Review: Elf Flawless Finish Foundation

Following the ridiculously popular Elf 50% off offer, who was I to resist a bargain? I made an order, as seen here in my massive end of summer haul post.
The fist thing I'm going to be reviewing is the Flawless Finish Foundation. I'm sure you've all heard of it before, so I won't insult your intelligence by giving you the blurb from the ELF website.

Basically though, this foundation promises exactly what it's name suggests: a flawless finish! So read on to see if it  gave that to me!

Let's start with colour choices, ELF offers a measly 6 colourways, ranging from porcelain (my shade) to the deepest Coco shade. Personally I don't think that this is enough, although (somehow) I found a shade that suited me perfectly, I don't think everybody could be that lucky.
So as I said, the colour was perfect for me. I went for the lightest shade, as usual, and it was perfect. I tend to find that light foundations seem to have undertones of yellow, whereas I need a pink based tone - on which ELF really delivers.

Application goes perfectly with my swanky new ELF Stipple Brush, I find this really gives an airbrushed look, and works the foundation into my pores and blends over any discolouration or imperfections. The foundation is thick and oil free - which is a bonus for someone with occasionally oily skin.

I do however set my foundation with a powder, I personally feel that the foundation looks a little too dewy for my liking. I mean, if that's what you're after in a foundation, then fantastic, but I prefer a slightly more matte finish.

As for longevity, I do find that it looks a little less than perfect by the end of the school day. To combat this I just re-powder at lunch time. This really does work, which is good to know!

Price cannot be faulted, for the finish it gives you, £6.50 is a bargain. Even more so when you get it for half price! 

I really do recommend you try this, I know some people have hated it - but I think you should assess it yourself. Even if you don't get on with it, it's not like you've wasted MAC worthy amounts of money!

What about you, have you tried this foundation - or anything else from ELF? How did you get on with it?

Sara xx

P.S Welcome to any newcomers to my blog - I hope you enjoy reading through my posts!

100 follower giveaway winner!

After a hectic week back at Sixth Form, it was great to take some time out to draw the winner for my 100 followers giveaway.

So.. here goes..

The proud owner of the Body Shop goodies, the Tad Baker tidbits and the amazing book is..

HANNAH
(http://hans-ell.blogspot.com/)

You should all definitely check out her lovely blog, she's a gorgeous girl with gorgeous taste in both beauty and fashion. I'm certain you'll all find something you love on her blog!

Thank you all for entering, it really does mean so much that you all read and enjoy my posts!

Stay tuned for another giveaway in the very near future (I am only 40 followers off 200, don't you know!)

Sara xx

OOTD - 11.09.11

 An autumnal outfit today, it's so good to be back wearing colour after a week in black and white for Sixth Form!

Top - New Look
Shorts - H&M
Tights - Primark (Only £2!)
Necklace - H&M 

How's everyone's week been? Has anybody else just started Sixth Form?

Sara xx

Hairandbeautylicious 150 followers giveaway!

The lovely Cas over at Hairandbeautylicious is having an amazing (and huge!) giveaway.

Go and enter to show your support for her beautiful blog!

Sara xx

Big collective haul! ELF, Boots, Primark, Republic, New Look, ASOS.

 Cosmetics and skin care.

ELF goodies from the 50% off sale - full review coming soon!

Miss Sporty, Rimmel, Ciate, MUA

Rimmel powder and liquid eyeliner, No7 Brows pencil in 'Blonde'

All from Superdrug

Clothing

Primark - £4

H&M - £4

New Look - £6

NEXT - £14

Republic - £2

Bag

My beautiful, gorgeous bag for Sixth Form from NEXT - courtesy of my lovely boyfriend!
£28

Call off the search party!

Shoes

ASOS - £25

I think that's everything! Phew! A big thank you to my mum for facilitating this haul with the money she gave me for my GCSE results (which, incidentally, were 7A*s, 6As and a B ;)).

I start Sixth Form on Monday, scary stuff! I've been planning some potential outfits, so I'm certain they'll pop up on here at some point.

Expect a review of the ELF bits very soon too - having never ordered from them before I must say that I'm a very happy customer!

Sara xx

NOTD - 29.08.11

My boyfriend announced the other day that he wanted to paint my nails! Who was I to pass up the opportunity for a manicure?! After a few teething problems of him trying to dab the polish on with the tip of the brush he got the hang of it and this was the final outcome.

Pretty yes?

Both polishes were chosen by him too - give him a round of applause!

The Miss Sporty polish definitely stood up better than the last time I used their brand (post here).

Sara xx

FIGHT! Makeup Academy vs. Rimmel vs. Clinique

Today's FIGHT! is a little bigger than usual. There are three blushes competing- all great in their own right, but which will come out on top when they're put up against each other?

Here at Shutter Shimmer we will be considering three main competition areas: colour, application and price.

So, introducing our contenders today!

Apologies for the pan in Rimmel - you'll see why!

Colour

The darkest colour of the three blushers is Clinique, with the shade 'smouldering plum' (since when do plums smoulder?!). The next lightest (but most pigmented) I'd say would be MUA, while Rimmel provides the most delicate light colour. When it comes to colour, I have to say that Rimmel provides the widest range of colour, as the compact actually contains three colours; a delicate and matte light pink, a slightly darker shimmer shade and finally a deeper coral-like hue (which is strangely similar in colour to the MUS blush).

My winner for the colour round has to be Rimmel. The plum shade of Clinique isn't actually very pigmented, it required a good scratch to the surface for my brush to pick up any colour. MUA on the other hand is too pigmented, it's far too easy to apply the colour in a clown like manner, even with the lightest of hands. I also find the colour too a bit too dark for my pale skin. Coral shades really don't work for my vampire-esque colouring!

Application

I applied each of these blushes with a fairly large and fluffy blusher brush - simple you might cry! However I found this not to be so simple, as you may expect. The first blush I tried to apply was Clinique. Tried being the operative word. As I mentioned in the last round, this blusher is harder than the Rainbow Road Mario Cart track (read: very hard). Try as I might, my brush just wouldn't pick up any colour. This made application rather difficult! I managed to swatch it reasonably well using my fingers on my hand, but I really don't fancy applying my blusher with my fingers, so that's a no no.

Rimmel applied with a light but buildable colour. I found it was easy to apply quite a lot of product without looking like a circus performer, so I can see why I hit the pan so soon, I'll have to cut down on my usage!

MUA however actually disappointed me (aww no!). The application was so difficult because the product is so pigmented. I don't know whether a different brush would help (which picked up less of the blush), but I'm finding it nigh impossible to apply without looking ridiculous. Sorry MUA! I love that it's so pigmented though, because you really don't need much for intense colour, it's just a shame that the colour is so intense!

Rimmel again, is my winner! Can you see a pattern emerging here?

Price

Price is a round that always plays in MUA's favour in these FIGHT! posts! For only £1 you get an amazingly pigmented product (which unfortunately didn't agree with me, but alas). This is obviously much cheaper than the £5.19 of the Rimmel (at Boots) or the £19 of the Clinique (also at Boots). 

Final rankings

3rd- Clinique.

2nd- MUA.

1st- Rimmel.

All for, as I'm sure you can tell, obvious reasons. Even though MUA provides the cheapest and most pigmented product, an extra £4 gives you the lovely Rimmel - a gorgeous colour and perfect application. Clinique really needs to up its game to keep the high end status it has achieved. 

Did you enjoy this FIGHT! post? Let me know if there are any product combinations you'd like to see put head to head in the make-up arena!

Sara xx

p.s - don't forget to enter my GIVEAWAY!

WANTED: my bag for sixth form

Just a short little Sunday post today.
Here is the bag I'm after for Sixth Form, it's proving harder than I expected to get my hands on since I saw it in NEXT a few weeks back.

So, if anybody has seen the lesser-spotted birdy NEXT bag - please let me know! Apparently it was featured in the Summer Catalogue, but I've yet to see it online other than on ebay for twice the RRP! (Which, incidentally, is £28).

Please help, if you can. It'd make a young girl very happy!

Thank you!

Sara xx

100 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY!

Sorry this has taken a while (thank you to you 9 lovely followers who've come since I hit the big 1-0-0!) - I've had to wait for all the bits to arrive before I could start the giveaway - I realise I should have probably planned it in advance, but I never dreamt that my baby blog reach 10 followers, let alone 100! I realise that everybody says this, but it's true! I expected to just be like the crazy cat woman, discussing fashion and beauty with myself in a corner! The world of style blogs has been so welcoming to me and my rambling posts, and you all have no idea how much I appreciate your support!

SO.. I wanted to thank you all by hosting a little giveaway - I know it's not much, but I just wanted to give a little back to all you lovely people who read my blog!

Drumroll please..

The prizes are:

- Looking For Alaska by John Green - one of my all time favourite books (I reviewed it in this post - this is a new copy, don't worry)
- A range of The Body Shop body lotions - in all my favourite scents (Strawberry, Mango and White Musk - mmmm!)
- Some Ted Baker goodies (these smell amazing!)
- Some friendship bracelets from H&M, because y'know.. we should hang out ;)
- A lovely handwritten card from me!
- Whatever else catches my eye in the next three weeks!

How to enter:

For 1 entry (everything here is compulsory):


1. Follow my blog via GFC!
2. Comment on this post with your name, your GFC name and an email address I can contact you at.
3. Cross your fingers and wait!

Extra entries, I hear you cry!

For 1 extra entry: Follow me on Twitter here and tweet this: '@shuttershimmer is having a giveaway at http://shuttershimmer.blogspot.com/ - go and try your luck!' or words to that effect, making sure to include a link to my blog (or this post) and to mention me in the tweet! Then add your Twitter name to your comment on this post, and a link to your tweet.

For 2 extra entries: Blog about this giveaway, using the picture at the top of the post and a link to this blog post. Then link me to the post ( I'll make sure to check out your blog too!) in your entry.

Also for 2 extra entries: Add my giveaway to your sidebar, with the picture above and a link to this post, then link me to your blog!

If you do all of the above you will have 6 entries to my first giveaway!

Rules:
- I will ship internationally but won't be held responsible for any custom charges, so enter at your own risk!
- Entries without a name or email address, or by anybody who doesn't follow my blog are void.
- If you're the lucky winner you must respond within 48 hours of me emailing you, otherwise I will pick another winner.


Giveaway ends on FRIDAY 9TH SEPTEMBER - 3 weeks! So get your entries in before then!


Thank you all again for your support!

Good luck!

Sara xxx

OOTD - 18.08.11

Shirt - ASOS

Shorts - H&M

I've had these shorts for a few months now, bit have never worn them because a). They look awful without a tan, and b). I've never found anything that actually goes with them until this shirt arrived!

The shirt is technically for Sixth Form (next Sixth Form outfit coming soon!), but I just thought it was so cute with this outfit!

What do you think? :)

Sara xx

Back to Sixth Form - Outfit 1.

Here's potential outfit one for Sixth Form. I teamed a simple, but gorgeous little black dress (from the lovely Laura over at Through The Eyes Of Laura) with a studded belt and a birdcage necklace.

I think that this would be perfect teamed with a blazer and some cute pumps such as the ones below from Topshop.

Topshop - £22

What do you think?

Sara xx

OOTD - 16.08.11

Dress - Debenhams

Belt - Internacionale

Bracelet - Primark

Pashmina - eBay

This is my outfit for my friend's cocktail party last night. Well, I say party - there were four of us sat around chatting and generally not liking the cocktails we made - more practice needed I think! I won't be becoming a bartender any time soon though.

What's your favourite cocktail?

Sara x

My trollbeads.

Today I present to you the love of my life (other than my boyfriend, obviously!). My Trollbeads! I got my bracelet and my first beads last Christmas, and have gradually buildt my collection up on special occasions, such as birthdays, Valentines Day and days out. I love that you can change beads around based on what outfit you're wearing  (although I don't quite have enough beads to do this yet - one day!). I think it's great that you can buy a bead to signify an event in your life, and every time you look at the bead you're reminded of the event -  it lets you create your life story in bracelet form!

My favourite bead has to be 'Endless', which is the silver bead to the left, fourth from the end of the chain. It's a curled around circle of silver, with no end or beginning, gettit - endless? It was bought for me as a gift on Valentines Day from my boyfriend.

My Trollbeads are a staple in my day to day jewellery - I feel naked whenever I forget to wear them!

Do you have any pieces of jewellery that you feel naked when you forget to wear? What are your opinion on charm bracelets such as these?

Sara xx

p.s -  Thank you so much for following, each and every one of you! Hitting 100 followers means so much to me, and I'll try and reward you all very soon! *wink wink*

MUA nail polish review

I'm certain that by now you've all heard of the budget line MUA (currently only stocked in Superdrug - but soon to get it's own website that you can order from anywhere in the world!) so I'll just get on with the review of my latest purchases from the range.

I'm making a feeble attempt to grow my nails before I start sixth form in September. I've been blessed with 'man hands' all of my life. Not so much in size (I have the tiniest hands you could imagine) but in the fact that my nails just don't grow beyond a certain length before I nibble them off. I know this is such an awful habit, and my boyfriend hates it - so by painting them pretty colours it's putting me off making them ugly again.

I'm definitely attracted to nail polish more than most other types of cosmetics, which is odd because I have the most awful nails in the world. I think it's the lovely colours the polishes come in!

I hope you don't mind that I've reused the picture from my haul post featuring these polishes. My mum has taken our Nikon DSLR out for the day, leaving me with only my dodgy Samsung point and shoot - so I figured I may as well have one decent photo in this post. Apologies for the rest of them!

A minty turquoise (shade 5), a fiery coral (shade 3), a shimmering light gold (10), and a rich plum (3). 

The quality of the bottles were the first thing that hit me, they're chunky glass and feel a lot more expensive than the £1 they cost. This is until you unscrew the lid. The lids feel really light, and I worried that if I tried to screw them tightly they would crack.

The quality of the brushes actually seemed to vary between the polishes, with shade 10's being the worst, and 4 being the best.

Shade 10

Shade 3

The quality of application of the polishes varied too. Shade 4 (the corally red) went on perfectly in just one coat, whereas Shade 5 (the minty turquoise) took 3 coats to get a good bold colour.

The polishes are all thick, but the turquoise seems least pigmented.

As you can see, the 'shimmery gold' is confusingly definitely silver. Still nice, but I would have preferred a gold personally.

If you haven't already noticed, the use of 'shade 5' is ridiculously annoying. I wish MUA had gone for actual colour names, it makes them so much easier to identify, and I think would also make them seem more expensive.

As for longevity, I've been wearing these polishes for over a day now, and there isn't any sign of tip wear or chipping yet - and considering that the coral has only one coat, I think this is pretty amazing! I think I'll add a clear topcoat, as the polishes seem to be somehow less glossy than I'm used to. I know some of you will like this however - so each to their own.

On the price front, they're £1. Seriously. This is such an amazing price for these polishes. It really makes me question how MUA can get away with making such high quality products for less than a pound, while higher priced polishes can have a much worse formulation! I'll definitely be purchasing the full range of polishes, just because you can get the full range for less than the price of one higher range polish.

All in all these varnishes are amazing. The colours are mostly rich and long lasting, everything you'd want. Admittedly for some of the colours you may require a few coats, but they are so quick drying that this really shouldn't be an issue.

I'm looking forward to trying MUA's new professional line of nail products, featuring crackle effect polishes!

How about you, have you tried any of MUA's polish range?

Sara xx

MUA haul!

I was so impressed with MUA's last offerings of the blusher and lipstick that I bought earlier in the week (lippy featured in this FIGHT! post) that I went back to Superdrug and picked up not one, not two but FOUR nail polishes, an eyeshadow in Pearl shade 11, and also a pressed powder in shade 1. I also picked up a jazzy nail file, and some veggie Percy Pigs!

Shades (left to right) 5, 4, 10, 3

Eyeshadow in shade 11, pressed powder in shade 1.

MUA eyeshadow - Pearl Shade 11

Delicious, glad they're finally catering for vegetarians!

I'll do a FOTD with my new MUA products later, and also reviews the products!

What have you bought recently?

Sara xx

OOTD - 12.08.11

The weather was weird today, it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be hot or cold, plus it was windy - so I figured a summer dress with a jumper was the best idea!

Jumper - New Look

Dress underneath - Primark (as seen here, doesn't come up small anymore - I've lost about 10lbs since then!)

Tights - New Look

Pashmina - eBay

I thought it was a pretty cute outfit! 

Sara xx

My back to college wishlist!

Exactly two weeks today until I get my GCSE results - I'm so nervous it's untrue! This also means that I have exactly three weeks left of my summer holidays! I realised that it's about time that I start thinking about what I need to buy for sixth form. The dress code is smart casual, in blacks and whites. I'm thinking pretty woolen dresses with peter pan collars and studded pumps with thick black tights.

So here's my back to college wishlist!

1. A cream blazer! I've wanted one for so long, but have never got around to shelling out!

Topshop.

2. A black skater dress.

H&M.

3. Baggy vests to be worn with the blazer.
T

Topshop.

4. Some pretty dolly shoes.

River Island

5. A long cardigan!

Topshop.

6. A tusk necklace.

Topshop.

7. A new Trollbead!

8. Black skinny jeans.

Topshop.

9. New leggings.

Topshop.

10. A pussy-bow blouse!

River Island.

What's on your wishlist at the moment?

Sara xx