My New L'Oreal Trio: Mini Makeup Reviews

What started this whole mini L'oreal haul was my hunt for a lipgloss. I adore the Mac Cremesheen Gloss formula but pre-Christmas I just wasn't in the mood to splurge on makeup as I'd overdone it on jewellery (keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming Tiffany collection blog post). In the past I've read good things about L'Oreal's Infallible Gloss collection and so I set out to swatch some of their cream colours. The stand in my local Superdrug only had two shades in L'Oreal's Cream formulation (which is quite similar to Mac's Cremesheen Gloss formulation) and I ended up buying one of them. I chose L'Oreal's Infallible Cream Finish Mega Gloss in Shade 110 / I Got the Power (£6.99) and I think it might just be the perfect nude lipgloss. It feels thick and plumping without being too heavy or greasy, and I think that the colour would suit many skin tones. I also love the applicator, which delivers a great amount of product onto the lips and makes it easy to achieve an even and neat finish. Honestly, I think that it's great value for money and I'd definitely consider purchasing another shade of these Infallible Mega Glosses if I found another cream shade that I liked.

My Hair Care Routine Staples

Through trial and error I've narrowed down my at home summer hair care routine to five essentials. Now, don't get me wrong, I do flit about with different products here and there but these are the products I find my reaching for daily without fail.

Up first is my shampoo choice of the moment. I'm pretty disloyal when it comes to haircare but I'm nearly through this bottle of Aussie's Mega Shampoo and I like it enough to pick up another bottle. That's high praise from me! It's gives a pretty thorough cleanse in just one application (which is great for me as I'm not shampooing daily and therefore often have dry shampoo to get rid off) so I don't ever need to rinse and repeat but, importantly, it doesn't dry out my hair. Best of all this is really easily available and pretty affordable too! I really need to try more of the Aussie range, if you have any recommendations do let me know in the comments.

I've been trying to be better about using conditioner - I used to find it really hard to summon the energy to bother! My conditioner of choice has been going strong since Christmas and it's Kerastase's Cristaliste Lait Cristal. This conditioner is like a miracle in a bottle. You only need the smallest amount and I leave this on my hair for a minute (usually whilst I shave / douse myself in moisturising shower oil). Once you rinse it off your hair is honestly transformed into healthy, shiny looking hair. I would find it hard to go back to using anything else after this as it's hard to find something so nourishing and effective that doesn't weigh down my hair.

I added in this very light Soy Tri Wheat Leave-In Conditioner from Healthy Sexy Hair when I received for my birthday in early July and I've really been enjoying it. It's incredibly light (I really can't stress this enough) with a very fine mist making it perfect to use as a detangling spray. It won't weigh your hair down at all and best of all it smells flipping magical, like mouth-wateringly good (sort of like cocoa butter but the scent is lighter and sweeter). I apply a spritz of this into soaking wet hair before using my tangle teezer and I love it.

Once I've towel dried my hair I like to use a hair oil (or hair serum, but generally I prefer hair oils) to nourish, condition but more importantly de-frizz. I find that Moroccan Oil, Macadamia Oil and L'Oreal Elvive's Extraordinary Oil for Fine Hair to be the best options. Though, I've almost completely used up my 125ml of Macadamia Healing Oil Spray so it's safe to say that I reach for that the most. It also doubles up as a fantastic overnight conditioning treatment and I often use it for this purpose too.

Lastly, I don't always reach for hair spray but recently I've found one that I really like and I've been using it a lot. L'Oreal Elnett Satin Hair Spray (Normal Hold) is a very good hairspray and it's helped me out recently, especially when I've been tying my hair up (which has been quite a regular occurrence). I know it's a pretty basic, staple product but I've been using it a lot so it merited a mention!

 I'm on the look out for new hair products to try in the future so any and all recommendations would be much appreciated. What haircare or hair styling products would you consider to be your staples?

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L'Oreal Paris Nude Magique BB Blush Universal Rosy Blush

L'Oreal Paris Nude Magique BB Blush  £7.99

Something about a double dose of a letter has made the beauty world go crazy. BB, CC, DD... whatever they are, whatever they stand for, it seems as though people are desperate for them. And you know what, I'm obviously one of those crazy suckers because I bought L'Oreal Paris' Nude Magique BB Blush on a complete whim months and months ago. You know the beauty lurkers I mentioned last month, well this product would very happily sit in that category!

I tried a tester of this blush in the Boots store where I bought it and I absolutely loved the velvety feel of it. You squeeze an amount (the amount will depend on how pink you like your cheeks) of this onto your fingers and it is a gel formula - hopefully you can kind of see that in my photos. However, when you rub this into your skin it doesn't stay a gel it transforms into a velvet-textured powder pretty darn quickly leaving you with a relatively long wearing stain. The 'magic' part of this blush is that the gel that you squeeze out of the tube is clear and when you start working with the product it transforms into a pink shade. This is a massive gimmick and doesn't really help anyone in any way but it is quite a fun aspect of the product and is part of the reason I bought it.

All good so far, until I tell you just how difficult it can be to make this look wearable in the short time it takes for the gel to set into its powdery finish. If you're used to working with products like Benefit's Benetint or other gel products (I know Soap and Glory do one called Cheek Mate) then you will be prepared to deal with L'Oreal Paris' Nude Magique BB Blush. However, make-up newbies and people who rely on their make-up brushes to do all of the hard work  then this is not a product you should pick up! 

The colour that the gel transforms into is supposed to be universally flattering rosy blush. I don't actually know if this changes into a different colour depending on the skin tone that it is applied to it but on me it turns into the exact colour that I think of when someone says the word "rosy". I like the shade a lot and it looks similar to the colour I go naturally when my face flushes, but it's hard to apply lightly and evenly and I feel as though it never looks that natural looking when I wear it.

The jury is honestly still out on this. I know that I like it, the texture is nice and the colour is pretty, but I think it is definitely something which takes a lot of time to get used to using. It definitely won't be suitable for a lot of people who might pick it up thinking that anything with "BB" on it is going to be super easy to work with. I do use this occasionally and I will continue to but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, it might be worth a swatch though because it feels very nice when you apply it to your skin!

Have you tried this? Do you ever use gel cheek products?

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REVIEW: L'Oreal Paris Elvive Full Restore Conditioning Replenish Spray

I love leave in conditioners, mainly because they save me time in the mornings which means I can have a few extra precious minutes of sleep! I bought this product a week or so ago and have been using it ever since as an alternative to the Herbal Essences leave in product that I'd been using previously. 

The benefits of this product are that it is a spray formula (rather than a pump) so you don't have any wastage and it is incredibly quick and easy to apply. It also means the product is thinner, I would describe it as quite watery rather than creamy. This makes it great for every day use as it doesn't weigh the hair down whilst still giving a good level of conditioning.

This isn't my ideal leave in conditioner (I think I actually prefer something thicker) but it does work and its left my hair soft and shiny. It's also very affordable and easy to get your hands on! I picked mine up for £1.95 from Superdrug as its currently on a half price discount.

What hair conditioners have you been loving recently?

Angelica