Why I think Clinique Lipsticks Are The Best

Hello lovelies and welcome to my Realm of Beauty. 

Today's post is all about lipsticks, Clinique lipsticks to be exact.
Lipsticks are the most important makeup item for me. I could leave the house with no makeup on and it wouldn't phase me. But if I didn't have lipstick on I'd somehow feel incomplete, like I would be missing an item of clothing.

I am quite picky when it comes to choosing shades and types. I'm not a fan of nude lips, because they don't really suit my skin tone. And, I don't like matte lipsticks because I prefer moisturised lips to dry lips. So already, I have eliminated the very popular and arguably most loved lipstick in the market: mac's matte lipsticks. You also tend to get more shades with matte lipsticks, so that's another thing I'm missing out on.

Clinique Lipsticks available at http://www.clinique.co.uk

For a long time I've been searching for the perfect moisturising lipstick. One that's not too greasy and not too shiny, but is still moisturising and long lasting and pigmented. I thought I had found my true match in Lancôme's Rouge in Love range, which ticked all the boxes for me. Until Clinique launched their Pop Lip Colour and Primer range. I was very intrigued by the description of this product, which goes like "Luxurious yet weightless formula merges bold, saturated colour with a smoothing primer. Glides on effortlessly to give a modern-velvet finish. Colour stays true and keeps lips comfortably moisturised for 8 hours". So I went to my nearest Clinique counter and the lady tried on 3 shades for me. I instantly fell in love with the intensity of the colours, and how moisturising they were without adding too much shine. This was the perfect match I was looking for. It really does what it says in the description. Thanks to the primer, it glides on perfectly and gives a gorgeous finish to your lips. The moisture doesn't really get absorbed either, so I barely feel the need to reapply it, unless it's after a meal. 

Don't get me wrong, I still love the Rouge in Love lipsticks and would purchase again as soon as I've ran out. But they are more expensive (£22) than Clinique lipsticks (£16), so I can't really use them everyday. 

By now I have almost made my case and have argued why Clinique lipsticks are the best. But there's one more product that I haven't mentioned: The Chubby Stick Intense Moisturising Lip Colour Balm. This is yet another wonderful product by Clinique and the reason why I love it is in the name. It's more shiny and much sheerer compared to the Pop Lip, but that can be an advantage when you want just enough colour and mostly moisture for a daytime look. I also love the shape of it, which makes it super easy to apply. It's £1 more expensive than the Pop Lip, but you get more out of it because it's taller. 

The shades that I have are limited, but as I said I'm quite picky when it comes to shades I like. I do aim to collect more though, so I'll keep you updated. The Berry Pop (15) shade is a gorgeous plum/berry colour, perfect for evenings and autumnal looks. While the Love Pop (13) shade is a gorgeous light violet, perfect for daytime and summery looks. This is the lightest shade I can pull off without looking like a ghost. 
My Chubby Stick shade is Roomiest Rose (06), which is a beautiful pink colour, perfect for everyday makeup.

Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer and Chubby Stick swatches.

Clinique Pop Lip Colour + Primer and Chubby Stick lip swatches.

So there you have it, my case for why Clinique make the best lipsticks. If you're like me and don't really like matte lipsticks, then they're the brand for you. 

I hope you enjoyed this post. Make sure you follow me on social media for updates and future posts. Links can be found on the right hand column. 

See you soon x

Vintage Inspired Makeup with Berry lips - Makeup Tutorial

Hello lovelies and welcome to my Realm of Beauty.
This post is gonna be a makeup tutorial and review of products used to achieve this look. First have a look at the photo and if you like the look, carry on reading.

Before I get started, I should declare my love for vintage fashion and beauty. I love the eyeliner, the lips, the eyebrows, the neckline, the tiny waist accentuated by the big skirt and tight waist, polka dots and so on. My makeup and fashion goals are always drawn from the likes of Dita Von Teese and her burlesque style. So if you like my blog and want to follow my blogging journey, expect a lot of vintage inspired looks.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will divide the look into 2 sections: eyes and face.
Here is a picture of the products I used to achieve this look.

Eyes: 

As I have mentioned in my preview makeup tutorial, I like to always do my eyes first then move on to my face. The reason being that if I get any products on my face while doing my eyeshadow I can safely remove them without messing up my makeup, and I can rest my hand on my face if I have to, without worrying that I'm sliding my foundation.

First start with putting NARS pro primer all over your eyelids (or any other eye primer that you have). This amazing product helps prevent your eyeshadow from smudging and provides a gorgeous and smooth base for the eyeshadow to go on. It is on the pricy side (£19.50), but it's totally worth the money (don't be put off by the word "pro" in the title) and it's gonna last you a very long time, unless you're planning on wearing proper eyeshadow on a daily basis.

For the eyeshadow I used the Maybelline Nude Palette. I absolutely adore this palette, it's cheap (£9.99) and high quality, it blends beautifully and the colours are just fantastic. Once the primer is on, start with a neutral tone with a slight shimmer, which is the number 1 shade in the photo above. Use a flat brush to put this on. Then proceed with the crease colour. Any darker shade would do, so you can get creative with it. I used the number 2 shade shown in the picture. Blend that with a crease brush and make sure you take all the edges off. The purpose is to make it look darker in the outer corners and blend it completely with your base shadow about half way on your eyelids. Once that's blended, go above your crease and under your eyebrows with a light, highlighting shade like the number 3 shadow in the palette. This will give you a lovely shimmer under your eyebrows. Proceed with blending this in with the crease shadow, but make sure you blend downwards since you don't want the dark shadow to get under your eyebrows and mess it up.

When you're happy with the result move on to the eyeliner. Map the shape out with a liquid first. For this you need to be looking down into a mirror until you get to the outer corner of your eyes. Then you need to look straight ahead and draw your line right below the crease. This will make sure that you eyeliner doesn't go into the crease and get cut off, because that will look a bit odd. Go aw far as you like with the flick, but be aware of your eyeshape. Once you've got the outline, go in with a gel liner. I love Maybelline Eyes Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner. It's long lasting, smudge proof, has intense colour and is easy to apply with a fine eyeliner brush. It also comes with a brush of its own, which is fantastic especially considering the price (£7.99).
Now you just need a little highlighting shadow in the inner corner of your eyes.

For mascara I used Maybelline Lash Sensational. This mascara is truly a holy grail of drugstore makeup and I'm sure you've heard a lot about it so I won't bore you with the details.
You also need a light brown eye pencil for your water line. I used L'Oréal Paris Infallible Eye Liner-Chocolate Addiction, just to give my eyes more depth and definition. Avoid this step if you have small eyes.
Lastly, you need a little bit of the crease shadow for under your eyes in the outer corner. This should be next to invisible so don't draw it too much.

If you have short eyebrows, your eyeliner flick will most likely go past your eyebrows. To remedy this, you need to draw in you brows. I'm not really an expert in this because I've never had the need to draw my eyebrows in. But I did have to draw them to the level of my flick, which is simple enough. For this I used the brilliant Rimmel London Professional Eyebrow Pencil. It's such a simple product and super easy to use.
I'll leave you with a picture that shows my eyebrows more clearly.

Face:

For foundation I used Lancôme Miracle Cushion Foundation. I absolutely adore this foundation. It sits beautifully on your face and I love the idea behind it. Do I think it's worth £29.50? Probably not. I use it occasionally because the pot is very small and I'm afraid that it's gonna run out quickly.

For under eye concealer and concealing little imperfections, I used Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer, which I talked about in my previous post. I blended that with the sharper edge of Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. I LOVE this product. It's good for blending concealers, cream blushers and foundations. Just one of the best products you can add to your makeup routine.

To highlight my cheek bones, nose, cupid's bow and around lips I used Lancome Teint Miracle Concealer Pen, which again I've talked about in my previous post. I'm not a fan of contouring mostly because I love vintage beauty, but also because I love my round face and don't really see the appeal in the whole contouring practice. That being said, you can achieve wonderful results by just highlighting certain areas of your face. These areas include: under the eyes, on your cheek bones, down the centre of your nose and around the lips. It's minimal effort with maximum effortless effect.

For cheeks I used my lipstick. I'm such a fan of using lipsticks as blushers because you get a perfect match between your lips and cheeks and it just looks so effortless and divine. The lipstick I used was Burberry-Oxblood, and to use as blusher I put some on my cheeks then blended it with the sponge. It takes effort to blend it in perfectly but I think it's worth it. The lipstick itself is wonderfully creamy and moisturising, but I don't think it's pigmented enough. Sometimes that's a good thing though, so no complaints.
To finish the look I used Mac Lipliner-Burgendy. I don't think Mac lipliners need any introduction. They are truly worthy of any praise that's given to them.
If you have oily skin like me, you can add loose powder as well. I use Clinique's Blended Face Powder, which I dedicated an entire post to. So you can check it out if you're interested http://parizbeauty.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/review-cliniques-blended-face-powder.html

So that's the complete look. I hope you enjoyed this makeup tutorial.
Make sure you follow me on Instagram and Twitter for updates.
See you next time x

Lancôme Shine Lover: Review

Hello and welcome to my Realm of Beauty.

For my first post I thought I would review a product from my favourite brand; Lancôme. Ever since I started wearing makeup, I've been using Lancôme products religiously. Who doesn't like their amazing mascaras and their legendary makeup remover?

Today's review is about 'Shine Lover', Lancôme's new lipstick.

Lipsticks are the most essential item in my makeup bag. I love keeping my lips hydrated and beautifully pigmented. So naturally, I always like to go for shiny and moisturising lipsticks. So you can probably imagine my excitement after Lancôme announced the launch of their new lipstick 'Shine Lover'. After all, I keep going back to their store to buy the fantastic 'Rouge in Love' lipstick.

Here are the characteristics I was looking for in 'Shine Lover':

• Day time use,
• Moisturising,
• Vibrant shine,
• Just enough pigmentation, not too intense since I wanted a day time lipstick,
• Long lasting.

As someone who is about to start her teacher training year, I was looking for a lipstick whose moisture would last long enough to get me through my lessons. Also, I was looking for something professional; not too bright and not too pigmented. Just a touch of colour for effortless beauty.

Now on to the review.
The lipstick ticks all the boxes except for the last one. It is perfectly shiny and I love the colour of it. It has a lovely white packaging that's both elegant and youthful. It's easy to apply and slides beautiful on your lips.
However, for the shine that it gives it is surprising that the moisture doesn't last very long. I find myself in need of reapplying it every hour or so, which is not great when you hardly have the time for touchups.
Overall, it is very nice product, but I probably won't be buying it again soon since it is quite expensive (£21) and probably doesn't last long if you're constantly reapplying it.

Tip: If you're buying online, don't be fooled by the colour of the lipstick. It looks very different on the lips!
Also, if you're like me and don't wear your lipstick without lipliner, try to pair this particular Shine Lover with No7's 'Rose' lipliner.

 I hope you enjoyed my first review. Make sure you check back for more reviews and impressions.