Product love - L'Oreal De-maq expert Elixir Concentrate Ultra Make-Up Remover

Ciao belles,

I hope you're having a happy, peaceful and blessed Easter weekend!

A while ago I read a blog post on He1e says about this product and having run out of my Dermalogica Pre Cleanse I started searching for a new make up remover. The reason I didn't return to this was because I didn't really feel it removed my make up. It did "melt" it under a hot shower but it felt a greasy residue which was harder to remove than the actual make up itself!

I spotted this in the Superdrug aisle a few weeks ago and am impressed. It's great for dissolving and removing your make up leaving the skin nice and clean to use your cleanser to remove any excess impurities.

Only a small amount is needed and you just need to rub it into the skin and then dampen it. It feels light and not at all greasy. I think it was about £5 at Superdrug.

As an added bonus my skin is looking a lot healthier. Now I am resolved to drinking lots of water to really clear it up!

For anyone who is interested, L'Oreal's stance on animal testing can be found here.

Has anyone else used this product? What did they think?

Did you enjoy reading 'Product love'?

Stay fabulous!

Lottie x

Gold and bronze defined look

Hi all,

I hope you are having a great weekend. Why can't it last longer? Sigh... It's been beautiful and sunny here today and I've been out on a long walk.

I tried out this bronze and gold look this weekend which is quite complimentary to all skin tones. You could just go darker or lighter accordingly. I hope you like it!

Products used were:

Base: APt Liquid Powder Mineral Foundation SPF15 in Porcelain

Contour: APt Liquid Powder Mineral Foundation SPF15 in Cream Beige and the dark side of MAC Love Rock Mineralize Blush

Highlight: MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Blonde , a dab of Clinique Up-Lighting Liquid Illuminator in 01 Natural and APt Simply Minerals Rocks in the gold shade used on the eyes

Blush: The light side of MAC Love Rock Mineralize Blush

Concealer: Collection 200 Illuminating Touch in 1 Naked and MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC20

Powder: MAX Factor Natural Minerals Foundation 40 Creamy Ivory

Eye shadow base: Too Faced Shadow Insurance and Clarins Soft Cream Eye Colour in 01

Eyebrows: Nina Ricci Exact Finish Eyebrow Pencil No4

Eye shadows: MAC Frost Phloof!, MAC Metal X Cream Shadow Pure Ore (limited edition), MAC Soft Brown Matte, MAC Bronze Frost, APt Simply Minerals Rocks yellow, gold, beige and khaki shades

Eye liner: Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner in black

Mascara Primer: MAC Prep + Prime Lash

Mascara: Lancome Definicils and L'Oreal Voluminous both in black

Lipstick: MAC Syrup Lustre

Lipgloss: Too Faced Extreme Lip Pumping Treatment

Fix: Clarins Fix Make - Up (I think this was limited edition)

Tools of the trade for eyes: Shu Uemura eyelash curler, Mister Mascara eyebrow groomer, MAC 230 shader brush, MAC 224 blending brush, MAC 208 small angled brush, MAC 275 contour blending brush, MAC 209 liner brush

Tools of the trade for face: MAC 168 blush and contour brush, MAC 161 fan brush, Autograph foundation brush, Marks & Sepncer Shimmer & Smooth large body brush, Clarins buffer brush (limited edition)

What do you think?

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I can smell a roast chicken cooking hmmm! :)

LottieB x

Drugstore only contest entry

Hey everyone,

Hope you're all having a great week.

Just in time, I did a quick look for @AbbieAndBrian's drugstore only make over contest.

She has a fantastic beauty blog which I've only recently discovered.

I've got a real mixture of high end and drug store make up so I thought it would be interesting to see if I could pull something together using just drug store make up.

Mainly based on the colours I have in my collection decided to go for a green and gold look with a hint of turquoise on the eyes with nude lips. Again, please excuse my scruffy eyebrows, I can't wait for a wax on Saturday!

Products used were:

Base: Revlon Beyond Natural in 210 Light Pale

Powder: Max Factor Naturals Minerals Foundation in 40 Creamy Ivory (I use this as a powder as it doesn't even come close to providing enough coverage for me).

Contour: Revlon Bronzer in 02 Sunkissed Bronze

Blush: Maybelline Pure Blush Mineral Powder Blush in 40 Quartz Peach on top of MEMEME Pussy Cat Cheek & Lip Tint

Concealer: Collection 200 Illuminating Touch in 1 Naked

Eyebrows: No7 Beautiful Brows Pencil 15 Blonde and No7 Lash & Brow Perfector

Eye shadows: Maybelline Color Definer Waterproof Shadow Stick, Natural Collection Eyeshadow in Spring Green, Barry M Dazzle Dust in 82

Liquid Eyeliner: No7 Stay Perfect Eyeliner in Jewel (this is a fantastic dupe for MAC Liquid Last Eyeliner in Aqualine)

Pencil Eye liners: No7 Metallics Eyes Pencil 01 Green on the outer edges of the eyelids, GOSH Velvet Touch Eye Liner in 006 and a tiny bit of Bourjois Kohl & Contour in 01 Noir Expert in the tightline

Mascara: L'Oreal Voluminous in Black

Lipbalm: A tiny bit of chapstick, not sure what brand

Lipstick: GOSH Velvet Touch Lipstick in 134 Darling

Lipgloss: Barry M Glossy Tube in 2

Tools of the trade for eyes: Mister Mascara eyebrow groomer, Body Shop small shader brush, Ruby & Millie Eye Brush (M) - SHORT, square edged brush from Marks & Spencer (this came in a Christmas gift set), GOSH smudger brush

Tools of the trade for face: Body Shop blusher blush, Body Shop Powder Brush

Hope you guys like it, I'd really appreciate any comments or feedback! I've also included some pictures of the products used.

If any of my lovely friends in the UK who I haven't seen for a while are reading I just realised you will get a sneak peak of my engagement ring in the main picture!

LottieB xxx

P.S I find blogging about beauty so relaxing, it's the perfect way to wind down!

The make up diaries - January 2009

After all the Christmas festivities were over, the year started and I'd run out of lots of things I needed.  I brought the following bits and bobs and I'm going to let you know whether it was money well spent:

Foundation:

I'd previously got on really well with L'Oreal's True Match Foundation in C2 Vanilla Rose which I ran out of so so I thought I'm give Max Factor's Natural Minerals Foundation in 40 Creamy Ivory version a go.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me and my skin.  To me, it feels like a powder and doesn't give the coverage I need.  The L'Oreal one really sinks into the skin giving a nice natural sheer coverage. 

In any case, these power based foundations are a little messy to apply and I decided to go back to a liquid version I could apply with a brush.  I've gone for the APt Liquid Powder Mineral Foundation from Tracey Bell.  I couldn't be more pleased with this, yes it is pricey but it feels divinely smooth on and really stays put all day.  It's a mineral foundation which allows the skin to breathe.  It also contains SPF15 which is great too. 

Concealer:

I needed something to replace my favourite YSL Touche Eclat concealer.  This is really expensive for I normally buy those double packs for about £16 at duty free shops (living on the Isle of Man I normally get to them a good couple of times a year).  A lovely girl on Twitter called @shinygemma recommended I try out Collection 2000 Illuminating Touch which has been great.  Obviously, it isn't quite as luxurious as YSL Touche Eclat but it definitely does the job and at around £4/5 it's extremely good value.

Eyeshadows:

I'd heard some really good things about GOSH cosmetics from some of the YouTube makeup tutorials.  There was a 3 for 2 offer on at Superdrug and I got Effect Powder Eyeshaw in Spa and two Extreme Art Eyeliners in 08 and 02.  They were all very nice and easy to apply.  I went for quite subtle colours in the collection and I think they work well if you want to make a day time look a bit more exciting.

I had a lot of Boots points so decided to treat myself to Clarins Soft Cream Eye Colour in 01 which is a really pretty creamy colour.  It makes a really lovely highlighter and really helps powder eyeshadows to set.  I'd be interested to know how it compares to the MAC paints which I haven't tried yet.

I also picked out a BarryM Fine Glitter Dust in 22 which is a lovely charcoal black with very tiny flecks of gold in it.  Using a very small brush I find this works brilliantly for adding definition around the eyes when doing smokey looks.  I adore Barry M's range of colours.  Just make sure you have a good base on otherwise they can be very messy!

Lips:

While trying out all the eye colours at Barry M I also picked Supershiny Lipgloss in 2 which is a really nice nude colour.   It also tastes very nice! I love the colour but it's a little gloopy to apply.  For me, I think it also may be quite drying but the weather is actually probably to blame for that!

Nails:

Finally, whilst on my little haul in Boots I got a gorgeous nail polish from Revlon called Plum Attraction in 762.  I really love berry tones in the winter and this one does just the trick although two layers are best to get the most out of the colour.

Thanks for stopping by and reading this.  I'd love to hear your comments.

LottieB x