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!