(Almost) Full Face of First Impressions!

Today I thought I’d give another kind of post a go – recently I’ve either purchased or been gifted (late Christmas presents are the bomb) some new stuff, and it’s (almost) enough to create a full look out of products I’ve not tried yet! Everything apart from my concealer (Tarte Shape Tape, what else?), my lashes (Tarte Maneater mascara & House of Lashes in the style Boudoir) and my highlighter (my beloved MAC In Extra Dimension Skinfinish) is brand new to me, and I haven’t been wearing a lot of make-up recently and I’m off to a gathering later, so I want to go full ham full glam. I’m very excited, so let’s goooo!

Primer – BECCA First Light Priming Filter (£32, buy here)

Ohhhhh, boy. BECCA primers are some of my FAVOURITE, so when they came out with this new one I was practically refreshing Cult Beauty on a daily basis, waiting to get my hands on it. It comes out a lilacy purple and it claims to dispel any dullness on the skin and brighten the complexion under make-up. Now, sometimes if I’m not wearing make-up I like to put their other primer – the Backlight Priming Filter – all over my skin for a subtle but definitely there glow, so I’m interested to see how this looks both alone and under my foundation.

As per usual, I’ve started off with a big ol’ hydration boost before I put on my primer – I use the Vitamin Enriched Face Base by Bobbi Brown and the Smashbox Primer Water as staples every single time I apply make-up. I’ve gone for two pumps of the BECCA primer onto clean fingertips and… goddamn.

My skin looks incredible. I don’t even want to put foundation on top just yet because this is totally a look I could get on board with on no make-up days. It’s bright, I look awake, and it’s glowing like it never glows, like I’ve bathed in highlight but from within. Goddamn, truly goddamn.

Eyebrows are now on, time to do the eyes.

Eye Primer – Wet n Wild Photofocus Eyeshadow Primer (£5.99, buy here)

Eyeshadow Palette – Tarteist Pro Palette (£41, buy here)

I have been dying to get my hands on this palette and it finally arrived about a week ago, but I was away so I’ve only been able to start playing with it today. It’s bloody beautiful and it’s just so cohesive, which I love in a palette. All of the colours clearly work together, but the way the lines are laid out creates four distinct looks, and I really can’t wait to get my hands and face all over that teal colour in the bottom right.

For now though, something a little more wearable. I popped the primer down and set it with the lightest shade, but this made it start to ball up in the corners a little. Already not the biggest fan of the primer as it’s already making the corners of my eyes look dry and flaky, but we’ll persevere. I’m going to use the top row to create a very traditional (for me, anyway) warm smoky eye, so here goes.

WOW. These shadows are bloody brilliant on first impression. They blend like a dream, they’re smooth and creamy, and the look came together in no time at all. The shimmers didn’t even need a spritz of Fix+ and I’m just super pleased with how it turned out. I really like this palette already, and it’s the only eye palette I’m taking as I go away for the weekend.

(I’m leaving the eye primer behind.)

Now onto the face…

Foundation – L’Oreal True Match (£7.99, buy here)

When I first got this, I was a little concerned that this was going to be hella light and hella pink on my skin. It’s the lightest shade they offer in this range, and usually I’m shade 2 or 3 down in most. However, I didn’t find that it looked particularly pale on my skin at all. I actually really bloody liked this.

It’s pretty standard as foundations go, I’d say – medium coverage and a satin finish, very light on the skin and on first application I have to say I really do like it. I’m a dry skin girl and I don’t think you’d need to powder it, but because I had a long day ahead of me and a new powder to try out, so I did. It lasted very nicely on my skin throughout the day too, and I’m excited to get a lot of wear out of this. It’s more daytime than nighttime for me, as I do love my full coverage most of the time, but for a day at work or a day where I want a bit o’ something-something then I think I’ll be reaching for this a lot. It didn’t dull the primer either, which is exactly what I wanted to see.

Powder – BECCA Soft Light Blurring Powder (£32, buy here)

Now… I was so excited to get this because it was marketed as a powder for all skin types that will give you Insta-ready skin in real life, which YES PLEASE. I have been struggling with powdering my skin lately because I am so dry, but I do love to get a big ol’ powder brush and use a translucent powder lightly over my whole face, which is something I’ve been preferring recently to my MAC powder. But then I heard some reviews on YouTube of people who received this powder through PR and they used it to bake their undereyes, and they really didn’t have nice things to say about it.

That really wasn’t what I wanted to hear considering the price of the thing, so I decided against using it to bake with and used a different powder to set my undereyes (mentioned a lil’ later) and instead used this to set my whole face. And you know what? I really liked it.

I agree that it’s probably not the right powder for baking – I think it’ll easily cake up, especially if you’re using a damp beauty sponge to bake with, and I think it’d also create flashback if you used too much – but used lightly and with a nice big fluffy brush to disperse the product around your face well, then it’s bloody beautiful. It’s almost like the loose version of an Hourglass Ambient Powder, I think, and it did set my face well and the powders I put on top of it next blended in nicely. It claims to appear translucent on the skin but I don’t necessarily agree, and I’m not sure how well this would work on all people, even though it claims to be universal. I’m definitely going to have to play some more, and I’ll have a review of both my new BECCA products in the next week or so and how they stand the test of time. Stay tuned for that!

Powder Brush – Real Techniques Multitech XL Brush (£17.99, buy here)

I LOVE THIS BRUSH. This is the brush I’ve been looking for – a big fluffy powder brush that’s slightly tapered, meaning you can use it for all over the face application, but can also be used for more precise application, and as the name suggests it can be used for powders, bronzers, liquids, everything. It’s soft, it’s sturdy, it looks sleek and very fancy, and I really enjoyed this with the BECCA powder (and to give my cheek products a quick once-over to make sure they’re blended seamlessly). Definitely top shelf.

The only thing I don’t like about this is the price point – Real Techniques is sold in drugstores and this particular line is exclusive to Superdrug, but I really don’t think these are the kind of brushes the average person is going to go out and buy. £18 for a brush is what I’d expect from MAC or Anastasia Beverly Hills, not Real Techniques, and I don’t think these are going to get the recognition they deserve because nobody except real beauty fanatics are going to look twice at them, not for that price.

Undereye Setting Powder/Bronzer – Wet n Wild Megaglo Contouring Palette in Dulce De Leche (£5.49, buy here)

This palette is okay. I have both now – the other is in Caramel Toffee, which is a little more yellow toned and the powder is a touch cooler in tone. This is warmer and the powder is a little more white – it’s kind of similar to MAC’s Emphasise powder – and that’s pretty much what it looks like under the eyes. The bronzer side is very, very pigmented and quite powdery, so you’ve got to start light and build it up, which is fine.

I much prefer the other shade I have in this, but I think maybe when I’m a little more tanned in the summer this will be the one I reach for, because at the moment it’s a tad on the warm side, so for me it’s better to use it as more of a bronzer. It’s no Kat Von D Shade and Light palette, but it’s definitely a lot cheaper and smaller than that, so if you’re on a budget or you’re looking for something to travel with I’d say go with it.

Blusher – NYX HD Blush in Pink The Town (£5.50, buy here) 

This blush is nice. It’s pinky, it’s kinda peachy, it’ll go with any kind of make-up look, it’s nice. It’s a nice staple blusher, and it kinda reminds me of MAC Melba. I’m not sure how much I’ll reach for this, to be fair, because I’m usually a nude or a peach blusher gal, but like the contour palette, maybe I’ll get more use out of this in the summer? Let’s hope so. Moving on.

Finally, I’m on to setting my brows.

Brow Gel – Pixi Brow Tamer (£12, buy here)

I actually got this brow gel in my LookFantastic monthly subscription box, so I didn’t pay the £12, but I’ve heard good things. I’m always a little sceptical of clear brow gels because they’ve never been my favourite and I hate that you can see the dirty insides of the tube, because that will always put me off reaching for it. The reviews for this were all very positive, but I didn’t actually love this. I don’t like the wand – I prefer something smaller and a bit more precise for my brows – and it’s just a bit goopy and a bit crusty for me, and you don’t want nothing crusty on your face. I’m not sure I’ll reach for this again, to be honest, because it didn’t stand out to me and I just prefer my L’Oreal and Benefit ones.

SIDENOTE: I was going to include a lip product here, but I had to take it off after about ten minutes of wear because my lips were ON FIRE. I don’t know if that was the product itself or because I’d been trying on lots of lip products that day and my mouth just wasn’t having it, so I took it off, applied a metric tonne of lip balm, then before I left the house I applied a MAC Liptensity lippy, a tried and true. I’m going to chat more about the lip products in an upcoming post, but I also want to wear it a few more times before I mention it on here and write it off completely.

Final look!

(Excuse the fact it’s a little blurry, I had to run out the door right after taking this!)

Looking back I would have preferred a different blush because it’s too pink for my tastes, but everything else worked really well for me and lasted a six hour car journey and four hours of gin drinking, so happy days for me!

So that concludes this first impressions post – something different, something a bit longer than usual, but something that talks about stuff from all kinds of prices, styles, and for a variety of tastes. Let me know what you think or if you’ve tried any of the products and you’ve got any thoughts by dropping me a comment, and stay tuned for more stuff coming soooon! Thanks for reading everyone, peace out!

 

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