Review: The Body Shop Tea Tree Skin Clearing Foam Cleanser

Okay, I only tested this product once. And it's probably not the most accurate review, BUT. I have my reason for only testing it once. Here is a picture of the cleanser that I am reviewing:

I love recycled images, don't you? lol

So I tried this ONCE last week after work in the shower.

While I was in the shower, I just put one pump of the cleanser in the palm of my hand and started washing my face with it with my hands. The first thing I noticed was the smell. It has a very strong fragrance (I am not too familiar with the smell of tea tree oil but to me, I am not a big fan of the smell.)

I also noticed that it wasn't that great at lathering up. I did start to use a facial brush to further cleanse my skin and it did do a good job washing my foundation off, but the cleanser itself does not last long and deteriorated after a minute or two. I guess the one good thing about that is it is easy to wash off, but there really isn't much of the cleanser left once I am done scrubbing the foundation off my face.

My skin did feel clean afterwards, but I felt that the cleanser was too strong for my skin. My skin was not burning, but it did feel minty. I mean if I put toothpaste all over my face that's how it would feel. The feeling did not go away for a while and I did not notice a difference in the redness in my skin. The redness was the same. 

I felt like my skin did not react so well to the cleanser because it was still tingling after ten minutes past and was not calming down. The two zits that I have on my left cheek were pounding! The first thing I thought to do was put a face mask on to calm it down. I wore it for a good 30 minutes.

After taking the mask off, my face just did not feel right. It did not calm down and I could tell my skin just did not react well to the cleanser and The face mask did not help.

The next morning I noticed the two zits on my cheek doubled in size and was even more red.  They looked so angry! And my cheeks felt super sensitive for the rest of the day. (My cheeks are my most sensitive areas of my face.) I was upset that my skin did not take too well to the cleanser.

That night, I decided to go back to the Shiseido cleanser and see if it would make a difference. The next day the zits completely calmed down and shrunk in size! I was surprised and very relieved.

So in conclusion: I HATE THIS CLEANSER!!!! I was thinking that maybe my skin was reacting in that way because it was "purging". But honestly, I do not believe in that at all. Either my skin likes a certain product or it does not. I did not want to take a chance in using something for a couple weeks and then hoping that it would eventually clear up because my skin takes a long time to heal. So NO, THANK YOU! 

I was upset at the fact that the cleanser states that it is suitable for blemished skin and it supposedly is supposed to give you clearer looking skin. Oh well. I have heard great things about Tea Tree oil working for blemishes, but I guess it's not for me! Maybe it could just be this product. I will have to do more research.

Have any of you tried this product? Would you try this product? I feel like people with sensitive skin should steer away from this product at all costs. LOL! Maybe those of you with oily or normal skin could give this a shot though! I would not really recommend the foam form of this product though. There is a gel form of this face wash and I think it would work better at cleansing the skin. 

L'Oreal Magic Perfecting Base Review

I have been using the L'Oreal Face Primer for about a month now and thought it would be a good time to do a review on it! 

I happen to come across this in the clearance section in Wal'Mart one day and bought this for $5.00. Regular price is $7.99. Quite expensive in my opinion for the amount that you get.

Here's what it looks like. It's a little thick and creamy consistency. I use this on my eyelids and under my eyes. It feels like a silicone primer (I don't have the original package so I can't say for sure that it is silicone) I notice that when I apply it, it does mattify the skin and it feels very smooth.

I use this more often than any eyeshadow primer because it prevents my concealer and powder and eyeshadow from creasing and also prevents my eyelids from getting oily (on days when I'm not wearing any eyeshadow).

I would recommend this primer but as an eyeshadow primer because of the amount you get (and the price). It wouldn't last you very long if you tried using it all over your face. I feel like they should've labeled this as an eye primer instead if this was the amount they were giving you. It lasts me the entire day (I work eight hours a day so it's great!) without creasing or leaving my eyelids oily. And this primer also smooths out the skin and makes my eyeshadow and concealer look great!

Do any of you use this primer? What are your thoughts on it?

Revlon Age Defying Makeup Foundation Review and Routine

So I'm here to so a review on the Revlon Age Defying Makeup Foundation! I am in the shade 20 Tender Beige. (I don't know how they came up with the name of this shade, btw. How is it tender? lol Just a thought.)

Pictures were taken after about four hours of wear. I did not take any more pictures either because I washed my face after this.

Here is a swatch. It is definitely not a perfect match for me, but it was the closest shade I could get without venturing into the more pink shades. And honestly, it does not look bad on my face! It actually looks pretty good! I did blend it down to my neck and when I looked at my neck in natural lighting, I could not tell where the foundation ended and my bare skin started. So it seems to adjust well into my skintone.

Here are some other items that I wore with the foundation and I think this is the biggest reason why my makeup looked so well yesterday!

 I moisturized my face first with this MAC Studio Moisture Cream. I sat there and just worked the cream into my skin making sure it absorbed into my skin really well so that I wouldn't have any issues with dry flakes/dry skin throughout the day.

Afterwards, I put a light coat of this MAC Face Prep and Prime lotion on my face. After that was done, I sprayed my face with Urban Decay Vitamin B6 spray and let that dry and then continued with the application of the foundation!

I should've taken a picture of it, but I will just explain. I put three pumps of the foundation on the top of my H20 Moisturizer lid and put a small dab of the Lorac I'm So Sensitive Primer in the foundation and mix the two together until smooth. And then I wet my Beauty Blender Sponge and use that to apply my foundation. I took a picture of my sponge after I just completed putting on all my makeup (I also contoured my face so that is why it is so dark.) I wanted to show you guys how abused my poor beauty blender is. LOL I am still searching for a new one! I bought this one in TJ Maxx a long time ago and it is starting to get tears. Poor little guy. When I wash it, it actually looks bright yellow and much better. hahaha!

I used this CoverGirl Advanced Radiance Powder under my eyes, in the middle of my forehead and a little bit on my chin. Basically, I apply this on the areas that I highlight with a light shaded concealer. I just bought this on Thursday and am LOVING IT! ;) Maybe I should do a mini review on this later...

Here it is! I think this is in the color ivory.

That is what I used this part weekend to get my face looking so lovely! I was really enjoying my makeup yesterday!

I really enjoy the Revlon Age Defying Makeup Foundation because it does not dry out my skin and it has a very nice satin finish. I did not have any oily areas on my face, although my chin was a little bit shiny after application, but I just dabbed a little big of powder on my chin. I try not to dab my face with too much powder because I want to avoid any dry skin/flakes on my face!
Anyways, as far as coverage goes, I do like the coverage. I would say it is a light to medium coverage. It is build-able but you can not go up to full coverage with this foundation. I can still see my acne scars underneath the foundation but they aren't red, they just slightly show up but as dark spots. Not so bad though and I am not a full coverage person to begin with.
The foundation did end up making my skin look so flawless! What I mean is I did not see my pores getting accentuated and it smoothed out my skin. (I think part of the reason it looked so good would be because of the other products I used underneath, but I think this foundation works much better with the other skin products I used than the Revlon Photoready foundation. I say that because the Photoready foundation did not do a good job at preventing my skin from drying and getting dry flakes.)

I will have to update this review later once I have worn the foundation for a much longer time! I will be wearing the foundation for the rest of the week and will give my thoughts later!

But for now, Overall, I am loving this foundation! I like that it is dry skin friendly and I can not say how it is for oily skin but I do feel like people with oily skin may have to blot their face a couple times throughout the day with this foundation. I do like the color and the healthy glow that it gives my skin!

Please let me know if you have tried this foundation! What are your thoughts? Let me know if there is anything I may have missed mentioning and I will gladly answer any of your questions! :)

Revlon Photoready Foundation and Lorac I'm so Sensitive Primer Review

Hello! I'm combining two reviews in one post because I have used the two items together yesterday. First off I wanted to go over the Revlon Photoready Foundation.

Now, I have used this foundation before about a year ago and I did like it, but at the time I was trying out so many different foundations and simply forgot about this one. I decided to give this foundation a try again because I remember I did like it. I have the shade 004 Nude.

Here is a swatch. It is a little two pink for my skin, but if I go a shade up, it will be too light for me, and if I go a shade darker it will be too dark for me. I was still able to work with the foundation.

So this is what it looked like when I first applied it. The coverage is great! And I think it looks great in photos!

After a couple hours. I ate something so my lipstick wore off and I didn't bother reapplying because I was about to go wash my face anyways. haha! Look at the shiny-ness on my forehead! Honestly, I do not get oily from this foundation. The reason why I did get shiny is because I sprayed on some NYX dewy finish makeup setting spray on top. When I use a regular setting spray like ELF I don't have that issue.

So I wore the foundation for this entire past week and I was just not loving it like I thought I would! I would go into work a little pale faced because the foundation was not oxidizing quick enough to match my skin tone, and I was having issues with it looking patchy/cakey and it emphasizing my dry skin! I do use a moisturizer before and setting spray after applying my makeup and I did not have any issues last Monday (which is when I first tried this foundation as pictured above) but during the entire week the foundation was looking bad!

 So I did my research. I started looking up reviews and just looking for really good primers for dry skin. I had a feeling that I was just not using a good enough primer! I mean, it's strange to me though because on the weekends I just don't do anything different as far as my foundation routine goes, but it always looks so much better than on the weekdays! But anyways, So I did some research and then thought back to about a year ago because my skin looked so flawless last winter and I was thinking about what it was I was using on my skin. And this is what I ended up buying at Ulta:

I featured this in my last post. So I bought the Urban Decay b6 spray because that spray made my skin feel and look sooo good! I went through the entire bottle in like a month! And then I bought the Chill Makeup Setting Spray so that my skin would look smooth and flawless! When I was in Ulta, I was originally looking for this Palladio foundation primer, but the Ulta I went to did not have the brand, so I went straight to the Lorac area and picked up the Lorac I'm So Sensitive Primer.

That night, I was deciding how I was going to apply everything to get my foundation looking smooth and preventing my skin from looking patchy and dry. So this is what I did:

step1: Apply moisturizer. I use the H20 gel moisturizer
step 2: Then I sprayed a couple sprays of the UD B6 spray on my face and let it dry/set
step 3: I took a small amount of the Lorac Primer and put it all over my face and let that set. (side note: It has an unpleasant smell. It's not over bearing or anything like that, it just smells weird. It's not a lovely smell.)
step 4: I used L'Oreal Magic Perfecting Base on my eyelids and under eye area ( I have oily eyelids and need a primer on them so that when I powder them they don't crease.)
step 5: Applied my foundation. I usually apply my foundation with a brush, but this time I decided to use my sponge beauty blender instead to get a smooth finish
step 6: After doing my blush, bronzer and mascara I sprayed the UD Chill Setting spray.

So let me tell you...My face was ON POINT yesterday! My skin was sooo smooth and hydrated and I did not have any issues with shiny-ness! I was very pleased with the results!! I did powder just a little bit on my eyelids because like I said, my eyelids get oily...and around my mouth to prevent the foundation from creasing when I smile and on my chin.

It looked GOOD! I would HIGHLY recommend the Lorac Primer AND the UD setting sprays. Honestly, the UD sprays were the first setting sprays I have ever used, but they are expensive, so I switched to ELF And NYX setting sprays to save money, but this entire time I have been using them, they haven't been helping my foundation stay looking good this winter! I am thinking of sticking with the UD settying sprays during the winter when my skin really needs it and then in the summer using the drugstore ones. hmm.

Revlon Photoready Foundation: LOVE the foundation because it is full coverage, easy to blend, and it looks great in photos. I do have issues with it while I am in uniform because my face does look lighter than my neck, but I think that is just an issue that I can't resolve because I can't blend the foundation down to my neck in uniform because it rubs off onto my shirt.

Lorac Primer: do not love the smell at all! But it is cooling and refreshing when I first applied it and it made my foundation look soo good! Hid my pores pretty well. I was having issues with my pores being emphasized with the previous primer I was using. This one does the job and I don't have issues with patchy/dry/cakey looking skin!

I think all the products I used work really well together and I just love the end result! I don't have to worry about my face falling apart throughout the day and looking disgusting anymore! :)

What are your thoughts on ANY of the products I have mentioned above? Also, what primers, foundations, and setting sprays do you use and would recommend? Please let me know! I would love to know what you think!

L'Oreal Visible Lift Foundation (with the pump) Review

Hello! I have another review before I go to sleep! I tried this L'Oreal Visible Lift foundation yesterday! 

I did not take my own picture so here is an image of it I took from bing images:

I bought the color 144 Light Ivory, only because they did not have a good selection of colors in the BX. :'( I was like "well, close enough..."

Here is what it looked like on my face with flash! I did like how it looked in pictures! In person, it did not look good at all! My pores were so noticeable and I did add powder on top, but I always do, and the foundation on my nose looked splochy and around the front of my face it looked cakey. ugh!

 

Face at the end of the day. A little shiny, but I would say that it isn't the foundations fault, it is the NYX Dewy Finish Makeup Setting Spray that I am using. oopsies! As you can see, half of my face is white, and the other isn't! Guess the foundation does leave a white cast, but how odd that it is only a piece of my face.

As you can see, it did it again in this image. Guess it is only on a section of my face because that part of my face is facing the camera more directly. 

Anyways, I did not love this foundation. The color was a little off, but that is not the reason I did not like it, I could've went somewhere else to get a better matching shade, you know? No biggie...but it just looked so horrible in person! It was cakey and splotchy on my nose and front of my face! It did cover up okay, but faded a bit through out the day. It is a light to medium coverage in my opinion...it's alright. I wasn't loving it so I returned this one as well.

Almay Truly Lasting Color Foundation Review

Good Evening! I wanted to do a post before I went to bed! Here we go!

This review is on the Almay TLC Foundation. I picked it up in the BX for $12.49. A little pricey, right?!

I got the foundation in the color 140 Buff. It was the only color they had that was NOT pink. And I assumed that since I have lightened up a lot that it was my color! So when I got home, I did a swatch test on my arm as depicted below:

It is had to tell, but it is a little off center, it is more to the right, and it is shiny. It matched me perfectly! It did oxidize a bit and I tested it on my arm as well as my neck! I did it three times and it matched perfectly! I was so pleased! But then, when I actually wore it, this is what happened:

My face is like, WUT THE....

This is after about 15-20 minutes. I had no choice but to take the picture in flash because I was already in the car about to leave for work and it was still dark, aha. STILL TOO LIGHT!!! GRR!!

This is what it ended up looking like around lunch time. It did oxidize more, but it was still not a perfect match! 

Little light still. I would say that it did look a lot lighter in person. And I just did not like the product! I did not like how it looked on my face. 

It is a light foundation, I had to layer upon layer just to cover up my acne and acne scars. It took way too much time! And it was not my color in the end! grr! I returned it in the end. I did not really see it fading throughout the day and it did stay on for a really long time! That part I did like but the color was a no-no for me, LOL. I did not have any issues with it drying up my skin (which is a major factor for me, because I have very dry skin in the winter with lots of flaky skin). This foundation holds up alright, but overall, I was not impressed with it. I thought it was also a little too expensive as well!

The BIGGEST downfall for this foundation is the fact that it also made me breakout. Normally, even though I have sensitive skin, I do not break out from foundations. But I noticed every day that I wore this one, I broke out. 

What are your thoughts on this foundation if you have tried it?