For any e.l.f fans, there's a bank holiday sale on right now!

50% off everything when you spend £25 or more! This is well worth it, I just bought 13 items and the total came to £17.75 or something including delievery. There's so many great things on that site, you could easily spend that much. Go have a look!

The Perfect Foundation? Mac Studio Fix Fluid Foundation Review!

Finding the perfect foundation is a nightmare, right? Testing loads of different brands and shades in the shop, then going outside and looking in your mirror to check it looks okay in natural light, then taking your chosen product home to discover that it doesn't actually suit your skin at all. Women waste so much money on foundations that aren't even suitable for them, and it can take years to find your perfect foundation.

Personally, I have tried countless brands. Some have been alright and some have been terrible. And some have been nice on me at first, but then my skin changed slightly and it was no longer suitable (for example, Illamasqua's Rich Liquid foundation - used to look great and now makes me look ill. Read my short review of it here).

So around two weeks ago I set out on a mission to find the perfect foundation for me. I went into Glasgow with my best friend Lauren and we went into Debenhams to have a look at the various counters. I was willing to spend a little more than usual on the foundation, but I am an unemployed student, so my budget was still fairly low.

First of all I tried Urban Decay's Surreal Skin Creamm-to-Powder foundation. This wasn't terrible, but I felt it looked too powdery and a little cakey on my skin.

Next I tried a Benefit Playstick, which was also a Cream-to-Powder. I will point out though, that this is what the woman at the Benefit counter chose to try on me, I didn't pick it myself. The end result of this looked alright, however the woman did use a cleanser, toner, serum, primer, the Pore-ffesional, Moonbeam highlighter and blusher on me (I didn't ask her to do this). So although yes, my skin did look quite radiant actually, I knew this wasn't down to the foundation. I wouldn't be using any of the other products except the primer at home, so this wasn't a true representation of what I would look like each day.

By this point I was feeling a little disheartened, as I'm really impatient and I was just getting pretty fed up. I had been thinking about trying a mac foundation for a while, but I just assumed that they would be really expensive. I headed over to House of Fraser just to check how much they were and I was pleasantly surprised at the price. Most were around the £19 mark, though some were a little more expensive. I asked a woman there for help and she recommended the Studio Fix Fluid. She tried three different shades on me (none of the other make-up counters done this) and chose shade NC15. I was delighted with the final effect of the foundation and knew this was definitely the best one I had tried. I bought it for £19.50.

I have been using this for about two weeks now and I absolutely love it. It was exactly what I was looking for! I've noticed that when I put my powder over it, it gives an airbrush finish and my skin looks so smooth, with a nice glow that I haven't experienced with any other foundation. It lasts all day, though I may have to touch up my nose slightly, and a little goes a long way- I've hardly used any of it, so it's great value too.

I'm so pleased that I decided to try this foundation, as it suits my skin so well. I used to think that maybe mac was more about the hype and I wasn't sure if the products lived up to it, but this foundation certainly does, and I would recommend that you try it if you're on the hunt for a new foundation!

Have you used any mac foundations? What did you think of them? And what is your perfect foundation?

Deleting my Youtube channel!

Hi everyone, just a quick post to say that I will no longer be uploading videos to Youtube. There are several reasons for this which I won't go into. I really enjoyed doing the channel but it's just not right for me at the moment. Thank you so much to anyone who subscribed to the channel, watched or commented on any of my videos - I really appreciate it. I might go back to Youtube at a later date but for now, I won't be making any more videos.

I'll still be running this blog, though if there doesn't seem to be much interest in it I might forget about this too.

Thanks for reading,

Shannon xxx

Beauty Haul! Illamasqua, Maybelline, Collection 2000, Elf and more!

My beauty haul video is up on youtube now, you can watch it here:

The first two products I spoke about are face products. First is the Rich Liquid Foundation from Illamasqua. I use the second lightest shade. I feel like I need to re-apply this quite a lot throughout the day, but when it's on it does give good coverage.

The second was elf's Clarifying Pressed Powder. This is a bargain at £1.50, but unfortunately I bought the wrong shade for myself, it's far too dark. It does take the shine away though, so I'll buy the correct shade next time!

Now on to the eye products! I bought elf's Brightening Eye Liner in black. Again, it's only £1.50 and it's good quality. It does smudge quite a bit however. but for smokey eyes etc, that wouldn't be a problem.

I tried out Collection 2000's Extreme 24hr Felt Tip Liner and loved it! The tip is great for making precise flicks and it does last all day. I've heard quite a few people say they found it difficult to get off, but my facial wipes take it off perfectly fine.

The Boots 17 Eyebrow Shaper Pencil in Natural Brown is the best eyebrow pencil I've used. There is a small brush attached to the lid to help neaten your brows. It's fairly cheap and is really good quality.

My favourite mascara at the moment is The One By One by Maybelline. It gives great volume and curl - my lashes look so thick! I often layer this on top of my Maybelline Colossal Mascara as that gives really good length.

I also talked about Sexy Mother Pucker by Soap and Glory. I got this a few months ago but didn't use it because the smell really put me off. It's supposed to smell like chocolate but I don't think it does, I just don't like it! However, I gave it another try and it actually is a good lipgloss. It plumps your lips so you can feel it tingling a little, and it really does work! The shade I have is pink apricot.

The final product was Collection 2000 Hot Looks Fast Dry Nail Polish in the shade BMX Bandit. It's a great summer colour as it's quite bright. It really does dry in fast and at £1.79 it's a great buy.

So have you tried any of these products? Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading,

Shannon

xxx