First Impression Review: Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation

         Let me just say, I did not think I would end up liking this foundation as much as I do. Whenever I look for a foundation lately, I always look for a brightening effect or a glow. So when I saw that Rimmel had come out with the Wake Me Up Foundation, I decided to try it. The reason why I did not have high hopes for this product is that firstly, I did not think Rimmel was known for having great foundations. And secondly, I've come to think that a foundation that only costs $7.99 can't be that great. Even my L'Oreal True Match Lumi Foundation, which costs $17.99 wasn't comparable to my Bourjois Healthy Mix Gel Serum Foundation ($27.99). The Wake Me Up Foundation is meant to be light, moisturizing, contains vitamins and has an anti-fatigue effect.

When you first pump out this foundation, it's relatively thick and not runny at all. The colour looked a little too dark on my hand, but thankfully it lightened up to my perfect shade when applied to my face with my fingertips. I'm not someone who will take the time to blend my foundation extremely well, so I like there to be an exact match right from the get go. I purchased the shade 100 Ivory, which is the lightest they have. There are only about 6 shades available, so not the greatest colour selection so far. This foundation contains 1 fl oz, which is the average for any foundation. The container is extremely breakable (as I learned by smashing a bottle open at the drug store by accident). 

Natural Lighting

As it turned out, this foundation is pretty much perfect for the winter months! There really isn't anything bad I can say about it. It's quite moisturizing, which is something that the L'Oreal True Match Lumi doesn't have. It's about medium to high coverage, making your skin look flawless. It's light enough so that you can't even feel it, and looks relatively natural. This is definitely a great foundation to take photos in. 

With Flash

The only slight criticism I have about the actual foundation, is that you have to blend extremely well underneath your eyes so it doesn't crease, as you can see above. I would recommend this foundation to anyone with normal to dry skin, of any age. This will most likely be my go to foundation for the rest of the winter! I love it!

Hope you had a great weekend! xx

First Impression Review: Ted Baker Paint the Town Pretty Nail Set

        This nail set is one of the prettiest I have ever seen, and was a ridiculously good price. I picked it up from Boots in the half price sale for about $10.00, which was a complete steal. I miss Boots so much already! All of their Christmas gift sets were reduced by 50%, so you really can't go wrong with that.

The best part about the majority of the gift sets that were on sale, was that they could easily be purchased as a gift for any other time of year, as many of them were not Christmas themed. I regret not picking up more as gifts now!

This tin set comes with four amazing nail varnishes. It includes a semi matte pink and black, as well as a sheer sparkly gold, and a sheer sparkly silver with coloured flecks. These are all perfect for this time of year, and can be mixed for a day or a nighttime look.

When first applying the pink shade, I wasn't sure how I was going to like it, as it seemed incredibly thin and sheer. It was a nice colour, but I wouldn't particularly want to wear it on it's own. As soon as I applied the silver over top, I was blown away! No photo does it justice, it's just such a unique, amazing colour. It's subtle, but super beautiful. 

I cannot take adequate photos of my nails for the life of me, especially because I do not take the time to do a proper manicure before painting them! In this photo, I've managed to capture all of the different colours reflecting off of the flash of the camera.

Extreme close up!

Another amazing thing about these nail polishes, is that they dry super fast. If you're like me, and don't always wait for your first layer to dry before going in with the next, the sparkly silver shade completely covers up any imperfections.

Overall, I am completely thrilled with this set, and I would recommend picking it up at Boots ASAP before they disappear! 

Have a good night! xx

First Impression Review: The Tarte of Giving Collector's Set and Travel Bag

          I received the Tarte of Giving Collector's Set and Travel Bag by Tarte Cosmetics from my boyfriend as an early Christmas present, and I"m already in love with it! I had only ever tried the Maracuja C-Brighter Eye Treatment by Tarte, so this was a fantastic way to try out some of their greatest products. 

This amazing bag folds out into a 3 compartment set, which works out perfectly as a travel bag (which I'll need really soon!) This first compartment contains:

0.23 oz Deluxe Pure Maracuja Oil

0.17 oz Deluxe Cheek Stain in Flush

0.16 Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara

0.08 oz Deluxe Maracuja C-Brighter Eye Treatment

0.05 oz Deluxe Limited-Edition Amazonian 12-hour Clay Blush in Memorable

The second compartment is the one that I was originally most excited to try. When I had asked for this set for Christmas I couldn't believe the amazing price, especially given the fact that this palette was included. This is a beautiful palette, with the perfect amount of extremely wearable matte and shimmery shades. It contains:

20 x 0.7 oz Limited Edition Amazonian Clay Eye Shadows

Even though I'm generally not into silvery shades, this shimmery eye shadow (Staci's Charm Bracelet) caught my attention right away. Such a beautiful colour!

I was very interested to try the third compartment in this set, as I have never been much of a lip gloss fan, but had heard really great reviews on Tarte's lip products. This compartment contains:

8 x .059 oz Deluxe Marajuca Lipglosses

I wanted to try out as many products as I could for this first impression, (and also because I was just really excited to try all of them) so I started with skin care.

I first applied a few drops of the Deluxe Pure Maracuja Oil all over freshly cleansed skin, which absorbed completely after a few minutes. I then applied the Deluxe Maracuja C-Brighter Eye Treatment underneath my eyes. This cream is extremely thick and takes a little while to sink in.

After this, I just applied Smashbox's Photo Finish Foundation Primer before my foundation, which is L'Oreal's True Match Lumi Foundation in Porcelain/Pale Ivory. I then contoured my face with Bourjois Bronzing Powder in 51 peaux claires/medianes. 

After my skin was ready to go, I applied Tarte's Deluxe Limited Edition Amazonian 12-hour Clay Blush in Memorable to the apples of my cheeks. Right away, I was in love with this colour. It doesn't appear that this particular colour is for sale in their full size blushes, so I really hope they decide to make one! It's the perfect light pink colour with a hint of shimmer.

I decided to go for a different look for me on my eyes so I could try out more of the colours. I used:

Kim's porcelain doll (white matte)

Leigh's Locket (shimmery gold)

Erica's dollhouse (light shimmery bronze)

Maureen's soccer ball (dark brown)

Scott's skateboard (matte navy blue)

Staci's Charm Bracelet (shimmery silver)

I found the colour payoff to be a lot better on the darker colours, as a few of the lighter ones seem to have very little pigmentation, but overall the colours were all  beautiful.

I used the Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara, along with my Physician's Formula Eyebooster 2-in-1 Lashboosting Eyeliner + Serum in Ultra Black. I do like this mascara, although I did not like it as much as the mascara I'm currently using, which is the Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara in Jet Black. 

I then completed the look with a Deluxe Maracuja Lipgloss, labelled SB51 ro, which is the lightest pink. I am already obsessed with these lipglosses. They are sooooo moisturizing! Perfect for the winter months. Even the colours I wouldn't normally wear are amazing. They also smell like mint, and give your lips a nice tingling feeling. These seem to be limited edition as well, as I can't find any of these lipglosses in full size.

Overall, I am a huge fan of this set and am so thrilled I got it as a gift. It's currently sold out at Sephora, but you should still be able to find it on Amazon and/or Ebay. This set is worth over $200, but was sold for about $59 at Sephora, so it really is excellent value!

Thank you once again to my lovely boyfriend! :) xx

First Impression Review: Dove Nourishing Oil Care Anti-Frizz Serum

         I was recommended the new Dove Nourishing Oil Care Anti-Frizz Serum after my mom received a sample of it, and was extremely impressed at the difference in her hair. She was complimented on the condition of her hair by our hairstylist, who told her to keep using whatever she has been using, as it seemed much less dry. My mom has much curlier hair than I do, and hers tends to be prone to dryness and frizz. Curly hair needs as much moisture as possible, especially when you use colour on top of it like she does. I'm always looking for moisturizing hair products, so I went out and purchased it from the drug store for $8.99.

The package recommends that you dispense 2-3 pumps into your hands, rub them together and then disperse the product evenly into your hair. I used 3 pumps, which isn't very much product, as it's an incredibly light weight oil. It's ingredients include sweet almond oil, hydrogenated coconut oil and argan oil.

Since the texture of my hair is naturally wavy, whenever I apply product I scrunch it in to help form the waves. I let it naturally air dry after I finish scrunching.

And this is the final result! Although it doesn't take care of all of my frizz, it made my hair feel conditioned without weighing it down at all. My waves were so bouncy and light, especially compared to when I use some of my other products. It also smells AMAZING and leaves a lasting scent in your hair. I applied one pump after my hair dried, which made even more of a difference. On dove.ca, they recommend using this product as a pre-blow dry primer or to use after your hair is already dry to tame frizz and flyaways. We'll see if this makes a bigger difference with continued use, but so far I love it!

First Impression Review: Covergirl Clean Whipped Creme Foundation

         It was hard for me to accept that I may actually have to switch up my foundation routine for the winter, as I'm obsessed with my Bourjois Healthy Mix Gel Serum Foundation. However, unless I use a super heavy face cream underneath, I'm starting to get dry patches around my cheeks and nose. So instead of spending another $30 on a foundation that I'm not sure I would like, I went to the drugstore and looked for something more affordable that was meant to be moisturizing.

I found a few possible contenders, but decided on Covergirl's Clean Whipped Creme Foundation. I could tell just by looking at it that it was a good colour match for me. This is the lightest shade, in 305 Ivory. It's usually safe to go for the lightest colour for my skin, although there have been a few exceptions to that. I am 3 shades down in Revlon's Nearly Naked Foundation, which is fantastic, especially for the price. And then at times the lightest shade looks way too orange on me.

This foundation is super thick in consistency, therefore it's easy to achieve high coverage. It's meant to be perfect for winter, as it gives your skin a boost of moisture without a shiny, greasy finish. According to covergirl.com, it will make your skin look smooth, natural and matte. It comes in 10 shades, which is a decent selection, but only contains 0.6 fl oz as opposed to the usual 1 fl oz that's fairly standard in foundations.

Bed Head!

While applying this foundation, I noticed right away that it was incredibly smooth, light and matched my skin tone flawlessly. I started in the areas where my pores tend to appear the largest.

The only breakouts I really have right now are around my chin, so I made sure to apply generously around this area. To see if the coverage was buildable, I applied two coats on my entire face with my fingertips, which is how I apply all my foundations.

This is the finished product! As you can tell, I had already applied the rest of my usual makeup. And what do I think of the result? .........Sigh. Here's the problem. Although I definitely found it to be hydrating, that was one of the only things I liked about it. Although I blended and blended with my fingertips, I found that it was hard to get it to sink into my skin. Also, it really washed my face out. I don't feel like using a slightly darker colour would have corrected this, because this shade is 100% my colour, any other colour would have looked unnatural on me. I also did not find that this photographed well on me. I didn't include a picture with just the foundation on on purpose, because I looked SO washed out. It does give a flawless finish, but the two coats I applied definitely did not let my natural skin tone shine through.

Overall, if I had only applied one coat I may have liked it better, but I think this would be a great foundation for anyone with a darker skin tone than me. I purchased this on sale for $5.99, so it's definitely a great price for what you get. So unfortunately, unless my skin is having an exceptionally dry day, I am going to go back to my Bourjois for now!

I give this foundation a 3/5 for the exact colour match, the very reasonable price, the superb hydration and the smooth texture!

THANKS FOR READING! xx