L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Micellar Solution

I have been planning to post a review on the L'oreal Micellar Solution since the day I tried it. I wanted to compare it against my beloved Bioderma but really wanted to give it a fair review so I have been using this for just over 2 months time now. I picked this up as an alternative to Bioderma as Bioderma is so difficult to get hold of and the total when P+P is added really put me off. 

If you don't know what either of these products are where have you been hiding ;). It's basically used to remove all traces of make-up and draw out excess oil whilst being gentle on the skin. These type of products are loved by many including top make-up artists who use them on fashion shoots/catwalk as a quick way of removing make-up to prepare the skin for another look!

Before purchasing this I was using Bioderma for around 6 months and it was my holy grail pre-cleanse, or my total cleanse on lazy days (naughty I know.) It was perfect for removing all my make-up and preparing my skin for a deep and thorough cleanse without making my skin sensitised. 

As I mentioned Bioderma is really difficult to get hold of in the UK. I was picking mine up on Ebay for  around £14 but then paying an extra £3 for delivery so the total was coming in around £17 for a 500ml bottle. I'm not a very well prepared person so would find I would have finished a bottle and then have to wait for another to be delivered and in the mean time I was bioderma-less. Quite a lot of people pick this product up in France as it is so cheap over there but sadly I have never been to France nor do I know anyone that does go! 

When I heard L'oreal were releasing a Micellar Solution I was super excited and hoped it would be just as good as Bioderma. The fact I can just pop to my local supermarket or boots/superdrug also made me very happy. The bottle comes in a 200ml size and retails for £4.99 although I have never paid this much. I always find it on offer in one of the stores and can usually pick it up for around £3.50 which makes it a lot better value for money than the Bioderma.

Overall I would say they do the same job and my skin didn't react to them any differently. They both remove my make-up just as well and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference on the skin. The one thing that lets the L'oreal down for me is that it can sting my eyes when removing eye make-up which the Bioderma didn't! This isn't a major issue for me but I want a product I can use on my clients as-well as myself to allow them to remove their make-up quickly but I wouldn't feel comfotable giving them the L'oreal purely for that reason! Therefore I will be sticking with my Bioderma especially with my clients and on my eyes but I now have a back-up for my ill prepared moments when I run out!

Have you tried either of these? What ones do you love?

Also if anyone knows of any cheaper sites than Ebay PLEASE let me know!

My HOLY GRAIL Make-Up Brushes (Top 10)

Make-up brushes are so key in my kit. Without good brushes it makes it a lot harder to do an amazing make-up. I know this sounds like common sense but I have so many friends that don't use hardly any brushes to apply their make-up which is crazy to me, but whatever works for you. Being a make-up artist brushes are my tools. Someone once told me that a plumber wouldn't turn up to fix a sink with the wrong tools so why should a make-up artist. I will never forget that quote! I have a range of brushes from budget buys to high end so I thought I would share the brushes I cannot live without!


1. Original Beauty Blender - £16

The beauty blender was the first sponge I had ever used to apply my foundation with and I was blown away by the finish. This gives me a flawless airbrushed finish to my face and has done on all my clients I use it on. It's a very multi tasking tool as well, I use this for my concealer and have used it for my powder too. I have tried the copies of this but none of them have compared and don't leave the same finish as this. At the moment I only have 1 but I will be purchasing more as in my eyes you can never have to many of your favourite brushes/tools.


2. Sigma Flat Top Kabuki F80 - £18.75

I use this brush as a final finish to my foundation. I have very large pores on my face and I find using this to buff in any final product helps hide them a bit more. If you are after a full coverage look this is perfect and it really buffs the product into the skin.

3. Sigma E40 - £14.99

This is an almost identical dupe to the MAC 224 which is designed to be a 'tapered blending brush.' Although I do use this to add a transition colour into my crease my favourite use for it is to buff in my cream concealers when I am contouring and highlighting and gives me the flawless look I'm sure everyone wants. I will be purchasing about 5 more of these as they are seriously HG material.

4. Real Techniques Setting Brush - £8.99

I use this brush to set my under eye concealer and it's small enough to get right underneath my eyes. While some might not see it as a necessitiy I have really oily skin so if I don't really set underneath my eyes it will end up halfway down my face within about an hour ;) it's also amazing to add a bit of shimmer highlighter to the top of your cheek bones.

5. Real Techniques Contour Brush - £21.99

This brush comes in the real techniques core collection and surprisingly I actually use it for its purpose. It's the perfect shape to get right into the cheekbones and shape the face. If I am travelling I double this brush up as my blusher brush too! Unfortunately you have to buy the set just to get this brush!

6. MAC 129 - £27

Although this brush is pretty pricey as with all mac brushes they are worth it. This was the second brush I purchased from MAC. I use this to apply bronzer where I need it and also my blusher. The shape of it ensures your not left with any harsh lines and blends whatever powder product your using beautifully!

7. MAC 217 - £18

A pretty holy grail staple brush in the blogging world I think. So not much needs to be said apart from, GOODBYE HALF BLENDED EYESHADOW. You could do an absolute show of your eyeshadow and this will blend it right out! I need about 10 of these in my kit I use them so often! If you don't want to fork out the full price of this brush, crown brushes do a very similar alternative called the c433. The only difference is I found the crown one a bit scratchy on the eye but it still blends beautifully and it's a fraction of the price!

8. MAC 266 - £16.50

Eyebrows are my thing. If I don't have my eyebrows done then I'm not leaving the house. Some people hate how I do my brows but I am a firm lover of a the scouse brow and I'm not ashamed to admit it. As said in a previous post I always out line my brows with Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz then I fill them in with my HD brows powder. This brush is the perfect shape to get them precisely filled in.

9. MUA Concealer Brush - £1.95

This brush is a complete bargain. This was £1.95 which is insane. It doesn't feel cheap and I think it looks really sleek. I use this brush to put concealer round my brows and also tidy up my lips after putting on a bold lip. And for the price can you really complain about anything?

10. MAC 239 - £20

I use this brush to pack on colour onto my lids. It's really packed with bristlesand dense enough to build up colour easily without putting too much one and it being all over your face. It is a crucial brush in any kit as a blending brush isn't really the best for packing on colour
                                               

So there we have it, I'm quite impressed it's only 10 brushes to be honest. I thought I was going to end up with about 25 brushes. If I was going away for a weekend these are the brushes I would pack without hesitation.

I'm still looking for the 'perfect' brushes for other purposes, for example my eyeliner brush, every one I have tried hasn't blown me away. I'm hoping to pick up the MAC 210 brush in the next couple of weeks which has amazing reviews for gel liner. I'm also on the lookout for a new lip brush, so if you have any recommendations please let me know!

I hope this post was helpful! I would love to hear what your brushes you could not live without!

Lush Let The Good Times Roll

I am a sucker for any new products when it comes to Lush, I seriously can't speak highly of them enough. Everything I have tried from there has always blown me away. The only thing I don't really buy from there is the bath bombs which is strange as that's the most common thing people buy from there. I have tried them and loved them i'm just not really a bath person and never have been.

One thing that stood out for me is the face cleanser 'Let the good times roll.' Although this has been brought out in the Christmas collection I believe this is going into the permanent line which makes me very happy! I love trying out new cleansers and switching up my skincare products as I am a firm believer if you use the same products religously your skin will just get used to it and the products won't do their job as effectively.

Lush describe this product as ''Let The Good Times Roll is a gentle treat for the skin, leaving you soft to the touch with a lingering buttery caramel popcorn fragrance – when you look and feel this good you can give your Body Double the day off!''

Firstly this smells AMAZING! I have never had a cleanser that smells so divine. If it was safe to eat I totally would, it smells just like caramel. Secondly it leaves my skin feeling so soft. After using this I don't even feel like I need to use a moisturiser. It has Popcorn (yes really) in which is a really nice but not to harsh exfoliater on your face. With most lush cleansers they come in a hard form and you add a bit of water to a pea sized amount on your hand till it forms a paste consistency which you then rub over your face. It's strange at first but you soon get used to it! 

I have oily skin which is acne prone but is still quite dehydrated and I feel this cleanser really adds moisture back to my skin and gives me a really nice glow without making me any more oily than I currently am. I think this product would be suitable for all skin types! As all the ingredients used in lush products are fresh the expiry date isn't that long. I bought mine last week and it expires in January. I will definitely be getting my use out of it though! 

My skin care routine is predominantly Lush so if you would like a post on my full routine please let me know! 

Have you tried anything from the Lush christmas collection? I would love to hear your opinions on what I can get next!

You can pick up Let The Good Times Roll here for £6.35.

Beauty Haul

So it was payday and I was feeling a tiny bit naughty and decided to have a bit of a splurge. I really shouldn't of as it's near Christmas and I haven't even started my shopping for it yet. I am defiantly a last minute type of girl! Oh well, needs must and all that; I think I need beauty rehab.

Illamasqua Translucent Powder - £23 

My first stop off on the beauty train took me to the Illamasqua website. Being a trainee make-up artist I get 20% off all the products which doesn't really help my 'add to basket' button. God help me when I'm qualified and it goes up to 40% everything I earn will be invested back into that company! I had originally been lusting over the new Christmas collection palette 'Fatelle' but after careful consideration I decided I had enough eyeshadows and that can wait! A lot of my friends at college have the translucent powder and swear by it so being the oily chip pan face girl I am I decided this was necessary. With my discount it came to just over £18 which is quite hefty for a powder but I'm hoping I will get a lot of use out of this on myself and my clients. Illamasqua also sent me a 3ml sample of their Hydraveil which i'm really excited to try! 

Maq Pro Petite Fard Creme Palette PP01 - £21

My next stop and final destination was to Love-Makeup. This was my first time shopping on this website and it may possibly be my new favourite site ever. They have so many different brands that can be quite hard to get your hands on and all in one place. Amazing. After watching this video by Little Kiva I had my heart set on this concealer palette. Gossmakeupartist also raves about Maq Pro so I was keen to try it out. I am a huge fan of the bright under eye area and this has the perfect colours all in one palette to banish them dark circles. It's such a cute size too. It fits into the palm of your hand which is supberb for someone like me that has to cart a lot of make-up around on a daily basis. I have tried this out today and it really is amazing. I'm sure you will see it in future posts soon! 

Yaby Cosmetics Eyeshadow Refill Papaya Milk - £2.25

This was something that was an impulse buy. I had a quick browse in the sale section and there was some eyeshadow pans by Yaby Cosmetics on sale for £2.25. Most of the colours had gone and only a select few were left. I have wanted Samoa Silk by MAC for a while and this looked pretty similar so for the price I thought what have I got to lose. The pan is very small, I did think they were the same size as the MAC pans but for that price I can't really moan. I don't have a palette to put this in yet but I am considering investing in a Z-Pallete very soon! I can't wait to try this out! Unfortunately this colour is no longer showing on the website so they must of sold out. Although i'm sure a quick google search will bring up any other stockists.

Zoeva Crease Brush 228 - £5.95

The MAC 224 brush has been on my wishlist for an ever long time but I don't have a MAC store near me and I can't order online with my pro-card. Zoeva have been making a big impression on the blogging/YouTube scene for a while now and I heard this is a pretty good dupe for the MAC 224 and it's a fraction of the price. I disagree with it being a dupe for the 224 as the shape is quite different and I couldn't really use this for cream concealers as I originally wanted like I would with the MAC 224. Although I used this today with my regular eyeshadow and it blended the edges like a dream so all is not lost. This brush is amazing quality for the price and feels like a lot higher standard. Check out the nifty little packaging it comes with too! The case is a plastic type pencil case which would be fantastic for putting some eye brushes in if you were travelling anywhere. Although it isn't suitable for what I originally wanted I do think it's amazing at it's purpose of a 'crease brush' and I am going to be stocking up on more Zoeva brushes for my kit very soon! 

So there we have it, it's quite a small haul but I think these are going to be staples in my kit. For now though i'm off to think of other things I can wish for ;)

Have you tried any of these products? 

HD Brows Pro Palette

Back in the middle of October my college organised a trip for us to go to the Pro Beauty show in Manchester. I have never been to a beauty show before so I was feeling pretty excited. 

HD Brows had a HUGE stand there, offering the full HD brow treatment to people visiting the show and on the other side there was counters selling their  products which vary from brushes and blushers to the most obvious being brow palettes, all at trade prices! 

I knew I wanted to get a brow palette to put in my pro kit as they are so handy to have. The packaging is sleek and professional and all their range of products have compact packaging which is easy to travel with. Instead of purchasing one of the standard 4 colour palettes which come in a variety of shades to suit different hair colours I seen the Professional Eye & Brow Palette which is a lot larger than the 4 palette and the individual shadows are a lot bigger. It also comes with 6 shades to suit people with blonde hair to black hair. Perfect for any make-up artists kit as you have all your brow shades you will ever need in one palette. The palette also comes with a brush but to be honest I haven't used this at all. I swear by my MAC 266 brush.

The palette was on offer at trade price for £20 which is a complete steal but can be picked up on the HD Brows website for £29.95 which I still think is a really decent price for what you get,

Not only is this amazing for the eyebrows as it is so highly pigmented, you hardly need any product, it also doubles up as a perfect neutral palette for they eyes. I have been using the lightest shade 'Ash Blonde' as a transition colour on my eyes with 'Medium Brown' directly in my crease. Carbon is great for the outer V for a smokey-eye look also! I have been using this palette every day on my brows and it has definitely made a permanent place in my make-up kit.

(L-R)  Ash Blonde, Warm Brown, Medium Brown, Dark Brown, Rich Brown, Carbon

I currently use 'Rich Brown' in the front half of my brows and 'Carbon' on the tail to darken it up as I have black hair. I always outline my eyebrows with Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz in Brunette first as I certainley am a lover of perfectly defined brows!

You can pick up this palette here

Have you tried any of HD Brows products? What do you think of them?

MAC x Disney Maleficent!

So today I was casually browsing through my Instagram when THIS popped up!

Yep! MAC are doing a collaboration with the new Disney film 'Maleficent' played by the ever so beautiful Angelina Jolie! I think this is the most excited I have been for a MAC collection release and I haven' even seen the products yet! I'm pretty sure this will be flying off the shelves like hot cakes. I need those evil queen cheekbones! 

The downside - I have to wait till next Summer *crys*

Are you as excited for this collection as I am?

My Current Wishlist

Hey guys,

Today's post is all about products that have caught my eye this month and are making it very hard for me to say no to! I have to keep reminding myself it's nearly christmas!  

This is the first time I have done a post like this so let me know if you like it and especially if you have tried any of the products mentioned. Hopefully I will be hauling them soon enough; if I give into my 
temptation ;)


Illamasqua Fatale Palette - £34.00 

How beautiful is this? These colours are completely opposite to what I would wear on a daily basis but I think that makes me want it more! Also the face chart for the palette Illamasqua posted on Instagram kinda sold me too, the colours go amazing together!

Fake Bake Flawless Darker -   £24.95

No matter what time of year it is I can't stand to be pale, as I dye my hair black I can look really washed out so fake-tanning is a must for me and I do it between 1-2 times a week. I seen this at the Pro Beauty show in Manchester where it was on offer at  £12.50 and boy am I kicking myself for not picking it up now! A couple of my friends did though and they seem to be loving it so I will definitely still be purchasing!

MAQ Pro PP01 Palette - £21

This is the number one product on my wishlist for my pro-kit (and myself ;)) I have heard such good things about this product. Its basically a cream concealer and corrector palette but with the shades you can literally mix up any colour to suit yourself or your client! It will also be perfect for contouring the Kimmy K way! And at £21 for 10 concealers can you really resist?

MAC 224 Blending Brush - £22.50

£22.50 for a brush I hear you say but I love MAC brushes and think they are completely worth the investment, they are amazing quality and really do last for so long! My tutor at college used this to apply cream concealers and it gave a flawless finish and was perfect for buffing the product right in and can also be used to blend out any harsh edges with your eyeshadows! I want about 5 of these for my kit, I do have a MAC pro student card so I can guess that can be my excuse for buying myself a few of these!

Skindinavia No More Shine Makeup Finish - £13.99

As a girl with super oily skin surprisingly I have never tried a setting spray but this is apparently hairspray for your face! It seems to have really good reviews and the rumour is Skindinavia actually supply Urban Decay with their setting sprays! I guess I have nothing to lose but I have high hopes for this baby! 

Beauty Blender Duo - £24.00 

I already own one beauty blender and it seriously is my HG make-up tool. I don't think I could live without it! Mines looking a bit on the rough side now though, no matter how much I clean the thing it still looks filthy, I think that may be staining though. I want to pick up this duo for my pro-kit as it really does give an airbrushed finish! Not only foundation but with my concealers and powders too. 

So there we have it, isn't it a beautiful list :P. Have you tried anything on here? I would love to hear your reviews! 

Emma Hardie Amazing Face Cleansing Balm

I'm not usually a follower and don't tend to listen to the blogger hype purely because I go in with such high expectations I'm usually disappointed but I caved with the Emma Hardie Amazing Face Lift & Sculpt Moringa Cleansing Balm (WOW, what a mouthful!) I thought I had ordered the set containing the Cleansing Balm, Exfoliating Rose Seeds and the Cleansing Cloth but apparently I didn't which made the 34 price tag seem even worse! 

The cleansing balm contains moringa seed extract, wild sea fennel and vitamin E to minimize the appearance of pores which is definitely needed for my oily skin. Also Orange, Neroli and Mandarin extracts to rejuvenate and revitalise and Jasmine, Cedarwood and Rose to help re-hydrate and re-condition dry or dull skin. Far to scientific if you ask me. When I first felt the texture of the balm I was a bit apprehensive as it felt so oily and I thought adding oil to my already oily skin is going to be a recipe for disaster. 

From what I had heard it 'melts' away your make up so that evening I took a small amount and rubbed it into my face. To my surprise when I rinsed it off all my foundation etc had disappeared although I wouldn't recommend it for eye make up, especially if you wear a lot like me. My skin felt super fresh after it and I actually didn't feel I needed to repeat the process. The leaflet that is included says you can also leave the balm on for 15 minutes as a face mask which is pretty awesome although I am yet to try this.

The packaging is a huge downfall if you ask me, it looks BEAUTIFUL when it arrives but after a few weeks the lid has broke and won't tighten up properly so I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere with the product and water has creeped between the packaging and now looks like its rusting through as you will probably be able to tell by the photos I've included. Sorry they're not the prettiest of photos but that's how the products ended up and I have seen quite a lot of people say the same about it.

Overall I haven't used the balm religiously so I can't comment on a difference in my skin although it didn't make me more oily which I initially thought it would. I have been saving this as a 'treat' for my face if you like. Especially with the price tag I would say it is more of a 'pamper night' treat. I may invest in the exfoliating seeds and the cleansing cloths as I have heard good things about them both and can imagine the exfoliating seeds being lovely with the balm.

I have attached some stock images off google as the bad little blogger I am I didn't take any pictures before I used it and to be honest like I said about the packaging being naff it's doesn't look as fresh as what it did!

Are there any excellent dupes out there? I would love to hear them!

L'Oréal True Match Foundation Review

Hi guys! 

I love trying out new foundations and they are definitely my guilty pleasure! I love trying out new bases from drug store to high end and two months ago I found my perfect foundation! Who would of thought I would find it in the drug store? 

I had seen L'oreal's true match offering plenty of times and had never thought to try it until I seen Lauren Curtis from YouTube doing her foundation routine and her skin looked flawless! What did I have to lose in trying it out.

I have VERY oily skin with larges pores basically all over my face apart from my eyes which are a bit dehydrated. I have seen several reviews stating this isn't brilliant for oily skin but I have to disagree, this gives me a flawless finish and looks slightly dewy on my skin which I have never been a fan of but I love this! I can get about 3 hours wear out of this before needing to retouch my powder which I don't really mind.

I wear this in shade D3-W3 Golden Beige and it's my perfect shade when I am fake-tanned. The shade range is brilliant for a drug-store offering coming in shades for cool toned skin, warm toned skin and neutral colours. I honestly think anyone could find their shade! 

I apply True Match with my Beauty Blender and then when i have the coverage I want which is from medium to full I go over my areas with enlarged pores and push the product in with a clean Sigma F80 brush. It really does give an airbrushed flawless finish. 

Below is a photo of me with just the foundation on (no concealer at all) excuse the dressing gown :) I don't wear any primer, just my Lush vanishing cream moisturiser.

After just the foundation (no filter)

Finished make-up look (no filter)

I really am in love with this foundation and this is going to be the foundation that will be in pro make-up artist kit I love it that much!

Whats your holy grail foundation?

Im also loving this hat from New-Look! Beanie Hell!

MAC PRO EYESHADOW PALETTE 15

My first blog post EVER and I thought what better way to break me in than doing a MAC palette show and tell!

My first eyeshadow I bought was around 6 months ago, I've never really been an eyeshadow girl but after watching too many YouTube videos and seeing looks I really wanted to recreate I took the plunge, Carbon being my first purchase which is a Matte black. After playing around with basic looks (there's only so much you can do with one eyeshadow) I decided to look into what would be my next purchase. Which is where Ricepaper came into my life. Ricepaper is a creamy/pale gold colour with a hint of shimmer which looks GORGEOUS as a base and Carbon through the outer V. These two eyeshadows are still my most loved to this day. 

When I first started purchasing MAC eyeshadows I didn't have the Pro Palette I bought them in the standard packaging with the black plastic, when I decided to purchase the palette I still only had the 2 eyeshadows I mentioned so purchased a few of the Pro Palette pan's (not all 15, MAC eyeshadows are quite pricey!!) and planned to build up my collection slowly. Little did I know it would be full within 6 months! I heard you can de-pot MAC eyeshadows to put into the palette's so I had a search on YouTube and found out how to do this so if you have single MAC shadow's I would highly recommend getting a palette and doing this it makes life so much easier having them all at easy reach! Plus you can use the containers for Back to Mac for you free lipstick!

I can't quite remember the order I got my eyeshadows in, only that Ricepaper and Carbon were my first's! 

So before I list all the shadow's I will give you a bit of information of the palette itself.

Design:
Apparently this is the new design and the last one didn't have a see through lid but I can't comment on that as I didn't have it, although I love the see through design! Hopefully when I expand my collection more and get my next palette it will be so much easier to see which one is what at a glance rather than having to open them. Although the lid does get pretty dirty from the colour fall out and mine does have a few scratches from travelling! I did say it was well loved :)

Price:
Pro Palette Large x15: £14.00 Click here
Pro Palette insert x15: £6.50 Click here
Mac Pro Palette Refill Shadows: £10.00 Click here

I will list all of the shadows from left to right below. If you want to see swatches then please let me know, if anyone actually reads this lol! My palette isn't really that organised as I said. This is just all the shadows I have, I soon hope to have a palette for neutrals/everyday and then more brighter colours! 

(L-R) Cork, Amber Lights, Woodwinked, Satin Taupe, Fig.1, Cork (for some reason I bought two?), Ricepaper, Cranberry, Hepkat, Beauty Marked, Espresso, Naked Lunch, Vanilla, Smut, Carbon.

With the flash on to see the colours a bit better.

Hope you enjoyed this! Keep an eye out for new posts!

Michaela 

Face Charts

Hi Guys,

It's been a while since my last post and to be honest there isn't any excuses. 

Since my last post I have started training to be an NVQ level 3 make-up artist at college full time! I am loving the course and i can't believe it took me so long to pluck up the courage to go! The only advice I would give you is don't hang around, I'm nearly 23 (eek) and wish I did it sooner! But sooner rather than later hey?

Anyway, since starting college I have started to do face charts as a way of planning on what looks I want to do and plan ahead. I started off using paper and found that it was impossible to use actual make-up on and the looks just didn't look the same with colouring pencils! 

i had bought some face charts off a company called Prochart nearly a year ago and they were just collecting dust in the bottom of my cupboard but I decided to dig them out and give them a go! Make-up goes onto them SOOOOO smoothly and really gives a more professional and 'real' approach to showing any clients ideas you have in mind. I have been slightly addicted to using them lately and have created so many different looks which I will be using as part of my portfolio! 

I really do think face charts aren't used enough in the make-up world (especially with freelance make-up artists) although MAC and Illamasqua do amazing ones! 

I have included two of my favourite looks I created today,

Bridal look

Strong smokey eye and ombre lip

Have you ever used face charts? What are your opinions on them?

Loves!

Kayler x

*I am not associated with prochart. I purchased them with my own money and was not sponsored to do this post.