Big welcome back..... to me! plus ELF studio mist and set

If you are reading this then welcome back to my blog! Its been a bloody long time since I've posted, to be perfectly honest I've felt a little uninspired with products and Ive had quite a busy few months! In a nut shell I've moved house and now live with my amazing boyfriend. So after 2 long weeks of packing, 20 cardboard boxes and 5 car trips, my beloved make up collection and me now reside somewhere new :)

I've not really been blown away by much recently until it came to this product! The ELF studio 'make up mist and set' has been sat in my draw for almost a whole year and it was only till recently when I saw a blogger ( really sorry but I have forgotten who) using Mac studio fix with a stippling brush that I thought I'd try it like that.

I do my foundation, concealer and powder then I spritz the 'mist and set' at arms length. I then lightly press the mist into my base with the stippling brush. It makes my base look really natural, stops the powder looking too matt or cakey and keeps my make up on like I've never seen a product do before. Everything not only lasts longer it also stays looking 'fresh' all day, I find myself not topping up anything at work which is amazing, especially for a product that costs a crazy £3.50!

Hopefully this amazing product has broken my writers/cosmetic-aholic block and I'll be back posting more frequently!

New lippies

When I first started writing this blog, I took a picture of my whole lipstick collection, fiddled around with the effects on Photoshop and made it into my blog banner......yep, read that again MY WHOLE LIPSTICK COLLECTION. I was a total gloss/balm girl, never really wore lipstick at all. Fast forward to the present....... and this is what my lipstick draw looks like now. It had a growth spurt.And here are 3 newbies about to find their home in this draw. Left to right, Elf all over colour stick in Pink Lemonade, Barry M lip paint in number 147 and Sleek's true colour sheen lipstick in Cherry.
Swatches:
This is 'Cherry' on, its a dark purpley/red although these kinda colours always come out redder in photos. I bought this lipstick to replace one that my sister managed to put in the washing machine! I love these formulas, I raved on about them when they came out. They are my go to range for strong pigmented colours.

Barry M lip paint, great matte peachy/coral. Formula is know for being quite drying, but abit of carmex does the trick although its not as opaque over a balm.
The all over colour stick is probably the first time on this blog I will say that I don't actually like a product. It was silly really, I put down the coral version of this stick saying "I have too many corals" and picked out this frosted pink. Well it turns out the reason I have alot of corals is because I prefer them to pink... rookie mistake and its frosted.... arghhhh what was I thinking. The formula itself is lovely, quite thick so gives good pigment and they smell lovely and fruity. I did have a little play with it on my cheeks (shown below) and this is where I'll use it from now on. Its a nice compact stick though, great for travel and my make an appearance on an up coming camping trip!

Mini e.l.f haul

These are some bits I bought while I was on holiday in the states in June, I cant believe its taken me this long to blog about them. This is my first introduction to the brand e.l.f/eye.lips.face. I had never even seen a product of theirs before but thought I'd give then a chance seen as they are cheap as chips.

I bought the make up mist and set, the studio powder blusher in ticked pink and the studio golden bronzer.

I'll start by mentioning the mist, at first I was abit like "is this actually doing anything?" it made my skin feel fresh but that seemed about it, but today in sight of doing this post I actually tried to pay attention to my make up and how long it lasts, and this does actually work. I sprayed it on after doing my make up with the products I use everyday, noticeably the foundation lasted hours longer than normal. Its also really nice for "dampening" (for lack of a better word) a very matte foundation to make it dewy. The smell is abit horrid and slightly chemically but for a second of spritzing I can get over that. It isn't sticky or anything when applied. Well worth getting if you have a drier skin.

Here are the blusher and the bronzer:Really nice soft formula in both. As you can see from the picture below though (4 bronzer colours on top, blusher below), neither of them have a strong pigment.

The bronzer is very fine and subtle which makes it a really lovely setting powder for all over the face. The shimmer itself is fine too which means its not crazily glittery and the shimmer last all day with the fixing spray over the top. Its perfect for making the skin look alive on a night out or after a night out! I also really love how the blushers are packaged like Nars, they look really expensive.

I wouldn't say that any of these products are a "must have" there are defiantly better products out there but then for the prices they are absolutely amazing quality. Great alternatives to more expensive products such as studio fix, MSF (although I think I actually prefer this bronzer to MSF) or the shimmer bricks and Nars blushers.