A few new products

I love Maybelline mascaras I've never used any other, that I can remember. So when I saw The Mega Plush Volum' Express in Boots with discount I was all over it, I bought it at £5.99 with £2 off, not sure how long the offer is on for!

This is Maybelline's first gel mousse mascara with a new formula containing 40% less hard waxes. I loved the texture and the lasting power, I find some mascaras drop and flake leaving black blobs under my eyes. This was so easy to apply with the large flexor brush and the creamy, velvety texture, it glided through my lashes adding a lovely curl, separating them with NO clumps, and adding volume but not as much thickness as their other mascaras. I think this is a great mascara for a natural look but if you're looking for more volume and drama for your lashes I would go with The Falsies or The Colossal.

I got the new Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede Lipstick, again with £2 off for £6.99... BARGAIN! I chose the shade "it girl" its quite hard to describe the colour but I love it! I suppose its like a dark coral shade with a hint of pink a lovely summer shade. This is a lip stain with shea butter and aloe giving you instant moisture, matte finish and a splash of colour that does last all day! I love the application and that you can build the colour up, the only disadvantage is it can leave your lips dry and patchy half way through the day, and can feel a little tacky after an hour or so after you've first applied it. So I have been applying a little Vaseline before, and touching up only once through the day. 

First of all I want to say I love the packaging for the new range of Bourjois cream blushes, they are a small cute compact with a little mirror and a magnetic clasp! I got the shade 01 "nude velvet" it is perfect for my pale skin and is super easy to apply. I find some cream blushes just won't blend, but I was impressed with this, I applied it with my finger tips and it just melted into my skin giving me a healthy glow. Its a lovely peachy colour and I love wearing it with the Revlon ColorStay Ultimate Suede Lipstain, they work so well together. I got this on offer too £1 off £6.99 from Boots 

So I didn't do that bad with going into Boots after work for a little nosey!

Love Jess x

Challenge Accepted!

***Sprinkle Of Glitter*** 30 Day Snap

A couple of days ago I came across a post from ***Sprinkle Of Glitter***, she has joined many other bloggers challenging themselves to upload an image everyday in June. She has invited her followers to join and I thought it would be a great way to spend my second month of blogging!

So the rules are simple, upload one picture of your day, everyday in June. I will warn you I don't own a camera, well a proper one I will just be using the one I have on my iphone, but it may release my inner creativity and photographic skills :/ 

Have a look at ***Sprinkle Of Glitter's*** blog as she will be doing it too, and lets all be nosey for the next month....... See you in ten days! 

(Well before for some other posts)

Love Jess x

My make-up for a little work gathering!

Last night I went to my boss's other business, where I used to work, for a little celebration. They are going to America next weekend for a few weeks to get married, so we all had a lovely meal and got a little tipsy making a few cocktails and shots later on. I got some new make-up brushes through the week and I had a new Urban Decay Naked Basics palette to use and I thought oooohh I'll make a lovely little post for my blog.

I began with my favourite foundation at the moment, Urban Decay Naked Skin foundation and used the Real Techniques - expert face brush to buff it into the skin. Then a bit of concealer around my eyes, nose and chin, I use Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer and a Real Techniques - domed shadow brush. I love this concealer, it covers up any redness and dark circles under my eyes and lasts all day.

I have recently found a new product for my eyebrows, the Maybelline New York Master Shape Brow Pencil. I finally found a suitable colour to match my brows!! .... So I use a little of this to fill in my brows... and now onto the eyes.

Using a Mac 239 brush and my new Urban Decay palette I swept Walk of Shame all over the lid, then with a Mac 217 I brushed Faint through the crease and outer corner and blended. To add a little thickness through the lashes I took a angled brush and lined my top and bottom lash line with Crave, and adding a little more depth using a pointed blending brush from Models Own and Faint I blended this through my lower lash line. Finally I curled my lashes and layered up the mascara with my new favourite Maybelline the Falsies.... (I've seen another advert, Maybelline have a new mascara out, I may have to give it a go!) I couldn't resist using the satin shade Venus for the inner corners/tear ducts and through my brow bone... Love, Love, LOVE!

I contoured through my cheek bones and temples with my Sleek Contour Kit and added a little flush of colour onto the apples of my cheeks with Benefit Dandelion, finally finishing this look off with Mac Chatterbox lipstick.

I apologise for the bad quality images of myself I cannot seem to take good photos of myself! I had fifteen minutes spare before I had to leave to I painted my nails, using Barry M Textured Nail Effects in Kingsland Road, very pretty pastel pink and girly shade! 

Love Jess x

A few foundations I've tried and tested

I find it so hard to find even one foundation that I really love and will buy again, because of my oily skin and being so fair. Well over the last few months I've been on a hunt and I have found two amazing foundations! But I thought I'd share my thoughts on the others that didn't win me over ........

Starting from the left ...

Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Make-up (that was a mouthful!) £27 the most expensive out of the bunch BUT sooo worth it. I was going to leave favourites until last but it was first in line. Anyway this foundation feels like you have nothing on, it is oil-free, paraben free, fragrance free, and formulated with light-diffusing spheres leaving you with a demi-matte finish. The best thing about it is its oil free so lasts pretty much all day from say half seven until four or five in the afternoon without touch ups! This is a new product from Urban Decay and comes in eighteen shades, they have numbered the foundations considering the yellow/olive undertones and more rosy/neutral undertones so yellows ending in ".0" and rosy in ".5" I went for 1.0 and it matches my skin perfectly. You can build the coverage up easily and I apply it with my fingers or a foundation brush buffing it into the skin.

Maxfactor Facefinity All Day Flawless 3 in 1 Foundation £11.99 I used this all through winter before I found the Urban Decay  foundation and I loved it. The foundation holds throughout the WHOLE of the day! This is because of the 3- in 1 factor ... 1.Primer 2.Concealer  and 3. Liquid Foundation. The only thing I will say about this is you still need to use concealer but hey I'm not complaining, and with only six shades to choose from (not many) but I guess I was lucky that there was a very light shade. This gives a medium to high coverage and best applied with a foundation brush.

Avon Ideal Flawless Invisible Coverage Foundation £12 This foundation goes on beautifully but just doesn't last that long on my skin (maximum about two hours), this would be a great for dry/ normal skin types it has a lovely dewy finish with a medium coverage with a flawless completion. 

Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation £6.99 I saw the advert with Emma Stone and I was sold! The colour range is great with ten shades and going very fair I got a matching shade (Ivory) Similar coverage to the Urban Decay foundation very light like you aren't wearing any. I buffed this into my skin with a foundation brush for a dewy/matte flawless finish, which was amazing. It just didn't last as long, my t-zone was very oily after about four hours wear. So again much better suited for a drier skin type.

Revlon ColorStay Make-up Combination/Oily Skin £12.49 I had heard lots of great things about this foundation for a while before I bought it. Saying it will give you flawless looking skin lasting all day, well 16 hours  with a medium to full coverage! I thought great... finally I have found my perfect foundation. I applied it with a foundation brush and buffed it into my skin but it just sat into all my pores and it was just way too matte. I was disappointed! The only good thing about it was the matching shade for me! 

Love Jess x 

The Mrs Carter Show

This weekend I was able to get the bank holiday off work, and travel down to London with my sister and cousin to see Beyonce! YES I know BEYONCE! As soon as I saw the advert from o2 priority I was determined to get tickets .... and hey I was one of the lucky few to get them. We didn't get the best seats but we had an amazing view .... three rows from the back (my legs were a little shaky looking down) 


Saturday went pretty fast and we were soon getting ready for the concert, I had decided against the "single ladies" leotard and afro hair, I wore a light pink high waisted skirt with a floral tee tucked in and flat pink dolly shoes. I was considering heels at one point but that would have been a very bad idea with the amount of stairs we had to climb (never mind trying to balance on  the packed tube). I browsed through endless photos of Beyonce and I came across one from her show, it looked so simple yet glamorous. I used my Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner with Sleek black eyeshadow to create a soft winged eye and a light pink lip, using Maybelline Coloursensational in Sweet Pink, my sister kindly loosely curled my hair. My picture on "about me" is from Saturday night.

Anyway..... Beyonce! I was overwhelmed by the o2 arena it was huge! We arrived in enough time so we could have a good noisy around, and I couldn't resist buying a Beyonce shirt from the merchandise stand (definitely overpriced at £25 for the quality, but I'm thinking of accessorising it as I don't like the style). We were one of the first people in the arena so we had quite a wait for it all to start but we saw it fill up, I tweeted, took many pictures as well as facetiming my little sister back home. 

Luke James was the support act I have never heard of him before but he is quite well known in America for his R&B singing and song-writing. He has such an amazing voice and well it quite beautiful too! 

After over two hours waiting finally it went dark and The Mrs Carter Show began. We all went so giddy and I could no longer contain my excitement,  Beyonce burst onto the stage and everyone was instantly on their feet dancing and giving all their girl power to "Run the world". 
We pretty much never sat down for the whole show, she covered some of her most greatest hits, like Single Ladies, Survivor, Countdown, Crazy in love and my favourite End Of Time. My sister just stared at me dancing I knew the routine pretty well after watching her at Glastonbury on Youtube over and over and over ...  Whilst I'm talking about dancing the twins were there break-dancing! Les twins from France (utter genius!) 

Overall there must have been ten costume changes, including a blue cat suit, animal frill dress, grey glitter frills dress (above), leather look and cap by Emilio Pucci,  mesh panelled black and gold body suit, and my favourite the white, structured and intricately beaded confection by Ralph and Russo Couture.

Apparently there are rumours the little girl on the man's shoulders with the green headphones on is Blue-Ivy!

Beyonce ended her show with the lyrics of I Was Here and an emotional montage of images and film collected through her life including her little girl, Blue-Ivy (If that doesn't make you well up this would) singing I Will Always Love You, channelling with Halo was truly amazing and that will be something I will never forget.  

So I know I've been rambling on but I cannot get enough of this woman she is just amazing. This weekend I will never forget and I can now say one of my dreams have come true! <3

Love Jess x

Neutrogena: Visibly Clear Pore and Shine Daily Scrub

So recently I have been focusing on my skin care routine. I have oily/combination skin .... Well an oily t-zone but through the summer as it gets a little warmer it can start to affect my cheek area too. So I thought lets start trying new products to see if it can help! 
I have always been a little cautious with drug store skin care ever since I had a bad reaction to one of the brands, I can't remember which one but hey I gave it a go and I'm super pressed!

Neutrogena Visibly Clear Pore and Shine Daily Scrub is a new product! I bought it from Boots after seeing an advert for it on tele. Very reasonable price £4.49.

Usually you are advised to exfoliate two to three times a week, as over exfoliating can damage the skin. However this being a daily scrub I found this very gently on the skin and after using it for nearly two weeks my skin has never felt so soft. I like to use it in the morning as it leaves my skin matte but brightens too, like a glow. It gets rid of any oils without over drying my skin and I love the fresh smell of tangerines.

This scrub cleanses deep down unclogging pores and removes dead skin with use of the exfoliating micro beads and salicylic acid. "Visibly reduces shine: the formula is clinically proven to immediately remove 77% of excess sebum" YES! It definitely does this, it was one of the first things I noticed as it gave a glowing appearance, and the fact it has a lasting effect. Now I don't think it would keep the oiliness at bay all day, as I use other products for my oiliness like my primer and foundation (which I will do posts of soon as they are amazing!) BUT I will definitely be re-purchasing this as I love the finish to my skin-such a great base for make-up, how the texture has improved in nearly two weeks, and the price!

So anyone looking for a new cleanser with oily/combination or even normal skin I would definitely consider this!

Love Jess x

p.s. I have an exciting weekend ahead so will have a new post by Monday/Tuesday! 

finally my own blog

Well hello!

 I have finally decided to start my own blog. I have been ADDICTED to reading other blogs and YouTube videos for well over a year now so I thought I might give it a go! 

please don't call me Flora is going to be full of me rambling on about my growing obsession for make-up, beauty products and any other things I find interesting. 

Ooohhh and whether you are thinking this (i don't know, i would) I struggled to think of a name for my blog, especially to do with make-up etc so I went for a more personal touch instead. Please don't call me Flora was a caption my mum wrote under a photo of me when I was a baby, I seemed quite happy to sit in a Flora (the butter) cardboard box in front if the washing machine watching it go round and around!

So I am quite excited to get started finally, and I have quite a few ideas for posts!

Love Jess x