Travel Makeup

Good Day Everyone,

With our Japan trip just days away I thought I'd share the makeup I plan to take with me. We will be going for 11 days and the climate in Japan is going to be much cooler than we are used to in Singapore. This means I can wear makeup to my heart's content without the fear of it melting of my face :o). When traveling, I often take makeup that I want to either use up or to try out, and definitely makeup which has travel friendly packaging and is light weight. I don't tend to take very many makeup brushes with me at all as I'm quite happy using my fingers. I will leave hyperlinks to any of the products that I've done blog posts on in the past for you :o) So without further a do let's get stuck in, shall we?

Starting with my base, I never take any of my foundations that are in glass bottles like my Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation because I'm always scared of the bottle smashing in my luggage. I will always decant the foundation into a sample jar. On this trip though I'll be taking my Stila Perfect & Correct foundation because the packaging is very lightweight, arthritic fingers friendly so easy to open and the mousse consistency means I can apply it with my fingers. I'm also taking the Stila One Step Correct and the One Step Illuminate as I'm wanting to use these up given that there's less than half left in each bottle. Most of my face makeup tends to be liquid / cream / mousse textures as I have dry skin and like the dewiness of such products. I love the Stila One Step Illuminate in particular as it just gives my skin a beautiful sheen without any obvious shimmer or sparkle. I have a rather bulky powder compact from The Body Shop which has a mirror and I use this primarily to set my concealer and sometimes over my T-zone when I've initially applied my makeup. I never take this out in my handbag because of its size, and also, I rarely need to powder my skin throughout the day because I don't get oily easily, especially in cooler climates.

For cheeks, I've covered all bases with a soft pink in the form of Stila's Color Convertible in the shade Gerbera. This is one of my all time favourite cheek colours as it's just a very natural pink that suits my skin tone perfectly. I love the Color Convertibles as they are lightweight, compact, snap shut and very easy to travel with. I'll also be taking the colour Gladiola from the same range and this is not as orangey as it looks. Finally for cheeks, I have a more rosy deep pink with an ever so subtle brown undertone to it that is by the Boots brand No7 and is a Blush Tint in the shade 10 Clove. This isn't as dark or intense as it looks in the photo. I apply all of these with my Real Techniques Stippling brush which is the best way for a seamless and diffused application of cream products, in my experience.

For eyes, I'll be taking my Urban Decay Naked palette simply because I've not used this in quite a while and out of my three UD Naked palettes I feel this original one is the one with the most colours that sort of go together to create a complete eye look. I'll be taking the double ended brush that came with the Naked 2 palette along with an Ecotools angle brush that I tend to use when I want to create a more defined outer 'v' or if I want to use eye shadow as a liner. I tend to save a lot of my sample size products for traveling and so I have the UD Primer Potion that came with this palette. For the rest of my eyes, I'll have my MAC Prep+Prime eye base, my Dior waterproof crayon eyeliner in Trinidad Black, my Shu Uemura eyelash curlers, a Boots No7 black mascara and my MAC Select Moisturecover concealer which I feel is a shade to dark for now but I want to finish it up before buying another one. Some days I will sheer this out on to my cheeks and wear the Stila One Step Illuminate and skip foundation altogether.

For lips, I'll be taking my favourite Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters in Candy Apple Red, as well as Macaroon (a raspberry pink), a Sephora lip crayon come chubby stick in a sheer coral colour that's quite glossy (it's not as orange as it looks), a Sephora Nano lip liner in the colour 02 Cute Caramel which is a very good nude on me, and the Urban Decay Lip Junkie gloss that came with the Naked 2 palette. I'll also have my Dior Addict Lip Glow which will go in my handbag because I imagine the  the plane air and colder weather will be quite drying on my lips.

Finally, in this particular toiletries case I will also be taking the Garnier Roll-on as I'm expecting to suffer from puffy under eyes given that we will most probably be having early starts and late nights, trying to fit in all of the sights, plus I love the cooling effect this has on my eyes. Last but not least, is the smallest sized perfume I have which was a birthday present from a dear friend who's coming to visit us in May all the way from France- yipeee! This is by a company called Fragonard and the scent is Belle Cherie which is a floral fruity fragrance that isn't too heavy and therefore daytime appropriate. I will also have my Sephora atomizer in my handbag which has my signature evening scent, Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel.

I pack my makeup in a toiletries case that I picked up in Chinatown last year. I pop my stippling brush and angle brush in the outside zip pocket and everything else goes into the main compartment. As you can see, the case isn't too stuffed and so it zips up nice and easily with a bit of room to spare ;o)

 Love Sheen xxx

Stila Perfect & Correct Foundation

Good Day Everyone,

I picked up this Stila Perfect & Correct Foundation during my recent ‘Stila splurge’ and have been trying it out for a while and I have to say I’m impressed. A year ago I hadn't even heard of Stila but I’m fast becoming a fan of their products.

Now before I get stuck in let me just say that this is not a full coverage foundation so if that’s the kind of look you go for then I’m afraid it’s not for you. I tend to prefer light to medium coverage but more importantly I like foundations that feel light weight on my skin, rather than heavy and mask like. This foundation has a mousse like consistency and feels incredibly light, so much so that I don’t actually feel like I’m wearing foundation. I find that half a pump is all I need to do my entire face (minus my forehead as I don’t need foundation there. I’m a great believer in only applying foundation where I need it rather than covering my entire face with it). 

If I’m in a rush then I tend to apply this with my fingers, but my preferred method is to stipple it onto my face and then swirl and buff it into my skin using my Real Techniques stippling brush (review) as this creates a very flawless finish. I only apply one layer of the foundation as I find that to be sufficient to even out my skin tone and to reduce the appearance of my dark circles which I then further cover up with a concealer. This foundation can be built up to medium coverage, however, I’d recommend leaving a minute or so in between each layer so that your skin and the foundation have time to adjust to each other and you can see the coverage you're getting as you apply each layer.

On me, this foundation lasts a good 6-8 hours and wears of evenly throughout the day without looking patchy or uneven. In terms of finish, this is neither a matte foundation nor does is it look particularly dewy, like my Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation. I find it leaves my skin looking very natural with a subtle glow. I don’t always tend to powder after I've used this foundation as it’s not dewy or oily looking but sometimes I do dust a little powder on and around my nose if it’s looking a bit oily. I quite like to use this foundation mixed in with my Stila One Step Illuminate (review) as I find this gives more of a ‘glowing from within’ look due to the micro shimmer in the illuminator, making my skin look more luminous and healthy.

I have normal to dry skin and I find this foundation to be very hydrating and it doesn't emphasise any dry areas. The foundation is suspended in a clear serum along with a white swirl containing the built in moisturising primer, however, I do still moisturise my skin before using this as my skin is quite dry but I don't use a separate primer. This clear serum contains Stila's youth revival bio-available mineral complex^TM and the product also contains potent antioxidants as well as skin soothing chamomile. In simple terms, this product seems to provide a lot of nourishing benefits for the skin. According to Stila all this helps to;

• Diminish the look of fine lines and wrinkles
• Minimize pores
• Hydrate and balance
• Control oil

I can't yet comment on the first point but I'd certainly agree with the bottom three points. My skin has always been very happy and appreciative whenever I apply this foundation. Even at the end of the day my skin still feels hydrated which, for a dry skin suffer like me, is great news :o)

I absolutely love the packaging. The foundation comes in a plastic bottle with a pump that's easy to keep clean and the lid comes of easily which is great for my arthritic fingers :o) I've dropped this bottle on tiled and wooden floors and it hasn't even cracked and so I tend to take this foundation with me when travelling! Love robust packaging! One of the things I love the most about the packaging is that there appears to be no product wastage as there is a platform devise (I think it’s called an airless pump but don’t quote me on that) that pushes the product up from the bottom and sides of the bottle as I use up the foundation. You can see from the pictures that I’m about half way through this bottle and there is no foundation stuck to the sides and the bottom of the bottle. Also as the bottle is clear I can see exactly how much product I have left before it runs out. One of my frustrations with some foundations (I’m looking at you my Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation) is not being able to tell how much product I have left and the pump not pumping out all of the product at the bottom of the bottle leading to product wastage and wasted pennies!

The only drawback to this product is that there are only eight shades in the range so don’t you all go expecting to find the perfect shade match! I fall in between Tone and Medium but didn't fancy buying two foundations that I would then mix to create my own custom shade and so I bought the slightly darker shade, Medium. I opted for the darker shade because the foundation can be sheered out and it does seem to colour adapt a little (I think). The end result is that I have a healthy sun kissed colour to my face. If ever I fall in between two shade colours then I will always opt for the slightly darker colour rather than lighter as I always worry that the lighter colour could make me look a bit ‘grey’ and ‘ashy’, whereas a slightly darker colour will make me look more sun-kissed and bronzed.

The foundation costs £28.50 in the UK and you get the standard 30ml (1 fl. oz).

Have you tried this foundation? What was your experience? Which is your favourite foundation?

Love Sheen xxx

My verdict: 5/5
For the UK: http://stila.co.uk/
For the US: http://www.stilacosmetics.com/
For Singapore you can find this product at Sephora

(Note: I purchased this product with my own money)