Shiseido Translucent Loose Powder Review

Hi, I've been on a search for the perfect loose powder. My quest is to find a powder gets rid of excess shine and provides a radiant glow, whilst being kind and non-irritating to my sensitive skin.

Today I thought I'd share with you my thoughts on Shiseido's Translucent Loose Powder

It comes in a translucent violet tub, packaged in a shiny red box. According to Shiseido, this product is non-comedogenic and is dermatologist tested.

The powder puff that comes with it is pretty pale pink, with a red satin ribbon. This puff is the softest I have ever come across. Feels incredible to use!

I found the powder to be very fine. It contains very tiny particles of shimmer, which on the skin provides a nice radiant finish. It definately did the job of mattifying oily areas, and my skin has not been irritated by this product so far.

Here I am using this loose powder. It actually gave me more coverage than I expected from a loose powder. My face was a bit blotchy and red the day these pics were taken. With just the loose powder on top of moisturiser, it provided just enough coverage for the redness.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this powder. It absorbed oily areas of my skin, and provided a small amount of coverage. On top of foundation, it will give skin a flawless complexion. I especially liked how the powder wasn't too matt, and that it gave a nice radiant sheen. In addition, I didn't feel the need to reapply the powder during the day.

Drugstore Beauty

Hi everyone, I realised I haven't done posts on drugstore brands. Though I love makeup from the likes of Guerlain, Chanel and Dior, I'm also a big fan of brands you can easily buy in drugstores such as Rimmel London and Bourjois. (I must also mention that I especially love the skincare line La Roche Posay).

This is the blush from new limited edition Paris Liberty Chich line in Rose coup de foudre, 16



The packaging is a pretty peachy-gold pot, and like all bourjois blushes, comes with a little flat brush.

It has the distinctive, strong vintage inspired bourjois blush scent, and the colour is a beautiful peach-gold with slight shimmer. Really subtle and with a pretty glow.

I've loved shopping at Boots since my high school days, and was so happy when they decided to stock French skincare lines which incoporate the use of thermal springwater such Vichy, Avene and the previously mentioned La Roche Posay.

In today's post are some products from my previous trip to Boots. I bought a couple of their new colour show off lipsticks, Kiss me, 140 and Be Bold, 120, for £5.99 each . The lip colours come in a pretty metallic bright pink case.

This is Kiss Me, a gorgeous mauve-pink.

Here is Be Bold. When I first saw this range, Be Bold was completely sold out in the Boots that I went to. I can see why.. it's a vibrant reddish-pink colour, with a touch of coral - perfect for this season.

Here it is on my lips. For some reason, this formula was quite drying on my lips. The colour was extremely pigmented -though a bit too bright for my taste.

Sorry for such bad lip swatches, my lips were dry when these pics were taken!

I also bought the Sheer Moisture Foundation SPF12 from Boot's brand 17. This foundation was an extremely good buy at £4.99.

According to 17, it's a moisturising foundation that provides soft, sheer coverage to give you a healthy natural glow.

I found that it does exactly as it says. This foundation is extremely sheer...more like a tinted moisturiser than foundation. It felt and looked very natural on my skin, and I especially loved the glow it gave.

As you can tell from these pics, the coverage is very sheer. It doesn't conceal my pores, but it does provide an even finish.

I'm wearing this foundation only on the right cheek, so you can compare it to bare skin on the other areas of my face.

Because it's so sheer, I do not see a big difference. I do however think it's perfect for days where I want a natural look, but with radiant looking skin.

Lastly, a makeup bag from Ted Baker. They were selling in Boots for around £8. I LOVE how bright and cheerful it looks. Definately puts in in a holiday spirit.

The lining is an orange-red on one side, and lilac on the other (only the orange-red side is shown -sorry!)

Cute Topshop jewellery haul

I normally don't buy jewellery from topshop as I've thought them to be a tiny bit overpriced, but they were having a big sale and I couldn't resist having a look.

I found loads of gorgeous things, I have to put a few back to stop myself from going a buying crazy. I found that even the non-sale items were fairly reasonably priced. For non special occasions, I like to go for really cute and pretty jewellery, including bows and cupcakes.

I think almost all the items above were on sale. Topshop also stocked this beautiful brand of jewellery called 'Orelia'. I was drawn to their display like a moth to a flame as their jewellery was both eclectic and so pretty at the same time. I also like their packaging, which had a slight vintage feel.

Below is a cupcake necklace I was so excited to find:





I also got a gift for a friend of mine. She really likes statement jewellery, so hopefully she likes this!

I would never be able to pull of wearing this necklace like my friend can.

Guerlain FOTD

Looking through my makeup kit I've realised I have enough Guerlain products to do a FOTD with them.



What I love about is Guerlain that it's a really old company, founded ages ago in 1828. I'm not sure when they started producing makeup, but I do know that I really adore this brand. Their eyeshadows are beautiful, really silky with a touch of shimmer.

The products I've used for the FOTD are shown below. Not all are from Guerlain:

Face:

Guerlain L'OR Radiance Concentrate with Pure Gold

Skinfood Mushroom BB Cream

Guerlain Blush 4 Eclats in Rose Vent 05

Eyes:
Guerlain Ombre Eclat in Bal de Minuit
MUFE Aqua Eyes in 2L
Giorgio Armani Eyes To Kill Mascara

Lips:
Guerlain Rouge G inBianca B21


I used the Radiance Concentrate as a base under my skinfood BB cream.

It contains gold particles to create a nice radiant glow. The gold particles seem so extravagant that I have been pondering weather to buy it for a long time. Now I'm glad I did as i love it so much. I sometimes quite like to use it on its own.

My skin with both Guerlain base and BB cream:



For the eyes, I used a Guerlain palette in Balm de Minuit, a very neutral but pretty palette:

I used the pearly white shade to highlight under my brow bone, and the pale peachy-beige shade over the upper lid:

I then used the light browny-grey shade over the eye socket, and the dark brown shade on the bottom portion of the upper lid as well as the outer corners of the lower lid:

I'm trying out a pair of circle lenses here. My eyes are not used ot wearing them yet, but they make my eyes look alot bigger!

I tightlines my upper eyelid with brown eyeliner, followed by mascara on my lashes.

I used a peachy pink colour to blush my cheeks:

And a pale rose colour on my lips:

That complete's my Guerlain FOTD:

I'm quite liking the circle lens!

Here's a NOTD thrown in. This is my first and only Dolce and Gabbana nail polish. It's in Nude 210. I really like how this colour goes with all the colours of this season (well it goes with any colour really, seeing as it's nude!) The nail polish was really easy to apply, and needed a couple of coats to get the desired colour.

MAC Pro Longwear Lipstain Markers & Liberty of London Beauty Powder

Just a quick post about a mini MAC haul. I've been to MAC recently to check out their latest limited edition collections. I came home with an item their Liberty of London collection, as well as several of their new pro longwear lipstain markers:


The Liberty of london item that I bought was their beauty powder in Shell Pearl. I just love the foral and bird print on the casing! This design was based on an old Liberty & Co. fabric print.

I really do love this beauty powder. I've read some good reveiws about it, and couldn't wait for it to come to the UK. Shell Pearl is a beautiful pale peach with gold pearl.

Hopefully, you can see in the swatch below that it gives a nice glow without being too shimmery. I use this beauty powder as a blush on days when I want a really natural look. It's also great for highlighting due to its glow:

I've been excited about the Pro Longwear Lipstain Markers eversince I've first heard about them. I love lipstains, and the maker pens make them so fun to use. I bought them in the colours; Full of Flare, Puposefully Red, and A Classic.

Below are lip swatches of my new lipstain markers.

Full of Flare:

- a bright coral

Purposefully Red:

- a nice vibrant red colour

A Classic:

- a rosy red (sorry the pic is so dark.. I ran out of natural light)

The markers were pretty easy to use. However, I found that they tend to stain the dryer parts of my lips more, making the colour slightly unevenly distributed on my lips. The colours are great though, for when i'm in a mood for something more vibrant on my lips.

Husband and I go hiking

A non beauty related post...the sun's come out! It seems like everyone in England is enjoying the outdoors. My husband and I have restarted one of our favourite past times - hiking through the English countryside.

Last weekend's hike started at Lyme Park in the Peak district. Lyme Park consists of a large Grade 1 listed mansion surrounded formal gardens and a deer park. Our hike took us out of the park and over some hills of the Peak District, so we didn't get to see any deer.

This is my husband in his hiking gear.

Five minutes into our hike, we realised that our clothes were matching in every way. I have the ladies version of his boots, vest and bag. Our trousers are the exact same colour, and our sunglasses are horrifyingly similar. I must stress that this is all unintentional, we did not plan to dress like twins.

The hike was great as the weather was beautiful...


... and so was the scenery


The hike brought us through a couple of farms. We came across these lovely cows. It's enough to turn me vegetarian. My husband thinks I'm a wierdo, but I do find cows very beautiful. They have very soulful eyes.

Us (me), happy to see the cows:

Anyway, near the end of the hike we turn back into Lyme Park. In the park there is big hill with a three story building called 'The Cage'. Built around 1735 as a banqueting house, it's since been used as an observation tower, lodging for gamekeepers, and as a prison for poachers. you can see the Cage at the top of this hill. (I have to say, i thought the hill was alot steeper than it looks in this pic!)

It's occasionally opened for visitors, but sadly not when we were there. You can see they sky starting to turn pink in the background.

At the bottom of the hill is the mansion I mentioned earlier. We didn't go inside as it was closing by the time we got there. We were looking abit scruffy and muddy anyway, so we gave that a miss.

Us looking tired and scruffy at the end of the hike:

I thought I'd finish with this picture. It's not one taken from this hike. It was one taken about a month ago when we went hiking with our friends. This hike was terrible. We ended up desperately lost and completely reliant on a compass that cost under a pound. As we spent 6 hours being lost, I took the opportunity to take lots of pics. This is one of my favourites, showing my husband and our friends in the distance, morale plunging, with the sun beginning to set.