Pretty Head – UK Make Up Reviews

So it was Christmas Eve and I was doing a bit of last minute shopping with my dad and we decided to try Boots for presents for my mum, which he so should have done a lot earlier! Whilst we were there I remembered that I had just smashed my natural collection face powder and I was running low on eyeliner so I picked them up at £1.99 each. When I got to the desk the nice sales assistant informed me that there was a 3 for £5 offer on the natural collection products and so I went back to look for something else. To be honest I didn’t really need anything else, so I decided to try their foundation as I had tried pretty much all of their other products. They had three shades of foundation to pick from, Porcelain which I got, even though I would not be considered to be very fair and two others which seemed to be rather orange (never a good look!) Of the three shades available, none would have been suitable for someone with an olive to dark skin tone.

The foundation comes in a 40ml squeezy tube, like a toothpaste tube, which is made from clear plastic and bares the natural collection logo on the front. On the back there is a list of the ingredients and it states that the foundation is fragrance free. The foundation makes no claims, it doesn’t claim to give good coverage or to conceal pores, it doesn’t claim to last all day or to be kind to skin and it doesn’t claim to be great value for money, but in fact it is all of this! It is easier to apply this foundation using your fingers and for me porcelain was the perfect shade, which blended in well and provided good, but not perfect coverage. One negative I will state here is that the foundation seemed to set/dry quite quickly, which meant that I had to be pretty speedy with application. At the end of the day, a good 16 hours after application, I still looked exactly how I did when I first applied it and pretty much as much as I had put on came off again onto my face wipe! My skin felt nice and moisturised still and it didn’t have any drying effect on it.

Over all I think that this foundation, usually £1.99 is great value for money. For a cheap brand the foundation is rather good, however I still required concealer on my horrifically bad under eye circles. I will use this foundation on a day to day basis, when I am not going anywhere fancy that requires dressing up, however when I go out in the evening to parties etc I would wear a more expensive which would give a flawless coverage.

Pros: Lasts all day, provides good coverage, it’s very cheap and you get a lot of the product for your money.

Cons: Dries quickly and does not provide a totally perfect coverage, but hey for £1.99 what were you expecting!?

EDIT: It would seem that this foundation only works well if you have nothing else at all on your skin before you apply it! When used after moisturiser it peels off and goes all nasty!

Now I know Prettyhead was originally set up to review makeup and haircare products, but I recently got these shoes and I just had to share them with you all! Now like most girls I LOVE shoes, when I see a pair I love I get the same physical reactions as I do when I see a hot guy (talking of which I am very much liking Dominic Cooper at the moment), my heart starts to beat faster, my palms get clammy and all I can think about is how much I need the shoes!

Normally I shy away from buying clothing and foot wear on eBay, purely for the fact that I can’t try the items on, so you run the risk of them not fitting and sellers are generally pretty strict on refunds, but I saw these and fell in love!

It is my aim in life to have at least 2 pairs of shoes in every colour and pattern available before I die and so I needed these to fill the red and white polka dot vacancy that I have, but the thing that really made me fall in love with them were the heels! OH MY GOD! They are gorgeous! And here in England I have never ever seen a pair of shoes with heart shaped heels! They had to be shipped from Australia, but surprisingly they didn’t take very long to come, also the kind seller gave me a free pair of pretty earrings! If you search “heart heels” in the eBay search bar there are literally hundreds on there, in all different colours (I think I need a black and blue pair next!) Maybe if we all got a few pairs we could start a trend?!

P.s. I know that they don’t go with the dress I am wearing  but it was the day that I got them so I was excited and just had to try them on!

So we have been running for a few months now and have reviewed a fair few products ranging from make up to hair care, so I am now going to post my makeup must haves, some of which have been reviewed already on this site and others which haven’t but will be! There will also be links to show you where to buy, my biggest tip would be to go through eBay, there is literally no need to ever pay full price for beauty products now that eBay is around!

Mascara: So you will probably know by now that I LOVE mascara, so this is the hardest choice for me to make, but one really stands out and that is Maybelline’s Lash Stiletto.  I am in love with this product, it doesn’t totally give me the thickness that I want and it smells a bit funky, but the amount of length that it gives is amazing! That coupled with the fact that it doesn’t clump or give you spider eyes makes this my favourite mascara of all time! (Too see full review please go to the mascara section of prettyhead).

Foundation: I didn’t know how to choose between No 7 Stay Perfect foundation and Maybelline’s Dream Satin Liquid, but after a long hard think I am going to go with the Dream Satin. This provides amazing coverage and the reason that it is my favourite is because of the price, £7.00 in the shops (and a lot cheaper on eBay), means that you are getting a great quality product for an affordable price, which in this economic climate is very important! It provides great coverage, is quite moisturising and lasts for a long time, everything that a foundation should be!

Eyeliner:  Ok so my winner in this category hasn’t been reviewed yet on prettyhead but it will be soon, I think Elizabeth Arden’s eyeliner pot (half blue half black), is amazing. It comes in a little tub, rather like lip balm, and you use the eyeliner brush provided in the set to apply. I paid £6.50 for it on eBay and it costs about £14 new, but I believe that it is worth every penny!

Lips: I would not be without Rimmel’s Shock Gloss, it hasn’t yet been reviewed on here, but it is awesome! It comes in 5 shades but clear is the best and it is super shiny, makes your lips look amazing! I love the applicator as well, instead of a little sponge on the end of the stick, it is a brush, which feels really nice against your lips as you apply. At only £3.99 in Superdrug Rimmel’s shock gloss is a bargin!

Skin: As far a skin care goes there is a clear winner, No 7 protect and perfect beauty serum! It is quite pricey but hey if it works (and scientists say it does!) then I would pay anything!

Hair care: Now this is where I have to cheat and pick 2, anyone that has read my hair care reviews will know that I swear by Pantene conditioner for dry and damaged hair, however a few months ago I discovered a little miracle. Dove’s heat defence therapy spray, designed to protect hair during heat styling, however it made my normally curly/wavy hair rather straight with just hair drying alone! This meant that I had to spend less time straightening and therefore managed to save my hair a little from the damaging effects of straightners. Also my hair held its style all day and all night and then the next day too! I am a huge fan now and have been converted from TRESemme!

So there you have it, those are the products that I love and couldn’t live without, there are loads more, including Barry M dazzle dust, but with so many colours I wouldn’t be able to pick just one! If you have a list of fav products you would like to share, feel free to email me at Faye@prettyhead.co.uk and I will do my best to put yours up here asap!

You may know from reading some of my other reviews that I have long, dry and frizzy hair, which is subject to a lot of straightening and so I am always on the lookout for products that will make my hair look nice, protect it and help solve the dryness issues. My friend who has very long, perfect (grr!), shiny hair told me that she uses Aussie Miracle Luscious Long Deep Treatment once a week to keep her locks looking gorgeous and so I decided to give it ago. I bought mine from Boots for £4.45 (think of the points!) for 250ml, which is the sort of price you would expect to pay for any of the Aussie 3 Minute miracles. There is however the option of buying a 20ml sachet for 99p, so you have the option of trying a sample size before you commit to buying a big bottle. The bottle looks very simple, it is white with a sticker on the front and back containing the instructions for application. As suggested by the name, this treatment apparently works in just 3 minutes and Aussie claim that “the Australian Eucalyptus extract and Avocado Oil contained in this treatment, should help to deeply moisturise, revitalise and nourish your long hair”.

So after shampooing and conditioning with my regular (Pantene) products, I applied a big dollop of the treatment onto my hair and left it for about 5 mins – well I thought I had better give it a load of time to work as I have such thick hair. The treatment is white and has a thickish consistency somewhere in between that of shampoo and conditioner, not a liquid but not totally thick. One thing that I was disappointed in at this stage was the smell; after trying a few Aussie products I have fallen in love with the fruity almost bubble gum like smell given off by them, however this treatment smelt a bit funny, not totally unpleasant, but not the nicest either. After leaving it on for about 5mins I rinsed off with warm water and awaited the results!

To be honest I can’t say that I was totally amazed by the results, my hair did feel soft and didn’t look as dry as usual, however it wasn’t shiny and I don’t think that the results would have been noticeable to anyone but me. However after doing this once a week for 2 months, I would say that there was a marked improvement in the dryness, however there still wasn’t a shine! I wouldn’t buy this product again as I prefer the Avon hair mask (previously reviewed on this site), however I don’t feel like I have wasted my money as it did have a positive effect on my hair. As previously stated you can get a 20ml sample size for 99p, however I only got positive results with repeated use, so a one off try it isn’t really an accurate reflection of the treatment’s effects.

Pros: It helps with dry ends

Cons: It doesn’t really make a huge difference and £4.45 is a lot of money to pay in this economic climate for a product that only half works. Also it doesn’t smell too nice.

It’s that time of year again when we are all reminded of how important it is to help support breast cancer charities and there are loads of ways to do this. From fund raising and buying the pink ribbon to buying Tickled Pink things in Asda, the ways we can all help are endless. I was delighted when I found out that Estee Lauder were again doing their bit to raise awareness of breast cancer and this being a make up site of course means that we will be supporting them all the way (and getting ourselves some lush products in the process)! According to the Estee Lauder website (see link below) ten of the company’s most luxurious and sort after beauty brands will sell products to help raise money for research to eradicate breast cancer. So go on check out the webiste and I will be reviewing some of the products as soon as they come out!

http://www.esteelauder.co.uk/about/breast_cancer_awareness_index.tmpl

Note: I have just found out that Avon have just launched their range of products to help raise money for breast cancer charities! Please take a look!

Got a product you can’t live without?! Or do you regret spending your hard earnt cash on something? Either way we would LOVE to hear about it! Send your reviews and piccies to faye@prettyhead.co.uk and we will do our best to publish them! xxxx

After reading a magazine over the weekend which branded this cream as a must have I felt that I should write this review! About 6 months ago I was stocking up on makeup in Superdrug when I noticed this under eye cream for £1.63 for 15ml! Worrying about under eye wrinkles at 21 I thought I would give this cream a go seen as it was cheap and claimed to help reduce the appearance of fine lines, puffiness and dark circles, which are things that I really suffer from, apparently due to allergies.

The cream comes in a cute, handbag sized tube (as seen in picture) which has a nozzle that allows for easy application to the under eye area. The tube isn’t highly decorated and Superdrug doesn’t make a big deal out of this cream so it might be hard to find in store, there are limited instructions on the back, but really it isn’t hard to apply a cream under your eyes twice a day. The tube doesn’t come attached to any cardboard, normally only used to make the product look attractive, like some other brands do, so this is quite a positive step from Superdrug for the environment. Having just checked online, the price of this cream has gone up to £2.44.

So back to the cream, the magazine I was reading hailed it as a mini miracle for a barging price, however I think my £1.63 would be better spent else where! The cream is very thick and white and yeah you do see a reduction in dark circles with just one application, but this is only because the white cream paints them white! As soon as you wash it off they are back again! Also I used this for 2 months, which I know isn’t that long, but still I saw no reduction in the fine lines I had under my eyes. One good thing I will say about this cream is that it didn’t sting when I applied it, something that normally happens as I have quite sensitive skin. Also I suppose it is a good thing that it includes sun screen, but hey it is Autumn so not really needed at the moment. Personally I see this cream as a waste of money and I think that the article in the magazine only liked the cream because it was cheap and because of what it claimed to do, I doubt anyone bothered to try it for a long period of time. I would not recommend this cream for people wanting a permanent reduction in dark circles and fine lines/wrinkles on the under eye area, however if you have sensitive skin and are looking for a sun screen that doesn’t sting, this might be suitable for you.

Pros: Cheap and offers some protection from the harmful UV rays of the sun.

Cons: Does not live up to its claims, there was no reduction in fine lines and dark circles were basically painted white.