Sample Review: L'Oreal True Match Foundation: First Impressions + Swatches

Another sample, another review. Check out my first sample review by clicking here. This time I will be doing a first impressions on L'oreal's True Match foundation in W3 Golden Beige. L'oreal describes this foundation "for women in search of a perfectly natural complexion, L'Oreal Paris has invented True Match, its first foundation that perfectly matches the colour and texture of your skin." Retails for around £10 (slightly cheaper at Superdrug), and from what I can see on the Boots website, there are a variety of shades, 22 on the website.

The foundation consistency was like most traditional foundations and the first thing I realised was that a little goes a long way, this is a pretty high coverage foundation. This was pretty dark for skin colour, but I could have gotten away with it when I blended, blended, blended. It has a pretty matte finish, so I think it would work great for those with oilier skin types. This did not fare well on my dry patches and did cling to those areas and made my skin look flaky. It also does look quite heavy on the face, my mum never usually comments when I wear foundation but she did after I had applied this. I preferred the way it look after I had set it with a bit of powder, and it didn't look too cakey.

It lasted pretty well, and I was surprised with the coverage - I would recommend this to people who need that extra little coverage and who don't mind wearing a heavier foundation. As you can tell with by the picture above, it has evened out the skin and my freckle is almost completely covered, something only a concealer can usually completely conceal. If you're the kind of person who likes the "like skin" foundation, or really light coverage, I don't think this is for you. Also, if you have dry skin, you may want to look for a different foundation. All in all, it's not a bad product, just not for me, but I'm sure it would work brilliantly for some of you.

My first impressions verdict:
❤❤❤♡♡ (3 out of 5 hearts) ^^

Hope you found this first impressions review helpful, and until next time..

- Diem xo

YSL Rouge Volupté Shine in 3 Violet Incognito: Review + Swatches

You can check out the post for YSL's Rouge Volupté Shine in 6 Pink in Devotion by CLICKING HERE.

Now don't let the bullet frighten you. YSL's Rouge Volupté Shine in Violet Incognito is one of the prettiest shades I have ever seen. The packaging is absolutely beautiful (check out my previous Rouge Volupté post, linked above, for a more indepth review). The colour of Violet Incognito is a deep plum and does not contain any noticeable shimmer slash glitter in it. These lipsticks retail for £24 (pricey, I know!) and so I made the most and got this whilst there was a 10% off deal at Debenhams (I also had £10 worth of vouchers, so double score).

Although I am always attracted to purple colours for some reason (I think purple is a gorgeous lipstick colour, yes this is direct at A$AP Rocky, LOL), I wanted to veer away from this because I thought that I should get a more colour that I did not already have or have a similar colour to. However, after seeing some swatches of what this looked like on the lips, I just could not not get it. Although this is probably more of a fall slash winter colour, I will totally rock this during any season, and even in the daytime. For those who are less adventurous with bold lip colours, this would still look great for a night time look. I would keep it all about the lips and wear a very natural slash no makeup kind of look on the eyes, and rest of the face.

As this is a Volupté Shine, the colour has a more sheerer glossy look to it, so it really can be sheered out to a very subtle colour if that's what you want to go for.

Pictured to the left is a swatch of the lipstick on the back of my hand. The top swatch is just one layer, and the bottom swatch is what the lipstick would look like with a few more layers. As you can see, the colour can be built up to a deep plum colour, but still with that sheer glossy finish. Perfect for those who are afraid of full on colour, or tend to have problematic chapped lips (like me!)

Pictured left is what the lipstick looks like on my lips with just one layer. I'm not sure if it's due to the pigmentation of my lips, (which I don't think is all that dark or heavily pigmented) but the colour does appear to be a fuchsia purple colour, which I still think looks great! This picture was taken in direct sunlight and I believe this to be a pretty accurate represenation of what the colour looked like on my lips (cameras and lighting can hugely affect how a colour looks). This shows that this lipstick can be wearable and is a great colour for this time of year!

The picture to the right is what the lipstick looked like on my lips when I built the colour up a lot more. As you can see, this is much more plum colour, but still is on the pink side. This is perfect for the evening and for the fall and winter time, and I think it's an absolutely gorgeous colour.

I love these lipsticks, I think they last a long time for a sheerer, more glossier kind of lipstick, they feel nice on the lips and aren't drying. I think they wear off pretty nicely too so you don't have to constantly look in the mirror to do touchups or to make sure it hasn't worn off patchy.

And even though it does come with a hefty pricetag, I think these lipsticks are brilliant (which is why I own 3 of them!). I will refrain from getting anymore, but I think so many of the colours in this line are beautiful!


My verdict:
❤❤❤❤♡ (4 out of 5 hearts) ^^ (minus one heart for the price tag)

Just like my previous post on this lipstick, I give this lipstick four out of five hearts. The only reason why it doesn't get five is purely due to the price. But if you feel like you need to spoil yourself (or have someone spoil you), then I would really recommend this.

Hope you found the review and pictures useful, and until next time..

- Diem xo

Sample Review: L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Cream - First Impression & Swatches

You know how sometimes there are foundation samples in magazines? Or how sometimes you can get a sachet sample sent to you in the post? Well, I do. And before I knew it, I had quite a few sachet samples. And you know how they say out of sight, out of mind? Well, instead of trying out the samples, I just tossed them in a bag, building my collection up. So, I decided to put them on my table, in sight, and do reviews on them. They can only be first impressions as I will only be able to use it once, maybe twice, hardly enough times to give a in depth thorough review.

So my first sample review is on L'oreal's Nude Magique BB Cream which retails for £9.99 in the UK. The shade that I have is medium. What was very odd when I first opened this was that the actual product was an off white colour with faint tan colour balls in it. You can see a picture below of what it looked like.

However, when you rub it in, the colour begins to change, and becomes a more medium foundation kind of colour. The consistency is very liquidy and is lightweight on the skin. I would say that the coverage is light and will even out your skin tone, but not much else. The finish is natural, not matte, but not exactly dewy either. I have extremely dry patches on my face and fared well, slight clinging to the dryer areas, but I have that problem with pretty much every foundation, some worse than others. It lasted for an ok amount of time, but it did wear off pretty patchy on the half side of my face that I did not set with powder. The side that I did set with powder lasted around the same length of time, but did not wear off as uneven.

You can see in the picture to the left what the coverage is like - I applied the product to the arm with my fingers and worked it in. I only saw two shade options on the Boots website, which means that not everyone will be able to use this. The shade medium was slightly too dark and orange for me.

Would I buy this product? Even though I did not dislike this product, this was nothing special either. This would be good for those who have pretty good skin anyway and just needs something to even out the skintone. It is also good for people with dry skin - I have an extremely oily T-Zone and I did not look completely greasy so I think it may even work for those with combination skin. It is very quick and effortless to blend in, you don't have to work the product in so it's pretty effortless in application.

My first impressions verdict is:
❤❤❤♡♡ (3 out of 5 hearts) ^^ Not right for me, but can work for you~

Hope you found the review and pictures useful.. And until next time..

- Diem xo

'Red My Lips' - Wear Red Lipstick To Raise Awareness About Sexual Violence: My Red Lipsticks

So April 2013 is Sexual Assault Awareness month and there is a campaign going around called 'Red My Lips'. This campaigns asks us to wear red lipstick everyday in the month of April to 'help raise awareness about sexual violence and SPEAK OUT against victim-blaming!'. I will do my best to wear red lipstick to support this campaign, and I hope you all will too. You don't have to wear bright red lipstick, a variation of red will do, if bright red lipstick is not suitable (school, work, etc). So I pulled out all my red lip products and thought I'd do a post with pictures and swatches. You can see all the red lip products I own in the picture above (L-R: Maybelline Baby Lips in 15 Cherry Me, Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 045 Romantic, L'oreal Rouge Caresse Colour Riche lipstick in 179 Cherry Tulle, L'oreal Caresse Glam Shine Stain Splash in 300 Juliet, Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in 400 Big Bang, Yves Rocher lipstick in 101 Framboise, Sleek True Colour Lipstick in 778 Stiletto and NYX Lipliner Pencil in 817 Hot Red). You can find swatches of the products below (in the same order).

 I also took pictures of what they look like on the lips. The picture to the left is what my lips look like without any product on them. And I didn't think too far in advance when I was doing the pictures to the order of the swatches below are different than to the picture of the products and the swatches on my hand so I will describe each product below. Bear in mind that this is not a review; it's to show swatches.

1. Maybelline Baby Lips in 15 Cherry Me: A lipbalm with a very sheer hint of red. It smells like cherry (as the name would suggest) and smells delicious.
2. Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 045 Romantic: somewhat sheer, an orange toned red. Is much more orange than what the packaging and the bullet would suggest.
3. Yves Rocher lipstick in 101 Framboise: a rich creamy pigmented blue based red. Glossy finish.
4. NYX Lipliner Pencil in 817 Hot Red
5. Rimmel Apocalips Lip Lacquer in 400 Big Bang: Tomato red, extremely pigmented. Glossy finish.
6. L'oreal Caresse Glam Shine Stain Splash in 300 Juliet: Glossy cherry red. Somewhat sheer but can be built up to full colour (like pictured above). Leaves a more pinky red stain behind.
7. Sleek True Colour Lipstick in 778 Stiletto: a true matte red. Creamy and pigmented.
8. L'oreal Rouge Caresse Colour Riche lipstick in 179 Cherry Tulle: Sheer cherry red. Glossy finish.

Apologies for some of the rushed applications. But I hope you get an idea of what the products would look like on the lips.

I'll be rocking either the L'oreal Caresse Glam Shine Stain Splash in Juliet or the L'oreal Rouge Caresse Colour Riche Lipstick in Cherry Tulle, a sheer approach to red. For evening looks, I'll wear the more pigmented colour with a simple black winged liner.

Support the cause. Raise awareness. And until next time..

- Diem xo