The Beauty Post | SEVENTEEN Gel Colour

I do love a little drug store magical purchase. I bought one of these to go in a Christmas game and ended up winning it myself. After trying it out I was utterly amazing at the quality of this budget product, so I went out and got two more colours...

Let me introduce SEVENTEEN Gel Colour's in (t-b) Backcurrent Bomb, Mocha-tini and Azure Amore. At just £3.99 each (or 2 for £6 in Boots as we speak) these little gel colours are, I think, the best drug store gel formulations I've tried so far. They have wide brushes which make it 10x easier to apply. they dry quickly. and the colours are instantly opaque so you only really need two coats (and your trusty top coat). I've had many compliments about how shiny my nails are and also how long lasting these are. They tend to last for about 10 days before you see any significant wear and tear which is incredible to me.

I adore these. I'm finding it hard to pick a favourite colour - Backcurrent Bomb is perfect for our current winter weather, however Azure Amore instantly cheers me up when I'm wearing it. There is quite a wide range of colours to choose from with these - ranging from the autumn/winter to spring/summer spectrum. I'm highly impressed and SEVENTEEN are crawling up my list of favourite drug store brands...

What's your favourite drug store gel formula?

The Comparison | Smoothing and long lasting primers

For a few years I was trying to decide whether primers were worth the hassle and what they actually really did. Then one fell into my life and I now can't live without it. The Kiehl's Micro-Blur Skin Perfector is perfect at prepping my skin for the day and holding onto my make up for as long as possible. Much longer then any other primer I've tested. However, it's nearing the end of it's life so I was wondering if there was a dupe on the high street that I could use to replace - and make my bank account a little happier.

I bought this for my best friend who was looking for a cheap primer and she loved it so much that I thought I should give it a whirl. The Seventeen Stay Time Long Wear Primer is a smoothing primer, much like the Kiehl's version, and is also meant to prolong the wear and tear of your make up. Both attributes I associate heavily with the Kiehl's primer. It's not as silicony as the Kiehl's offering which is good, however not quite as easy to apply. It does smooth the skin nicely and it makes it super easy to apply make up afterwards. 

In terms of long wear, I would say it does last a long time however not as good as Kiehl's. The Seventeen offer is good if you're looking for something that isn't going to last longer than maybe 10 hours. Kiehl's is definitely a long term primer whereas the Seventeen offering is probably a shorter term, just a lazy weekend offering.

My friend loves the Seventeen offering, so I would say that it's not the best for oil however for dry skin it's your best bet. I do like both and I think the Seventeen offering has some great attributes and is definitely worth a try. However, for me I'm going to be repurchasing my Kiehl's.

Which would you choose?

The How To | A Glowing Base

For someone who deals with oily skin on a regular basis I usually have to put up with either having an incredibly shiny face or a very matte face due to products I'm using to combat the oil. As much as I do like have a matte face I've always wanted to be able to achieve a nice glowy complexion - one that doesn't make me look oily or sweaty. I think I've finally found the perfect duo to do this.

It's a complete mix of higher end and drugstore (which I love) but they work together so beautifully to create such a nice glowy complexion and they are the perfect product for oilier skinned gals like myself. The Seventeen Skin Wow Primer is basically a highlighting primer, you can use it under your foundation, on top of it on your cheek bones to lighten or mix it with your foundation (clever little thing isn't it). I've used it all three of these way but the way I want to talk about today is mixing it with my foundation. I basically squeeze a little blob on this onto the back of my hand, then I squeeze a little blob of foundation - in this case the Benefit Hello Flawless foundation - on the back of my hand next to it. I then take my Real Techniques Buffing Brush, mix them together on the back of my hand (like a paint palette obvs) and the buff into my face. By the time I put it on my face I do usually have another primer already in place ready so this goes on top of my primer, in the middle of my base sandwich.

The effect I've found is that not only does my foundation stay in place longer thanks to it's priming properties, but it adds an extra healthy glow to my face that doesn't look horrible and shiny and oily - just plain healthy and lovely. Even when I complete my base sandwich by adding transluscent powder (not illuminating powder) I still have a lovely glow. I'm in love with this combo. The Benefit foundation is basically made with oily skin in mind so it's perfect at keeping the oil at bay whilst the Wow Primer is busy making me look like I've had multiple days of sleep. Beaut.

Just FYI, the other products I use in terms of primer and powder for this is currently Kiehls Micro Blur Skin Perfector (primer) and Collection Sheer Loose Powder. If you don't want to go for a more pricey foundation then the Revlon Nearly Naked foundation also works amazingly for this if you have oily skin like me.

How do you achieve your perfect glowing base?

The Haul | £20 in Boots

I had like, £25 worth of Boots points on my cards, so when make up goes 3 for 2 it would just be rude not to abuse it. Right? Well, abuse I did and I got 6 products for under £20. I'm so excited I wanted to pop them up ASAP for you guys to see... So asap I bought them this morning, and I'm posting now. Hello real time blogging! Because I was budgetting myself I wanted to stick with some brands I don't usually head for, such as Collection, Seventeen and Rimmel (sorry Rimmel). So what did I buy?

COLLECTION SHEER LOOSE POWDER IN TRANSLUCENT £2.99

I've recently got a Bourjois loose powder and love it, so I thought I'd give this a go. Kat from Jemima and Ted always used to rave about it to me so it comes highly recommended and let's face it, at just under £3 how on earth could you say no to this?

RIMMEL GLAM EYES HD PALETTE IN BRIXTON BROWN £6.99

Yeah, I'm sure you've seen this doing the rounds in the blogging world at the moment. This was the last one left in my Boots so I snapped it up and didn't let it go. I love the colours in this and it comes highly recommended from Lily Pebbles, so I'm not going to brush that off so easily!

COLLECTION WORK THE COLOUR NUDE EYESHADOW PALETTE £3.99

Yes, £3.99 for an eyeshadow palette. Bargain! I love the shades here, more nudes (opps). I was very tempted by the purple palette, but I don't wear purple so it seemed a bit of a waste. I cannot wait to try this out and rave about it (hopefully). I may be heading back for the purple one after all!

COLLECTION GOTHIC GLAM LIPSTICK IN SEDUCTION £2.99

The reason I got this was because the colour really reminds me of Plumful from Mac, one of my fave lipsticks so I really wanted to see if this compared as closely as I'd hoped. Dupe on the way I'm thinking! Plus you know me, I had to get a lipstick in there somewhere...

RIMMEL WATERPROOF VOLUME FLASH MASCARA IN BLACK £5.99

I need a new mascara and everyone raves about Rimmels so that was my first point of call for one. I was tempted by Scandaleyes but I loved the blue of this packaging, plus it's waterproof which I always go for so it was a win win for me. So far I am liking it... To be continued...!

SEVENTEEN WON 3 WAY HIGHLIGHTER £5.99

I'm getting into my contouring lately which means I need a good highlighter, I've ummed and aahed about getting this for a while so I snapped it up pretty sharpish when I went in today. After seeing Lily Pebbles tutorial on highlighting with Touche Eclat I'm definitely going to be applying that to this product.

What will you be buying in Boots 3 for 2?