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

  

-

-

CONTINUE READING

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 

CONTINUE READING

Anastasia Beverly Hills Waterproof Crème Colour Eyeliner Review!

Hey everyone! So today I wanted to talk about a makeup item that I haven’t yet written about on my blog, and that’s eyeliner. 

Eyeliner is something I’ve found quite difficult to get right, but I adore the look of it. If that’s pencil eyeliner, liquid, cream, bottom waterline or on the eyelids, I adore the look of it. It can frame the eyes, change the shape of them, amp up a smoky eye, make your eyes look bigger, smaller, and complete a makeup look all together. 

But unfortunately it’s been something I’ve struggled to get it right, and I definitely don’t have a knack for it. So for ages (probably years) I’ve been searching high and low for the perfect eyeliner that’s easy to apply for beginners and one that will look effortless on the eyes.

So after a lot of searching, I decided to purchase the Anastasia Beverly Hills Waterproof Crème Colour Eyeliner. If you’ve read any of my previous blog posts you’ll probably know just how much I love ABH products, it’s rapidly becoming one of my all-time favourite beauty brands.  It’s very quickly become a brand that I trust, it’s not an over-hyped brand at all, any hype around ABH is completely deserving in my opinion because their products are just amazing. 

 I wanted to try out a crème eyeliner, after some horrific experiences with pencil liners I quite liked the idea of a crème liner. Personally I like to keep it simple with the eyeliner; I like to apply a simple line across the lash line on the lid with a small flick. This look is so easy to achieve with this particular liner, even if you’re a beginner!

One thing you will either love or hate about this liner is that it’s completely waterproof! When ABH said its waterproof, they meant it! It dries extremely quickly and I promise you, it will not budge all day! I find that this can be both an advantage and disadvantage depending on your preferences; obviously it’s great that it will stay in place all day even in the heat, but if you’re a beginner like me it might be quick difficult to rub off if you’ve made a mistake applying it. Having said that, it is really easy to apply, I normally like it apply the liner with an angled Mac or Zoeva brush and that seems to be doing the trick nicely. 

 I purchased this liner in the colour “jet black”, but if you’re into experimenting with different colours then this liner is for you as it comes in so many it caters to every taste. I love the formula and consistency, an angled brush easily picks up a lot of product and it’s not messy at all!

Although I haven’t been using this product for long and don’t have a great deal of experience with eyeliners, I think this is a great product and I can already tell it’s going to be a favourite. I do want to try out a few other eyeliners so I may do a comparison blog post soon. If you’re looking for a new crème eyeliner for the summer months, this would definitely be high on my recommendations list. If you want to have a little look then you can find the ABH Crème Colour Waterproof Eyeliner here: http://www.beautybay.com/anastasiabeverlyhills/ 

 Thanks for reading!

Alice D x 

CONTINUE READING

How to save money on makeup!

Hey everyone! So today I wanted to share some tips with you on how to save money on makeup when shopping beauty products. 

This is something I feel very passionate about and over the years I’ve acquired some little hacks to save a few pennies here and there with budgeting your makeup money. 

The reason I feel so passionate about this is because firstly being a woman is expensive! Secondly I feel like too often some beauty brands and even beauty blogs will try to flog off a no-good product which means you’ve ultimately wasted your hard earned money. 

Of course we all love treating ourselves to makeup and beauty products, I mean that’s why you’re on this blog right? But sometimes your pockets don’t, so spending your money on products that truly work for you will save you so many pennies! 

1. Research, research, research! – This tip is vitally important in knowing that you’re purchasing a product that will work for you. If a product has caught your eye, do as much research as you can on the product before actually purchasing (especially if it’s an expensive product!) Speak to makeup artists that work on beauty counters, read reviews from reputable blogs and websites, watch tutorials and reviews on Youtube. There’s so many resources out there that will help give you the information you’ll need on a particular product. 

     2. Don’t believe the hype! – Just because it’s a high end product doesn’t mean there isn’t a cheaper alternative out there! It’s so easy to look at an expensive, high end beauty product and automatically assume that it will work wonders on you. Fancy ingredients and fancy packaging should not be the defining factor that will persuade you in purchasing a particular product. Some products have an excessive amount of hype around them, but again this comes back to research, do research in whether or not it’s going to work on your skin type or that it will do what you’re looking for out of a makeup item. There are so many dupes and cheaper alternatives for high end products that are maybe worth trying before you commit to buying an expensive product.  

    3. Discipline yourself – When you go shopping, make sure you have a clear idea in mind of what you’re specifically looking for, as well as how much money you’re willing to spend. By all means ask the girls on makeup counters for information and their opinions on a makeup product, but don’t let anyone persuade you to spend more money than you previously planned on. It’s part of the business and selling particular products is something that beauty advisors are trained to do in order to earn commission. This doesn’t mean that the advice they give you is no good, just discipline yourself on how much you’re prepared to spend and try not to deviate from this.  

     4. Try before you buy – This again links in with the research that you should do on a product before committing yourself to spending a considerable chunk of money on it. Going into a makeup store and trying out a sample before buying the full size is a great idea to try out the product and see if it works for you. For example if you’re looking to buy a foundation, try and get a sample of it and test it out for a few hours before making a decision on it. Testing it will help you to work out if it’s the right foundation for your skin type, if it oxidises, if it leaves a matte or dewy finish. Samples will be able to tell you all of these things, and so if the sample doesn’t live up to your expectations, I’m sure your pockets will be very thankful!  

     5. If you don’t NEED it, don’t buy it! – With all the blogs out there, YouTube videos, tutorials and makeup collections, it’s so easy to get carried away and end up buying things you don’t need. What I try to do when I’m saving money is to only buy what I need, for example only buy foundation or mascara when I’ve ran out. I of course still allow myself a little treat every now and then, but this will only be once or twice a month, that way I’m disciplining myself and my spending so I’m only strictly buying what I need. This is one of my favourite methods to help save a few pennies.

So those were just 5 simple tips that definitely help me when I’m trying to save money on makeup. Of course you don’t need to follow these tips to a T, you can pick and choose which tips will be most accommodating to you, but if you want to save money on makeup then hopefully these tips have been helpful! 

Thanks for reading! 

Alice D x 

CONTINUE READING