VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Stick

One of the items that was in my June GlossyBox was a small starter kit for the VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Foundation Cream stick.  The handy little kit contained 6 sample shades so you could find out what shade would provide you with perfect coverage.

The VICHY Dermablend stick is marketed as a ‘corrective foundation’ to provide the most complete, natural looking coverage for face and body imperfections. It contains 40% pigment concentration which makes it ideal for camouflage of skin concerns such as dark circles, acne marks, scarring, bruising, redness and dark spots. It promises to be long lasting (up to eight hours) and it is fragrance-free, waterproof and smudge resistant.

I think this would be a great foundation for someone with problem skin or if you prefer quite heavy coverage to block out any redness or pigmentation on your face. However for my complexion it seemed a little too heavy and creamy to apply all over my face so I decided to start using it as a concealer instead. And boy am I glad I did, this immediately became my favourite concealer! After trying a few of the shades I found that Nude (14) and Light (13) were most suited for me as a concealer to cover under eyes dark circles, spots and pigmentation; which I (unfortunately) get a lot more of during summer time.

So once my sample kit started running low I decided to buy the full VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Foundation Cream stick in Nude. It retails for £19 which is a bit more expensive than my usual MAC Studio Finish concealer (£14.50) but the Vichy stick is 12grams in comparison to 7grams for the MAC one so it will last me a lot longer!

It retails for £19 which is a bit more expensive than my usual MAC Studio Finish concealer (£14.50) but the Vichy stick is 12grams in comparison to 7grams for the MAC one so it will last me a lot longer!

Swatched and below blended out on my hand...

I normally just glide the stick under my eye and dab it in gently with my finger (you should never rub too much on the delicate skin area under your eyes) plus I apply it to any other small spots I might have and around the side of my nostrils. I am really happy I found this product so this does show the benefit of beauty box subscriptions like GlossyBox because otherwise I probably would never have tried the VICHY Dermablend Ultra-Corrective Stick.

VICHY products are available online here or you can find it at your local Boots store or Boots.com.
If you want to try the sample kit first to play with the product and to find your perfect shade you can actually buy the little starter kit for £4.99 online, which I think is super handy! (link).

Have you ever tried any other VICHY products that you'd recommend?

Discovering BB Creams!

For the last few months I started noticing the term ‘BB cream’ popping up everywhere in the media; from blogs to magazines. To be honest I’d never really heard of this product before and when my flatmate pointed out to me that she’d read about it and bought one, I thought to myself, Roz you are supposed to be a beauty blogger, how can you not know about this! So I decided to do a little research. If you are, like me, a bit clueless on the whole concept of BB creams then read on….

BB cream stands for ‘Blemish Balm’. Now you might think I am talking about some kind of spot cream but that’s not the case. It’s generally marketed as both a cosmetics and skincare product. BB cream was originally formulated in Germany and used by dermatologists to help laser surgery patients protect, soothe and refine highly sensitive skin while providing light coverage for post-laser scars, acne and other blemishes. BB cream became very popular in South Korea and soon, it exploded all over Asia and now it’s the new beauty hype of 2011 all over the world.

These days BB creams come in a variety of different formulations and qualities. Some are said to have skin whitening or brightening properties. Others are anti-acne, some are anti-wrinkle, some are intended to even out skin tone, and yet others to lighten blemish scars. BB creams are sometimes used like a primer under foundation, and if tinted may even replace foundation and some newer ones will have functions of primer, foundation, moisturizer, sun block, pore minimization and skin refining all together which can save time and money in make-up. Basically BB cream is billed as the answer to all your skincare woes in a single product! Sounds like heaven right?

So after doing this research I was quite keen to get experimenting to see if the hype lives up to it’s reputation! The first BB cream I decided to play with was UNE's Intuitive Touch BB-Cream foundation. UNE is the natural beauty sister company to Bourjois that promises a high performance range of products that are paraben-free, made from bio ingredients and almost totally natural. Most BB creams seem to come as a liquid form so it was quite interesting to see that UNE has launched their BB cream as a solid compact. But I have to say I like the look of its stylish simple mirrored packaging. UNE says their BB-cream foundation is a 7 in 1 product that will smooth, correct, moisturise, enhance, mattify, nourish and protect your skin at the same time! Being a creamy compact I was expecting it to feel quite oily and heavy but was pleasantly surprised that the UNE BB cream felt light, smooth and silky! It seems to almost melt into your skin and blends really naturally. It’s a cream to powder formulation and you can control the coverage you want. Apply as a concealer with the small brush provided or use your fingers or regular foundation brush (in my case my stippling brush) to apply all over your face for a light to medium coverage foundation. Final thoughts? I am enjoying using this product and it’s been a positive first experiment with BB Creams. UNE’s Intuitive Touch BB-Cream would be great for people that like a natural finish that feels gorgeously creamy and smooth on your skin, that provides that little bit extra to say a tinted moisturiser. After this I'm definitely keen to try some more BB creams to compare…..watch this space!

UNE BB cream comes in 7 shades @ RRP £14.49/€19.99.
Available from Boots, Superdrug & Lovelula.com

Has anyone tried this yet or any other B.B. Creams? Would love to hear your thoughts :) xoxo

Open your Eyes!

I recently received a new product from New CID Cosmetics in my mailbox; the 'i-open'! I was intrigued by this product because it contains a powder concealer & a nude coloured pencil in one. I'm pretty addicted to using concealer - meaning I'm always keen to try out new products to help hide my annoying pigmentation spots underneath my eyes, reduce my dark circles or brighten up my eyes! 

What they say:

"i-open is a double-ended wand for widening and brightening eyes. The retractable pencil end helps to reduce redness inside the eyes whilst the cream to powder concealer at the other end helps to hide dark circles under the eyes. An essential for any make-up bag." 

How to apply:

First run the pencil end of i-open along the inner rim of the lower lash line (aka your waterline). Now using the sponge end, blend the powder concealer under the eye & over the lids. To pick up a bit more concealer, dip the sponge end into the cap & twist. 

Swatched: top line is the pencil, bottom line is the concealer. In the picture above I applied the concealer powder around my left eye and the right eye is left natural (yikes..) I didn't use the pencil on my waterline in this photo.

Pro's

♥ Am a fan of the skin coloured pencil. I personally prefer using nude coloured eyeliners on my waterline instead of white eyeliner to brighten my eye, because I find it not as harsh. I already love my Chanel Eyeliner in Clair, see my review of it here, so this is a great alternative!

♥ The liner is very soft & easy to apply

♥ The liner has great pigmentation and is long lasting

♥ The 2-1 in product is ideal, great size & perfect for the handbag to allow touch up's during the day/night!

Con's

♥ The concealer powder probably doesn't give me with enough coverage as I ideally would prefer. I'm used to using creams and liquid concealers. But this is also because I have a few pigmentation spots that I find need a good amount of product to cover them. However if you just want light coverage this powder would be ideal. 

♥ Not that much concealer powder comes out when you remove the lid so personally I have to re-dip and twist a few times to get the desired coverage. Therefore I probably I won't use this product much at the start of my day to apply concealer but I think it's perfect to have in your handbag to allow you to touch up during the day or night when you need to! 

i-open is available in Light & Medium and is priced at £18.50 (this review is on the light version)

To view a demonstrational video, to buy i-open or for stockist details click here!