May Favourites: Long Lasting Gems

May Favourites

I've been very busy at work this month so I haven't had much time to play around with different looks in the morning and have been sticking with a few firm favourites to get the job done.  I'm ashamed to say that last week I put my make up on during the bus ride to work, twice.  The downside has been low-key eye-liner application (pencil only) but one upside is that both times my bus literally flew to work and only got held up at one of the 4,536 traffic lights on my journey.  The universe always give you the opposite of what you want!  Anyway, I digress.

1. Miss Dior Cherie: I have too many perfumes, they're going off quicker than I can use them up before they go bad, so I get a lot of satisfaction from finishing a bottle.  My friend Rachel got me this for my birthday a couple of years back and most girls will be familiar with this scent by now.  The bottle is adorable and one I'll keep on my dressing table.  Before I got this perfume I used the copy of it - Katie Price's Stunning and no one could tell the difference.  More recently Next has released a dupe of it called 'Diamonds' and the packaging of it is more KP than Dior.  I'll do a comparison of them soon.

2. Escada EDP: It's been a bumper month for finishing up perfumes, but I'm very sad about the end of my lovely little Escada.  I carry this around in my bag to reapply during the day and lingers much longer than Miss Dior Cherie.  I have weird Teflon skin to which no perfume will stick! Escada perfumes are limited edition so I wish I'd bought the larger version of this when I saw it in the airport two years ago. It's quite a mature scent one of those late 1980s/90s feminine but strong numbers in the same vein as Givenchy's Amaridge.

3. Clinique City Block Sheer SPF 25: This is my second tube and is one of those products I will always have around.  The sun came out to play a good bit during May so I dug this tube out.  It's essentially a tinted moisturiser with sun block.  I like the idea of a tinted moisturiser as sometimes I don't want to wear thick, heavy foundation, but most that I've tried, like Benefit's You Rebel in Light make me a comic orange colour.  The Clinique one is just light enough for me and I can get away with wearing powder over the top as it evens out my skin tone and disguises mild redness.  It sinks into the skin quickly which is excellent as it is SPF 25.  I need to wear sun block everyday, but some products are so greasy any make up you apply over them slides down your face by elevensies.  I'll give a more in depth review of this product in my sun block overview.

4. Revlon ColourStay Ultimate Lipcolour in Prized Peach: Until I discovered the joys of long lasting lip colour I neglected my lips.  I would spend ages making up my eyes and applying loads of gossamer thin layers of face products, but my lips would be lucky if they got a swipe of lip balm.  This is despite having a drawer full of every type of lip product you can imagine! I don't have the patience to reapply lip gloss ten times a day, so this Revlon lipstick, which has the consistency of a gloss is great, it last a good couple of hours at least.  It is supposed to last longer than that, but of course the advertising spiel is never realistic.  I like that even though it's a bolder colour than I normally wear it doesn't make my lips look smaller than they are, which I find happens with darker lipsticks.  It is quite drying on the lips, but my lips tend to get dry anyway as I'm not an obsessive lip glosser.  I just put a moisturising lip balm on first, pat off any residue which would interfere with the ColourStay's adhesive properties and my lips are done.

5. Lacura Foundation in 10 Transparent: This featured in my last FOTD and really deserves it's own review.  It costs around £3 and is my favourite foundation.  The colour, scent, consistency, coverage and staying power are leagues better than other pricier foundations.  I wish I lived closer to an Aldi!

6. MUA eye shadows in Shades 1, 11 and 12: These too featured in my last FOTD and since I've been keeping my make up simple this month, they create the perfect 'work' eye.  They are very durable, especially if I use a concealer or eye shadow primer on my lid first.  They're only £1 each and far more pigmented than most MAC eyeshadows.  They're more comparible to Urban Decay shadows and these three are all pearlised.  However, I swatched a few matte ones in Superdrug and the quality was not as good.  

7. MAC Technakohl Liner in Graphblack: Despite owning enough eye liner to draw around the world twice I added this to my collection at Christmas after hearing tales of it's amazing staying power, especially on the waterline.  I'm all about durable products and so far this hasn't disappointed.  It's a true black and lasts longer than most eye liners, although my Revlon ColourStay is very good as well and is in identical packaging.  However, eye liners last for ages so I didn't mind forking out more for the MAC one.

8.  i.d Bare Minerals SPF 15 Foundation in Fairly Light: This also popped up in my last FOTD.  I keep resolving to finish up all my liquid foundations and then only use mineral for everyday and keep one liquid product for special occasions.  Somehow I think I'll always have a box of foundations! I'm just too curious when a new shiny products gets realised with promises of giving you perfect skin!  I do like using mineral powder foundation on it's own as I have oily skin and it's easier to match to my skin and avoid the dreaded orange tide mark, but if I don't use it with a pollyfila-type primer, like L'Oreal Studio Secrets Smoothing Resurfacing Primer it emphasises my pores too much.  This month however I just put a light dusting over it over liquid foundation to set and stay put in the warmer weather.

9. Nails Inc. polish in Picadilly Circus: I got this nail polish ages ago with Glamour magazine and it's one of my favourites.  It's an unusual deep mauve-y dark pink which finishes shiny.  Plus you only need one coat and it doesn't chip as quickly as drugstore polishes.  I tend to wear this on my toes as I hate the look of dark chipped colour on my fingernails. 

10. Nails Inc. polish in London: I got this nail polish with the Diet Coke offer (click link to go to review) earlier this month and have been wearing it on my fingernails most of the time since.  It needs two coats to look it's best and finish off with a coat of clear to gloss it up and prevent chipping.

Don't forget to comment below and tell me what long lasting gems you've discovered!