The Power of Make Up

So hiiii! The wonderful Lucy posted a photo of herself without make-up on her lovely blog. Nothing new eh? Don't soap stars do it in Heat all the time? Except those photos have been altered, concealer applied and some eye brow grooming has occured.

I decided to copy and do the same thing, it links in nicely with a blog from Lily of LLYMLRS fame about why she wears make-up and why we shouldn't feel ashamed to wear loads or none at all!

   

Moisturiser (kind of) - La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo
Primer - Benefit Porefessional

Foundation - Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 51

Concealer - Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in Light

Blusher - Revlon Photo Ready Cream Blush in Pinched

Eyeshadow - Cheap one in some random palette!

Eyeliner - 17 Wet Look Lacquer Eye Liner
Mascara - Rimmel Volume Flash Scandaleyes

So before and after, no photo shop editing.. all taken in natural light in front of my window! And I even pulled a silly face for you. This is my normal going to uni face, no lip products, no bright blushers. I cannot leave the house without foundation, even if nipping to the corner shop. Years of suffering with acne has caused huge acne scarring on my face as well as a very uneven skin tone. Over the last few weeks my skin has cleared up so am feeling a bit better, but I have just started a Nursing Degree so I'm sure the stress levels will bring them all back.

Eyebrows are something I never bothered with, but now they complete my face. They may be a bit dark in the above photo but I was a bit heavy handed with the brush this morning!

Now I shall leave you with one final photo that is far too close to my face, however I have messed around with it in Photoshop very quickly. My skin doesn't look as flat and much more even, so be warned even what you see on a blog may have been altered beyond recognition. Far too many blogger babes have NO PORES! We're on to you.

So go on, post your face on your blog without make-up and don't be tempted to adjust the contrast so your skin looks ~flawless~ 

Zoey xox

20 days

1. Packing & Unpacking into a new flat, moved from an awful flat in Cheetham Hill to student land in South Manchester. I love it. A beautiful ground floor flat in a big Victorian town house. It is going to be a bugger to heat but love the space.
2. I treated myself to a £15 shirt from Select which was worn out with a few friends from work. A nice excuse to get horrifically drunk, paint my nails and then fall over.
3. The rest of my life has been full of small pleaures, dying the ends of my hair pink, lie ins after horrible 6am shifts after 10pm finishes and getting to wear "normal" clothes after living in Supermarket uniform. 

Eeesh. So a cop out instagram post, I've seen these branded as lazy and awful on twitter. I don't particularly  sometimes, especially ones full of MAC purchases (seriously, don't need to boast anymore) and Starbuck's drinks. But I like them for myself to keep a track on my life. I am looking to completely move career, go back to being a student and just getting out of this dark hole I am stuck in. 

So May begins, and a new start? We shall see. :)

Share The Love

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♥ This Macaroni Cheese recipe looks amazing, hands down it is my favourite meal. When  I was little when we went to my grans for sunday dinner I'd get a little bowl of macaroni cheese instead as I refused to eat roast meat or most vegetables. It wasn't a case of my mother giving in, it was a case of I would prefer to not eat for days.

♥ I am not a big youtube fan, apart from music videos obviously, but don't tend to watch make-up ones. But bored the other day I clicked play on one of Estée's from Essie-Button videos and oh my gosh I love her. Beautiful Canadian girl with an amazing accent, amazing amount of make-up and just really funny!

♥ Love love this skirt from A Daisy Chain Dream, if only my 5ft 2 legs could carry of midi length! The skirt was also a bargain of £3 from H&M!

♥ Perfect nails from Lyndar the Merciless

♥ I need to buy myself a Helmer from Ikea for the perfect make-up storage so it out of the way in the new flat!

♥ Old news, but Instagr.am found its way to Android! My username is zoeycatrin and have already become addicted. Also re-dyed the ends of my hair red, it was rude not too when I had some bleach left over.

Zoey xox

Could You Be Loved

Moving home / flat / room for what feels like the 100th time in the last few years means I am getting very good at packing. For 6 months of last year I lived out of a tiny pink suitcase with the rest of my belongings packed in boxes all over the place. I still hold on to things I don't need / wear however. These two pairs of shoes are a good example. The black River Island beauties were bought in the sale for £15 over a year ago. They fit fine except I cannot walk in them. It's not a question of them being too high but simply the strange angle they put my foot at. I do however frequently try them on with outfits and play with the idea of going out in them. Common sense always steps in. 

The pink beauties were £5 from New Look 2 years ago, bought by an ex to cheer me up, I was in my homeless summer stage between student houses. The main problem is they are peep toes, I never wear peep toes even with tights. But they are so pretty. So would would I wear them with?

River Island Playsuit - Peoples Market Dress

The black pair are there to be worn with something leopard print, this playsuit from Miss Selfridge is perfect. The pink pair are oh so girlie and I would love to wear them bare legged with the beautiful dress from Peoples Market via ASOS. I still refuse to donate these to charity or even shove them on ebay. Maybe one day I will manage to wear them both.

MUA Eye Shadow Shade 19

I ran out of ELF and Gosh's eyebrow kits, brow pencils were just not cutting it so I needed a cheap alternative. In stepped MUA's Matte Eye Shadow 19, again with the names MUA! But it's a perfect matte eye shadow. Blends beautifully if used as an eye shadow but perfect for filling in eyebrows too.

I lost one somewhere in the depths of my car, I have a horrible habit of driving to work at 5.30am then when I get there doing my make-up so I know how long I have to do it. But as it only costs £1 I can buy one whenever I lose it!

I am demonstrating the surprised look but you get the idea, they look much better in this photo.


Zoey xox

My Current Loves

Currently loving a few products so am bored on my day off so thought I would do a little round up as every good little blogger does.

Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation I love Healthy Mix foundation but it just was not giving me enough coverage recently, I was buying a make-up brush and primer in Boots and had a third thing to buy (hello 3 for 2) so picked up this in my usual 51 shade. It's good! Perfect for oily skin but stay away if you have dry skin. Creates a lovely matte finish and does even my skin tone. Will do a proper review on this bad boy

OPI Save Me I won this beauty in Dawn's giveaway on her blog Inanity and the Girl. This is my first OPI polish and my first ever "high end" one and hopefully won't be my last. It's amazing, sad I haven't had more chance to wear it. Of course my love for Nicki Minaj helps, oh hello Star Ships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky!

Tangle Teezer There are reviews of this everywhere, so I am just going to say OMG I wish this existed when my mother was dragging knots out of my thick mass of hair.

Collection 2000 Pump Up the Volume Mascara I have a love hate relationship with this, you have to be so careful not to blink after applying it as it takes an age to dry and it clumps really easily. But if you look past that it gives you amazing big lashes.

MUA Blusher in Shade 5  & MUA Nail Varnish Shade 2 .The website makes this blush look like a deep red it is actually a pinky coral with a slight golden shimmer. Perfect. The black nail varnish is a perfect one coater for £1. Actually can't ask for more. Except maybe for MUA to give there amazing products names?

Real Techniques Stippling Brush All over the blogs, no point reviewing, am pretty impressed. It is worth the hype.

Collection 2000 Pink Shock Lipstick A-mazing. Seriously lovely highlighter pink with a finish edging towards matte. I love it especially as it was only £2.99 and bought with points I had a on Superdrug Beauty Card I forgot I had.

Ivory by Rimmel & L'Oreal

L'Oreal True Match Ivory - Rimmel Wake Me Up Ivory

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation - Ivory

So this has been all over blog land. It is creamy formula, it goes on nice and smoothly. Dry patches do need to be well moisturised. I found without a primer this would slide off my face in about 2 hours, when you only get a half hour break on a 6am-2pm shift that isn't so good! It does leave your skin dewy and brighter, I have read many reviews complaining of the glitter but I was lucky as my pot doesn't seem to have many!

However, Ivory is not Ivory. The first few times I wore this I thought it was fine on my skin, but under close inspection it really wasn't. It was much more orange than my natural pale skin. It is shame, as the formula is lovely. It does have a strong smell to it also.

L'Oreal True Match - Ivory

After finishing my Healthy Mix and Double Wear (which I mixed together as one was too light, the other too dark) I was after a high street pale foundation. I spent a good 45 minutes in Boots trying every foundation and this beauty came out top. My fake tan wearing sister swears by True Match for it's formula, and the Ivory shade is pale enough for my skin. It is a more watery formula, it doesn't dry instantly like Double Wear for example. Making it easy to work with. It is also really build-able but does stick to dry patches. I do love it but it's not perfect.

However, these two foundations mixed together are perfect. The "wake me up" effect of the Rimmel Foundation mixed with the consistency of the L'Oreal foundation is perfect. The shade is even perfect. The Rimmel Foundation would be worn alone on a night out, no one is going to notice a slight orange line on your jawline and the L'Oreal is perfect for mornings when you have 10 minutes to quickly apply all your make-up and sort your hair out.

Zoey xox

Orange Bow

A very uninteresting blog post from me tonight. I desperatly needed a new purse, my River Island one kept opening by itself and I'd lose all my change somewhere in the bottom of my bag. I live accross the road from Manchester Fort so dragged myself around TK Maxx and fond this beauty, I did like another pink beauty but who needs two purses! I had never heard of Antoni & Alison before but a quick google and I found they were responsible for these beauties & I'm just useless at names!

Zoey xox

Evening Primrose & Starflower Oil

My battle for perfect skin is a constant one, I've tried every face wash / cleansing method but nothing has stopped my skin from just hating me. I picked up Evening Primrose in Sainsbo's the other day, the vitamins were on a 3 for 2 so I also picked up Star Flower Oil and your basic multivitamins. 

After doing alot of research on adult acne I came to the conclusion mine was mostly hormonal, due to my implant most likely. Many people found taking these supplements helped ease the acne and even make it disappear. Acne.org has a lot of reviews here and here

Sainsbury's Evening Primrose Oil (& Star Flower Oil) capsules contain GLA (Gamma Linolenic Acid), which plays an important role in helping to maintain hormone balance and healthy skin

I only bought the smallest bottle of each, but after again doing more research I found most people took around 3000mg a day of Evening Primrose Oil in order for the effects to be apparent. I instead took 1000mg a day, two of the tablets after seeing they were also sold in 1000mg. Did they work? Yes yes yes. My skin has cleared up remarkably, now I can't credit it to the Starflower Oil or Evening Primrose but will continue taking them! 

My skin isn't perfect, but I no longer have to rely on a full face mask of make-up before I brave the outside world. I noticed results within 3 days, but every day it is getting a bit better.

Zoey xox

Quick Nail Post

Glitter = Juicy Jules Models Own, Pink = Stawberry Fizz Rimmel, Blue = Feeling Blue Models Own

Painted these nails over Christmas but forgot about them until I found them in an empty purse before going out on saturday. I probably thought it was a wise place to store them when packing. My body clock is currently a little confused, working 6am-2pm then a 2pm-10pm it doesn't know when to sleep. The photo was taken while out so the colours are a little washed out!

Currently a little obsessed with Pinterest - my username is ZoeyCatrin and you can find me here!

Zoey xox

Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation

Still on the hunt for the perfect foundation I stumbled accross Vichy Dermablend when watching Lisa Eldridge's youtube video on covering acne.You may have heard of Dermablend after watching the fabulous "Go Beyond the Cover" with the gorgeous Zombie Boy. The Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation promises to give "total coverage" with twice as much coverage as a traditional foundtion. So off I went to Boots and found the foundation amonst the skin care, the lightest shade is "Opal 15" which is a little darker than I usually go for but the model in Lisa Eldridge's video seemed to be of similar shade to my skin so bought it anyway!

 

I have been using Double Wear religiously, it's staying power is unbeatable. It can look a little cakey and of course causes serious Ghost Face. So how does it compare? Well the coverage is the same, you can either apply it as a concealer as in the youtube tutorial, or buff into the skin as with a normal foundation. It blends beautifully into the skin, you don't have to work as fast as you do with Double Wear. You can also build on the coverage easily without it going to cakey. Now the shade is a little darker than I am used to, however I have had more compliments on my skin looking healthier instead of being the same me colour as paper.

It is currently my go to foundation, my skin is worse than in the Blemish Balms post to give you some idea of what it is covering beneath! 

Without flash / With Flash

The flash photograph has no blush on for some reason, I took these photos as I was curling my hair so did my make-up in-between letting the curls set! I am pretty impressed with the foundation, it is aimed at people who feel the need to cover up blemishes / scars and does the job perfectly for me. At £15.50 it is more than your average high street foundation but still cheaper than a high end one. It works with my skin, which is oily in places and dry in others. However the limited choice of shades will put many people off. I do have to be extra careful to blend it into my neck so no clear foundation line, but with my normal pale powder on top it is fine.

Zoey xox

Manchester Love

If you haven't added yourself to Hayley's Blogger map you really should. Feeling a bit lost in my new city (erm yeah, I've been here since October now!) I thought I would have a scout to find some Manchester based bloggers and found some lovely ones! (Some may not be from Manchester anymore, just studied here but felt like including them anyway!)

Beauty Mish Mash, Polly posts wonderful clear reviews of beauty products. Nothing I hate more than a beauty blog that just posts stock photographs and a sentence on how it kind of works. I want detail! She also loves Lush which is of course amazing in my book

Fashion Dotty is the blog of Sarah an International Fashion Marketing Student in Manchester. You only have to walk down Market Street to see that Manc is one thriving stylish place, if you ignore all the girls who think it is fine to be orange and walk around Primark in nothing but Miss Sporty Foundation. Just take a look at her street style post from when the German Markets were around at Christmas. 

 

Sequin This is run by another Sarah, whom I have serious hair envy for. She has an eye for  prints, bows, fancy dress and loves make up. Basically a girl after my own heart. 

Fancied a bit of spreading the love this sunday evening, hope everyone is having a good 2012 so far. My new job is taking all my time, but soon I will be used to it all and will hopefully get something of a life back!

Zoey xox

Instagram alternatives for Android

I love my Samsung Galaxy S2, it is so fast and the camera is amazing. As I did when I had a blackberry I hunted for an Instagram alternative and came up with three options.

Pixlr-o-matic - This has many options to pick frames, photo filters and even light effects like bocea. You can't take a photo through the app, instead you apply the filters after you have taken photograph using the native camera app. This is one of my favourites due to the amount of options available to you. And it is free!

Vignette - This app can be used to take a photograph or edit one after. As well as offering the Vignette filter it does have alot more options but is a faff to use.

Camera Zoom FX - This app replaces the camera that is installed as standard on my phone, adds options like being able to touch the screen to take a photograph rather than just the shutter button at the bottom. You can then add ready made filters, complete with a frame such as the polaroid one or just add an effect such as sepia or black and white to a photograph. Very user friendly. It isn't free, but I did acquire it using 4shared. Ahem

Instagram will apparently come to Android soon, it feels like it is more than a photo editing tool but a small community too that none of these options give you. There are a few "photo share" apps but don't have the same mass appeal as Instagram does!

The beautiful puppy is Al,, oh how I wish he was mine.

Zoey xox

No 7 Beautiful Skin

I ended up in Boots the other day trying to kill some time, was 30 minutes early for work so seemed like a good idea. They had little starter packs for £5 of their new Beautiful Skin range from No7. I picked up the Normal / Oily one which included the Cleansing Water, Day Cream & Night Cream.

I've been using the range for a week now so thought I would give my take on the range, my skin is blemish prone, with an oily t-zone and dry cheeks and nose for reference.

Cleansing Water - I never use makeup remover.. I know I know, a beauty sin. I use skin care wipes and then a foam soap / cleanser. I was horrified to see how much makeup the Cleansing Water actually removed! Would I pay £9 it though? I'm a stingy bugger. But the kit came with a £5 off voucher so if this can be combined with the current 3 for 2 on No7 I will probably pick it up.

Day Cream - I am constantly on the search for a cream that both helps with my dry cheeks but controls my oily forehead. This does both, but could be a little more moisturising on my cheeks but still leaves a lovely base for makeup. My skin is however getting drier by the day due to working in a freezing cold supermarket so might pick up the Normal / Dry Skin Day Cream with the voucher.

Night Cream - Now, I never wear a night cream. Maybe I should start as I am turning 24 this summer so surely I am meant to start tackling wrinkles soon. It is lovely on my forehead and everywhere else I am not prone to spots. It does promise to be a "non pore blocking moisture cream" but it doesn't seem to be doing my acne any favours.

I did however test the No 7 BB Cream which might be amazing, it was pale and went on my skin so nicely.. but as I don't get on with BB Creams I may give that a miss.

A quick catch up

Oh hello there. So I neglected this poor little blog, I quit my call centre job (bye insurance!) and have started work back as a team leader in a supermarket, thank god. I am a retail girl through and through. 

001 Ordered some amazing nails from Dainty Nails when the lovely Charlene was running a buy one get one free offer. Love them, saving them for a night out, no falsies or nail varnish allowed in supermarket land!

002 Had a lovely trip home, my car is broken yet again so it needed some tender loving care. Meant I got to spend the weekend looking after my aunt's lovely puppy, Al. He is a nutter and tiny. The poor thing was stood on by his owners, they took him to my mum's vets but then left him when they found out he would need an operation to fix his broken leg. The Police signed the dog over to my mum as they had also illegally docked his tail so he is now living with my aunt and uncle. He spent the first few weeks with his leg in a cast but it never bothered him! 

003 Other fun things, Lucky Charms for Christmas, old school apps on my phone, found out I don't suit pale pink lipstick, broken laptop and a fun night of pub golf with old uni friends. 

So, time to get a routine back!

Zoey xox