L.A Girl Pro Concealer Review + Demo

L-R:Orange & Yellow, Fawn, Chestnut, Mahogany

So, everyone who's anyone knows about these concealers. They've been raved about in the beauty community, especially on YouTube, with makeup lovers and beauty gurus galore, going crazy over these little tubes of amazing-ness.

I've been using one of the concealers, 'Fawn' (every dark skin girls' favourite), to highlight the usual areas of my face (under my eyes, down the bridge of the nose, my forehead, cupids bow and chin), for a while now, but I wanted to expand my collection because...why not? This shade blends so effortlessly so I decided to order a few more shades that I thought I would benefit from on eBay. Just type it into the search bar and there you go, L.A Girl concealers and other products from the same company, galore!

For reference, my shade in MAC is one shade lighter than NC50, with very strong yellow undertones.

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (without flash)

Fawn:
-Perfect highlight shade for those who are about an NC50/NW42-45
-Yellow/warm undertone
Cheshnut:
-Perfect concealer for shades NC50/NW45
-Yellow/warm to neutral undertone
Mahogany:
-Contour shade for anyone darker than NC50/NW42-45 (must be used sparingly tho), would suit shades perfectly as a contour for shades darker than stated above.
-Neutral to warm undertone
Yellow Corrector:
-Perfect for brightening up highlighted areas
-Great for adding more 'yellow' to foundations that might be too pink/red/cool
-Strong yellow undertone
Orange Corrector:
-Great for cancelling out dark circles under the eyes, blemishes, scars and acne scarring
-Great concealer for those with a 'brown/medium' skin tone to dark
-A 'burnt orange' appearance, more neutral to cool undertone

L-R: Fawn, Chestnut Mahogany, Yellow & Orange (with flash)

PROS
-Water based concealer , so no oily faces for my oily/combination skin girls. All the same, it is not drying at all those with drier skin
-Easy application - has a brush attached to the tube
-Small and lightweight -  compact for travel
-Comes in a variety of shades from very fair to very dark, and also also has a green corrector for cancelling out redness.
-Full coverage

CONS
-In major UK cities, acquiring this product shouldn't be a problem as most beauty supply stores (hair shops) usually stock these. Might be a little difficult elsewhere, but if so lots of websites, especially eBay stock these concealers.
-Do not dilly dally when it comes to blending these concealers. As they are water based, they tend to 'dry faster' than other oil or cream based concealers, which might be hard blend out if left too long. Can also get a few droplets of water when squeezing the tube instead of product.

With these ranging from £2.60-5 in the UK, you cannot go wrong with these concealers. For the price point and quality, L.A Girl has created something wonderful that caters for all skin tones and shades!
9.5/10 (-0.5, because I wish they were sold at Boots or Superdrug or something!)

Check out my demo of the concealers HERE on YouTube!

Mini 'Drugstore' Makeup haul/tutorial!

So I recently bought a few items that I've been dying to try out, and what better way than to do it in a full face makeup video?

 Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E13MEtj85D4

FREEDOM Pro Eyebrow palette in Dark
I don't really fill in my brows or do anything to them, apart from concealer to clean up around each row. However, sometimes I do prefer a more defined look towards the tail end of my brow, and sometimes the inner parts of my brows have a tendency to disappear in pictures, so this palette was great for creating natural hair-like strokes. I personally use the wax (bottom right) to create more definition, and set it with the powders (top right/bottom left).

£3.50 | 8.5/10









FREEDOM Eye primer
Nothing worse than your eyeshadow creasing or disappearing after a couple of hours! This kept my eyeshadow on all night, however it did start to look little 'oily' in the crease, but that could be down to my minimal/sparing application of the product.

£2.50 | 7/10

Urban Decay PERVERSION Mascara
The rush and formulation reminds me of that of the old chunky Rimmel mascaras that everyone had at school...and they were amazing! Love the spoolie brush and the formulation is lovely and easy to build, and with a lash primer underneath, my lashes were looking lovely, separated, thick and fake (in a good way)!

(Travel size currently on sale at Debenhams) £8 | 10/10











NYX Jumbo Eye pencil in 'Milk'
This is probably one of the most raved about products on YouTube and I can see why. In itself it acts as a great eyeshadow primer, and it makes any eyeshadow look 'true to colour' and extremely pigmented! It's quite hard to find in the UK, constantly sold out on the UK website, so I jumped for joy when I found out that they were in London Selfridges and always abundantly in stock. Check the Selfridges website also if you're not close to the store itself.

£5.50 | 9.5/10

NYX Butter Gloss in 'Praline'

Obviously I was going to check out the rest of the makeup at the NYX stand in Selfridges, and was beyond eager to try their lip products. Unfortunately, they'd sold out of some of the more popular shades, especially in their infamous 'matte lip cream'. I was on the hunt for something nude-ish, whether it has a slight bit of pink or brown, and this gloss has the right mixture of both so I'm very pleased. I'm also a matte lip kinda girl, and tend to stray away from glosses, but this gloss is absolutely gorgeous! Perfect when you don't want to have a heavy lip colour, combined with a cheeky cute gloss. Oh, and it smells DIVINE. Like some sort of dessert, cant quite work out which one yet. #savourygirlatheart

£5.50 | 9/10

Homemade veggie burger

Boredom, procrastination...oooh I have chickpeas!

I've always wanted to make a burger from scratch, because although I love (I mean REALLY love) the Quorn Southern Fried Chicken style burgers, they're not coeliac or lactose intolerant friendly...aka they have wheat, gluten and milk in them *cries*.

So, out of what I call, 'constructive procrastination', I attempted these vegan, gluten, wheat and dairy free spicy burgers!

Ingredients: (I rarely ever measure so this is a 'decent' guestimate)
-100g chickpeas
-150g buckwheat
-1 egg white (or vegan egg constitute replacement)
-Diced onion
-Seasoning; salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin, basil
-PATIENCE...seriously

Method:

Soak the chickpeas overnight, then with fresh water, bring to boil for 10mins, then simmer for 2hrs.
Add the buckwheat to the chickpeas at 1.5hrs to simmer.
Make sure the chickpeas are fairly soft before draining them.
Drain the chickpeas so there is no liquid whatsoever left (important!), so the mixture will be firm enough to mash and bind.
Add a little bit of seasoning and onions (I forgot this stage so you can always add it later on in the process), and proceed with mashing the chickpea and buckwheat together with a potato masher (thought there was a more technical term for that utensil...apparently not!)
Once they are at a firm consistency, scoop the mixture into cling film and mould into a circular figure. (If you have a lid or any circular mould in the kitchen, it might be easier to form a 'burger' shape. I did both ways and they were both easy to mould the mixture.)
Once moulded and wrapped in the cling film, place in the freezer for 1hr (check at regular intervals so they are not freezing completely.) This binds the mixture.
Preheat the oven for 10mins at 180 degrees, unwrap the burgers onto a lightly greased tray, and place in the oven for 20-25mins.
Take the burgers out of the oven (don't scorch your arm like I did *cries*), and leave to cool for 10mins.
Whilst waiting for them to cool, get your egg white. add the seasoning to it and mix it in a bowl. Saute the onions in olive or coconut oil in a frying pan.
Dip the burger in the egg mixture until it is completely coated and place it in the frying pan with the onions, 2-3mins on each side. Repeat for all burgers and let them stand before serving. Makes 4 large burgers.

Enjoy!

(Ps, I had butternut squash and sweet potato left over from the night before, which I also mashed into the burger mixture - definitely gives the burger a more moist texture which is nice!)

Prudish Pin-up

So, it was the first day back (of my last ever semester) at uni *panics**screams*, and it was lovely to see everyone! On the other hand, it was so cold and I was in a rush for a lecture (I'm not even doing anymore??), so I decided to wear my work clothes from the day before! (I'm lazy ok.)

It was so cold, my photographer's breath made a little appearance ;) nice effect regardless, eh?!

My housemate is now my new personal photographer, she's a little wonderful at this, I must say!

Jacket/Blazer: H&M

Faux fur stole: New Look

Cardigan: Vintage

T-shirt: New Look (Mens)

Midi skirt: New Look

Suede Chelsea boots: New Look

Necklace: Topshop

Bag: Charity shop (brand new!)

Bandana: Vintage

Watch: Tesco (£6 omg!!)

Cheeky chips - guilt free

Actually waiting for them to cook as I write this...I'm so hungry!

Anyway, I don't like sweet things, 10/10 a savoury girl here! Therefore, I'm a massive potato lover: chips, crisps, cheesy mash, dauphinoise, baked, jacket, whatever, you name it, I love potatoes *insert heart eyes emoji*.

So what's a great alternative to your typical white potato meals that are filling, AND guilt free?

Spicy parsnips and sweet potato chips (well more like wedges because I'm too lazy to chop them up finer. Brilliant).

Came home from the gym starving, and I've been craving parsnips for the past week or so (weird craving right?), and i just wanted something light to snack on whilst doing my dreaded uni work, so I decided to make this little guilt-free treat.

Ingredients:

-Parsnips

-Sweet potato

-Herbs & spices (I used paprika, basil, black pepper, cumin, dairy free cheese powder, garlic granules - but, each to their own! Maybe I'll make a post on my condiment cupboard...)

Prep time: 25mins

Method:

-Preheat your oven to 200 degrees for 10-15mins 

-Cut up your parsnips and sweet potato as chunky/small as you like them and put in a pot to simmer for about 7-10 minutes until they soften, but are still firm (keep checking them, as you might find that the parsnips soften quicker, and will therefore have to remove them from the pot earlier.

-Lightly grease or spray a tray with an oil of your choice, and transfer all the wedges to the tray.

-Lightly dust the herbs and spices over the wedges, and place them in the oven for approx. 15-20mins,

-Regularly check after 12mins to see whether any thinner slices are cooking quicker (or burning in my case...oops.)

-After the wedges have 'browned', take them out of the oven, and let them stand for 1-2mins.

-Dust with some salt, and enjoy!

Resolutions

So, it's 2015 and I've decided, as most do, to make some goals for this year, which I thought I'd share.

One of them is to be more interactive with regards to blogging/Instagram, as I have strayed away from doing so in the last six months or so (sorry for the following backlog of posts). If I'm honest, not posting was due to a confidence flaw type thing, but why should I care what other people think? I'm almost 21 now *panic attack*/*hyperventilates* and they say that the 20s are your selfish years. Me, me, me. Who cares what other people think? (Within reason.) Time to focus on what makes me happy!

Anyway, I'm going off at a tangent so here are my resolutions/general aspirations/goals as of this year.

-Be more positive (goodness me this is a toughie)

-Be more conservative with money (but the sales...HELP)

-Be more resourceful

-Say YES to everything (WITHIN REASON OK)

-Make an effort to socialise more (lunch breaks do not count anymore)

-Actually use my gym membership (gonna be looking/feeling like a VS model this summer totally ;))

-Work hard and stay focused for my exams/essays etc

-COMPLETE DISSERTATION. (Help me.)

-Do that grown up thing and um, grow up a little? Hmmm.

-Get work experience. 

-Move to Brighton.

-Get a sustainable job.

-Apply for uni (again...damn you UCAS!)

That's as far as I've gotten right now, it's almost midnight so there's probably a load of grammatical sleepy errors, and that's all I can remember at the top of my head for now (I actually hand-wrote a list, that I did ;)) -watch this space- I might add more!

 

Ps. Oooh I forgot one - to be happy. Don't let anything get (me/you) down :-)

Indian Summer

Y'know when you put on an outfit and you feel full of sass? I even rang my mum to say how sassy I felt that day. Cringe.

It was late September and 25 degrees which is unusual for that time of year, so I fully embraced those shaved pins of mine with this cheeky New Look number!

Whilst at work, I saw this hanging up, and was intrigued with the grid effect on this sheer tunic. Monochrome crazy, and always willing to be adventurous in fashion, I took a chance and bought it (being just under 5'10 n'all I got a size 20 for the length - part of the 'Inspire' @ New Look range that accommodates UK sizes 18-32). 

Although the tunic looked ok hanging freely, I wrapped your average skinny belt around the waist to add more definition. 

My university grounds is just beautiful, isn't it?

Tunic (as a dress): Inspire @ New Look

Sandals: New Look

Floppy Hat: H&M (20% student deal yas)

Sunglasses: Vintage (Camden Market)

Bag: Primark (from like years ago!)