Holy Grail Foundation

Every makeup blog need this post right? So here's my Holy Grail foundation post!

I'm a base junkie, and I expect a lot from my foundation. Given that I had pretty bad acne/scarring and only wear foundation on the odd occasion, I love a full coverage that stays in place on my oily skin. There is only ONE foundation that I have found delivers on every front, and no matter how hard I try to give other foundations a chance, this will always be the one that I come back too!

Ready for it?

MAC Studio Sculpt. Thats right. It's 2015 and someone has something positive to say about a MAC foundation! Just hear me out...

Its not like I didn't try anything else. I gave NARS Sheer Matte a go. Liked it, but couldn't find a perfect colour match (Syracuse is ever so slightly too dark), and it didn't have a great staying power. Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk in 6.5 was a wonderful colour match, but I couldn't justify the price for a foundation. Hated Loreal True Match in W7, and EX1 in the shade f300 was good, but just not high enough coverage. Dior Forever in 040 was too dark, 031 was too light. So I went back to my good old studio sculpt...

I don't care what anyone says, I love the MAC colour range. I am always an NC42, and I love the yellow undertone of this foundation. And the coverage?! GIRL DONT GET ME STARTED. I have clear, smooth skin now (alhamdulillah!) but even when I didn't, a layer of this had me receiving good skin compliments. You can even get away without concealing blemishes individually.  Unlike most other foundations, Studio Sculpt has a thick, gel like consistency which I assume contributes to its awesome staying power. Thats another thing - it genuinely stays on your skin. My skin drinks foundation and becomes an oily mess 2 hours after I've washed it, but this stuff fares pretty well. I love the texture, the colour, and even though it is heavy coverage you can most certainly sheer it down. All you need is a nice, dense buffing brush (Real Techniques Expert Face Brush is perfect for this) and you're good to go!

Try this. You won't be disappointed.

Nahlabee xoxo

Mixing it up; lip creams

In the eternal struggle for the perfect nude lip, I have purchased countless lipsticks, lipliners and creams, both high end and drugstore.

One that I had to share with you all was the Collection Work The Colour (as they are now called) "Cream Puffs". God, these are such an underrated product! Much like the NYX Matte Lip Creams, these are four creamy, buildable lip colours that you can find in Superdrug and Boots. They stay on ages too! At £2.99 each, I'm not complaining...

B-T Powder Puff and Angel Delight

I LOVE mixing these; and to achieve the perfect nude lips I use Powder Puff and Angel Delight . Together they make the most beautiful browny nude it makes me want to cry. Sometimes I'll add a little of Cotton Candy to add a hint of pink. Or I'll add Angel Delight and Cotton Candy for a dark pink nude. Or Powder Puff instead of Angel Delight. Confused? Same. Basically, mixing these creams creates endless lip colours, when you all need to buy two or three products. Fairy Cake, the fourth colour is a strong coral that I don't reach for much, but is nice when mixed with Powder Puff.

You do need to apply a balm, or even better a lip primer, before you use these as they aren't the most forgiving when it comes to chapped lips. I won't knock off points for that though because with ANY lip product you should exfoliate and moisturise before using.

(not my image) L-R Cotton Candy, Powder Puff, Fairy Cake and Angel Delight

Nahlabee xoxo

Makeup Revolution Blush Sticks: Review

Makeup Revolution kind of just popped out of nowhere, didn't it? Priding themselves as a company who make good quality products, but don't cost the earth, there was a MUA (another budget beauty brand) feel to the brand, but that certainly wasn't true!

Browsing the website, you can tell these products are for makeup lovers and are not cheap drugstore lip glosses and glitters (shout out Miss Sporty). There are a lot of interesting products like eye brow gels and blush palettes, but the one product that immediately took my attention were the Blush Sticks.

(not my image)

When I saw them I was instantly reminded of the Nars Multiples, and the Artist of Makeup (by Zukreat) Contour Sticks. I haven't ever tried the Nars Multiples but I did own an AOM contour stick. Sadly, it was a too dark for my skin and I only used it once (on my wedding day, risky I know). So I was on the hunt for something to replace it.

 I chose the shade Matte Malibu as it was the only brown shade, and Matte Rush to use as a highlight. There are "matte" versions of all four of the colours, as well as more sheer versions. At £5 each, I was expecting good sturdy packaging and a relatively good product. Packaging was good - usual thing. The texture of the product is extremely impressive, its very creamy and bendable, and has pretty good colour pay off. 

I don't love Matte Malibu; I like it but don't love it, as it runs a little too orangey for my liking.  I know it isn't intended to be a contour shade, so I can't really can't complain. That being said, it is SUPER pigmented, and you certainly can get away with it. Use a light hand and go over with a grey/brown powder such as Benefit's Hoola. Given that I am an NC42, it works pretty well. There's so much product that I doubt I'll ever need to repurchase again.

Makeup Revolution's Matte Malibu Blush Stick applied with one stroke (right) and built up (left)

Matte Rush isn't anything to right home about. Its okay. Not bad, not great either. As it is pretty light in colour, it doesn't show up well on my NC42 skin, so I have switched it on Mimi's NW25 skin instead. It's easy to cake this on, so you have to be careful otherwise you'll defeat the whole dewy ness. Incidentally, whilst they didn't deliver on this product  Makeup Revolution hit the ball out of the park with their Radiant Light powders, which I would strongly recommend! (review coming soon).

Makeup Revolution's Matte Rush Blush Stick, applied one stroke (right), and built up (left). Swatched on NW25 skin,

All in all, an interesting product. I prefer cream contours, and whilst I didn't really get on with Matte Rush, Matte Malibu is a nice contouring product! Though the brand in sold in Superdrug, they only stock these online.


Thats all for now folks!

Nahlabee xoxo

Accutane part 3? Yeah I think its that time

Hey Everyone!

I hope you are all well!

I thought its about time for another accutane update? Last time I posted about my accutane experience was a little over a month ago and I went from 40mg, to 60mg, and now I am on 80mg!!!




Okay so I feel like I need to show you my face currently so you can understand my pain.

These are my cheeks...

They are super spotty and sore, itchy and getting on my nerves. They actually make me want to cry. I hate leaving the house because I honestly feel like people will just see me and think I am diseased. I guess I am :'(

So yeah I'm 2 months and a week into Accutane, and so far all I see are spots spots spots. And they are actually driving me crazy, when I say they are sore, I'm not kidding I feel like my spots have gotten worse than ever, like I've had spots for about 4/5 years now constantly never left for a day, but I have never had this many spots? And even if I had this many, they were never this sore, these are actually painful and the skin is so dry that I just want to itch it all day long.

But every-time I touch my face, I get told off by Nahlabee. I know it makes it worse but its become a habit of mine, I touch my face without noticing.

I think it was how I used to check for new spots? and now it's just something I always do.

Anyway other than my super sore horrible spots, lets talk about other side effects...

So far I haven't had any or much headache, I get the few headaches here and there if I haven't had much water but that is expected.

Okay well the next thing is my eyes, they're so watery, all day long drip drip drip water down my face. I thought dry eyes meant they wouldn't water? but that clearly isn't the case, lately I've tried using hayfever eye drops which have helped a little, because the moisturising eye drops didn't seem to do much. So maybe it is hayfever? I don't even know anymore.

My nose, yet it doesn't actually bleed,  like a nose bleed, but it constantly has blood inside. Never have I ever wiped my nose and it was free from blood since being on accutane, and sometimes (sorry this is nasty) the boogers are so hard and bloody that they're actually really painful.

My lips, are constantly dry and peeling off, no matter how much I moisturise them, its never enough right now the edges are very rough and burn every time I open my mouth. Very horrible!!!!! Wearing lipstick isn't even an option.

What else could I mention, my scalp is super dry and flaky, and my head is the oilest part of my whole body. I don't really have oily skin, but my hair would get greasy the next day after a wash, so I used to wash my hair every other day if not everyday if I actually wanted to look nice. But my hair can go 3/4 days now without being greasy which is great, except for the fact that my scalp is actually dry and flaky!!!

I have patchy dry skin all over my body, especially my shoulders and my arms. I had a little rash on my hands but with extra moisturising it cleared up.

My face is very dry, no matter how much I moisturise its never enough, wearing make up is very hard and takes a long time trying to blend in the foundation to make it look like I'm not diseased and have weird patchy dryness on my face, or un-blended foundation because apparently dry skin means the foundation just doesn't want to be on your face? And the bumps on my face are just impossible to cover as it is, takes me ages of dabbing of foundation buildup to cover them out. It's actually really hard!

And I think I have saved the best till last, achy bones? Yeah in my last post I said I hadn't felt it yet. Well now I have! My knees and my ankles are the worst. Walking is painful. Even sitting hurts sometimes. Getting up from sitting down = pain. Walking down stairs? yeah takes me a long time. But the weird thing is I feel that exercising helps? I don't feel achy during exercising which I find weird, but after wards its not that much more achy. But the aches are defiantly here, I thought it was bearable aches that wouldn't really affect me, but they are quite bad :(

So to sum up how I feel about accutane right now, all I've seen is the bad side of accutane, all the symptoms but my spots haven't cleared up? I know Nahlabee said how much she loved accutane and what it did for her skin, I'm still waiting to find that love.

Alright my sweetpeas,until next time

Lots of love

Mimi xx

Ogx Hair Oils: Review

Ogx Hair Oils: Review

Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while since I've blogged...but I promise to be more up to date!

Thinning hair. Dry hair. Hair that breaks when you brush it. All the above? *raises hands*.

Due to some awesome African genes, I have naturally dry, coarse hair.  Dry hair, plus wearing a hijab for endless hours a day, alhamdulillah, has left me with thinning hair. About a year ago, a decided to take action. That's where hair oil came in...

As much as I know and believe that oiling your hair makes a difference, I just didn't have the time. My granny, bless her, has always tried to encourage me to oil my hair with coconut oil, and good old Amla oil. Whilst both do provide results, the effort of oiling my hair was just too much for me to handle. I hated how the oil would seep onto my pillows, and once, in Chemistry, when the guy next to  me asked "Whats that smell?" I had to wash my hair with shampoo three times to get it out. Safe to say, I was done with the traditional Pakistani method. 

So, I decided to try something new. I saw these in Boots once day, and I haven't looked back since! I've really noticed a difference since using these and my hair feels a lot thicker and shinier. What I love most about these oils is how weightless they are. They don't weigh your hair down like traditional oils, but still deliver results. 

After washing my hair, I apply a few pumps of oil, concentrating on the tips of my hair so I don't get greasy roots (yuck!). I use the Biotin oil, as well as either the Shea Butter oil, or the Coconut Oil. After working it through my tips I blow dry the oil into my hair. I don't know if its just my amateur impression but it blow drying my hair with the oil in seems to add to the luxurious feel. Its almost like a hot oil treatment only quicker and easier.

All in all, I can't say enough good things about these hair oils. My hair is thicker, stronger and a lot healthier than before.

You can find these OGX Hair oils at Boots and Superdrug.    

Nahlabee xoxo 

Accutane part 2

Hi everyone! 

Well we've all read Nahlabee's accutane post, and how much she loved the stuff. 

Well I (Mimi) am going through this journey of discovery with accutane and I thought I'd share my experience as I go along and what side effects I'm currently facing. 

So I've completed 3 weeks of accutane, started my 4th week today. Currently I am on 40mg a day (what I started with). But I got a letter from my doctor saying I will be moving up to 60mg for a month, then 80mg for a few months till I'm free from this acne! 

So for the first week or so, I felt like accutane wasn't doing anything as I was expecting to be so dry, to have cracked lips, achey bones etc, so when I wasn't getting much symptoms I kept thinking it wasn't working. Boy was I wrong! 

So week 2 started and I started getting dry lips, I thought if I got on top of it with constantly applying lip balms it would help? I guess I was wrong...

 Nahlabee obviously warned me about the side effects but you know, I thought maybe I'd be different? I don't know why I thought this! It was a Silly thought!  

So my skin... By the second week I felt like my skin was so much worse than when I started? And for someone who suffers from acne, and has been for a few years now you'd know how upsetting it is. But Nahlabee being the supportive sister assured me it would get better, so I had to stay strong. 

So currently in my 4th week, and I do have some old spots that I feel have been here for a while, which is super annoying, and to make it worse the skin around the spot is dry? I guess that's a good thing? But for someone who loves to wear make up its not a good thing, because no matter how much I moisturise, the dryness doesn't go. I mean I never really expected my actual facial skin to peel off from dryness? I never witnessed Nahlabee's actual skin being like this, but I see her now and I envy her clear skin. So I'm looking forward to the end result. 

So along side the dry lips and dry skin, my eyes are fairly dry, and seem to be more sensitive to light. If I'm in a room with bright lights for a long time, they become very sore, which also results in a headache. Not fun at all when you have to be around bright lights. One of my eyes actually was so irritated by the bright lights that it was red and watering for 2 days! 

So the next side effect is a bit of a gross one, I've had bloody boogers, and when I try to clean my nose it's always a bit bloody. But that's also something the doctor warned me of. So putting Vaseline up my nose is the only way to prevent this. Not the best feeling in the world if I must say so! 

Headache... It's true if you don't drink plenty and plenty of water you get a headache, sometimes I actually feel super thirsty when I have a headache which reminds me to drink water, so at least I get a reminder! It's a defiantly a must. But the annoying part of drinking lots of water is the constantly needed to go to the toilet! 

So for the achey bones, I haven't been too achey yet even after exercise, which I was told would be very hard to do! I mean I got a bit of back pain here and there but that could be caused by anything really. I just hope it doesn't become achey when they up my dose 😭! 

But yeah that's my experience so far, I think my dose is being upped on Monday so I shall keep you updated if any new side effects arise (which I really hope they don't!) 

Talk to you soon, 

Love Mimi xoxoxo

Braun Face Epilator

Asalamu 3alykom everyone!

So this blog is about the braun face epilator and cleansing brush! 

Before I actually tell you what I think about the Braun Epilator, I want to talk about epilating the face in general. 

Okay so being an arab-girl, I am very white (I wasn't lucky enough to have beautiful golden skin, I got pale white skin) and being white with dark hair, it just shows so much. Ever since I can remember I have always hateddddd being so hairy, and I have always tried to find ways of minimising the hair to look like an actual human. 

So I have tried everything from waxing, to threading to my preferred method of bleaching my facial hair. 

 

When I was younger my mum wouldn't allow me to remove my facial hair as she always told me it would get worse, so bleaching was my best friend. 

I used to regularly bleach it, until one day I got older and thought hey why don't I try to wax it, I'm sure it would so much better. I started off with waxing my side burns only. Big mistake, every tried to wax a portion of your face and then apply make up?...Yeah don't you will look like an actual weirdo, because waxing removed the dead skin too, so I guess that portion became whiter? I don't know all I know it was a big mistake, so I thought hey instead of doing only my side-burns i'll just do my whole face? that sounds like a good idea right? Wrong again! Waxing broke me out so badly I was just one big spot. Worst thing ever. 

I decided mama is always right, and decided to stick to bleaching my facial hair. 

Threading is always an option, but I suffer enough pain with threading my eyebrows and upper lip that I couldn't imagine ever doing my side-burns with it too. I could possibly pass out from the pain! 

So one day I stumbled across a video of Huda Beauty where she reviewed this Braun epilator and cleansing brush and I thought oh my goodness I need this. 

I went out and bought it, because I thought bleaching my side-burns makes the hair grow longer and I could sometimes see it when I put make up on and I really do hate it, which is why I decided to give it a go, of course mama told me it was a bad idea, but did I listen?... of course not!

So we finally come to the actual product sorry to bore you with my facial hair problems. 

The Braun epilator, is a beautiful little machine, its very small, and so easy to use! 

So here's what i looks like, the epilator and the cleansing brush. 

Firstly I felt like the epilator didn't do a great job removing the hair, even when I used it on my upper lip it didn't remove the hair fully I felt like the hair was being cut slightly, but that could have been my fault!

I used it on my side-burns and forehead and it gave me a little break out which I wasn't very happy about. But the plus side was not having any hair did feel beautiful and I felt it made a difference when applying makeup! But the sad truth is my dark hair shows when it grows, so even at the very beginning of growth I was able to notice the hair so I didn't get to enjoy the hair free feeling for too long. I guess that's more of a problem to do with me than the product itself? But the epilator I felt drained the battery way too quickly? so when I first came to use the cleanser it was very weak and I didn't feel like it did anything? 

I changed the battery and used the face cleanser again, and it was a bit stronger but still not what I was expecting. I mean I do like it, of course its more than just cleansing with your hands but I didn't feel like it was an amazing product. 

All in all, If I had the choice again I probably wouldn't buy this product, but now that I have bought it, I use it to maintain my upper lip, and use the cleanser just for extra cleansing. 

Also the price is a bit steep for something that isn't amazing, I wouldn't recommend buying this if you are looking for something to remove a fairly large area of hair, but for touching up small bits like upper lip its quite useful I guess? 

I guess I will stick to bleaching until I find the next thing to try? 

anyway that's enough about my horrible facial hair problems... 

Take care my lovely Internet friends, 

Mimi xoxo

http://www.boots.com/en/Braun-Face-810-Facial-epilator-cleansing-brush_1528211/