Taupe!

I do love a good Taupe. So do a lot of the beauty loving community. Seldom do you see any other colour harped on about so much. Sometimes I feel that, with all the talk of premium taupes (e.g Chanel Taupe Gris) and heard to find holy grail taupes the humble drugstore shadow can be neglected. Here are a few of my favourite cheap and cheerful taupe shades. Neutral, but never boring!

Bourjois Brun Nylon



£5.99 This is a gorgeous light shade that is perfect for all over the lid with a darker taupe in the crease. It is soft and blends easily. Shimmery but not frosty, perfect!

Maybelline Silken Taupe



£3.99 A slightly cooler light taupe with much less shimmer. It’s not matte but the lack of overt shimmer makes this a good choice for days at work where I have to look super smart and frosty eyeshadow would be a no. Again I like this swept over the lid with a darker shade in the crease. It is a little harder to blend than the Bourjois but still it’s a decent quality for the price.

Barry M Mushroom


£4.50 Is this a taupe? It has very strong silver/purple leanings but I think there is enough grey/ brown in there for it to qualify (just). This one is exceptionally frosty. Not so great for the office but gorgeous nonetheless.

No7 Mink


£7.50 This is slightly darker and a bit more brown than the others (don't know what is up with the swatch pic, I think it just caught the light). Plus with the vouchers of temptation you can get this for £2.50 which is what I did. I’m not sure it’s quite special enough to justify the full price for £2.50 it’s a good buy. The quality is ok but I sometimes find that the shadows in No7’s permanent collection are prone to fading throughout the day so a good primer is a must.

Are you a fellow Taupe fiend or does it leave you bored? Do you have any more affordable taupe suggestions? Please let me know! X
*I bought these*

Bourjois Little Round Blush Pot: Rose Ambre

I think I might have to collect these. I’m rather partial to this little pot of loveliness! These little domed blushes come in a variety of finishes ranging from matte to full blown shiny. This is one of the more matte ones (thankfully). It’s a deep, rich pigmented rose shade. I like it now but I suspect I’ll love it in the winter for giving my pale skin a ‘just in from the cold’ flush.

The packaging is nice too. You get a little mirror and although the brush is too thin to be of any use to anyone it’s a nice touch that they included one and in a pinch you could use it to touch up during the day. The powder is extremely soft and you only need to tap your (proper) brush onto it to get enough colour. It blends better than many drugstore blushes too so if you do go overboard, as I often manage to, you can buff it away quite easily.


This does fade on me a little by the end of a work day but then pretty much all blushes do on me. That said my ‘work day’ is pretty gruelling with me putting on my slap at 6am and taking it off at 9:30pm.

There is a surprisingly large range of colours from silvery baby pinks to bronzes so chances are I’ll find some more shades in this range to pick up. I’ll confess I was nervous about trying this as I’m not a fan of Bourjois domes eye shadows. I find them to be too hard and lacking payoff. Thankfully the blushes don’t seem to suffer from either of those problems. I have read though that some people have found that these harden over time but that scrubbing them with a toothbrush or something to take the hard layer off sorts out the problem.

For £6.99 I think these offer a good range of colours and finishes and a surprisingly high quality too. I like ‘em and will be picking up more in the future I’m sure xxx

*I bought the above product with my own pennies. My reviews are always my honest opinion. For more info see my disclosure policy on the left*

Collection Overview : Bronzers

Who would have thought that before this year I had never really used bronzer. I’d never even tried contouring! Now I’ve become a little bit of an addict.

MAC MSF in Comfort – Unfortunately this was limited edition as part of the In The Groove collection. it’s a slightly orangey toned matte shade with shimmery gold veining. When swirled together it leans more towards matte but with a slight sheen. 

Bourjois Delice De Poudre – The light neutral shade and medium to light pigmentation mean that this is a good idiot proof bronzer. It’s very difficult to over apply, is matte (which I prefer), and looks and smells like chocolate. The only problem is as I’ve had it for a couple of month it seems to be getting a little hard. £6.99 for 16g.

Collection 2000 Shimmer & Shade in 2 Golden & Gorgeous – this is incredibly frosty so I really only use this on nights out swept over the cheeks for a golden glow. Although it’s gorgeous in the pan and the peach bronze shade is very pretty I just don’t seem to reach for it much. £4.19 for 10g.

Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte 01 – This came in a palette along with 2 blushes as part of a Christmas set. It’s a slightly warmer tone and more heavily pigmented that the Bourjois one but I adore this for contouring. It blends like a dream and adds a lovely warmth to the skin. You can buy the full sized version of this for £26 for 21g. I’m probably more likely to repurchase this than the others. 

Sleek Contour Kit (the contour side obviously)  in the shade Light – I’d been so curious about this for so long that I finally caved. It’s a totally matte slightly cooler toned brown which makes it perfect for contouring. You really do need a light hand with this. At first I thought it would be too dark for my skin but it’s actually fine as long as you blend well. The highlighter is lovely in this too but I won’t say too much as I have a full review coming up. £6.50 for 14g. 

Left to right: MAC MSF Comfort, Bourjois Delice De Poudre, Collection 2000 Golden and Gorgeous, Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess, Sleek Contour Palette

Clearly I’ve become a bit of a bronzer fiend! I plan on putting a dent in these before buying anything else but when I do I have a Dior bronzer in mine. What are your favourites? X

*All bought by me*

Bourjois Délice de Poudre Bronzing Powder

Also known as how Claire overcame her fear of bronzer. Oh yes folks, I’ve been contouring! And just in time for Spring too! I’ve always associated bronzer with orange. I’m rather pasty (between MAC 15-20) with neutral undertones and for a good long while I’ve been embracing the pale. It’s sunscreen all the way for me but I decided this year I would conquer my fear of faux tan and bronzer and this was just the right product to start me off! 

You get a rather generous 16g of product for £6.99 housed in cardboard packaging. Some people hate cardboard packaging I know but personally I don’t mind it and it feels relatively sturdy. The powder looks simply adorabubble and has a lovely sweet scent. It doesn’t smell like chocolate to me like it’s supposed to but it’s lovely nonetheless. Allegedly it has little ‘flecks of sunshine’ in it and whilst you can see a few gold sparkles in the pan these thankfully don’t transfer onto the face. 

The powder is finely milled and blends nicely. It’s a soft muted bronze which doesn’t pull orange on me (unless you really pack it on). It’s perfect for a soft natural looking contour and it doesn’t look too obvious even on my pale skin. Unfortunately this means it probably wouldn’t be very effective on darker skin tones though. 

Does anyone have any suggestions for other bronzers suitable for pale skin? 

*Bought with Boots advantage points*

Haul Video

I went shopping :-( Bad Claire...

Sample Sunday – Bourjois Bio Detox Foundation

I’ve been curious about this foundation ever since it came out. I’ve heard good things about its staying power on oily skin and the prospect of a high street foundation which can cope with the nose-of-doom is a very appealing one. Of course Beige Clair is too dark for me so yet again I sat around my flat looking like a cheesy Dorito. See what I do for you guys? 

First impressions were interesting... it has a very strong watermelon scent which I’m not crazy about though it does fade once it’s dried. The texture is fairly fluid but you need to blend quickly like your life depends on it or you will end up with streaks and it does dry very quickly. Once it has set it has a rather nice satin finish. If I were to use this ‘in real life’ I wouldn’t need to set it with a powder at all on my dry bits. The coverage was fairly high, I really wouldn’t need too much concealer with this though it isn’t as high as say Revlon Colorstay. 

I tried this without primer or powder and I lasted 2.5 hours before the oil slick nose began to get gruesome. This is actually pretty good going for me and I would never actually leave the house without primer or powder. I usually blot and powder my nose about 3-4 times during the day! 

Whilst it is no means perfect (still gets broken down by oil, the smell doesn’t appeal to me) I’m pleasantly surprised by this. I think I will treat myself to a bottle when I’ve used up a couple of others. It costs £10.99 at Boots which isn’t exactly a bargain but I always recommend waiting for brands to go on 3 for 2 in Boots or Superdrug (which they do every other month really) x