REVIEW: Rimmel Fix & Perfect PRO primer 002

Hey guys - I've had this primer for a while now and when I first bought it I bought it with a few Rimmel products. I originally though I was allergic to Rimmel products because all of the products I used seemed to burn!! However, looking back I think it's because when I was using the products I scrubbed my face WAY too hard before hand so my skin didn't react well to the products.

This primer claims to be a "Skin- perfecting" primer for "5 in 1 results: smoothes, resurfaces, brightens, mattifies and protects. Prolongs foundation wear."

Well, I have to say that it actually does those things, to a certain extent. Bear in mind I have OILY skin - even the best mattifying products don't last for too long on my skin. This primer does certainly smooth my skin, (not so sure about brightening, can never really tell and I'm kinda pale but brightening has never been a priority for me anyway) and in terms of resurfacing my pores do seem a bit smaller and as for protection I can't really tell either, since I haven't been placing my skin under any adverse conditions. (It's exam season, so I'm in my room 99% of the time.)

But all in all, it does mattify my skin for a few hours, possibly 2/3 hours then my oil begins to seep through. If you have normal, dry or only mildly oily skin I think this primer is pretty good, my skin certainly feels wonderfully velvety after applying this.

White, gel like texture. Blend very nicely on the skin, lovely velvety finish.

Pros -

- Feels great and velvety on the skin, certainly makes my skin feel smoother
- Pores seem a bit smaller
- Light
- Not expensive, around £6
- Did reduce my redness a little on my face.
- You only need a little, so quite long lasting.
- You can wear it without foundation, the gel blends out clear.

Cons -

- If you have ultra oily skin, this won't be a miracle product by any means. But if you've got a nice mattifying foundation or have other ways of controlling oil then this could work in combination with other products I guess. (But then again, if you have oily skin then I don't think there is one holy grail product that takes away all oil forever! Good skincare, a good foundation for oily skin and milk of magnesia will probably do the trick for long lasting oil control though. Oh, and a good powder too.)

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REVIEW: Garnier NEW Simply Essentials ultra cleansing wipes

Quickie review for you all! 

I like them. Well that was easy. Hehe, but really, I just bought them today and I was experimenting with some gel eyeliner (Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner) and it wiped off nicely! The wipes are quilted and soft, and they left me feeling refreshed without rubbing my eyes harshly like other wipes. I haven't worn any waterproof mascara to test its claims of being able to remove it, but for now I'm really happy with them.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Recommended! I haven't tested them with water proof mascara thought. 

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The No7 foundation match service and REVIEW: No7 Stay Perfect Foundation (Deeply Beige)

Sorry for the long gap guys - university work has been piling up and exams are just around the corner! But I'm here, with a quick post for anyone interested on the recent (OK, it's been out for a while, but here's my 2 cents) foundation match service and the foundation that resulted from it.

When I went in for the colour match service the girl  used the little machine twice (once on each lower cheek/jawline) and the colour matched was Deeply Beige. She asked what type of skin I had, and recommended me the No7 Stay Perfect foundation for my oily skin.

Here are some after thoughts:

1. I should have stressed that I have pretty oily skin, at that point I thought I was just oily, but now I realise that I can in fact get very oily, with my eyelids shining and nose glistening in the sun. I am currently deciding whether to get the matte foundation or instead use a oil control primer. (Might just go down the Milk of Magnesia primer route.)

2. Despite the foundation not being the best for my skin type, (it's water based as well, which isn't the best when using a sponge to apply foundation, despite the bottle saying you can use a sponge) it's pretty darn good. When applied well, it did stay nicely but I could feel the oil coming through. In photos I looked pretty good considering.

Apologies for the terrible teethy smile, but as you can see, with flash photography it's pretty darn good overall! 

3. For me, the colour match service is a life saver. I have not got the time to try all foundations on earth, and when something like this comes along I couldn't be happier.

4. I've had the foundation for while, and for some reason inside the bottle you can see a white sort of liquid mixed in with the foundation - this liquid doesn't really mix when you shake the bottle, but I highly recommend to do so because chances are it's something to do with the foundation being water based. You don't want a liquid foundation coming out watery!

REVIEW:

Pros: 

Colour match was perfect (for me)

Foundation was pretty good though it wasn't the best for my skin type (I can just use a primer but I'm tempted to get the matte foundation).

The colour you're matched to can be used to pick different types of foundations, so I can go and buy other finishes in the same shade.

Cons:

Around £14, can't help but feel like I wasted a bit money on a foundation that wasn't quite perfect (but I could've done so much worse! Can't expect to find the Holy Grail the first time!)

Colour match service may not work perfectly for everyone.

FINAL THOUGHT:

Make sure to emphasis your skin type! But overall, excellent.

*UPDATE* 28/05/2013 My skin has been pretty lousy as of late - breakouts, blemishes, large pores, you name it! It's not due to the foundation but when I do try to use it it just settles into fine lines and pores and makes my skin look horrible textured. Just wanted to tell you guys that if you have bad skin like me at the moment, this foundation is not suitable AT ALL. But , as always, a healthy lifestyle with the right skincare is so much better than a heavy coverage foundation! I just need to sort myself out and cleanse well before returning to make up, I think.

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REVIEW: Revlon Nail Polish/Varnish: 863 Ruby Ribbon and 919 Black Lingerie

Hey guys! I bought these polishes a little while ago, but only recently used them. Here's a quick review :)

919, Black Lingerie. A pretty intense black in the bottle, but on nails? It's actually a bit streaky. One thin coat and I could see the lines of my nails show through. Nevertheless, it is still very good! 2 thin coats (the way it should be done really) is great for this one, and it is a nice true black when applied. 

A nice, very opaque polish. A darker red, more like burgundy if anything. Has some nice silver shimmer to it, applies well. You could do well with just one coat of this stuff.

And here's a quick pattern I did - my first time doing it with a hairpin actually. You get a hair pin/ bobby pin and bend it so it looks like a V shape. Use one of the bobble ends to make nail varnish dots you your nail.

Overall, Revlon have a pretty go reputation for nail varnishes so I do recommend them! 

See you later guys! :)

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DIY - How to make lace edged/trimmed cropped leggings/shorts

Hey guys, I was scouring Ebay for some lace trimmed shorts, when I realised that I could easily do it myself! I happened to have some 3/4 leggings sitting in my drawer and after a short trip to get some lace, I ended making some pretty decent leggings. Leggings nowadays can be pretty cheap, and a metre of lace isn't expensive either. Both of these together are much cheaper than the £7+ leggings on Ebay.

What you need:

• Leggings
• Pins
• Sewing machine (or you could hand sew) with appropriate thread colour matching the leggings
• Lace (1m or more, my leggings are  a size small, so it may be safer toe go with 2m)
• Ruler/measuring tape
• Pen/chalk to mark your clothing
• Scissors

Spread out the leggings so there are no folds or overlaps.

Take your pen/chalk and mark a straight line across both legs where you want your leggings to be cut. 

(Bear in mind that these will be folded up and sewn later on, so you may want to make it 3/4cm longer.) 

Taking your pins, pin across the line of each leg.

Make sure to pin through both layers of each leg.

Take your scissors and cut along the line ( don't worry if you cut a cm or two under)

Your leggings should look like this once both cut.

Remove the pins

Make sure the ends are straight, if you've cut a bit wonky you can straighten them up with scissors here.

Now turn the leggings inside out.

Take your pen again, and measure 2/3cm above the edge. Then draw a straight line of that height above the cut across the leg. Do this to both legs.

Using the lines you have drawn as a guideline, fold up each hem of each leg and pin the edges down.(Only pin through one layer, and pin all the way around each leg.)

To make sure that both legs are even, fold the leggings like this - if they match it means they are even. If they aren't even, you can adjusts the folds of each leg.

Take your leggings and sew up the hems you've just made with a sewing machine or by hand. Remove pins as you go along.

You should end up with legs that look like this.

Both hems sewn up.

 Check to make sure both legs are even.

Taking your lace (or even ribbon, whichever you prefer to attach)

 Pin the edge of the lace to the edge of the leggings. (You don't need to measure the lace, you can just sew until the lace meets where you started sewing.)

When using the sewing maching press the foot down to clamp the lace and the legging.

Do this step quite slowly, making sure the edge of the lace is sewn to the edge of the hem throughout.

 When the lace meets where you started, you can sew both lace edges together.

After sewing both legs, the hems should look similar like this.

Turn your leggings inside out, and you're done.

Many thanks for reading guys!

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DIY - How to make belt loops for trousers/pants

I recently bought some great tailored shorts from Ebay, but they were  little loose, so instead of making them smaller I added some belt loops. This saves on resewing if my size changes in the future. Here I used some spare velvet ribbon I had lying around, you can use anything you want providing it's washable and can be sewn.

Stuff you need:

• Item of clothing you want to sew
• Pen/chalk - something to mark your clothing with
• Pins
• Material you want to use for the loops
• Thread
• Needles
• Sewing machine (optional, you can hand sew instead)
• Ruler/measuring tape to measure where you want to mark your clothing

How to:

Measure out  on your clothing where you want the loops to go. I didn't have any chalk so I used a whiteboard pen to mark out where I needed the loops to go.

Here, you can see where I've marked out the line, and I did this 5 times - 2 on the front, 3 on the back. The pen is noticeable, but not too bright. You can use any colour that you like, just make sure it comes off in the wash.

 I then cut out 5 strips (one for each line) each 6cm long (you made need longer/shorter) and I folded over each end and hand sewed them. Make sure to start and finish at the back, so the knots don't show.

Here's what they should look like on the front and back.

Now pin each strip onto each line you made, and make sure to adjust when necessary, as the lines are only guidance and may not be 100% accurate. I spent a good few minutes adjusting the placement of each strip.

Use a sewing machine to sew each strip on accurately. (If you don't know how to use a sewing machine there are some great YouTube videos out there or you can just hand sew.)

Final product:

Thanks for reading guys!

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DIY - How to dye suede shoes black

I bought some  booties a while ago, but the shade of blue/dark teal was lighter than I thought so I couldn't really combine it with anything.  I decided to dye them black, because black goes with ANYTHING.

So for anyone interested, here's how to do it!


HOW TO DYE SUEDE SHOES:

Stuff you need:

 Tons of newspaper/ plastic mat/ something to cover the floor
Or you could do it outside.

The shoes
Brush out any bits with a suede brush/hard tooth brush. Make sure shoes are clean/dry.

Suede spray/dye 
I used spray "suede restorer" but it worked.

Gloves 
                                              
Masking tape

For clean up/ removing dye stains:
My shoes had plastic and metal studs on them, so this if for cleaning those areas which accidentally got stained.

Nail polish remover

tissue

cotton swabs

How to:

•  Masking tape off any areas of the shoes you don't want dyed. 

• Make sure to use many small pieces to cover up any curved areas of the shoe.This takes a lot of time, but trust me it's worth taking extra care when doing this.

•  Place the shoes on the flat surface you have heavily covered as the spray may drip/splatter.    I actually stained my carpet doing this, so be careful.

• Spray the shoes in quick strokes, spray about 15cm away from the shoe. 

• The spray I used recommended to wait one hour after each application. Once I covered both shoes, I left them to dry for about an hour and came back later to do a another layer and waited another hour e.t.c. Do as many layers as you want. 

•  Leave the shoes to dry for a couple of hours, better yet, a day. 

I ended up using the whole can on one pair of shoes - I'm sure if the shoes were a lighter colour I could have used less layers of spray. 

All the things I ended up using.

Timpson Suede & Nubuck Restorer

As you can see, I used loads small pieces of tape to layer up.

The zip is still blue, but it's dark enough so it doesn't stick out.

Final product! 

Without flash
(You can see how I cleaned the stained buttons underneath)

With flash

Weirdly, when I used flash I found that the shoes looked as if they hadn't been dyed at all! 

How to remove dye stains:

Using some nail varnish remover I managed to clean off the stains of the dye.

Cotton swab dipped in nail varnish remover. Do this step very gently! I did it too rough and  I ended up removing a layer of the plastic. It's better to surround the area as I ended up removing a layer and tiny flecks of plastic were going onto the shoe.

 Change cotton swabs whenever you need to!

They were a little bit patchy but it wasn't too noticeable until you got really close to the shoe. 

Without flash

 Slightly patchy

 With flash

Make sure the wipe the studs/buttons with a damp tissue afterwards to wipe off any excess remover!

Thanks for reading guys! 

:D

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