Dream Matte Mousse Foundation

The Dream Matte Mousse foundation is my new (since a month or two) everyday beloved product, for a day time good to go, natural yet polished look. As the name states, it provides indeed matte finish, and being of a mousse consistency, it is totally lightweight on skin and it feels silk and soft to the touch.

However, the first version of this foundation was bought back in 2008 and I had a love-hate relationship with it for 6 months, when I finally gave up as it got hard as stone in the jar. I think Maybelline did a great upgrade in this new formula, because my first version was very patchy, clumpy and hard to blend.

The new formula (as I refer the one I bought in 2010) melts on your skin, blends effortlessly and at the end of application you can almost believe you are wearing nothing, unless you look in a magnifying mirror at 5cm (-+2 inches) distance.

The coverage really surprised me too, I noticed a considerably improvement and it covers most of my imperfections, and oh lord, they are many, such as blemishes, pigmentation, redness etc, and I can classify it as medium coverage. It also does a brilliant job disguising my large pores on my T-zone and I guess it would be a good product for filling the fine lines, but thank goodness, I don’t suffer of this problem YET, so I can only tell as an option. For the setting part, just use your powder as usual if you have combination/oily skin and for dry skin, I would totally skip this step as it has the matte properties already.

The only two points on the down side are: It doesn’t stay perfectly on face for more than 6h, so you need to reapply it to get the same coverage you had when you first applied. It can be a problem, if you are the type of person who hates to carry your foundation bottle with you, especially if it’s made of glass, like this product, but I don’t see a problem in it. And if you don’t mind your foundation becoming a bit sheer at the end of the day, you could totally eliminate this part.

The other point is that the product loses its airiness (micro air bubbles that makes the mousse consistency) very fast. I reckon it’s due to the air exposure, so make sure you tighten the lid after every use. I have mine for about 2 months, and I’m starting to see the fluffiness going away.


Nevertheless, great foundation for day time, it goes on smoothly and attends my needs without looking like a mask., check out my video if you want to see a demo of myself applying this foundation and see what it’s all about!

Have you tried this foundation yet? Or any other Maybelline one? X

Sleek Make Up Products

Some of you may know already some products from the brand Sleek Make Up, such as the Palettes, that come in many editions with super variety of eyeshadows are super pigmented and beautiful for a value price of 5 Pounds (in UK). I have many other Sleek products already, but this time I decided to try something new and as I no longer live in UK, I had the chance to try their website and do some beauty online shopping :)

In my order I got a Face Contour Kit in Medium with a Dual Ended Brush for Face for 12 euros, 4 mini foundation palettes and 2 foundation testers for 2 euros each, a Lip conditioner for 7 euros and I received a mini gloss as a complimentary gift. I think it’s very nice when companies give us little gifts or discounts/free shipping, so the costumer feels pampered and tends to return. Plus, the prices are great! Before going to the products, I must say: The packaging is really well done and you see that they really take care of your order and not just throw the items in a box. Every item is individually wrapped tightly in bubble plastic and the products sit on a pretty wrapping pink paper. Of course, in this picture, I had un-wrapped everything already.

I tried only the Face Contour Kit (Medium), tinted lip conditioner and the mini gloss and so far, I love them all. The contour and highlight powders do the job beautifully, the consistency are powder creamy and they blend very well, with lasting application and matches my tan skin tone perfectly. It is a perfect substitute for MAC Sculpt and Shape if you don't have access to it or it is a bit on the pricey side.

Face Contour Kit : Packing with instructions, product and swatch

The Lip conditioner is highly pigmented, beautiful dark plum shade (perfect for autumn/winter), and it makes my lips smooth in some minutes. I do need to re-apply it after 3h though, because I no longer feel the moisturising effect any more.

Lip Conditioner and Mini Keyring Gloss and swatches

The Brush that came with the Contour Kit is double ended and so soft, and applies the product very nicely; I can imagine this as a nice travel brush too, especially because it comes with a little pouch.

Dual Face Brush for Contouring and Highlight

And I didn’t try the foundations yet, but look at how neat they are in those palettes! They are perfect for a true skin tone / skin type matching at the comfort of your home, or if you prefer, you could also use them as cream highlights and contours, and as a concealer palette too if you don’t require extreme coverage.

Sleek Cream to Powder Palettes and Skin Revive Foundation Testers

I did a little swatch and my colour is Bamboo 485 for the Creme to Powder Foundation (palette), and it is classified as Light. I’ve never been classified as light before (being a NC40 in MAC)!  Sleek products for skin bases are more oriented to darker and deeper skin tones, which are great, since it’s really difficult to find brands with such massive variety for deeper skin tones (olive tones, tans, light and dark Asian tones, and black – or afro descendants/americans, if you prefer).

Have you tried Sleek products yet? Do you like them? x

Favourites | August 2010

I love to know about other people's favourites because it gives me inspiration for the next shopping list, get to know products that I wouldn't know about or I thought it wasn't that good and lately, to know what products are on "the hype".

But everytime I plan to share with you which products I'm grabbing the most lately, I think "meh, this is ridiculous, who would like to know about it?"

Anyways, thoughts apart, I decided to do a video and let you know what is making top list this month on my vanity.

The products I mentioned are:

- Estee Lauder DayWear Plus Moisturiser with SPF 15 : it smells delicious cucumbers, absorbs really fast on skin, not too rich, perfect for mixed/oily skin types, and does moisturise and feel luxurious.

- Avene Thermal Spring Water Spray 150ml : Nice refreshing spray to start your skincare in the morning, especially if used before moisturiser, to give your skin a nice hydration boost. There is also a petit bottle for on the go, if you feel your skin is feeling tight or dull during the day, that's something you must have. I couldn't find it yet though.

- Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse Foundation in 048 SunBeige: Fabulous Foundation, melts on skin, gives flawless and poreless look with effortless application. Medium coverage with 6h to 8h lasting properties, no way you can cake it. Perfect for day time use and it gives indeed a matte finish.

- Lush Colour Supplement in Dark Yellow: Very nice concept, if you are just really lazy for a foundation routine or just want something very natural with a sheer coverage. The texture is gel like, so it goes very smooth on skin, feel in fine lines very well. Lush offers it in other shades as well, and I'm a NC 40 at MAC colours, and this shade just matches me fine.

- Maybelline Lash Stiletto Waterproof Mascara: Gives volume and length for a soft daytime look :)

- Alverde Baked Blush in 08 Berry: The MAC MSF Stereo Rose dupe. Although it says Berry in the name, it's more peach-pink with golden fine shimmer, really. It's just PRETTY! And costed around 3-4 euros.

- Maybelline MNY line: I was happy to find these products at my DM drugstore last month, and most of them ranges from 1 euro to 4 euros each. The average pigmentation and lasting properties are very good for the price given and the variety of shades and types are good :)

Check them out in my video!




What are your favourites?? x

Nail Polish Review: Catrice Clay-ton, My Hero

As I walked through the aisles of one of my local drugstores, Müller, I was caught by the Catrice's shelves. They were never really appealing to me until last week. My first thought was: Is that new? Or was I really blind?

Anyways, among the immense variety of nail polish shades the brand offers, I found this one: Clay-ton, my hero (230). Then, you will say: Yeah, one more mud shade in the market. But hold on! This is not your average Dupe for Chanel Particuliere. It’s a tiny bit lighter than many of the “greige” (grey+beige) tones I’ve seen and it has a settled fine golden shimmer running through it, which makes me think something like a perfect autumn day. It also reminds me something unique and expensive.

Natural light x With Flash

As I applied to my nails (I’m not a profi, and I don’t have amazing nails, bear with me), the first coat came a bit sheer, almost opaque, and a second coat came to even out my previous mistakes. The shade dries a bit darker than the colour you see in the bottle, but still very beautiful. However, I was expecting more golden shimmer at the end of application. It turns out VERY subtle in normal light conditions; nevertheless it gives “vibrancy” to the greige colour. The shimmer is only to be seen in direct sun light, as seen in the picture, and when it happens, I smile. I would even dare to say it look a bit “olive green greige”.

Overall, I love it, and I can see myself reaching for this nail varnish a lot during this fall season. I also think ladies (and guys, why not) with a more olive/ yellow undertone complexion will benefit 100% from this colour. I’m not sure if that would suit pink tone skin. The varnish itself dries in a decent amount of time (around 1-2 min one coat) and the formula is not so thick, so you can work really well with this product. The tips faded after 3 days and no chipping occurred before the 5th day, but I can't really tell about these properties, because I always use Seche Vita Top Coat, which makes it shinier and more resistant.

Look at those golden shimmers! (smile now)

What do you think of it? Are you fed up of these in-between colours or are you still rocking them this A/W?

X