NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF30/PA+++ - Finland

Phew, bit of a mouthful.

I’ve been wanting to try this for ages – what with the summer potentially happening this year (although no sign of it yet, bah), but was initially a bit dubious. I’m so attached to my Estee Lauder Double Wear Light (reviewed here), I thought “Surely there’s no point even trying it? It’ll never be as good.” Well here it is in my possession, so my resistance is once again proven to be futile.

Before we hear what I think, let’s see what NARS say:

“Your skin – almost bare, but better. This advanced, oil-free formula provides a translucent veil of colour and sun protection while helping to reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation and dark spots in just four weeks. Infused with lush, naturally derived botanicals and ingredients to immediately help thirsty skin feel hydrated. Kopara from French Polynesia and mineral rich seawater revive and re-mineralize skin for a softer, smoother, and brighter natural glow. Skin is transported.

·       Advanced sun protection

·       Hydrates and helps reduce the appearance of hyperpigmentation and dark spots for a brighter natural glow

·       Oil-free. Dermatologist tested. Non-comedogenic. Synthetic fragrance free.”

I umm’ed and ahh’ed about which colour to get, but in my traditional foundation-buying fashion I just plumped for the lightest shade in the range – Finland. It’s usually a fairly safe strategy. In actual fact, when it arrived, I thought it might be slightly too light but it seems to blend in seamlessly with my skintone – I suppose with such sheer coverage the shades are a little more forgiving.

Finland is described on the NARS website as having “a neutral balance of pink and yellow”, and that’s fairly spot on. Although I thought the hand swatch looks a little on the yellow side, again it seems to blend in nicely on the face.

Coverage is fairly typical of a tinted moisturiser, i.e. there’s not very much of it. It feels divine though; soothing to my dry skin, and the moisturised feeling lasts all day. Despite its sheerness, I do feel as though it evens out my skin tone a little. With a touch of concealer on my under-eye bags (suitcases?) I feel as though I could leave the house without scaring small children.

A bit of powder over the top and it lasts around six or seven hours.

Just a quick review today – unfortunately exam marking waits for no man (or in this case, woman). So here are a few pics to whet your appetite.

Not great lighting, but a relatively real-life portrayal of the colour

Buy directly from the NARS website here for £27.00, or from Space NK.

Jen

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Old faithful – Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up

Don’t you hate it when everything runs out, all at once? Well, no, actually. I love a good Boots splurge, me. My wallet isn’t so keen, but I find there’s no greater feeling than wandering into Boots with a product list and a determined look on your face.

Part of the point and purpose of the trip was to also try out a new foundation, which I’ve had my eye on for a while – Chanel Vitalumiere Satin Smoothing Fluid makeup – unfortunately, although the texture felt divine and coverage was fabulous, it was far, far too yellow for my skintone (I tried it in the palest colour, Limpide). Shame really, I was a little bit gutted.

Sigh. Back to the old faithful, then. Back to the only foundation I have ever repurchased, and several times at that. I’m talking about Dior’s Diorskin Nude Fluid foundation.

Boots had got a fab offer on, where a £50 purchase of premium beauty products entitled you to an instant tenner off. Not sure how long it will last, but my sister and I loaded up on stuff and managed to qualify twice for this promo (by putting the purchases through in two separate transactions).

Anyway, back to the foundation. Diorskin Nude is the only foundation I’ve tried which fulfils the Holy Trinity of Foundation Purchasing – right coverage, right colour and right for my skin type. Coverage is medium-sheer, the colour has is a lovely neutral beige undertone and although it doesn’t seem to actively moisturise my skin that much, it certainly doesn’t dry it out or go flaky at all, which is a mini miracle.

If you haven’t tried Dior foundations before, their numbering system is actually quite good. They use three digits, which is a bit superfluous really. The second number indicates the intensity (how light/dark it is) where 1 is the lightest. The third number indicates the undertone, where 0 is neutral, 1 is warm (yellow/olive), 2 is cool (pink) and 3 is peachy (warm, but not olive). As a word of warning though, not all intensities are the same in the different Dior formulas – in the Diorskin Sculpt, for example, the 010 Ivory is almost white, whereas in Diorskin Nude it is a tad darker. The undertones do seem to run true, though.

My perfect colour in Diorskin Nude is 020 – Light Beige. Please bear in mind, that this foundation does oxidise ever so slightly – not so bad for me, with super-dry skin, but if you’re slightly oilier this may cause you an issue (having said that, if you’re oily-skinned, I wouldn’t recommend this foundation anyway).

From the Boots website:

“Containing nearly 40% water, this fluid foundation offers an instant sensation of well-being and complete skin hydration. A very natural looking foundation that illuminates your face for a healthy glow. With daily use, the skin becomes more beautiful for an ever more natural and radiant result day after day.”

Let’s have a look at it in 020 - Light Beige:

 

I prefer to apply this with either my fingers or a stippling brush to blend out the edges seamlessly; having said that, this foundation doesn’t take that much effort on the blending front. I can apply a second coat without too much caking, but generally I tend not to bother – the medium-sheer coverage of this foundation is its major selling point, so putting on an extra layer would probably defeat the object.

It definitely gives a glow to the skin, without being overly dewy (which usually means “shiny”). I can get away without powder, but do usually put a little bit on round the nose and mouth in order to up the staying power, which is actually not bad even without the powder (about eight hours-ish on me). A little touch up of powder mid-afternoon and job’s a good ‘un.

Using this every day, I will get a good few months of wear out of this – a little goes a long way. One good, solid pump is usually enough for my whole face.

Diorskin Nude Natural Glow Hydrating Make-up is available from Boots.com for £31.00.

Jen

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"Promises, promises"....... holiday edition

Well, the end of another week, bringing me ever closer to my big summer holiday. Although it's not that much of a holiday (we're not going anywhere exotic as I will still be marking exams while I'm off), it's still three blissful weeks at home, sat in my pants, watching Jeremy Kyle. 

However in order to ensure the three weeks are not entirely an unproductive write-off, I have made myself some beauty-related promises that this time I WILL KEEP. 

Promise 1) Exercise four times a week.  Over the past year my bingo wings have steadily progressed from "light aircraft" to "Boeing 747".  Need rid of them, finally - so more running, coupled with some toning weights. Plus, I could do with sweating a few toxins out of my skin.

Promise 2) Drink more water. I know, I know - this one is so fundamentally obvious so you must be thinking I am the world's biggest dumbass. I just......... forget. Plus, it tastes of NOTHING. It's BORING. So, with the help of a bit of sugar-free Robinson's squash I am hoping to go from zero glasses a day to more-than-zero glasses. Added to Promise 1, I am hoping to have clear, beautiful, youthful skin in a matter of days! Yeah, right.

Promise 3) Take off make-up before bed. Some of you are now really thinking, "who is this monster?". But I genuinely do not take off my makeup before bed. Sometimes I do - mostly I don't, and yes I end up with the whole panda-eyes thing in the morning. I have a genuine excuse for this one though - due to the extreme dryness of my skin, I loathe cleaning my face, whether it be with soap and water, cream cleanser or make-up remover.  Even baby wipes. However I have found some products which don't leave my skin feeling too tight and itchy, so I am willing to give this whole "being clean" thing another try!

Promise 4) Don't impulse buy make-up. This is the one I am going to struggle with the most. However, I have a spreadsheet listing all of the different products I want to buy and try, where to get them, and out of which pay-packet I'm going to pay for them (must be the accountant in me!). So I am going to try to only buy things off the list, which are things I have researched and thought about and would genuinely use. This is the promise I think will be hardest to keep.

Promise 5) Throw some stuff away. I don't know if you have the same problem, but I have one of those mindsets of "it'll come in" - a phrase I learned at a young age from my family, who also hate to throw anything away if it might have some future use. So that bright yellow and blue eyeshadow I bought for an eighties-themed party? "Keep that, it'll come in!"

I also have the same problem with high-end make-up products - no matter how unsuitable it is for my skintype/colouring, if I've spent a fair few quid on it I am loathe to get rid of it. I don't think I will be able to bring myself to put it all in the bin, but I definitely need to find good homes for them because they're just cluttering up my dressing table and making the place look untidy.

I think that will do for now - wish me luck!

Jen

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Did I mention I bought some shoes?

Zoinks! Wowsers! Gadzooks!

No further introduction needed; I have finally caved and bought some Louboutins.

Being up in Manchester on Wednesday afternoon, having got there ridiculously early for a Pearl Jam gig (oh yeah, did I mention I went to see Pearl Jam, too?), we found ourselves at a bit of a loss so I took His Nibs round Selfridges and Harvey Nicks, and BY GOD could I have spent some serious dough. Selfridges had a sale on, so got a couple of bits for Mr S and had dinner in Harvey Nichols' restaurant feeling severely under-dressed (remember - we'd be dressed for Pearl Jam, so it was all about the jeans, battered Converse and a lumberjack shirt. Seriously, the Nineties are not dead).

Whilst there, I tripped and fell over and found myself walking out with a Louboutin bag.

I won't say much, other than this is a moment I have dreamed of for quite some time - yeah, yeah, yeah I know they're just shoes. They even look like "just" shoes (and feel a bit like that too - nothing overly special) but OMFG THEY'RE CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN SHOES AND THEY ARE SHINY AND THE SOLES ARE RED. 

I went for some that look normal because I am a normal person, not someone that usually takes to wearing leopard-print, 8-inch heels and peacock feathers. I should get some decent wear out of these.

Pics, just because:

What do you think? Waste of money, or stuff of which dreams are made?

Jen

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MAC lipstick - Half 'n' Half

Wowsers, it’s been a while. Have I REALLY not thought about makeup in all this time? Well………….. yes. Of course I have. Silly question, really.

Anyway, I wanted to introduce you to a little bit of disappointment, in the form of Half ‘n’ Half. This is on MAC’s permanent line, and is an Amplified Crème formula. I find that this (along with the lustres) is pretty much the only formula of MAC’s that I can wear, due to scabby-lip syndrome (although that has been tempered somewhat after finding my my Holy Grail lip balm).

Not sure what the name is supposed to reflect – the fact that it is half brown, half pink? Or that it’s a relatively moisturising formula, that it feels like half lipstick, half lip balm? Or the fact that it’s half the price of a high-end lipstick, therefore it doesn’t matter if they’re half the quality? Hmmm.

It’s not that I hate them. I don’t, I quite like them. I just think that they could perhaps be a little bit better for the price – I’m not expecting the staying power of a Chanel Rouge Coco, or the pigmentation of a Dior Addict, but I think there are just too many little disappointments in this product.

On me, lasting power is about an hour (but please do bear in mind I am a tea addict – one hour on me could very well translate to a lot longer on someone that doesn’t average at least a cup an hour).

Pigmentation and moisturisation from the Amplified Cremes is, in my experience, a lot better than the Lustres (which have a little bit too much slip for my liking). And to be fair, Half ‘n’ Half is one of the better ones I have tried (a lot better than Shy Girl, for instance, which is so drying is feels like it’s going to pull my lips off whenever I apply it). But it’s still not great.

So, a little disappointment with staying power, a little disappointment with the pigmentation, a little disappointment with the moisture……… but then again they are only £13.50 so I suppose you can’t expect miracles.

On the MAC website, this is described as a “creamy pink”, and the online swatch would seem to confirm this; however, despite the fact that my lips are quite pink anyway, on me this wears brown. Very, very, very brown. The disappointments are just racking up.

Here it is, for your viewing pleasure:

Awwwww, look at it - looking all classy and understated

Brown.

See, what did I tell you? Brown. A little tiny bit of pink in there (but that's more due to my lip pigmentation than the lippie); it's mostly brrrrrrrrrrrowwwwwwn.

One thing I will say – I do really like the packaging. Small and sleek, relatively sturdy, and the lid stays on no matter how long I leave it in my handbag and dump stuff on top of it.

In conclusion – ok for the price, and the range of colours and finishes available is nothing short of amazing, but I think on balance I would rather have one Rouge Coco than two of these.

MAC lipsticks are available through their website for £13.50.

Jen

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