Maša M blog
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The best and worst of my primers

 

I have talked quite a lot about primers in my previous posts, since I really do believe that they make a difference to a) what your skin will look like with foundation and b) how good it’s going to wear throughout the day. I have included some primers in my recent favorites as well, so go check those out if you are interested.

So currently, I have quite a few primers that I use on a regular basis. I thought that the best way to go about this is from my least favorite to my personal favorite primer, something that we already did with mascaras (click here and here to view those posts).


6th place: MONU First Defence Illuminating primer with SPF 15

I got the deluxe sample of this primer in the Look Fantastic Beauty Box and I’m almost out of it. It says it’s suitable for all skin types, but I feel that he is somewhat responsible for the breakouts I’ve been having recently. It’s also quite drying, which could be expected for a mattifying primer, but I feel that it sticks to the dry patches on my face a bit more and thus makes them even more apparent. I’ll give it a point for the SPF, but that’s about it. The full size costs a whooping 40 € of Feelunique website.

5TH place: New Baby Skin Instant Fatigue Blur (Warm Apricot)

First of all, I need to talk about the smell. It’s absolutely horrible, like the 1 € apricot ice cream you’d get from a store that had never seen a real apricot in its life, but had rather been smothered with tons of chemicals and additives.

It is light orange in shade, so it’s supposed to really be color correcting and good at hiding your dark circles etc. I personally don’t see any difference in that area. Similar to the original Baby Skin primer, it’s silicone base so it does a good job at preparing your face for foundation, but really, it’s nothing special. You can get it from Asos for about 11 €.

4TH place: Bourjois Happy Light Matte Serum Primer

This primer has been a favorite of mine for quite some time, until it got cooler in the winter time. It says that it’s best for normal to combination skin, promises airbrush action and pore minimization – which it really does. But in the winter, I felt that it really tug on my skin, which is probably due to the mattifying effect it promises. My foundation does look nicer and holds longer with this one, so I will not chuck it, but it’s certainly not one of my favorites. It sells on Lookfantastic for about 11 €. View Post

Too many open mascaras…

After a long night of dreaming about Nepal (and a quite dashing young gentleman (see my Instagram for more details on that one) – and not really getting much sleep, doing a post that requires close-up photos of my eyes probably isn’t the best idea, but still, here it goes. As you may already know, I have quite a hoarding problem when it comes to mascaras and I’ve gone through my pile to see what I need to talk about and discard and what I can keep using for a few more months.

This is what I came up with – six mascaras in total. Don’t judge.


Needless to say, not all of them are great, so let’s do it the same way we did the other time – from worst to best. By the way, all photos of lashes are one coat without any curling.

I generally adore Maybelline mascaras, but the Great Lash mascara did absolutely nothing for me at all.

Maybelline Great Lash
It won several Allure’s “best of” titles and I was so sure that this really was the holy grail mascara I picked it up the second I saw it. Well, I wish that I would have checked the wand before I did that, because now that I know what to look for, it seems obvious that the bristles are set so far apart that they will each hug a bunch of lashes at the same time and just create these thick spidery lashes.

Now, some of you may enjoy this effect, but I really hate it. It’s also a very wet mascara which transfers like crazy on my eyelids and under my waterline. I would not recommend it, not at all. View Post

Concealers – a quick review!

When I asked you guys what you’d like to see me write about, so many of you mentioned concealers that I just can’t stay away from the topic. Mind you, I’m not a huge concealer junkie – I think it’s one of those things that you need to find whatever works for you and just stick to it. And let me just say that all of the reviews here will be mainly positive, since I’ve had quite a bit of luck on the concealing side. So let’s jump right in!

Makeup revolution concealer (Fair)

I picked up this shade since I wanted something that would also act like a subtle highlight underneath my eyes (you know – the triangle trick). It has a bit of pink undertone but is still lighter than my natural face shape. I bought this on Licila.si for a bargain price of about 2 €. It also comes in the natural shade, and in the last few months, they also added a new line of Makeup revolution concealers called Focus & Fix, which I need to try as well.

Anyway, I just use this underneath my eyes since I don’t really have any breakouts to take care of very often and the shade would be much too light for that. Consequently, I cannot judge the staying power on the face, but it doesn’t budge at all underneath the eyes. The only thing that slightly bothers me is that it’s quite a dry formula and if you don’t set it with a good powder, it will probably crease on you, more so if you have some fine lines under your eyes.

Still, for the price, it’s a great concealer and I would repurchase it. The packaging is nice and sturdy (even though all of the writing came of quite quickly) and looks pretty nice as well. Applicator: doe shaped.

Maybelline Fit Me concealer (10 – Light)

Again, this is one of the concealers that could go in the “Youtube made me buy it” category. But I’m glad I did. It’s the only concealer in my collection right now that I can actually use on my face if I have to, since it’s a match to my skin tone as well as my undertones.

What I particularly enjoy about this product is how well it blends – you need to put a minimal amount of effort in it in order to completely blend it in. It’s a full coverage concealer. If you want something for highlighting, I would stay away from this, since “Light” really isn’t that light at all, and it’s the lightest shade in the range.

I bought this at a UK website (maybe Asos?) and if I remember correctly, it set me back about 10 €. The packaging is similar to the one of the Makeup Revolution concealer and so is the wand. View Post

First Empties of 2015!

This post is way overdue, especially due to the fact that my spare closet was starting too look like some hoarder’s wet dream. A bunch of empties and no time to share my thoughts on them with you, my beauties. But this changes – right now!

Let’s start with some haircare.

I used up the Schwarzkopf Gliss Hair Repair for dry and damaged hair – and for once, the shampoo and the conditioner both lasted the exact same amount of washes. I don’t know why, but usually I use up the conditioner way faster. Anyway, this came recommended by a friend and I loved the product. It really did make a difference in my hair, leaving it a bit shinier and I’ve also noticed less frizz and fewer flyaways. I also use the deep conditioning mask, but I’ve got a couple more uses in that one.


As for this Essence Road Trip dry shampoo, I just don’t know. It was a random purchase and I used it just as randomly. It didn’t really convince me in making my hair any less greasy, so I mainly used it if my hair was clean but had a smell (e.g. if I was baking/cooking something with a heavy smell). So I wouldn’t repurchase this.

I have rambled about the Axe Anarchy deodorant so much in my empties, I’m not going to repeat myself. I was however slightly surprised by the Nivea Angel Star Invisible deodorant. I think they changed the formula on that one – when I used it in the past it really did the job, but for some reason this one just did not perform. It’s not really empty, but I am throwing it away since it’s useless.

Alas, I also used up an entire bottle of Chloe by Chloe perfume in about 6 months. I purchased a double size of this a couple of months back so I hope it lasts me at least until 2016. I love this smell, but I would not recommend a certain perfume to anyone, since it’s completely a personal preference. I will say, however, that it lasts beautifully on my skin – I get compliments on it even after 12 hours. View Post

Products I regret buying – 2014 recap

 

Let’s start with face products.

The L’Oreal Mat Magique foundation I already talked about here. It is supposed to be a really mattifying foundation but it only lasted a couple of hours on my face before it started melting away and my face got oily again. I’ve tried it since with several different primers and fixing fluids, to no success.

All-around concealer by Catrice seemed like a good, inexpensive option for the days when I actually take the time to color correct my face before I apply foundation. I chose this particular palette because I thought that it would be a good learning tool, but I find that the product is really difficult to blend (with fingers, beauty blender or with brush) and cakes on my face where I apply it.

Bahama Mama was a big, big disappointment because I’ve heard so many bloggers go on and on about how it’s a great contouring bronzer. I somehow managed to make it work when I had some tan from summer (read about thathere) but now I just look like I’ve been rolling in the mud every time I attempt to use it. I am afraid that it is not meant for us fair-skinned folk, unless you are going for the Kardashian look on an everyday basis.

As far as eye shadows go, I made two rather unsuccessful purchases this year, but the one that really left me down was the Maybelline Nudes palette.

You can find the entire review over here, but if you don’t feel like reading it, let me just say that half of the shadows in the palette are so bland and have such low pigmentation that they are useless and the other half are nothing special, really. You can find better palettes at Essence, Barry M or BH Cosmetics for half the price. View Post