That was so last year...

Make-up trends and blogger lust haves rarely last any longer than celebrity whirl wind romances; yet, we all still buy into them (and buy all them) as soon as we can, because how else are we meant to prove that we're cool and a true blogger, right?

It's like looking in a mirror

I've never been that good at spotting dupes. I've always thought that if I have something then why would I try and find something the exact same. That being said, unplanned and unexpected dupes do make me feel all warm and fussy in side. This is what happened with these two products.

I picked up the Loreal Illuminating Powder when Boots where doing one of their three for two offers and presumed it was just a nice highlighter. (I feel the high street are missing a good highlighter!) However, once I'd gotten my new little haul home, I found it actually resembles the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder.

Both are powders that leave the skin looking dewy rather than cakey. The shimmer to them does seem quite scary, no-one wants to look like Edward Cullen do they? But for some reason it's rather undetectable on the skin. It just makes your skin look pretty flawless.

For a fraction of the price, I definitely recommend you try out the Loreal powder.

Have you noticed this similarity? 

Laura

Review: Bourjois Powders

Healthy 'radiance' powders seem to be the latest craze at the moment, and I'm not going to lie to you but if there was an hourglass stand near me, and I hadn't heard the rumours of Chanle le beiges breaking people out, I probably would've bought them. Instead I've picked to drugstore offerings, both from Bourjois, and thought I'd share them with you today.

As you can see, neither of them look 'cakey' like some powders do, but they make my skin look more polished and finished. 

Top is healthy balance and the bottom is the mineral powder.

Overall the mineral powder leans toward being that bit more cakey, but there is little in them. I would say that colour wise, healthy balance wins, as does longevity, but there isn't much wrong with the mineral radiance one.

What do you think of radiance powders?

Laura xoxo

Could this be the one?

As you all know I'm on the hunt for the perfect foundation, aren't we all? So after watching a Tanya Burr video were she used a Laura Mercier mineral foundation, I knew I wanted one. The same day Collection (formerly Collection 2000) tweeted they were bringing back their mineral foundation and I took it as a sign. When just mooching round my local Asda, I couldn't find the Collection powder, but did find Loreal's version, so in my basket and onto the till it went. Beep, £15!!! Let me tell you, my mouth dropped, there was a sign near it saying £8 special offer, turns out, not for this product, so let me tell you, I was expecting miracles.

Loreal claim that this powder/foundation combo 'evens skin tone like a foundation/ light as a powder/ long lasting.' It contains 'no perfume, no preservatives, oil free, non-comedogenic, (what the heck is that?)SPF 15.'

As you can see, this comes with its own brush, which I'm not a massive fan off, not soft enough/too tickley for me, I prefer to use my No.7 Kabuki Brush, or a Real Techniques Blush Brush works well too. 

All you have to do is unscrew the top part with the brush attached and swirl it into the powder section. I do find it slightly messy getting the powder to come through the holes, but I can live with it. 

So how did it do?

Just moisturiser and primer on my nose//Just the foundation

As you can see, it really evens out my skin tone, and does a pretty good job of covering blemishes. My bags are still on show, but they're massive anyway, cement wouldn't cover those bad boys.

I really love how light weight this feels on the skin too, it's like you are wearing nothing at all.

As Tanya said in her video, you can apply cream based products easily over the top of this, so concealer and cream blush is fine.

With concealer and other make-up//The end of the day (hence the lower quality!)

It has faded by the end of the day, but what I love about this foundation is touching it up is so easy. Just pop it in your handbag and pop it on throughout the day.

I really like this foundation and think it will be perfect for summer, I wore it on a bike ride and, sorry for the grossness, it didn't melt from any sweat, so perfect for the hot (yeah right England,) summer weather, plus the SPF 15 is no downside.

I also feel like I should mention that the colour match is really great too, whether that is due to the true match quality or what, but that makes me happy.

So not the perfect foundation, but it is really good and I would definitely recommend it for light/natural make-up days. Or hot summer months!

Have you tried mineral foundations? What do you think?

Laura xoxo

P.S I'm still hopping ;) - here!