Swatched: Face Atelier Ultra Foundation

I ordered up 3 samples of Face Atelier's Ultra foundation from Coco Beau. Before we get onto the actual samples I had to share a pic of how they were wrapped...so cute!

Each sample will set you back £1.25 and for that you get a small pot like this...

 

I'm not sure how much product you actually get weight wise. Coco Beau advise it should be enough for a couple of applications. At the very least there's enough product for you to figure out your colour match and suss whether you like the texture.

The three shades I picked up were #2 Ivory, #3 Wheat, #4 Sand and here they are swatched and snapped (with flash I'm afraid)



Left to right: #2 #3 #4

Out of the 3 shades Wheat is my best match so I'm going to give that a full-face try out soon. In the meantime I'd definitely recommend Coco Beau if you fancy sampling Face Atelier - the only slight downside is postage which is fixed at £3.95 (in other words a bloody lot for 3 little pots!) This does get you recorded delivery though so not a total swindle! :)

Until next time,

This week I've been...

That spring is finally arriving - I actually left work and arrived home in the daylight this week which is such a nice feeling after what seems like almost 6 months of gloom! My second love this week is Andy's sister, Emily. Before having children she was a trained make up artist and when I mentioned my beauty obsession, she suggested I could have a look through her kit to see if there was anything I fancied. It was like a second Christmas when she turned up yesterday with a huge toolbox and a bag crammed full of stuff. Most of the liquid items (lip glosses/foundations etc) sadly had to be chucked as they gone 'bad' but I'm now the seriously happy owner of all this loveliness.....

Still not being able to find a Boots that is stocking the 17 Vintage Eye Palettes I mentioned in last Sunday's weekly review. I hate the thought of spending money on delivery from Boots (it just doesn't seem right somehow!) but think that's where I'm heading. Am also :-( that the fan brush I ordered from E.l.f arrived looking like this....

There's a email on its way to them as we speak...hoping their customer service is as good as their prices!

To an audio book on my iphone. I've got a work trip coming up and thought this would be a fun way to pass the time on the plane without having to lug a book around so I ordered Gok Wan's autobiography from Amazon. I've already listened to about a third of it (oops!) and am really enjoying taking in a good book in a slightly different way.  

The good: Vegetable Gyoza soup from EAT - my new found food obsession and only 3% fat. The Bad: Pizza and chips for tea on Saturday and the downright ugly (at least in the calorie stakes): Ben's cookies - triple choc variety.

These fabulous newly found blogs....

 draw the stars

Ellerosee

Sophie Leigh Designs 

(Sophie is a textile graduate..her work is beautiful!)

One of my friends has just got back from two month's travelling around Asia and hearing about her trip and seeing the photos is making me crave a holiday BIG TIME. Our ongoing 'saving-for-a-house-deposit' means its unlikely we can go abroad this year (camping it is!) but I can still jet off somewhere lovely in my head or through hearing about your holiday plans if you have any?

Until next weekend!

Body Shop Bargains

Today the boyf and I went to Oxford for a bit of a mooch around a few museums and the shops. I made a beeline for the Body Shop to spend the £30 body shop voucher I picked up on GroupOn for just £12!

I came away with the following...

From left: Aloe Calming Toner, Tea Tree Blemish Fade Night Lotion, Seaweed Deep Cleansing Facial Wash, Deo-Dry Deodorant Stick and Seaweed Clarifying Toner

I also got a couple of lovely freebies...firstly for spending £15 on face care they threw in a Chamomile Gentle Eye Make-up Remover which is worth a fairly hefty £8 when .bought separately I also got the 4th heart stamp on my Love Your Body Card so used my £5 gift on a cute Love Etc solid perfume heart.

So basically I walked out with £43 worth of stuff after handing over just £12 :) I've also just noticed whilst emptying out the carrier bag to take these snaps that the receipt is also a voucher for £10 off when you spend £25 any time in the month of March so one to watch out for if you're stocking up at the Body Shop some time soon. They really are going all out with the deals at the moment and be sure to check out GroupOn too if you haven't already :)

Until next time,

Letters in the mail.

Scrabble letters that is! I ordered these little goodies from the lovely Victoria and can't wait to wear them. If you're on the hunt for some scrabble jewellery then you should definitely stop by her blog. They arrived really quickly and beautifully packaged in a gorgeous little gift box. As well as rings or necklaces you can also get charm style bracelets too.

Next on my jewellery wishlist is a cute little polly pocket necklace from DollyBowBow - hope they get more stock in soon!

Until next time,

This week I've been....

I thought I'd create this post to to let all you lovely ladies know what I've been up to over the week.   Hope you enjoy...I may make it a regular feature to brighten up my boring Sunday evenings so please let me know what you think!

 

Going to visit Andy's sister and spending time with his two little nephews. They are 3 and a half and 18 months old and adorably cute and so much fun. This is a pic of Andy playing 'trucks' with the oldest of the two Harry. I took it whilst we were all away on holiday last year & its one of my most favourite photos ever!

Spending money on car repairs. My car has been due to have its cam belt changed for quite a while. I have no clue what that actually is but am assured by the boyf that if it breaks I'll basically need a new engine so I got it replaced this week. Can you believe it cost me a whopping £280 - that's one expensive belt! :-(

True Blood and House on DVD. We don't have Sky (booo!) so tend to pick up cheap box-sets on ebay and then work our way through them in an obsessive back-to-back episode kind of way. Bliss! (especially Jason Stackhouse...Ryan Kwanten's come a loooong way from his Home & Away days!)

This floral print tea dress from Asos.

The Boots 17 Vintage Love LE eyeshadow palettes. I read on various blogs a while ago that the launch date was 28th Jan but I haven't been able to find them in store or online. Maybe I was just far too slow but would love to know if anyone has spotted them!

Dorothy Perkins' entire spring/summer handbag collection especially these little cross-body cuties

This is my outfit from Saturday. Not particularly groundbreaking in the fashion stakes but it needed to be practical for a day spent chasing two highly energetic toddlers around :) Excuse the dog's water bowl & the funny face I'm pulling too - as it was my first ever OOTD I had no idea how to pose/where to look!

From top to toe..

Necklace - New Look

Bird Print Scarf - H&M

Black Vest - H&M

Cardi - Primark

Gold Owl Ring - H&M

Black/Gold Bow Bangle - Primark

Black Skinny Jeans - Topshop

Black Boots - New Look

To Usher, Adele with a random sprinkling of MGMT & Skunk Anansie! This has been my Sunday afternoon soundtrack whilst giving our bedroom a good tidy up/clear out. So far I've filled 3 bags with rubbish, 2 with clothes for the charity shop and a shoe box full of make up & beauty bits that I'll be popping up on here as a blog sale some time in the week :)

Just my Asda haul plus a couple of bits from Outfit on the way home from work on Friday. The one near me has a Dotty P's/Burtons, Miss Selfridge, Evans and Wallis and this is what I picked up...

Turquoise Ring - £8.50

Dress - Dorothy Perkins £35

Until next time weekend!

Reviewed: Crown Brushes

Just a quick update on the Crown brushes I posted about a few weeks ago now. Overall I've been impressed - the brushes are standing up well to pretty much daily use and haven't shed at all during washing. Out of the 5 brushes I ordered 3 are obvious winners, 1 is sadly not and 1 is still to be confirmed as I'll now show!

Yays

I love both the blending brushes. The crescent brush is great and softening out your crease colour. The angled blender actually has a flat top (I haven't photographed it particularly well - sorry) and the ends of the bristles blend darker/pigmented colours with ease. 

The concealer brush took a while to get used to as it really is so small but I like the precise application it gives you and it has (as I hoped) forced me to be less heavy-handed with the concealer.

Nays

The tapered crease brush is sadly not a winner for me but more down to personal preference rather than anything being wrong with it as such. I've found it to be an exact dupe of the essence of beauty crease brush I already have. The EOB brush however has a much shorter handle which I simply find easier to use for crease work. For that reason alone I doubt I'll be reaching it for much at all but if you prefer a longer handled eye brush then you'll probably get along with this fine!

Still to try

I still haven't got hold of a cream eyeliner to try this brush out with - I have my eye on the one from the No7 spring collection but its been out of stock every time I call into Boots :( I think I'll give in and give good old Elf's version a try so watch this space.

In summary I think these are great brushes - yes the writing on them is a little ugly but not all the ranges have the text on them & the actual brush heads (i.e the part that matters!) are great quality for the price. This makes them great for budget beauty addicts or those who are just starting to build their brush collection and want to try out different types without sacrificing a huge chunk of their pay packet.

Until next time,



Teeny haul...& celeb spotting Thursday!

Evening all! I nipped to the supermarket after work this evening to buy some helium balloons of all things! (one of the girls at work is off on maternity leave tomorrow and I was charged with buying the balloons to decorate her desk! Thank god for Asda!) Whilst there I also grabbed the following...

I've been finding the roots of my hair are getting really greasy at the moment so thought I'd give this VO5 Refreshingly Pure shampoo a whirl. I used a couple of their other shampoos/conditioners a while ago and think they were quite good (or at least not tragically bad because then I'm sure I'd remember to avoid!) Anyhoo it was on offer at only £1 so don't really mind if it ends up being crapola.

Next up was a new serum - I went for Gloss Boss No Frizz Shine Serum by Andrew Barton. I've never tried this brand before but it was also on offer (I'm such a cheapskate!) at £3.70. Having tried it yet obviously but squidged a bit on my hand and it smells AMAZING...like scrummy coconut sun tan lotion!

Last but definitely not least was another £1 bargain in the form of George matte finish quick dry nail polish in the shade Twister which is a gorgeous deep grape/purple colour. It actually has a slight duochrome khaki hint to it which hasn't shown up in the pics I'm afraid.

My nails are still on their post-extensions recovery journey so here's a little swatch on my nail wheel - it took just 2 thin coats to get a lovely opaque finish and it really is super fast drying (touch dry in 30 secs!) Not sure this if this is a feature of all matte polishes as this is the first one I've tried but extremely impressed either way!



Before I sign off I have one last pic to share...look who I got to meet at work today - Peter Crouch! I don't like football at all but still got totally starstruck, hence the cheesy photo! :)

Until next time,

Four words I didn't expect to be saying...

I. Hate. Revlon. Colorstay  :( 

I've read so many amazing reviews of this foundation and although there has been the odd negative in there (mainly packaging related) I don't recall ever reading a post as scathing is mine is sadly about to be :(

So like many I realise straight away after cracking it open that I don't like the smell and the lack of a pump is as much of a pain as I'd imagine it to be (hello wasted product!) But I figure you could happily overlook that if it looks great on right?

Sadly things only got worse from there. The shade I went for (Sand Beige) was, despite being considered an NC20-25 dupe, way too pink-toned. Application wise it dried so quickly it was hard to blend (I tried fingers and brush) and impossible to build/layer up. The finished result exaggerated every single pore and felt heavy and mask-like on my skin. Its one redeeming feature is that it is super long lasting...however that too had a downside in that removal was tough going and I found myself having to scrub pretty roughly at my face to get rid of it fully.

Despite all this I'm still glad to have tried it as you never know what you might be missing until you do! Whilst its mega-disappointing to find that such a widely acclaimed product doesn't work for you, the upside is that often it makes you realise how much you love something else - in my case Bourjois's Healthy Mix foundation. For now anyway...the fact that an order of Face Atelier samples is winging its way to me as I write this is a pretty sure sign that I won't stop looking!

Until next time,