KIKO cosmetics Purifying Mask

If you're like me, you may never have heard of Kiko cosmetics, a makeup and skincare company from Milan that sell throughout Europe. I discovered them on my trip to Berlin last month and picked up a few treats which I have been testing out, including this face mask. I have since found out that they sell online too, and have a couple of stores in London. They have free shipping and run regular promotions. The shop itself felt very high end, a bit like a MAC store, but the products are very reasonable, this mask retails for £5.90 on their UK site. 

My skin is oily/blemished so I chose this mask which is designed to purify the skin, but you can get various masks for different skin types, all at the same price. It's an exfoliating mask, which seems to be clay based.

This is the blurb on the back, I love the idea of micro-sponges, though I have no idea what that really means!

I used this in the bath after cleansing my skin normally with a facial cleanser, and applied as per the instructions. This is what the product looks like out of the packaging:

Hopefully you can see all the nice grainy scrubby bits! Does it work? To be honest, I did notice less dry skin and some unclogged pores but it did give me a couple of spots in the days after using it. You could argue that this means it has done its job by purifying the skin. What I would say is, for the price it's a great mask, I would use this instead of one of the Body Shop or Lush masks quite happily. But if you're going on a big night out or have a date coming up, use this at least a few days in advance incase you end up with a massive unsightly blemish!

Overall 6/10, and I would try the other masks in the range also.

Color Wow Pop& Lock Crystallte Shellac

Hi guys, back with a hair product today for you all. I don't normally review hair products, as my hair is a bit of a nightmare I have to use loads of products to keep it in shape. However, now and then I try something which I love and then go tell everyone about, and this is one of those!

This product is from Color Wow (link here), who provide high end products for colored hair including an award winning root touch up kit. Now I cannot remember where I heard of this product but it must have been fate! If I straighten my hair it looks nice for about two hours then the dreaded halo of frizz and flyaways set in. This product is a glosser which sets on the hair, working almost as a hairspray and a shine spray in one. It is choc full of glitter and is gorgeous to look at in the packaging.

It's a lovely shimmery gel, not too thick and easy to apply to the hair. I do it once my hair is finished, smooth a little across my hands and smooth it over my fringe and the top of my hair, it instantly makes your hair look shinier and amplifies any tints or colour you have had done. I love it as it looks natural and light, not weighing your hair down or making it look greasy.

 

That lets you see a bit of the blurb on the back and I can tell you it really does all that it says. If you want perfectly shiny hair, and your hair won't play ball, this is the product for you. I can also say that this works well on long hair, like mine!

Overall a 9.5 out of 10, yes really! get your paws on this asap.

Soap and Glory Hot Cloth Cleanser

Happy Sunday everyone! The weather has turned horrid in the past couple of days and my skin has been playing up, so I've been trying everything I can to sort it out. Winter is the worst for dry skin, but even for oily skin like mine I get dry patches on my nose and around any pesky blemishes I might have.

Hot Cloth Cleansers are something I love, they make cleansing feel more indulgent and like you're really cleaning your face thoroughly. I treated myself to Soap and Glory's version with some of my birthday money, and have been using it for about a week now in order to give it a good go.

My verdict? I love this. It claims to have a 3 in 1 formula that purifies deep into the skin with various natural oils and vitamins. I'm no scientist, but it certainly smells divine and does what it claims. The cream itself is quite thick and smooth, it's not too oily but does start to melt when you rub it into your skin. The box says to use a grape size amount but I use a bit more than that, I think you wouldn't get as good results if you used less. 

As with all hot cloth cleansers you just massage it into the skin, then wet the cloth with hot water and use it to gently remove the cleanser whilst exfoliating the skin. It leaves your skin feeling squeaky clean and super soft.

If you are looking for an indulgent treat which is not too expensive but really sorts your skin out, I would recommend this. At the minute it is 1/3 off at Boots, so only £6.66 instead of £10. Compared to the prices of other similar products, this is a great bargain. My skin feels super soft, not greasy and my dry patches have vanished.

Overall: 9/10 I just wish the actual tube was prettier to look at as it could be a medicine of some sort!

Fine One One! Back with a bang!

Hello! After a not-so-brief hiatus I am back to blogging! I pretty much vanished off the face of the earth through my fourth year of my degree, but it's all done and dusted now and I could not be happier!

Anyway, back to beauty. For my first review this YEAR (gosh it's been a while), I have chosen Benefit's new multi-tasking product, Fine-one-one. Incase you've missed the press, this product has been four years in development! It has a highlighter, a blusher and a contour all in one handy cream stick format. The packaging is, as always, pretty slick from Benefit. Take a look-see.

It's a classy metallic rose-colour, not too big, nice and portable, and feels quite sturdy, a must for me as I drop things all the time! All in all another pretty product from Benefit. So, on to the product itself.

As you can hopefully see there are three products in one, alongside each other. This is designed to be fool-proof so you just swipe across your cheek and blend lightly. Swatch please!



The highligher aspect of this is not that obvious unless you go over it a couple of times, but it is similar in colour to High Beam from Benefit. The blush is a corally pink matte shade and the contour is orangy peach in colour. This was from swiping it twice lightly. You do need to blend a fair amount to get rid of the obvious lines.

To be honest, it took me as much time using this as it normally does using blusher and highlighter individually and blending so I wouldn't use it as an "express" product but it would be really handy for travelling. Also, this will not suit all skin tones. For the price of £23.50, you do get three products, and this can be used on lips too, though I wouldn't personally choose to do so.

Overall: it looks pretty and does what is says on the tin. Useful for travelling but perhaps more of a gimmicky product than a makeup bag staple. 6/10

I did however LOVE the Benefit van:

Maybelline "FIT ME" Range

Hello all, new drugstore makeup review for you today! I was watching telly last night and an advert came on for the new Maybelline Range "FIT Me", a new oil-free range that is meant to take the hassle out of colour matching and provide all the complementary products for your foundation. Today I was in Tesco and the range was on 3 for 2 so I thought I would give it a shot! Here are the three products I chose:

For my three products, I chose the liquid foundation, the pressed powder and the concealer. I was partly intrigued to see how a full 3 part system would work together and also it was a great deal! Of the shades in store, they did not have the very lightest two shades, which I might have originally considered. Thankfully I didn't as the 125 is perfect on my skin once blended in. This shade is the second one in the pink based tones, so probably I would have looked a bit ghost-like with the first one on! What I'm a bit bemused by is that the above three shades are meant to be perfectly matched with each other, but you can clearly see that the foundation is darker than the other two products. Here are the foundation and concealer next to each other on my skin:

foundation on the left, concealer on the right

To tell the truth, once the products are on together you can barely see any difference at all, but it somehow annoys me that "matching" products dont, well, match! Here is the powder:

The packaging for these items is hardly ground breaking but you can see they are trying to look a little more upmarket with the sleek black design. They look nicer than a lot of other affordable products, I was quite impressed with the overall look and feel of them. They're obviously copying Mac and Bobbi Brown a bit but I'm not bothered about that!

As for the performance of the products, the liquid feels light and is easy to manipulate but gives medium to high coverage (great for blemishes but can settle in fine lines a little). It lasts all day and when set with the powder offers a flawless, matte finish. The concealer has a slightly thicker consistency but blends well. It doesn't cling to dry bits and covers my dark circles without irritating my sensitive eyes (WIN).

Overall I am a fan of this system. I can put it on for work and I know I won't be more oily than usual, any blemishes are covered, and it lasts well all day. Re-application of the powder at lunchtime and I'm good to go! For the price these products are very good value, though a word of warning: the powder is quite messy for a pressed powder. The range also offers blushers, so I might check these out in future. Have any of you tried this range? What do you think?

Foundation: 8/10

Concealer 8.5/10

Powder 7/10



What my lips are loving: pearls and pink champagne!

Who can resist pearls and bubbles? If you can, you're a stronger woman than me. With the changing seasons and the winter chill setting in, I've started thinking about looking after my poor lips, which like to get all yucky and dry in winter. In order to keep them soft and pretty, I've been stockpiling goodies! Two of my latest favourites are my new lippie from the MAC cremesheen and pearl collection, and a limited edition Vaseline. Vaseline you say? Yes but not just any Vaseline :)

First up, Shanghai Spice from MAC.

 

I've blown this up so you can see how pretty the sheen is on this. The pearl in the lipstick is very delicate, not as obvious as I would have expected, but feminine and lovely. The shade itself is a delicate rose nude shade, it's a very grown up shade for me! 

This lipstick feels gorgeous on, very classy and Kate Middleton. I'm thinking nude heels and a navy dress (preferably with champers in hand). Talking of champers...

Look at that! Sorry I just had to put it in a glass, for the record I did polish it beforehand but it seems to have my grubby pawprints all over it lol. I saw this in the supermarket the other day and let out a little squeal of delight!

At the end of the day, it's just another Vaseline but it's so much more luxurious to carry about with you than plain old Vaseline. On reading the back, it actually does have alcohol and wine extract in it, and you can smell it in the balm.

The scent is rose based I'd say, but with a tingly sweet scent that definitely smells like champagne, it's lovely and lasts when you have it on. The tin claims that it tints your lips slightly, as you can see above the product is very light in colour, it makes no difference whatsoever lookswise once on. It does however feel lovely, smell delicious and the tin is super girly and decadent. On an aside, this looks great over Benefit's Cha Cha tint on your lips!

Well there you go, lovelies. Pearls and champagne for the weekend. It's Friday so pouts at the ready, if you want to give your lips a VIP upgrade, I'd recommend these products.

8/10 for the MAC as it could be more pigmented and 10/10 for the Vaseline as a favourite staple

Illamasqua Lipsticks- let's get bold

Hey guys, I've been horribly busy at uni, fourth year now so lots on my plate! But I'm back with some more lovely product reviews for you. What better to start off with than lipstick, everyone loves a good lippie!

I had wanted an Illamasqua lipstick for ages, I'm still in love with their packaging and entire ethos, and their bold colours really appeal to me. So I went for two of their brightest colours, Fetish and Encounter.

 Encounter (R) and Fetish (L)

I'll firstly start with Fetish as I was a little disappointed with the colour payoff with this shade as it's so bright in the bullet.

It's a gorgeous grape shade, vampy and dark, I had no idea where I would actually wear this but just wanted it regardless.

As you can see from the swatched, the colour comes off a little cooler on the skin, there is a warmth to the purple in the bullet, almost a magenta tone which is totally lost on the skin, it falls a little flat and one-dimensional, which is really gutting. It looks a little Morticia Addams to me sadly.

 I am particularly pale, but even so I cannot see this shade being particularly flattering on many skin tones. I'll play about with is and different looks so we'll see, but I'm skeptical!

On the other hand, Encounter is the most amazing 50's red. It's sexy, luscious and my new favourite red lipstick.

I am besotted with this shade, it makes me feel like a film star! The purple shade just shows every line on your lips and doesn't give the colour you want, but this one plumps and fills out your lips. My favourite thing about this is a lot of red lipsticks fade badly or stain your lips, but this one doesn't. It wears evenly and doesn't budge.

If you're looking for a new red lipstick for winter, I urge you to give Illamasqua a try, their website is here, check it out! If you have any questions about their products just let me know :)

MWAH!