MUA Bronzed Perfection - Holiday FOTD #

Back in August MUA released a new bronzer to their cosmetics collection. Say hello this this monster of a bronzer.....yep this baby is ginormous!! The MUA bronzer is designed to give you an all over healthy-kissed glow by sweeping the product over your face and body. I decided to take this bronzer on holiday with me to put it to the test; could this really provide me with 'bronzed perfection'?

In the tin you the bronzer shows a small amount of shimmer but not to worry this barely transfers to the skin, leaving you with a soft and matte finish. The pigmentation is great but do be aware that the bronzer tends to get quite powdery so don't go crazy with your brush, you only need to sweep across the bronzer lightly to eliminate too much fall out and to pick up the right amount of product.

The shade of the bronzer is a light to medium so I think this would suit fair skin tones for a lightly bronzed look or it can be build up to enhance a deeper tan. Apply the bronzer to the areas of your face where the sun would naturally hit; building the colour gradually to get the exact shade you want. The bronzer can be used all over the face, neckline, arms or shoulders as a bronzer or contour.

I have to say I loved using this on holiday. A quick sweep of the bronzer all over my cheeks, forehead and nose would give me a lovely soft healthy glow. Here a recent holiday FOTD with the MUA Bronzed Perfection Bronzer...

This bronzer contains a whopping 15g of product and guess what, it only costs £3! Now that's what I call a MEGA bargain :) The bronzer is available now from your local Superdrug or at the MUA Online store.

Do you think you will try this bronzer for that warm, healthy complexion all-year-round?

Clinique Superbalanced Powder Bronzer

In May Clinique launched their new superbalanced powder bronzer, with a long-wearing formula that helps to absorb oil, maintain your moisture balance so your skin looks healthy, whilst being lightweight and oil-free.

It comes in two shades: bronzed 1 & bronzed 2. The matte bronzer will suit most skin tones because it can be used as a contour or an all over bronzer.

What also makes the superbalanced bronzer slightly different to other powder bronzers is its packaging. It comes in a grinder type container that basically 'shaves' the solid product to a loose powder which allows you to control just how much product you dispense per application, minimising waste or spillage like you can have with traditional loose powders. Plus it assures the powder remains fresh for a longer period of time.

How to use it? Just turn the grinder clockwise for a fresh dose of bronzing powder and apply it with a large powder or kabuki brush, building colour to your desired level of bronze.

Clinique Superbalanced Powder Bronzer is soft, pigmented, blends very easily and feels light weight on the skin. What not to love!

Other products used in this FOTD:

Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation (review here)

Super balanced bronzer #2

Toshop cream blush in Neon Rose

MAC Retrospeck eyeshadow (applied all over lid)

MAC Mulch eyeshadow (applied to lower lash line and outer V)

Lips: Shepora Peach lipgloss (link)

The Clinique Superbalanced Powder Bronzer is available now from your local Clinique counter or web store - link £25/13.5g. The powder comes with a cute limited edition floral pouch while stocks last.

Have you tried Clinique's Superbalanced range? Xoxo

Healthy Sun with UNE BB Cream Bronzer

We all want a bronzer that is going to give us a natural looking healthy holiday glow and recently I have been loving UNE's BB Cream bronzer to give me just that!

In June UNE released a new addition to their cosmetics foundations range in the form of a BB cream bronzer. Their Healthy-Sun BB cream bronzer is the first compact 'BB' bronzer on the market. For more information about BB creams and their benefits, you can read an older post about that here. 

The BB cream bronzer comes in a re-fillable compact and like other UNE products it has 100% natural ingredients and the packaging is made with recyclable materials. I also love that the front of the compact (after removing the top sticker) is a mirror!

The BB cream bronzer is available in 2 shades: Golden (S05) and Coppery (S07)

The BB cream bronzer has a unique cream-to-powder formula that is blend able, water-resistant and provides you with a long lasting, natural tan that is actually good for your skin!

Some of the ingredients that make this happen:
Organic Shea butter to nourish and hydrate the skin.
Organic beeswax which lends softness and glide to the formula.
Jojoba seed oil to protect the skin and to help it maintain its natural moisturisation.

The BB bronzer swatched (quite heavily) on my hand.

The BB cream is creamy yet non-oily and it just feels incredibly light and comfortable on my skin. It has such a soft texture which means you can easily apply it with your fingers; in warm touches on the cheeks, forehead, bridge of the nose and chin, for that 'after-a-stroll-on-the-beach-healthy glow"

However for an even more fully tanned look I love sweeping the BB cream bronzer all over my face and neck with my favourite Ecotools Kabuki brush (link)!

Other products used for this FOTD:

VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Stick (review here)

Estee Lauder Invisible Fluid Foundation (review here)

Topshop Neon Rose cream blush (link)

Estee Lauder Bronzed Dunes Eye Palette (review here)

Bourjois 3D Effet Lipgloss in Corail artistic (53) 

The UNE BB Cream Bronzer is available now at your local Boots or Superdrug for £14.49. What are you loving to give you that perfect summer bronzed glow at the moment?

Way to Glow #

A gorgeous glowing complexion is a beauty desire for many of us girls. Especially in these cold winter months when your skin is not in the glowing mood all on its own. Therefore we can all do with a little help from beauty products to achieve beautiful radiant skin.I have tried a few products over the years (one of my favourites is Benefit High Beam; review here) and think it’s quite hard to find a product that gives you the right amount of glow without messing up your foundation or leaving a glittery mess behind on your cheekbones. But I recently discovered this gorgeous compact by Collection 2000 and I just love it!Their Shimmer Shades compact in Way to Glow contains four merged blocks that combine shimmer with shade for a multi-tonal and natural blend of colour. The combination of shimmering peach and golden bronze shades instantly lifts and illuminates your skin. On the left are swatches of each individual block and on the right the bronzed glow it provides when blended together. The Way-to-Glow compact also contains a skin-brightening formula to enhance natural skin colour so be prepared to dazzle! ;)

For my perfect radiant glow I work product from all four colour cubes into a bronzing brush and sweep it lightly over my cheekbones. For an overall sun-kissed look you can also apply the shimmery shades to your brows bone, forehead and neckline.
Plus I've used the individual peach shade as a blusher on the apples of my cheek sometimes too!

For only £3.99 I think this product is a STEAL!!! You can buy it from your local Boots or Superdrug.
What do you think, do you like my my 'way to glow' this winter? xoxo

Bourjois - Delice de Soleil Bronzing Collection

This month Bourjois launched their 2011 Bronzing Collection, perfect to create that gorgeous sun-kissed look for summer (without having to leave the country)! So let me introduce you to the Délice de Soleil Bronzing Collection. The range consists of a bronzer, bronzing foundation, bronzing mist and two effet 3D summer collection lip-glosses.

First up, Bourjois has designed this cool made-to-measure mineral powder foundation. Using a super clever two-in-one system it comes with two different shades of mineral powder so you can custom blend your own perfect colour. Each shade can be used separately or blended together. It has a movable flap to  allow you to dispense the exact quantity needed.

The mineral foundation has a formula of cocoa beans for radiance, orange blossom extract for moisturizing plus your skin is protected by the SPF 15 sunscreen. The powder gives you a light to medium coverage that feels soft and fresh, blends smoothly and gives your skin a lovely natural glow. I have used this as a foundation (on top of tinted moisturizer or liquid foundation as I prefer a slightly heavier coverage) but I also really liked using the darker shade on its own as a bronzer. This product is definitely one of my favourites from the collection. The foundation comes in two shades 'Fair/Medium' & 'Olive/Tanned' skin and is priced at £9.99/€14.99.

Next up,  is the Bronzing Powder (spray) for face and body. This spray allows you to deposit a light coating of bronzing powder onto your skin, without the need to blend! The powder is super fine, smells delicious and can be applied to face, chest and even arms & legs.

This product is perfect to get that last minute sun-kissed 'boost' all over, for when you have no time to 'fake tan'. You just spray it on, without minimal need to blend it in, and run out of the door. It gives you a natural bronzed glow (non shimmery) without rubbing off on your clothes and it washes off again easily when needed. The spray comes in two shades 'Fair/Medium' (12) & 'Olive/Tanned' (14) skin and is priced at £7.99/€11.99.

If, like me, you already are a huge fan of Bourjois' Délice de Poudre bronzing powder (with its yum chocolatey smell and look) then you are bound to also love the their latest bronzing compact!
This is the Délice de Soleil Bronzing Powder:The new bronzing powder now comes in a sophisticated and modern compact, complete with brush, panoramic mirror and a pivoting hinge which means the mirror can swivel 360 degrees. I’m personally not a huge fan of these kind of thin bronzer brushes so I tend not to use my contour or bronzer brushes instead but it’s handy to have it there for moments on-the-go. The powder has a highly pigmented ultra-fine texture, the same addictive cocoa smell and is excellent to use all over the face bronzing or as a contour because its matte finish (with a very subtle hint of gold shimmer). The Délice de Soleil bronzing powder comes in two shades; ‘Fair/Medium’ (12) & ‘Olive/Tanned’ (14) and is priced at £8.99/€12.49

Last but not least are the two Effet 3D Summer Collection lip-glosses:

For this collection Bourjois have released two glistening new shades (with speckles of gold) that do not only look great, but also protect your lips (SPF 15) and they have the Effet 3D’s lovely non-sticky moisturising balm formula. Best of all is that they smell so summery – the tropical coconut fragrance transports my mind directly to a scene of sun bathing on the beach sipping pina coladas!:)
The two new shades are: Rose Pacific (49); my favourite, a STUNNING sheer coral gloss & Brun Exotic (50). Brun Exotic looks quite dark in the tube but once applied it’s a lovely sheer, bronzed shimmery gloss. Both glosses are priced at £6.99/€10.49.

So what do you think of the new Bourjois Summer Bronzing Collection? Any products you have your little eye on or have already purchased? I really like how even though they are a cheaper drug store brand, Bourjois, still launches new collections for different seasons and trends. This one is perfect for summer. Bring on the hot sunny weather I say and thanks to Bourjois I am ready for it! ;) The collection is available now at most local drugstores or for more stockist information visit the Bourjois website. xoxo

Sweet like Chocolate..

So pretty much every girl loves Chocolate, right? Plus a lot of girls also love Bronzer, right? Now you might be thinking, OK Roz where on earth are you going with this, because what do they have to do with each other… Well, let me introduce you to Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder! As you can see it’s a bronzer that looks like Chocolate ♥ :)

I really love this bronzer, and no, that’s not just because it reminds me of Chocolate! The powder is finely milled, blends nicely and it lasts all day on my skin. They say the bronzer is ‘enriched with flecks of gold to give you a radiant but non shiny glow’. You can see the little flecks in the pan but it comes out pretty matte once applied and the colour is a lovely tan shade; not too flat, orange or brown! Personally, it is one of my favourite bronzers to use as a contour as it looks very natural. The bronzer is pressed in a chocolate block form and comes in a cardboard box. It’s pretty sturdy and there’s a lot of product which means it will last for ages. It also smells nice and sweet (not quite like chocolate, but still yummy!)

Check out some looks I did with the bronzer here, here and here. So as you can see, I have been using this bronzer a lot recently and think it’s one of the best drugstore bronzers out there. Keen to try it? Well if so, the good thing is you won’t have to fork out a fortune as this bronzer will only set you back £6.99!

Estee Lauder - Bronze Goddess Soleil Summer 2011

Recently I was invited to a stunning (10th floor!) hotel suite at the Metropolitan Hotel, overlooking Hyde Park, to get a preview of Estee Lauders 2011 Bronze Goddess Soleil Collection! The Collection is inspired by the warm hues and atmosphere of the Mediterranean. 

"Experience the casual luxury and seductive spirit of a goddess with shades that sparkle, shimmer and shine for eyes, lips and nails, while face and decolletage are transformed into golden, glowing perfection!" Check out this beautiful promo shot for the collection featuring model Hilary Rhoda:

Click here to see step-by-step instructions on how to re-create the makeup look from the above photo!

At the event we got shown all the products from this collection ranging from products for eyes, face, nails and body. I instantly fell in love with all the gorgeous items on display! So let me break down the Bronze Goddess Soleil collection:

Eyes:

♥ Bronze Goddess Island Oasis Eyeshadow Palette £31.00

Inspired by hues from the surf and sand, this limited edition eye shadow palette  has six irresistibly wearable shades, brightens and defines eyes by day and transforms them by night. The eyeshadows’ delicate iridescent pigments allure with radiance and luminosity in warm sand shades of copper, bronze, gold and coral balanced by cool surf hues of turquoise, seashell pink, silver and seaweed.

It's such a luxurious compact with great shades to wear alone or together—the possibilities are endless! 

I definitely have my eye on this little beauty....

♥ ShadowStick Duo in Gold Bronze and Pink Teal £17.00 each

These unique duo's are the perfect, fun eye accessory for summer. Each pencil features two complementary shades in a water resistant, long wearing formula that is ideal for warm summer months. Whether you want a precise line or a smokey look, with these pencils you can do both! 

I got the Pink/Teal pencil. I'm already a fan of wearing a pop of teal on my eyes, as you can see in this tutorial, so I can't wait to play around to create more fun 'goddess looks' this summer with my new pencil!

♥ Sumptuous Waterproof Mascara in Black £19.00

"A waterproof mascara that gives you gorgeous lashes, just the way you love them. Full, curled and virtually indestructible. Now lashes look beautiful in all wet conditions, from steamy humidity to a splash in the pool!" I don't normally wear waterproof mascara but can see the benefit when in hot weather or on holiday so am going to trail this out when I'm off to Spain for the Easter break! 

Lips:

♥ Pure Color Gloss in Limited Edition Sun Burst Sparkle £15.50

♥ Pure Color Gloss in Blazing Coral Sparkle £15.50

♥ Pure Color Gloss in Plum Divine Shimmer £15.50

♥ Pure Color Crystal Lipstick in Tiramisu $24.00

Nails:

♥ Pure Color Nail Lacquer in Limited Edition Shimmering Bronze £14.00

This is a gorgeous bronze nail polish. Swatches will feature in a NOTD soon :)

Face:

♥ Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer £26.00

♥ Bronze Goddess Soft Shimmer Bronzer £26.00

♥ Bronze Goddess Soft Duo Bronzer in Amber Bronze Medium and Amber Bronze Rich £26.00

♥ Limited Edition Bronze Goddess Luminous Liquid Bronzer £21.50

♥ Limited Edition Bronze Goddess Sea Star Bronzing Blush £29.00

The last one, the Sea Star Bronzing Blush, is my ABSOLUTE favourite of the entire collection! It's so beautiful; I almost I didn't want to use it, so not to ruin the lovely design of it :)
"The new Limited Edition Bronze Goddess Sea Star Bronzing Blush is a beautifully-crafted, feather-light illuminating blush that enhances any skin’s bronzed complexion with a perfectly warm sun-kissed glow. Featuring an artful starfish resting on a shimmering sand-inspired background, the silky, soft powder bronzing blush gives skin a naturally radiant, smooth, sun-kissed finish. Color-true and with buildable coverage, this unique bronzing blush enhances your natural cheek color with an added touch more summer radiance with every stroke. Easy to apply and blend, the blush can be worn alone, or over any Bronze Goddess bronzer and will not streak or settle into pores."

I have been using this blush/bronzer almost daily and love the warm, pink glow it gives my cheeks!

The Bronze Goddess Soleil Collection is previewing at House of Fraser now and will be available at Estee Lauder counters and online from 2nd May. 

This collection has definitely got me in the summer spirit (Ok..the recent gorgeous weather in London helped a little too...)  So do you think you will be picking up anything from Estee Lauder to transform you into a Bronze Goddess this summer? xoxo

ELF Blush & Bronzing Powder

I recently bought the E.L.F. Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder. I had read a lot about this product and many people call it a possible dupe to the Nars Orgasm/Laguna compact. I already own NARS Orgasm blush (love it) & NARS Laguna bronzer has been on my wish list for a while. Therefore felt this ELF compact would be worth trying out, especially because it was a bargain at only NZ$16.90 (or online for only US$3)!

What does the  E.L.F.’s website say?
"Create a healthy and natural glow all year long. The Blush highlights the cheeks to add a flush of color, while the Bronzer accents and contours cheekbones for beautiful definition."

Swatched on skin, no flash

(Bronzer quite heavily swatched to show colour)

The compact, which contains a blush and a bronzer, looks very sleek and similar to the NARS packaging. But the E.L.F.’s one isn’t rubbery, which makes it easier to clean. It comes with a big mirror but no brush. I don’t mind that since I never use those brushes that come with products anyway - they are never any good!

There's a good amount of each product in this compact. The powder is finely milled but not very well pressed which makes them a bit on the powdery side. So use a light swipe with your brushes. Both shades are very pigmented and a little goes a long way. The bronzer is great for contouring but like I said use a light hand because otherwise the colour may appear a bit muddy & you'll end up looking like a bit of a drag queen :p The blush gives you a nice peachy pink glow with light flecks of gold shimmer. Very wearable.

FOTD wearing the bronzer & blush

Eyes: Sleek Storm Palette - gold & brown eye shadows

Lips: MAC Creme D'Nude l/s & NYX Whipped lipgloss

Overall think this compact is pretty good value for money! Nice blush & the bronzer is a little bit dark but OK for contouring if lightly applied. NARS laguna is still on the wish list though..haha