Theme Park Makeup Must Haves!

“Paris is always a good idea” – Audrey Hepburn 

I was lucky enough to spend the second week of August at Disneyland Paris (my absolute favourite place in the world!) If you’re reading this from France, or you happened to be in France this month, you’ll know that it was so hot! But of course I didn’t go without my stash of makeup goodies and beauty products, and making sure those goodies stayed in place all day under the heat was something I made a priority during my holiday. 

This inspired me to write this blog post, because although the summer is coming to a close, I know a lot of you would have (or are yet to go on) you’re holiday or summer days out, and if you’re anything like me, you want assurance that you’re makeup will stay on all day no matter what the weather maybe doing! I was pretty much wearing makeup all day, every day and I was pretty impressed with the staying power of my makeup, so I wanted to show you guys everything I brought along with me!

Products that I took to Paris with me: 

Nars All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation: This is a relatively new foundation that I’ve been trying out, as I wanted to try something new and something that would last on my skin all day. I have extremely oily skin that tends to look a bit sweaty in the hot weather, so this foundation worked miracles on me during my trip, staying in place all day! By the end of the day my skin barely needed any touching up and left a nice glow to the skin (not oily in the slightest!) one girl who even worked at the park complimented my foundation and asked me what I was wearing! I have previously written a full length blog post on my first impressions of this foundation and will be writing a follow up on my thoughts once I’ve finished the bottle, so if you want to have a read of my first impressions feel free to do so. 

Mac Pro Longwear Concealer: If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now you’ll know that the Mac Pro Longwear Concealer is my holy grail concealer and I can’t see myself using another concealer for a very long time! So naturally I had to bring this along with me. Like the Nars foundation it didn’t move under the heat and kept my complexion looking completely flawless. The creamy application also meant that if I was in a rush to go anywhere I could blend this in quite quickly! 

 Rimmel Stay Matte Powder: If you’ve got normal to oily skin I would definitely recommend setting your makeup with this setting powder. It’s not cakey and leaves a matte, translucent and almost invisible finish on the skin. It doesn’t add any colour to your already applied foundation/concealer and it meant that I only really needed to touch up a few times during the day.

Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray: Setting sprays have become a must for me recently, mainly because they really are a life saver! There’s so many different setting sprays out there and I want to try them all, but recently I’ve been loving my trusty Urban Decay All Nighter Setting Spray. It does what it says on the bottle, it sets the makeup after application, making it last all day (even under the summer heat!) Pairing this with my Nars foundation it’s a match made in heaven. I also carried this around Disneyland in my bag so I could sprtiz this throughout the day whenever I needed a little touch up. 

Kerastase Nutritive Oleo-Relax Serum: My hair can become quite intolerant under the heat, and so I wanted a serum that would stop it from getting so frizzy and clean up any unruly hairs. This serum has been a massive favourite of mine for years now, so naturally I had to pack this stuff! It completely smoothes out my hair and helps to keep the style of it in place all day. If you’ve got frizzy or rebellious hair it’s definitely worth a try! 

So those were a couple of my theme park must haves that I brought along with me to Disneyland Paris (there was so many more!) I had an amazing time and I’m definitely having withdrawal symptoms! If you enjoyed this post please let me know, and let me know if you’ve tried any of these products and what you think of them! 

Thanks for reading! 

Alice D x 

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Mac Pro Longwear Pressed Powder Review!

Hand on my heart, Mac is honestly one of my favourite makeup brands of all time (along with Nars and Chanel to name a few!) But if I ever want to try out a new makeup product, I instantly check out Mac first. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something walking out of a Mac store with a bag in hand full of beautiful new goodies. It just makes me happy (that’s not weird, right?) 

As I was going on a week long trip to Disneyland Paris, I knew it was going to be an incredibly hot week, and I knew I was going to be wearing makeup for long periods of time. I wanted to treat myself and try out some new makeup for my holiday that I knew was going to actually last under the heat. 

Obviously my new Nars All Day Luminous Weightless foundation helped a lot, and there will be a follow up blog on that foundation (so keep an eye out for that!) but I also wanted to try out a new pressed powder that would keep my foundation in place all day. 

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore my Rimmel Stay Matte Powder, it’s still a holy grail product and I will love it forever. But I wanted to try out the Mac Pro Longwear Pressed Powder because I’m a makeup junkie and this appealed to me, partly because it’s Mac, and partly because I wanted something new for my holiday. 

This powder promises to give a wet-proof velvet-matte finish that gives medium coverage and zero shine. For someone with extremely oily skin, this was obviously everything I look for in a powder, so I had to get my hands on it. 

What I love: 

-      It definitely does create a velvet matte finish that I love. I’ve always been a matte girl, unless a product was going to make my skin look completely matte, I didn’t want it. But since I’ve had compliments on how nice my skin looks when it has a slight dewy finish to it, I’ve been quite enjoying the finish that this powder gives me. 

     The choice of shades is amazing, which is typical of Mac. There’s nothing I hate more than finding a beautiful face product and realizing that there isn’t s shade to correctly match my skin. But you can always count of Mac (with any of their products) to provide you with the perfect match of your skin tone. 

     The packaging is beautiful and convenient. It’s a simple black case with a compact mirror. This is a God send for me since I was out wondering Disneyland all day and needed to check on my makeup and do any touch ups. 

      What I don’t love: 

      As much as I adore Mac’s products, this powder didn’t do anything special in terms of actual staying power when comparing it with the Rimmel Stay Matte Powder. I find that the Rimmel Stay Matte powder, which is a much cheaper alternative, did almost exactly the same job as this powder, so in future I will continue on with my Stay Matte, and save my Pro Longwear for special occasions. 

 

     So that’s my thoughts on the Mac Pro Longwear Pressed Powder. Keep in mind that I have only been using this powder for around a week, so obviously I will be using the full product up. Overall I think it’s a beautiful powder that gives me a finish that is so beautiful it’s changed my mind on the dewy look, and I won’t be so obsessed with having a matte finish all the time. Let me know what you’re favourite Mac products are or if you’ve tried this product yourself, I’d love to know all your thoughts. 

     Thanks for reading! 

     Alice D x

  

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How to save money on makeup: Part 2!

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how to save money on makeup, and it became quite a well received post so I decided to write a second part of that blog post, as I have so many more tips and tricks up my sleeve to share with you! 

It becomes a bit overwhelming when you’re shopping for makeup, and it’s so easy to get carried away with all the beautiful little goodies on display, but its worth while getting into the habit of the following tips so you’re bank account won’t regret it later! 

If you want to have a little read of my part 1 blog post on saving money on makeup, please feel free to check it out, there’s a lot of really helpful tips on that one! 

Stick to the essentials- It’s important to prioritise what you feel are essential makeup items when you’re shopping; this could include foundation, concealer, powder, I would say any face products that are going to hide all those dark circles and blemishes should be an essential. This way you’ve kept some money aside for those items and if you’ve ended up spending less money than you thought, you can get yourself a little trick! 

 Prep, Prime and Set- You might think this is just a helpful makeup trick that has nothing to do with helping you to save money on makeup, but it does. It’s so simple yet it’s something people tend to forget. Preparing your skin by using a primer, then setting the makeup with powder and a good setting spray will help your makeup stay on much longer. But another purpose this serves is this actually helps you save money; because by doing this you’re not touching up your makeup so often, which obviously means you’re not running out on your essentials like foundation and concealer as quickly! I recommend using a good setting spray like the Urban Decay All Nighter Spray, the bottle will last you ages and you’re makeup won’t budge – It’s in the name!

Recycle for free products in return- Mac in particular, has a well known “Back to Mac” program that accepts old makeup containers. The best part is, for doing this small act of kindness to the environment, you get a free Mac lipstick of your choice! This will definitely save you some pennies on a must have product that your bank account will definitely thank you for! 

Look deeper- This isn’t known to many, but large makeup stores and department stores with big brand names will always place the most expensive products at eye level. This of course sounds like a simple marketing trick which is so blindingly obvious, yet it’s something most shoppers won’t catch on. It’s so easy to get carried away when you’ve got a ton of stunning products calling your name, but try looking beneath eye level for slightly cheaper products. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that a lot of these “cheaper” products are the same quality, or will do the same job as the more expensive “eye level” products. 

Sale, sale and sale- Yes, I know it’s obvious! You’re probably reading this and thinking “Yes well obviously Alice!” but it’s something a lot of people won’t take advantage of. There’s so many different ways you can take advantage of sales and discount on some of your favourite makeup brands. This can be signing up for newsletters at sites like BeautyBay and FeelUnique, where they frequently hold sales on amazing must-have products! It’s such an easy thing to do and it will save you a lot of pennies on that little treat you’ve had your eye on! 

I wasn’t planning on writing a part 2 of my “How to save money on makeup” blog post I wrote a few weeks ago, but because these tips are so useful I wanted to do another one. Following these tips it becomes so easy to save your hard earned money on makeup and beauty products, you don’t need to regret spending your money on products that aren’t worth it! I hope this blog post has been somewhat helpful to anyone who wants calm their shopping habits down a bit and save a few pennies. Let me know if you’ve got any more tips of this topic, it’s always something I’d like to get a bit better at! 

Thanks for reading! 

Alice D x 

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