Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation Review

Hi ladies! FINALLY, I've got my review on the Vichy Dermablend foundation. I didn't want to rush my review until I'd found out how it best works on me and how I truly feel about it. And now I'm confident in saying it's my go to foundation for every day!

Quick Facts:

14.30 pounds for 30ml

Available in 5 shades

Hypoallergenic

Non-comedogenic

Non-acnegenic

Oil-free

Fragrance-free

Tested on sensitive and delicate skin

SPF 20

DOES contain parabens

12 hour coverage

Price:

Drug Store: Revlon Color Stay = 12.49 for 30ml

Vichy Dermablend=14.30 for 30ml

High End: MAC Studio Fix Fluid=19.50 for 30ml

It's pretty much right in the middle (in terms of price) of a high end foundation and a drugstore foundation. You get the same amount of product for each, but pay almost the same for a drugstore product and far more for something like a MAC foundation. Overall, I can't complain about the price, especially for such a full coverage foundation.

Packaging:

I'm rather happy with the packaging. I hate when a product has no pump, because I always pour out too much product, but a squeeze tube works just as well for me, because I can control the amount that comes out, especially since it's a very small hole. I imagine though, that when it nears the end, it might be kind of hard to get product out, but I'm sure I'll manage.

Product:

It's advertised as a full coverage foundation and definitely lives up to its name. Sadly, I guess I was expecting EVERYTHING to be completely covered, but for darker spots, they still shine through a little, but I can mostly cover them up with concealer. I use about two pea sized amounts for my whole face, but if you had better skin than I, you'd really only need one pea size amount, because as everyone says with this foundation, a little goes a long way. I was afraid this would be too thick or cakey for an all over foundation, but it's definitely not. And even if your skin isn't that terrible and you just want a really flawless finish, then this would work great.

By the end of the night, you will be a little greasy, so maybe bring some powder along for touch ups. I tried setting this with my Bare Minerals Mineral Veil when I first started using it, but in the end I found my actual Bare Minerals Foundation did a better job of keeping me matte. But even when you do begin to get a bit oily by the end of the day, it's not so much a gross oily as a dewy one? If that makes sense, haha.

In terms of color range, it's very limited. I use the lightest color, 15, Opal, and feel it's a pretty good match for me, if not almost a hint too dark, but it's not an issue when I blend down my neck so everything matches. So if you're a fair skinned gal, you won't be able to find a shade for yourself, and on the opposite end of the spectrum, very dark skinned girls may not be able to find a shade, which is a bit of a con, definitely.

Freshly Applied:

(I had 3 pimples pop up on the right side of my face and even though you can clearly see something is there, it's nowhere near as offensive with this foundation covering them up)

Hours Later:

Clearly not from the same day as from the photos above, but it's a picture I took on a different day after I'd been wearing the Vichy all day. It's still holding up, but you can tell my forehead has gone a bit oily. But this was when I'd set it just with the Bare Minerals Mineral Veil, and as I've mentioned, it keeps me matte longer when I use the actual Bare Minerals Foundation.

Availability:

In terms of availability, for UK people, I think your best bet is to order it off the Boots website. I've never seen it in stores because I think it's only available in the Boots with high end counters like Benefit, etc, and I don't have many near me. Ordering online is only a pain in terms of shipping prices, but then again, I pay about the same I'd pay in tube fare, if not less, to get to the Boots in Central London, so buying online is no big deal for me. But it's apparently also available in other pharmacies besides Boots, but I don't really know the details.

If you're in the US, according to the Vichy website, it's sold in more than 850 stores across the US, but it's only available in 18 states and in CVS stores. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say you can find it at most CVS's, but don't hold me to it. Or once again, you can order from the Vichy website.

Overall, I love this foundation. When I've been out and about and snuck a look in a mirror in a shop, as we girls do, I've noticed my skin just looks better than it ever has with previous foundations. If you're in the market for a full coverage foundation, I can't recommend this enough.

PS: I've hit 400 followers!! Thanks so much, each and every one of you! xoxoxo

Lush Space Girl Review

Space Girl Bath Bomb: 1.90 pounds

What Lush Say:

"Here comes a ballistic of astronomical proportions. We were inspired by The Imagined Village's intriguing interpretation of Space Girl from their second album, Empire & Love. It's shaped like Saturn with added space dust for our alien friends, and the refreshing scent of blackcurrant sweeties will make you hungry for your own space adventures. Space Girl is stellar, just remember your blaster and your freezer gun."

What I Say:

I liked this bath bomb for the "show" that it put on for me. It exploded into a purple gray cloud and had wisps of fuchsia and blue throughout it. There was even a bit of crackling, but if you didn't know it was supposed to crackle, you probably wouldn't of even noticed it, to be perfectly honest. Once I got into the bath, I enjoyed the scent and liked the fact that it stuck around for the duration of the bath instead of melting away with the bath bomb, which I've noticed happen with some bath bombs in the past. The glitter was pretty, but not something I much care for in a bath. I suppose I was just wondering if it was safe for glitter to be anywhere near my lady bits, LOL, but sorry, that's probably me being paranoid. I didn't feel exceptionally smooth once I left the bath, but overall, I liked this bath bomb and would consider repurchasing it.

Ohhhh prettttty, ooooh, aaaah. ;)

Has anyone used Space Girl before? What did you think? Was it....out of this world? -giggles- Ahem....

Lush Honey Bee & Honey I Washed The Kids Reviews

Hi ladies! Today I've got a review on two items from Lush that I've recently used up, both featuring the yummy ingredient honey!

Lush Honey Bee Bath Bomb:

Aww, it looks like a wil bumble bee!

What Lush says:

For a soothing and cleansing soak.

Honey Bee smells like caramel, much like the Honey, I Washed The Kids soap and Soft Coeur massage bar do. Honey Bee holds its own special distinction, though; in addition to soothing honey, it has Moroccan rhassoul mud to clean and soften your skin.

What Lauren Says:

While I had high hopes for this product, because I absolutely love the scent of Honey I Washed The Kids soap (see review below!), I was a bit let down by this product. When I first put it in, I had my childish moment of "Oooh look at it fizz, ooh it smells lovely!" but then when I actually got into the bath (which, might I add, looked like somebody took a wee in it and had lil grainy bits at the bottom from the bomb), I was like, where's the smell gone? The scent had completely disappeared! So for me to use this again, I reckon I'd need two, or just need to use it with some Honey I Washed The Kids soap.

Honey I Washed The Kids Soap:

I love the strip of honey comb at the top! So cute.

What Lush Says:

The irresistible toffee and honey. Once you've unwrapped this mouth-watering toffee scented soap, you'll immediately want to wash yourself all over with it - and then wash your honey, and then the kids and maybe even gran if she's lucky.

What Lauren Says:

It took me awhile to come around to this soap, at first I thought it smelled too sweet, but oh boy did it grow on me! So much that I kept using it till the very end, making sure not to waste even the tiniest sliver that was left, tehe. It just feels lovely on the skin, leaves you feeling clean, and smells simply amazing. I need to pick up another one of these, it's definitely my favorite item from Lush. The Valentine's Day range has a new shower gel out with the same scent apparently, and I must find a way to get my hands on it....even though their website is down and there's no store nearby.

What are your thoughts? Do you enjoy the Honey themed items from Lush as much as I do?

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Philosophy Xmas Haul/Review

Hi ladies! Almost done with the xmas posts, lol. Today (or tonight should I say, my sleeping pattern at the moment is so messed up) I've got a post on the 3 products from Philosophy I received for Christmas.

Vanilla Birthday Cake Shampoo, Shower Gel & Bubble Bath:

I'm always a bit weary of 3 in 1 products (how can they do everything!?) but I don't plan on using this as a shampoo, just shower gel and possibly a bubble bath, but I have yet to use it for that purpose, although I should! I only used this once when I was back home and did quite like it. It smells like exactly what the name says, but it's certainly not overpowering, it's a subtle enough scent. It did leave my skin feeling nice n soft.

Coconut Frosting & Cinnamon Buns Lipgloss:

These smell amazing!! I'm pretty sure that's what you're paying the extra money for, because they're certainly not that special of lipglosses, I thought they were pretty standard, possibly a bit sticky. But both of them do smell amazing, which is why I wanted them, because of all the interesting scents Philosophy does. I think they should make some lip balms though! Don't you? I think they technically do but they come in the same packaging which makes me think they're also glossy. Anyways...

Swatches:

The top one is coconut frosting and the bottom is cinnamon buns. Coconut frosting contains white sparkles and cinnamon buns contains gold ones. I imagine these would be great over lipsticks but I just like them on their own.

Coconut Frosting:

Cinnamon Buns:

What's your favorite scents from Philosophy?

Lush Candy Cane Bubble Bar Review

Hiii ladies! As I mentioned in my Christmas haul post, I received some Lush goodies from my sis...or parents, lol, I can't remember which was from who because my sister did the hard work of buying everything, but my parents gave her the money! So anyways, today I've got a review on one of them, the Candy Cane bubble bar:

Unfortunately, I can't find anything on the Lush website about the Candy Cane bubble bar, because d'oh, they're obviously no longer selling them! But anyways, I'll just give you my own thoughts on the bubble bar.

While it's adorable and pink (aww how puuurdy does it look!?) it's certainly not my favorite from the Christmas range. Because A. It doesn't smell like a candy cane and B. I don't know what it actually does smell like. It's a really sweet candy like smell, but I was expecting something more minty because...well...the name. Silly me! I'm not particularly fond of the smell, but at the same time it's not bad enough for me to throw out the remaining half. But if you hate sickly sweet scents, stray away from this one!

Once again, just half of the bar is more than enough to give you lovely bubbles, so I can't fault it on that!

What are your thoughts on this product? Were you expecting something a bit more minty?

MAC Haul!

Hiiii ladies! My MAC order came today, wipee! Lol. I made an order so I could pick up Emily's lipstick (which I'll be posting to you tomorrow!!) and couldn't resist picking out some things for myself. Naturally. -shakes head- I have so much stuff to play with because of Christmas so I need to give it a rest for awhile (yeaaaah sure Lauren). Anyways, I've been dyyying to try the paint pots from MAC, and when I saw the Cham Pale ones I was determined to get those...until I saw the swatches. I just wasn't impressed, so I decided to go with ones from the permanent collection, the ones that people rave about. Anyways, let's get into it:

Bare Study Paint Pot:

A shimmery champagne color perfect as a base to neutral eye looks.

(looks a bit pink here, not sure why, must be the lighting!)

Rubenesque Paint Pot:

A lovely gold base!

Swatches:

-swoons- Goooorgeous. I can see myself using Bare Study for everyday looks, and then Rubenesque for when I want to do a gold look. I could even use them on their own! w00p.

Then I decided to show you ladies just how wonderful these paint pots are (as if you weren't already convinced):

I swatched two colors from the Urban Decay Naked Palette over the paint pots and BAM! Hahaha, sorry....

As you can see, the paint pots don't intensify the colors THAT much (I mean come on, they're Urban Decay shadows, they don't need help with intensity), buuuut:

Look how well the shadows hold up against the evil tissue paper WITH the use of the paint pots. Impressive. :D

Blacktrack Fluidline:

I've been wanting to try out a gel liner for my upper lash line for awhile now, so I decided to pick up this one from MAC, because it's another item I hear people raving about. And come on, if you're gonna shell out 12-15 pounds for each item, it damn well better be for something people scream from the rooftops about. ;)

Swatch:

(no, I don't know what I began doing at the end, I just wanted to see what it looked like with a thicker line, hehe)

It's lovely and creamy and black, what more can I say? Can't wait to test it out on my eyes, let's hope it's not too much of a disaster my first time.

Did I pick up any of your favorites?

CVS Haul / Review

Hey ladies! Been meaning to do this post for awhile, but I just haven't had time to get around to it. Dissertation due the 26th, ugggh, lol. But anyways, my nana, right before I left again for London, gave me a Christmas card and it had a $20 CVS gift card in it! Really sweet of her, but part of me was like, uh oh, we all know I'm just going to spend this on makeup, LOL. So completely forgetting that CVS was doing a huge clearance, I thought of what things I wanted. I decided I wanted to try out the Neutrogena Healthy Skin foundation, so I went there with the intention of getting that. I then saw loads of things on clearance but stuck with the foundation anyways, cos I was there with my friends and didn't want to bore them to death looking for ages, LOL. SO, in the end, I grabbed the Neutrogena Healthy Skin foundation, the Brightening Eye Perfector, AND, the Maybelline Pulse Perfection mascara because it was 75% off!

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Liquid Makeup with SPF 20 in Buff:

$7.24 (BOGO half off, this one was half off)

What was I thinking? This shade is too dark and too orange for me! I was looking at the lightest shade they had, Natural Ivory (which turns out isn't actually the lightest shade) and thought I couldn't possibly be the first shade, because I'm usually the second shade in! But ANNNT I was wrong, this color is all wrong for me. =( Which is really sad, because I was really excited to try it out. Ah well, save it for the summer months maybe?

Here I've just taken a photo of my Photo Ready foundation in Vanilla, which I feel is a good color match for me, and put it next to the Neutrogena foundation in Buff, to show you the color difference. Sadly this photo doesn't do it justice, because there's a much bigger difference in color in person!

Neutrogena Healthy Skin Brightening Eye Perfector with SPF 25 in Light:

$14.49

It was buy one get one half off for Neutrogena, so I decided to try this out! For being called light, this doesn't seem that light! Although I think I might be able to pull it off. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I think I might like it? LMAO. So undecided about these products sadly. In the photos it looks quite good, but I felt like in person it wasn't quite right? Maybe because the SPF of 25 bounces off the flash to make it look brighter/lighter, hence actually making it the right color, who knows! What do you think?

Maybelline Pulse Perfection Mascara:

Because this was 75% off, making it only $3.75, I figured why not!

The brush is very similar to the Define A Lash mascara by Maybelline, which I also own, because, according to the package, it's "brought to you by" Define a Lash.

(Define a Lash on the left, Pulse Perfection on the right. The only difference I can see is that the Pulse Perfection brush looks ssllllightly longer.)

I decided the best way to test out this mascara and whether the vibrating was just a gimmick or not was to test it side by side with the regular Define A Lash mascara:

As you can see, I think the vibrating did make a difference. I felt like it actually curled my lashes!

Then both eyes with the Pulse Perfection mascara:

Nice! I'm pretty impressed, the only thing is the vibrations tickle! Lol...I kept having to stop cos I was giggling. Silly me, ah well, it's a good mascara, especially at such a cheap price. Woo hoo for clearance sales!

So overall, I like the mascara, I think I like the eye brightener (I will keep testing it out, and who knows, maybe it'll end up in my January favorites!), and I hate the foundation. I still want to try out the Neutrogena foundation, so I'm tempted to go out and buy the lightest shade, but I don't think the UK sells Neutrogena cosmetics!!! Am I completely wrong about that? Could somebody point me in the direction of Neutrogena cosmetics in the UK? Thanks!

MeMeMe Coral vs Benefit Coralista

Hi ladies! Today I've got a comparison on MeMeMe Blush Me! in Coral and Benefit's Coralista boxed blush.

Availability: I purchased my MeMeMe blusher at Superdrug, and as far as I know, that's the only shop where MeMeMe is available, unless you purchase online. Benefit products can be found at select Boots and department stores with Benefit counters, and again, online. So both are pretty widely available. (ALTHOUGH, Benefit is found in both the UK and USA, while MeMeMe is only available in the UK)

Price: 24 pounds for Coralista vs 8.50 pounds for Coral. Obviously, the MeMeMe blusher is less expensive than the Benefit blusher.

Amount: You receive 12.0g (0.42 oz) of the Benefit blusher and £10.63 per 10g for the MeMeMe blusher so if I've done my math correctly, that's about 8 grams of product you're getting with the MeMeMe blusher.

Conclusion: So while both blushes are pretty widely available, (in the UK anyways) the Benefit product is more expensive, even with the fact that you receive more product taken into account.

BUT, are they even dupes??

Nope. As you can see, Coralista is far more shimmery and pink, and Coral is more orange. So it all really depends on what you're looking for. If you want a more orange based Coral, go with the MeMeMe blusher. If you want a more pink based coral, and are willing to shell out the extra money for the high end brand, get the Benefit blusher. But I must say, they seem to be pretty similar in terms of quality. So maybe if you do want a pinker blush, grab the pink one that MeMeMe sell? It's all about what you're willing to spend! =)

Hope this was helpful!