My Thoughts Corner

Lightweight is a main norm for me to pick a foundation and that goes hand in hand along with the medium to full coverage that it offers. In 2016 I’ve been enjoying few of them so let’s get started.

My latest purchase is the Urban Decay Naked SkinWeightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup that I love since I got it. It’s such a nice foundation that feels like nothing, just like the name states, and gives a great coverage without being heavy or cakey. It also enables the skin to seem more radiant thanks to its light reflecting pigments and blurs all imperfections.

The Maybelline Instant Age Rewind The Eraser TreatmentMakeup is another foundation of choice of mine. It makes my skin look radiant and healthy and provides a medium coverage with a lovely satin finish.

The next foundation I will talk about is my first on its category and I’m so addicted to it; the Mac Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation in shades NC20 and NC35. This product is one of those smart ones as it reacts as a foundation and setting powder. The coverage offered is medium to full and feels like skin with a great staying power. For a fact, it’s my top foundation of the moment along with the Urban Decay.

Time for setting all that foundation and for that purpose I’ve been liking few. I will start with the banana powder in elfcontour palette which I use to set my concealer and brighten my under eye.  The powder itself is very soft, pigmented and blends easily.

Loose powders are not my thing just because it tends to be messy however I still own some and The NYX Mineral Matte Finishing Powder is my favorite. I was attracted by how soft and finely milled the powder is. It gives such a natural silky finish and I also appreciate how comfortable it feels once on.

My latest acquisition is the Urban Decay De-SlickMattifying Powder. Let’s first take a moment to appreciate the stunning packaging of this beauty. It’s a great pressed powder that adds radiance and glow to the skin without providing a natural and flawless finish.  

This is my current trust-y bunch of base products but I certainly have a longer wish list that I want to try.

Thank you for reading!!! 

I’ve never been lips over eyes/cheeks type of girl and I can easily get stuck in the same groove; reaching for my pink and nude colors, however I like to go a little bolder in summer days. Today I’m sharing the lipsticks I’ve been reaching for the most lately. I included here only the shades I won’t wear the rest of the year and will organize them by colors starting by orange, corals and then fuchsia.

Orange Shades:

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Flirt – One of, if not the best orange shade lipstick I’ve got. The color appears as a bright orange but translates to a pretty pale orange coral with a combined formula of a lipstick with a glossy finish. It’s certainly the perfect summer lipstick you can ever have.

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Smoked Peach – This one is a matte orange that’s creamy in formula, lightweight and pigmented, not the best in the latter but it’s still pretty good.

Coral Shades:

Wet’N’Wild MegaLast Lipstick in Just Peachy – Here is another matte lipstick but in a beautiful bright coral shade. The pigmentation of this lipstick line is just incredible and though they might seem drying the lips at first, they actually don’t.

Maybelline Colordrama Intense Velvet Lip Pencil in In With Coral – A bright neon coral that screams summer! The pencil is very creamy, pigmented with a semi matte finish and unlike the regular lip pencils, the Maybelline intense velvet lip pencils are very comfortable and don’t dry the lips.

Fuchsia Shades:

e.l.f Moisturizing Lipstick in Pink Minx – This is one of the lipsticks that has been laying on my vanity for so long but never tried for no reason until lately and I wish I did any sooner. The shade comes as a bright true pink. It is very moisturizing, highly pigmented and extremely lightweight.

NYX Extra Creamy Round Lipstick in Fig – This is a bright pink with pastel undertones with a very creamy and great pigmentation.

Essence Longlasting Lipstick in Love Me – I love how easy this lipstick applies. It is very creamy and pigmented. The color is a lovely light pink but more on the neutral side; which makes it perfect for everyday wear.   

Wet’N’Wild MegaLast Lipstick in Mauve Outta Here – Another Wet’N’Wild Lipstick that I’m obsessed with. The texture is exactly the same as the Just Peachy but the color is stunning, at least for me. It’s a medium toned mauve/pink that could look scary in the packaging but believe it is wonderful on the lips.

This is it for my summer lipstick picks, stay tuned as I’m planning to have a series of this type of posts featuring the picks of the season for different products.

Until next time.

Hello Beauties,

For the last couple of months I had the chance to try different products from different brands which some I never heard of and after testing them I wish I had known about sooner. Here is a list of 10 makeup brands, I tried and loved, that offer an amazing quality but won’t break the bank with no specific order and you can find them either in stores or online.

1. Makeup Revolution

I believe that Makeup Revolution is the fastest booming makeup company on earth. It doesn’t take too long for this brand to come up with new products. I just can’t seem to follow. Their main products are their eye shadow palettes which are the exact dupes of several high end ones. The color payoff is nevertheless incredible. Honestly I own many of their palettes and I can never seem to have enough. 

2. Wet’N’Wild

Known for their buttery and pigmented Color Icon Eyeshadow Collection, Wet’N’Wild is one of the great drugstore makeup brands in terms of price and quality. The MegaLast Lip Colors are one of my favorite lipsticks. The colors are simply incredible and the lasting power is just amazing. The Coverall foundation and primer are again one of “forever purchased”, and you can find my complete review about them here. And finally I cannot forget the Color Icon blushes, those are literally awesome and you guys definitely have to try them.

3. E.L.F

e.l.f is certainly one of the most known drugstore brands thanks to its inexpensive prices. The quality though of the products is outstanding.. Too good to be true?? Not with e.l.f as that’s exactly what you get. Their makeup brushes are very famous along with a huge list of items.

4. Essence

Known for its extremely cheap prices, Essence cosmetics is a European brand that provides high quality makeup products. My favorite products are: the eye shadow primer, the liquid and longlasting lipsticks and the lip liners.

5. Catrice

It is one of the newest brands I came to try. I own a lot of their concealers/highlighting pens and I’m so in love with their bronzers and blush artist shading palettes. The products are super soft and pigmented with a reasonable variety of colors. It’s definitely a brand to give a space in your collection.

6. Rimmel London

Let me say that I’m a huge lover of Rimmel London. It’s not only affordable but the qualtiy is outstanding just as good as most of high end brands. The Stay Matte pressed powder for instance is one of the most loved powders among the bloggers community. Their foundations, mascaras (reviewed here & here), lipsticks (reviewed here) and concealers (reviewed here) are no less quality.

7. NYX

This is a one goes hand in hand with many high end brands. NYX has a lot to offer not only reasonable pricing but also professional quality. I’ve been using a lot from their matte lip creams, HD concealers, brow powder, mascaras, blushes, contour palette … and I still have a lot more to try. It’s with no doubt one of my favorite drugstore brands. It is absolutely gorgeous!!

8.  Makeup Geek

Makeup Geek shadows are one of the best eye shadows out there. They are very pigmented, buttery with a very large variety of colors. The idea of choosing my own shades and putting them all together in one customized z palette is enjoyable.

9. L.A Girl

Their Pro concealers are one of the best concealers of all time which many celebrities swear by and they are super cheap.

10. Milani

Milani Cosmetics offers the most affordable brand with high quality products. The brand is unfortunately not available in UAE and doesn’t accept international payments.. I’ve read and heard tons of great stuff about their baked blushes and lipsticks. I managed though to get one baked blush in Fantastico Mauve and I’m dying to get my hands on the others. The only one I own is simply great in colour, quality and lasting power. I’m amazed.

I’m sure you already know this, I try out a lot of beauty products and there are lots of hits to make it to my Holy Grail list and lots of misses as well that don’t impress me. It takes me months picking these products as I don’t immediately classify a product as “disappointing” for not delivering from the first time. Another essential fact to keep in mind, the following is my personal experience and opinion on these products. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad but it just didn’t work the way I expected them to. With no further ado…

Benefit They’re Real Push-Up Liner| I’m pretty sure I’m one of few who agree that this eyeliner didn’t live up to the hype. The texture is very flaky which makes the application a disaster. I have already posted a complete review about this liner and you can check it here.

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil| As everyone says, these pencils are nice and easy to work with. They have great color payoff with a very soft and creamy consistency nevertheless with or without primer they crease on me. Unfortunately they are a miss for me especially when looking at the wide range of pretty colors they provide at a very affordable price.

Elf SPF 20 Sunscreen Face Primer| I love e.l.f products. Their quality is amazing with a plus of being one of the very cheap products. Sadly the SPF 20 Sunscreen Face Primer is the first one to disappoint me from this brand. It leaves such a greasy layer due to silicon it contains, with or without the application of moisturizer. Adding to that I don’t think it has a power in terms of longevity of the makeup.

Clinique airbrush concealer| I had really high expectations on this one and before even trying it, I decided to have it in my Holy Grail list and I was wrong. Clinique has been for years my first brand of choice when it comes to skincare, they are simply remarkable. The airbrush concealer is a pen type applicator with a small brush that makes it perfect for precise application however it’s not doing any impressive job in covering my mild dark circles. I honestly I believe it is mainly targeting fair skin people with pink undertones.

Rimmel Brow This Way Styling Gel| This gel was my first brow gel I bought. Bad choice! I dislike this product for one main reason; the wand. It is really big and it picks a lot of product which tends to become quite messy and clumpy. Despite scrapping the excess of product off before application, it is still difficult to use.

Until next time.

NYX Highlighting & Contouring Pro Palette | Highlighters swatches