Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask Review

When the winter begins to roll in, not only do temperatures here in the UK start to fall, but the hydration of my skin plummets too and as someone with combination-oily skin, this is very stressful. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I just didn't have the right products in my collection to bring my skin back to life, until I came across this beaut. 

I've always favoured clay-based, anti-blemish face masks (which I talked about here), but I've been interested to try the Origins Drink Up Intensive Overnight Mask for a while now. At around £20, I didn't really fancy the investment, and put it off for ages. However, whilst wandering around the CCO the other day, I found the mask in mini size for only £9, and instantly fell in love.

The mask itself is a pale yellow shade, and is extremely thick in consistency. The idea is that you cover your face in the product, leave it on overnight, and wake up with beautiful, hydrated skin. It claims a lot... but boy oh boy does it deliver. I was super impressed at how amazing my skin felt in the morning - it was plump and glowing! I find that using this mask just once or twice a week is sufficient, and I will definitely be buying the full size version when I've run out of the mini.

Do you have any winter skin saviors? I'd love to hear them!

My MUJI Makeup Storage

Makeup storage is a very personal thing that depends on the amount of space you have, and the amount of makeup you own. I've stored my makeup in makeup bags piled on top of each other, and in drawers, divided using the stereotypical Glossybox get up. 

Since the Kardashians showed their acrylic drawers, the MUJI acrylic range really came into its own, as funnily enough, not everyone could afford their $300 offering. For a long time, I put up with my ASDA plastic drawers, but seeing as this wasn't the most pleasing to the eye, I decided to invest in the famous MUJI acrylic drawers, and I'm so happy I did. 

Last month, I joined the rest of the beauty blogging community in housing my most-used makeup in affordable MUJI storage. I bought 2 of their 2 Drawers - Wide, for just £10.95 each, and the Acrylic Desk Pot - 3 Partitions for £5.50. The storage itself is really sturdy, and the drawers stack on top of each other perfectly - I'd highly recommend them. These drawers fit foundations, and allow you to stack blushers and bronzers on top of one another. In the future, I may buy more of these, but for the time being, this arrangement is ideal for what I need.

The other acrylic organiser sitting on top of the MUJI unit is from WHSmith, and I believe it is still available in store, but there are many alternatives around on eBay and Amazon. 

L'Oreal Rouge Caresse Lipsticks

The L'Oreal Rouge Caresse lipsticks retail for just £7.99 and have been around for quite a while, however, I have only just purchased my first few.

Much like the much-loved 'Revlon Lip Butters', the L'Oreal Rouge Caresses are light-weight, buttery lipsticks that feel more like a tinted lipbalm. Easy to apply, these bullets of lovelyness are handy for on the go and can be applied without a mirror. They can be applied as a subtle wash of colour, or can be built-up to be more opaque. As they are quite sheer, they are quite glossy and are great for summer. They come in a shade to suit everyone from bright pink, to nude.

The colours I have are '202 Impulsive Fuchsia' and '301 Dating Coral'. I picked these colours as I thought they would make great summer shades (and are colours I don't already have in my collection).

L - 'Dating Coral' (3 swipes, 1 swipe)         R - 'Impulsive Fuchsia' (3 swipes, 1 swipe)

'Dating Coral' is an orangey coral which isn't too bright - I find it really hard to find corals that suit my skin tone and that I am confident enough to wear.

'Impulsive Fuchsia' is a bright blue-toned pink that would flatter many different skin tones.

I really like the packaging as they are very sturdy and the top of the bullet is a metallic version of the colour of lipstick, making it easy to see which shade you are grabbing.

So, as I mentioned before, these can be compared to the 'Revlon Lip Butters' however, I think I prefer L'Oreal's buttery offering. They are not as 'slippy' so stay on longer and in my opinion, feel nicer on the lips.

The one downside of these products are that they sometimes cling to any dry patches on my lips so just make sure they are nice and smooth.

Overall, I would highly recommend the L'Oreal Rouge Caresses and they also have another version of this product - the 'Rouge Caresse Coeur de Perle', as these lipsticks have a pearly centre which gives a pearlescent finish. 

Pixi Early Bird Palette

Hi Guys!

So this post is about a new palette I have recently accidentally aquired whist browsing the shelves of Boots (sorry this blog will be a little picture heavy!).

The Pixi Early Bird Palette retails for £16 and I must say, it is totally worth the money, however, I picked it up for £8 on sale.

Firstly, it contains 3 blushers, each printed with either a fairy of the 'pixi logo' on top.

They are silky-smooth and each have great colour pay off.

There is a slightly shimmery peachy shade, a slightly shimmery light pink and a matte dusky rose (but a little bit darker). They are all really wearable colours and I find that they really brighten the face up. 

There are also 2 bronzers and a highlighter. Unfortunately, both bronzers have quite a lot of shimmer in them and I prefer more of a matte finish, however, the 2 shades make it great for many different skin tones.

The highlighter, on the other hand, is gorgeous! It has a very smooth texture and adds just the right amount of shimmer, without it being glittery - I also think that the lightest bronzer (top) could work as a highlighter for darker skin tones.

Lastly, are the eye products. The range of eyeshadows are supposed to take you from day to night and I think that they really do.

The 4 products down the middle are 'eye bases' and are primarily, skin-toned colours which are quite opaque and are used under eyeshadows to even out any discolouration on the eyelid. Again, these have a very smooth texture and I like that there are different shades as it is suitable for different skin tones.

 

The 'day' shadows on the left of the palette contain lighter colours, with the one darker one being a forest green - a nice change from black. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed with these eyeshadows.

All of the colours are shimmery (no mattes) which makes it difficult to define the crease. They are also mainly very light and very chalky. The first 6 (L-R) are extremely glittery and chalky which creates a lot of fallout.

I do quite like the mint green and forest green, but the mint colour is again, a little chalky.

The forest green (furthest right) is the opposite, smooth and shimmery, not chalky and glittery.  



Finally, the 'night' eyeshadows. Luckily, these are better quality and have better colour pay-off. They include one matte shade (similar to MAC omega, 3rd from left) and the rest are more shimmery than glittery. I particularly like the steel grey (2nd from right) and golden brown (5th from left).



Overall, I definately think the palette is worth the money, if only for the face products, however, the lighter eyeshadows are a little duff but the darker ones are really quite nice and comparible to some from the Urban Decay Naked Palette. Its handy for travelling and can create many different looks. It is my first product from Pixi and I think this is a nice one to start with.