January Faves, Fails and Finishes

Hi everyone,

It's almost surreal that a twelfth of 2016 has already gone by, (to be honest I've written 2015 by mistake more times than I really want to admit this past month) but it's now for my very first monthly faves, fails and finishes.  I haven't really tried anything new this month in terms of beauty.  It seems that I've put myself on a no-buy for this year without even realising it which is actually really good. It's given me the opportunity to really get stuck into my existing makeup stash which you can see in full here.  But without further ado I present to you my faves, fails and finishes!

Faves

So for this month I have five beauty favourites which are:

• Biore Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF50+
• Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh EDT
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Purple Heart
• Savvy by DB Classic Blush in Cherry
• Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer in Neutraliser

The Biore sunscreen is great for Summer.  It has both SPF 50+ and PA++++ protection but it's also a very cosmetically elegant sunscreen.  It has no white cast, dries down quickly and most importantly (at least for me) is it isn't tacky on the skin.  It does have a bit of a fake orange scent that I personally don't mind but I know that some people don't like it.  It contains quite a bit of alcohol that can be drying but in Summer I prefer to minimise any possible shine on the skin.

Mmmm. This was the very first perfume love.  I got it for Christmas two years ago and I've still only used half of it (though I do tend to forget to put on perfume on a day to day basis).  It is very floral and sweet.  On me it tends towards quite a green raspberry scent with a tad of rose (my skin amps rose like no ones business!).  It has decent sillage, it's something you notice only in close contact with another person and it tends to last on me about 5-6 hours.  This is a great day scent for the warmer weather.

Loving them cuticles

You might remember this image from my weekly update here and I've been loving it all January.  The colour of the polish is beautiful with a bit more colour in the skin, I tend to find this difficult to wear during the winter months.  It requires two coats to opacity but three is preferable to really even it out. The formula is decent, it lasts on me about a week with minimal chipping (under the Sally Hansen InstaDri TopCoat) which is pretty brilliant considering I work in retail and that's pretty hard on the hands.

On the left is an unblended finger swatch, and on the right is a diffused brush swatch

The Savvy Classic Blushes were a bit of a surprise love for me.  I bought them about a year ago and they've quickly become one of my favourites in my collection.  They are literally the cheapest blush on offer at Priceline at $4.99.  They are pigmented without being powdery difficult to work with and give a nice satin-y finish to the skin.  They last me about 7 hours before fading and the shade Cherry gives a lovely ruddy sort of look to the skin.  This is a great blush for a great price and I'd recommend you try this one out!

I've been loving this concealer for both under eyes and also oddly enough on blemishes.  It has a very thin consistency but still has decent coverage.  At the moment it's actually matching the rest of my face as well which really just proves to you how much of a yellow-undertone I have.  It's easily blendable though I don't particularly like the applicator mechanism.  I might rip off the sponge in the future and just dispense the product straight off.  This is a great, yellow toned lightweight concealer that I recommend if you have similar colouring to me (Approx NC25-30).

Fails

It's always sad when thing you research and buy end up being duds.  That being said, I hope my experiences with these products will help you, either in deciding for or against purchasing them.  This month the fails are:

• Essence I Love Extreme Waterproof Mascara
• Essence Longlasting Eye Pencil in Black Fever
• Etude House Bright Fit BB Cream in W13

I couldn't get my stupid depth of field right for this shot but I hope you can see the massive amount of product clumped on to the tip of it.  This mascara has a very big bristle wand.  I tend to prefer bristle wands but find overly large ones difficult to use on the entire lashline.  I felt the brush dispensed too much product making the lashes look clumpy.  I felt the formula was also a bit lacking.  While decently black, it was clumpy and abrupt in a way.  My lashes seemed to suddenly stop instead of tapering off naturally at the ends.  Though it gave decent volume it didn't do a lot for lengthening.  It's waterproof yet is terrible at holding a curl; I could watch my eyelashes droop right  before my eyes as I put this on and I always managed to end up with smudges under my eyes by the end of the day. While not right for me, this might be something you're interested in if already have long, sparser eyelashes and large eyes and simply looking for an affordable mascara to give you some volume.

Essence really didn't have a good time with me in January!  This eyeliner is very black and creamy but my main problem was that it tended to smudge despite claiming to be longlasting.  I felt like a raccoon everytime I had this on.  It's a mechanical eyeliner but the lead is a little brittle so you can't twist it up too much or it snaps.  Definitely not something I'd repurchase.

Finishe(s)



Only one finish this month the Batiste Dry Shampoo in Dark & Dark Brown, but it was a product from my Stuff I Want to Use Up post here.  This was nice and I might consider repurchasing it once I finish the rest of my dry shampoos.  The tint is dark enough not to stand out in my hair.  The dry shampoo does decently well at disguising disgusting hair but I can only use this once before I need to wash it.  It was a bit powdery smelling but I think I prefer that to anything overly floral or fruity.


So that concludes my monthly foray into alliteration.  Tell me, what products did you love this month?  Anything you hated with the passion of a thousand fiery suns?  What did you finish?  Once again I bid you a fair farewell.

Kay