Max Factor Creme Puff Blush Review

The Max Factor Crème Puff Blushes have been out a few weeks now. They are baked multi-tonal blushes that are different to anything I’ve tried before. I’ve seen them compared to the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Blushes by other beauty bloggers, I don’t have any of them in my collection but they definitely look similar to them.

What makes these different to your average blush is that they are multi-functional, you can use them to contour and as a highlighter – I even used one as a bronzer at one stage. It’s a buildable formula and really pigmented so for me a little goes a long way.

I have 3 colours from the collection, 05 Lovely Pink, 10 Nude Mauve and 30 Gorgeous Berries. All colours are very wearable and would suit many skin tones. I’m extremely pale so some of the colours come off more pigmented on my skin tone. They’re really blendable and with spring coming up they really brighten up the skin and give a great glow.

I’ve mostly been using the Nude Mauve colour; I use it as part of my contouring and really creates structure to the face. I pop it on my cheek bones and a little on my temples and it makes such a difference to my face.

When I’ve used the Gorgeous Berries colour I found it really pigmented, just one tap of my brush onto the blush and it gives a huge amount of colour, luckily they are super blendable and it doesn’t leave me looking like Noddy.

The Lovely Pink colour is a very pale pink; it gives a small amount of colour but leaves a lovely highlight to the cheek bones.

There are 6 colours in the range, Alluring Rose, Gorgeous Berries, Lavish Mauve, Lovely Pink, Nude Mauve and Seductive Pink.  The new Max Factor Crème Puff Blush retail for €11.49 and I think they are on offer at the moment in Boots for 3 for 2.

Thanks for Reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Brand Focus - Makeup Revolution

I feel like I’ve been talking about Makeup Revolution a lot the last few months but I love the brand and their products so I can’t help but talk about them (a lot!).

Instead of doing a few posts on individual products this post will be a brand focus post. If this works out well I’ll be doing a few posts on different brands such as MAC, Smashbox and NYC.

I have foundation, concealer, highlighter, blusher, eyeliner, mascara and lipstick. I have an eye shadow palette from them but at the time of taking pictures I couldn’t find it but their shadows are really good and I have a previous post done which you can read about them here.

I’m going to start with I didn’t love and leave the best till last.

Firstly we have the foundation and concealer. I bought the foundation as it has a matte finish and with having oily skin this is usually the type of foundation I go for and I bought the concealer as it was a brightening concealer so I use it to highlight my cheeks, nose and forehead. I’m going to be blunt and just say that I didn’t love them, I don’t know if it was just my skin that it didn’t suit or if it was the actual products but they were just not for me. The foundation looked thick when I put it on the back of my hand but as soon as I put it on my skin it went very sheer and dried so quickly that you didn’t have much time to really buff it into the skin and make it look natural. I found that using a damp blender sponge that it helped but it still didn’t look great. It also didn’t last too long being matte although that could just be because of my skin type. When I put the concealer on my face it was a very liquid substance and when blended into my skin it moved the foundation on my face and when I had just perfected the foundation and made it look decent it the concealer just ruined everything.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect much seeing as the foundation and concealer where £2.00 each but I did have a little hope they would have worked out.

The Vivid baked highlight is £3.00 and I bought mine in peach. The only other highlight that I have similar to this is the MAC Mineralise Skin Finish in Soft and Gentle so I’ll compare it to that one. The colours are very similar and it gives a lovely highlight but you do need to put what seems like a lot on just so it’s noticeable.

I have a few of their lipsticks but this is the latest one that I have. I love my vampy colours and this is from their Vamp Collection in the colour 100% Vamp. It’s a perfect colour for Halloween, it’s a dark black wine colour which are my absolute favourites and a bargain at £1.00 and if you don’t like the colour they have a huge range of different ones all for £1.00 so you should find something you like.

The Amazing Eyeliner in Ultra Black is awesome. It’s a super black liquid liner that is so long wearing it could put the They’re Real Liner to shame.  The only problem I have with it is the pointy brush, it’s very stiff and I think with a normal liner brush it would go on much better. This one is another bargain at £1.50.

Everyone needs this blusher; it is so pigmented and such great quality for a blush that costs £1.00. I have mine in Sugar; it’s a warm matte peach and brightens up your cheeks giving such a fresh look. A little goes a long way with this as a lot of pigment comes off on your brush so start off small and you can build it up to your desired colour. Absolutely love this blush and will most definitely be buying more.

Finally my favourite from the bunch is this Amazing Lengths mascara. Only £1.50, this plastic wand will lift and separate your lashes to give wide eyed natural look. It’s also a long wearing formula that lasts from morning till the time you’re taking off your makeup. My star buy and I really recommend it especially for more daytime friendly natural makeup looks.

The fact that the foundation and concealer where a disaster for me I still love Makeup Revolution they a fantastic inexpensive makeup company that keep their collections up to date and are always adding new lines so there’s always an excuse to buy more. You can find out more on their website and if you’re in Dublin, the Superdrug in the Omni Centre in Santry have a stand but keep an eye out as they are rolling out more soon.

I haven’t been paid or sent any of these items I just love their products hope that you’ll love them too.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Soap & Glory Cheekmate - Cheek and Lip Stain

I don’t have too much of the makeup products from the Soap and Glory range but I could open up my own shop with the amount of skin care I have from them. I had bought the Cheekmate cheek and lip stain months ago when my friend asked me to try it out for her but I misplaced it even before I had a chance to open it and found it a week or two ago, but I figured better late than never.

I’m a bit sceptical when it comes to these kinds of stains, none of them have ever looked good on me, and they’re usually sticky and ruin the foundation when you put it on your face. Even though it looks like it’s going to be a sticky mess the formula is actually very creamy. I put a drop on my finger, dab it onto my cheeks and then blend it in with my small stippling brush. I get quite scared with these types of stains, sometimes they don’t blend or you look like you’re having a hot flash but luckily this actually blended out well and gave subtle rouge to the cheeks. I didn’t put too much on; it was nice just with a small amount and made it look very natural. I usually go for pinks so having red on the cheeks was very different for me and I liked it a lot, it’s always nice to have a change from your everyday colours.

 

You can also use this on your lips but I didn't love it. It's a bit sticky when it's dried on the lips and doesn't really put much of a colour on, just makes you look like you've been sucking on a red lolly for too long.

I've been trying to think of what it reminds me of as I write this post and it's just come to me, it’s like the fake blood you get in the costume shop at Halloween but just not as sticky on your skin. There's no taste or smell on it either which I’m actually a little disappointed about, I think I would have liked it better if it had a berry taste to it, it would probably make me use it even more.

 

It costs €10.00, it’s probably one of the better cheek stains I’ve tried before but I don’t think it will be a repurchase. It’s nice but it’s not a Holy Grail product, more like one of those last resort type products when I have nothing else to hand. As usual these opinions are my own, you might find it amazing but I just don’t think its €10.00 amazing.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Crown Brush Blush Palette

I have a few things from Crown Brush UK, I love their brushes and their palettes. I don’t think I’ve bought anything online from them but I do love to pick up brushes and palettes when I see a stand at a beauty show because they’re always that little bit cheaper. When I was in IMATS I picked up a few things from the stand including their 10 colour blush palette which retails normally for £14.99/€18.81 but I think I got mine for around £10-12.

It comes with a range of pinks, peaches and bronze colours in matte and shimmer textures. What’s great about the palette is that it can be used to contour with the darker colours as well as adding some colour to your cheeks with the pinks and peaches.

I use this palette a lot and I’ve used every colour in it. You don’t get too much product from one swipe of your brush to cheek but I think that’s a good thing as you can build it up to the colour you want, I hate when some blushes can leave you looking like Noddy from one swipe of blush.

Palettes like these are great for travelling, they’re sleek enough to fit into any luggage whether you’re going on short or long haul journeys and you don’t need to bulk up your makeup bag with single blushes.

This is definitely worth the price as it works out at £1.49/€1.88 for each blush, there aren’t much companies selling single blushes for that price.

If you want to find out more info on Crown Brush UK just head over to www.crownbrush.ie or www.crownbrush.co.uk.

Thanks for reading.

Love Sarah xoxo

Danial Sandler Watercolour Fluid Blusher Acid Review

A few months back I was watching Sam of Pixwoo do a makeup tutorial on their YouTube channel. In the tutorial she used a new blusher from Daniel Sandler, which I have to admit I had never heard of the makeup brand before. The blush is a watercolour blusher which is completely new to me, I had only heard of powder and cream based but never water based.

The colours come from a special summer collection and come in the colours Acid (pink) and Trip (orange). They are really vibrant neon colours created for the summer season.

When I was in IMATS a few weeks ago I saw them on sale at one of the stands, when I saw them I grabbed Acid and luckily for me it was the last one they had. I didn’t buy Trip as I didn’t think it would suit me so I bought the pink colour in Acid. As it was at IMATS it was only £12.50, it usually retails for £15.50. There are only 3 stockists in Ireland and none in Dublin but you can find them here or you can order them online from the site as well.

The first time I tried the blush I just opened the packet and put it straight onto the back of my hand and thought to myself “this sucks it’s just water”, I didn’t cop that you had to shake it first. Once I knew what to do I shook it like a Polaroid picture and then put only a small drop on the back of my hand. The colour that comes out is so pigmented and I did think I was going to look like Noddy but with a light hand it went on perfectly.

For application I use a stippling brush rather than my normal blush brush and just buff it into the skin. If you want to have it darker you just need to add a bit more onto the skin. In the photos I only put on a light amount but the blush looks much better with a tan and you can get away with having a bit more colour on the skin but as I am a lot paler when I don’t fake tan I only put a small amount on.

When applying it I apply it straight after I apply my foundation so the foundation hasn’t dried fully yet and then I apply my bronzer, highlighter and powder.

I’m going to have this for a good long time as you only need to use a drop or two at a time, it’s probably more suited for a MUA to have in their kit but I’m happy that it’s in mine.

Before

After

The colour does last a lot more than any other blusher seems to do on my skin whether that’s because it’s more noticeable because it’s highly pigmented or it actually does stay on my skin I’m not sure. The only negative that I really say about it is that on certain foundations when it starts to clump into dry patches the blush clumps too but that’s more of the fault of my foundation than the blush.

Thanks for reading!

Love Sarah xoxo