MAC Pro Longwear Concealer

Hello Lovelies,

I struggle with really dark circles under my eyes and a lot of redness on my face and like to use correcting and concealing products to help counteract both problems, for years and years I have been using the MAC Select Moisture Cover Concealer in NW15 under my eyes to help cover dark circles.

A few months ago I was chatting to Cole one day whilst she was doing her make up for work and she was using the MAC Pro Longwear concealer and told me how much she loves it and said I should try it, Cole kindly bought me a concealer in the shade NW20 and I have been using it ever since and thought I'd let you know my thoughts.

First of all I love that it comes in a bottle with a pump almost like a mini foundation, I've never used a concealer with a pump applicator before but I love it, I also love that there is 9ml of product which is almost double the amount of my select moisture cover which is 5ml and the pro long wear is only £2.00 more expensive. 

I can't use the pro long wear under my eyes as it does tend to settle a little, unfortunately I have very dry and dehydrated skin and am of an age where fine lines are an issue, I like to blame the dehydration but I do think my age has a part to play too.  I like to use the pro long wear for highlighting and covering redness and it does a fantastic job of both, over the spring and summer months I use a much lighter base and opt for either a tinted moisturiser or a light coverage foundation and the pro long wear is perfect for using on any areas I need more coverage or like I said to highlight or to cover redness it is a beautiful concealer. 

It applies well, blends out beautifully and if you don't have dry or dehydrated skin and don't have any fine lines under your eyes this would be the perfect "do it all" concealer for you it really is beautiful, I use 1 pump of the concealer for my full face a little goes a long way and I can see it lasting me for a good few months, I have already had mine for at least 3 months and I haven't made a dent in it. I didn't think I would love it as much as I do it is fantastic and lasts forever on my skin too without fading or going patchy etc it really does live up to it's "Pro Longwear" name. 

I use either a brush or beauty blender to apply the concealer and it gives a lovely flawless finish to my skin, I would say you may need to go up a shade in the pro longwear as it does come off a little lighter than other MAC concealers for example I use NW15 in select moisture cover and NW20 in pro longwear. 

A tip Cole gave me and one I'm so glad she did was to mix the pro longwear concealer with MAC face and body foundation and use as a base, it is stunning it gives a beautiful natural and flawless finish to my skin and I love it so if you do have both products I highly recommend you try mixing them to create a base, it gives a beautiful finish. 

I will be continuing to use my beloved MAC Select Moisture Cover concealer under my eyes as it is perfect for me but I will definitely be re purchasing more of the MAC Pro Longwear concealer for other areas of my face as it is so beautiful, I never thought I could love a concealer as much as I do and I am so pleased Cole kindly bought me one to try it is an amazing product and makes such a difference to the way my skin looks. If you would like to try the Pro Longwear you can find it online at Debenhams, House Of Fraser or the MAC Website for £17.50 for 9ml. 

Have you tried the MAC Pro Longwear concealer? 

Thank you for reading, much love as always

Zoe x

Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow Quad In Timeless

Hello Lovelies, 

I recently received some make up products from a brand I'd never tried before Youngblood Mineral Cosemetics, Youngblood is an award winning premium luxury mineral cosmetics brand from California which is available from Beauty Expert one of my favourite places to buy beauty products online. Youngblood products are paraben, talc, oil, fragrance and cruelty free and their packaging is made from recyclable materials, I really liked the packing it is sleek and classy and not fussy at all it looks simple and elegant. I'd never tried mineral make up before so was really excited to try the products from Youngblood, the first product I tried was the Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow Quad In Timeless. 

The quad is made up of four rich shadows in a sleek compact complete with a nice sized mirror which is big enough when applying make up, there is a lovely mix of shades that all work well when worn both together or alone. I love neutral shades and as soon as I opened the palette I knew the shades were definite "Zoe shades" they all looked beautiful and I couldn't wait to try them and I have used all four shades in many different ways since I've had the palette.

✿ Doe - Doe is a lovely pale cream shade with a slight peach undertone and one that is a perfect shade for both all over the lid or as a inner corner/brow bone highlight, unfortunately pale shades never swatch well but you can hopefully still see the shade on the photographs above. 

✿ Coco - Coco is an ideal transitional shade and again beautiful, I have used it has both a transitional shade and also worn it alone all over the lid and blended up towards my crease and then blended under my lower lash line with a little of the Doe in my inner corners it's a simple but lovely look. 

✿ Haze - I think Haze might be my favourite shade of the palette it is a gorgeous taupe shade and one I use to deepen the crease or I use it wet along my upper lash line and feathered through my upper lashes. Haze also looks beautiful worn alone and blended out up towards the crease it has a lovely satin finish to it and isn't too shimmery but has a bit of something if mattes aren't your thing.

✿ Desert - Desert is an amazing shimmery shade and one that makes my eyes look incredibly blue, again it looks beautiful worn alone or with other shades too, I like to wear Desert either alone and blended up to my crease and then blended under my lower lash line or all over my lid with Haze to deepen the crease and Doe to brighten the inner corners of my eyes. 

All the shades are absolutely stunning and I love them all, it's hard to choose a favourite but I do think if I had to choose it would be Haze or maybe Desert, but all the shades are beautiful, I find that I never normally love all the shades in a palette or quad and there's always one shade I don't use/like but that really isn't the case with the Youngblood quad as I love all the shades and use them all. The quality of the shadows is fantastic they apply beautifully and blend brilliantly too, they are extremely pigmented and feel so soft and silky, they have fantastic wear time and after wearing the shadows for over 12 hours my make up still looked the same as it did when I'd applied it, the shadows don't crease which for me is amazing because everything creases on me and I need to use an eye primer with everything but I wanted to test the shadows properly so I have tried them with and without primer and they didn't crease without primer which is unheard of for me. 

Timeless is a stunning quad with a beautiful mix of neutral shades that compliment each other fantastically and can all be worn alone or together and used wet or dry, I would highly recommend the quad, I love the packaging and I love the product it really is a stunning quad and the shadows are incredible quality, if like me neutrals are your thing, you will absolutely love it. 

You can find the Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics Pressed Mineral Eyeshadow Quad on the Beauty Expert website for £33.00. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always

Zoe x

✿ This post contains PR samples or gifted items

Essie Peach Side Babe - NOTD

Hello Lovelies, 

It's no secret I love Essie as a nail polish brand, I have used Essie polishes for many years and they are definitely one of if not my favourite nail polish brand, they have a fantastic range of polishes in their permanent line and they also launch collections throughout the year and this years summer collection drew me in as soon as I saw it and I knew there were at least 2 of the shades I would definitely be purchasing. 

One of those shades was Peach Side Babe a gorgeous peach shade and one I felt would be perfect not only for summer but also for my holiday to Greece in August, my favourite summer nail polish shades are corals and pinks and although Peach Side Babe is as the name suggests peach and not coral it is a beautiful shade, when I bought it as hard as it was and boy was it hard, I resisted and put the polish away with my "things to take on holiday" beauty products and didn't use it until the second week of my holiday.

Peach Side Babe is beautiful and a shade I think that will suit many different skin tones, I first wore it at the start of the second week of my holiday and have worn it since I have been home with a much deeper tan and it looked lovely so I imagine it will be lovely on both paler and deeper skin tones. 

I used the Gel Setter top coat also from Essie (review here) to get the amazing shine and before that I had used 3 coats of the Peach Side Babe, the polish applied well and looked beautiful, I love the shade it is a perfect spring/summer shade or holiday shade and one I will get a lot of wear out of and will continue to wear over the next few weeks until my darker shades for Autumn make an appearance but I'm sure by then Essie will have a new collection I'll be loving so watch this space for reviews of their Autumn/Winter 2015 collection. 

One of the things I was super impressed with and thought I would mention is that I took Peach Side Babe on holiday to Greece, it travelled really well and my daughters painted their nails poolside in 40 degrees of heat and sunshine. The polish is now back in the UK in my nail polish collection and perfectly alright it didn't go thick and gloopy in the heat and travelled really well and although it's not a huge thing it is something I thought was worth mentioning as so many nail polishes don't travel well or they go thick and gloopy in hot weather but this is absolutely fine and is just as it was when I bought it. 

I love Peach Side Babe and would highly recommend it, it applied beautifully and the wear time as with all Essie polishes is amazing, it didn't stain my nails and doesn't contain any DBD, Toluene or Formaldehyde which is another bonus, it is a stunning shade and one I will definitely be re purchasing once my current bottle runs out. 

If you would like to try Peach Side Babe, you can find it at Superdrug for £7.99. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x

Maybelline Lash Sensational Waterproof Mascara

Hello Lovelies,

I discovered the Maybelline Lash Sensational mascara a few months ago (full review here) and loved it but unfortunately I have a problem with mascara smudging on my socket bone or "blobbing" as I call it, it is a real pain and often means I'll love a mascara but won't be able to use it because it ends up all smudged and looking a mess, and although the lash sensational mascara was amazing and I loved it, it did blob on me and I was so upset because I loved the product. In my blog post on the lash sensational I mentioned that if ever a waterproof version was launched I'd be very happy because in my experience of trying many many mascaras the waterproof mascara's don't always blob. A couple of months later I got a message from one of my blog readers telling me that a waterproof version of the lash sensational had been launched, I was so excited but then unfortunately couldn't find it anywhere.

A few weeks later my daughter Cole came home from work and told me she'd got a surprise for me, she'd found the waterproof version for me and bought me one bless her, I was so pleased it was a lovely surprise and I couldn't wait to try it but unfortunately I had recently started to use a different mascara and wanted to use that up before opening a new one so I said I would save the Maybelline one for my holidays, it's always nice to take new products on holidays isn't it? My holidays came and I popped the mascara into my make up bag along with a Rimmel one I had to try (review coming soon) I thought my holiday would be a great test of the mascara because it would be hot and I'd be sweating (nice) and I'd get a good idea of how well it wore etc.

The wand is exactly the same as the wand on the original lash sensational mascara and the product has the same consistency but obviously this one is waterproof, it is extremely black which I love and my lashes look so much longer and nicely fanned out and the best thing of all is that the mascara doesn't smudge or "blob" at all, even in extremely high temperatures in Greece it didn't move, I have had a few emotional times recently and cried a lot and again the mascara hasn't moved at all even with me crying buckets, I am really impressed with the mascara it is amazing, my lashes look lovely and it doesn't smudge or flake at all it's a fantastic mascara and I am so pleased Maybelline launched a waterproof version.

I would highly recommend the mascara, I get the same fantastic results as I do with the non waterproof formula but without any blobbing at all I am extremely happy, this mascara is better than some high end mascara's I have recently tried and I would re purchase it in a heart beat it really is fantastic and if like me you suffer with your mascara smudging on your socket bone give this one a try you won't be disappointed. 

If you would like to try the Maybelline Lash Sensational Waterproof Mascara, you can find it at Superdrug or Boots for £7.99. 

Thank you for reading, much love as always, 

Zoe x