Effect + Radiant Glow' which is supposed to make your skin look brighter and more awake. What that means in reality is that there are teeny tiny light reflecting particles in the product which bounce light off your skin creating to effect of radiance. Does it work? Yes it does. I like to use it under my eyes because of this, my permanent dark circles could do with a bit of brightening up. I don't use it on spots though because I don't want to be doing any highlighting of them. The coverage is pretty good, most people would find it substantial unless you are like myself - the only thing that is going to rid me of dark circles completely is Photoshop.

Soap & Glory Kick Ass Concealer - £10 Boots
This is a creamy concealer which includes two shades plus a setting powder and powder puff. The lighter shade of concealer is a bit more whipped and creamy as it is supposed to be used under your eyes to brighten them up and the texture making it easier to apply with no drag. The darker colour is supposed to be used on blemishes. I'm not too keen on using it under my eyes as it can look a bit crepey and sit in the fine lines due to my dry skin. It does work really nice over spots and blemishes though as it melts into the skin seamlessly. The powder is way too light and doesn't look like a transparent powder at all to me so that bit in my opinion is useless to me plus it is not as finely milled as I like. The colour range is appalling too, there are only two colour combinations to choose from, leaving anyone who has dark skin left out.

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, Topshop Blush Head Over Heels, Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner,
No 7 Lash Adapt Mascara

MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural - £21
I've been using this powder for ages now. It is a great colour match for my skin tone and the powder is really finely milled. You can use it super lightly or apply it heavier. I've even applied it on it's own to even out my skin tone when I was in a rush. You get a ton of product in the pan too so even though it is quite expensive, you wont need to repurchase for a good while. There are 10 shades in the range and many people may find that they can cross over two colours because they are sheer.

Topshop Blush in Head Over Heels - £6
Topshop blushers are becoming really popular and I really like them too. This one is my favourite one because it gives a lovely natural glowy colour or you can build it up to become stronger. I love how the Topshop blushers set and still retain a slight dewiness. For the price of them, you can't really go wrong.

Urban Decay 24/7 Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner - £14
I love a really inky black non flaky/smeary/runny eyeliner. I'm a fan of the feline flick so I need something that will stay put all day and not rub off if I get hot or run if my eyes water. I used to use a MAC Superslick but this one is cheaper and performs the same. It also has a different applicator, this one has a fine brush so you can get really thin lines but may require more practise and the MAC one has a tapered sponge applicator. I always found that the sponge would make me draw the line a bit thick at the flick and I'd have to remove and redo. This is one better for me. Oh and a lot of people find liquid liner hard to do, I've never had much problem with it but find pencil liners really hard to use unless I smudge them haha. The long handle of this one does make liquid much easier, it is like using a pen.

No 7 Lash Adapt Mascara - £12.95
This is a mascara I have really enjoyed using. It makes my lashes so full and voluminous. It doesn't flake on me and barely moves if I have watery eyes. Obviously it is not waterproof and it failed the onion chopping test (which my boyfriend found hilarious) but honestly, I don't like waterproof because it is so damn difficult to get off and I hate rubbing my lashes with remover. This one suits me perfectly well and even though it doesn't beat my favourite mascara, Chanel Inimitable Intense, Lash Adapt gives me just what I want from a mascara and the price isn't too bad. Oh and it lasts well too, usually a tube of the Chanel will dry out in a few weeks, making it useless. My Lash adapt is almost empty and I've used it for the past 3 months.

What's in your everyday makeup bag?

Jennifer xx

MAC Surf Baby Studio Careblend Powder and Skinsheen Bronzer Stick Review

This is my last part of the Surf Baby reviews!

In the Surf Baby collection, MAC have released two new kinds of bronzers, a cream bronzer in a stick format and new Studio Careblend Powders in tanned colours. I was in the market for a new bronzer as I only owned Golden by MAC which is very light and barely shows up on my skin. Originally I ordered the Skinsheen Bronzer Stick in Tan Tint because I'd seen some cream bronzers used by Youtubers and this one looked nifty even though I ordered it completely blind as I'd not seen any swatches or reviews. After reading about the Careblends, I ordered Lush-Light Bronze which is darker than Tan Tint so then I had a little bit of choice of colours that would actually show on my skin.

Read on for Review...

Benefit Powder Time Lover

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Benefit. I tend to buy things from them and then get them home and go 'meh' but for some reason they manage to lure me back again and again. This time it was because Debenhams had a sale on and this was included. The day before I had visited a Benefit counter in Brighton and had a quick look at some of the things but was pestered by one of the counter girls because I was touching things and she asked me if I was actually going to buy anything. I told her I was browsing and then picked up a catalogue and left. Silly girl, I would have probably bought something had she left me to it. I hate being pressurised in stores, if sales assistants do it, I'm off. I just like to browse before asking for help but anyway, rant over.

The catalogue had this amazing smell coming out of it from one of the perfume scratch and sniff pages and it got me a bit addicted to the catalogue so I decided to go online shopping for this perfume but couldn't find it on Benefit's website and then ended up seeing the Debenhams sale and spotted this mini collection of boxed powders - one of the things I'd been playing with the day before.

It was just over £16 I think and was originally about £10 more so I thought it would be good to try out. I'm glad I did, they're really nice and one of the few Benefit products I've fallen for.