Laura Mercier Radiance Primer

Yep, you read right, Laura Mercier again. Me and this gal are having a little love affair and boy am I infatuated. The foundation primer in Radiance is no exception.

Whenever I'm looking for a real glow for my base, which is pretty much an every day occurance, this is the product I reach straight for. A pea sized amount covers my face and gives it that 'lit from within' glow that everyone is dying to achieve, especially now summer is on its way! You can see perfectly from the swatch above just how much of a sheen factor this has and that shimmer is shown a different route, you won't be getting the Twilight shine from this product. I always use this with my Silk Creme foundation (review soon!) and even though it has quite a full coverage, it doesn't stop the glow coming through.

So you're probably thinking "it makes you glow, we get it, but does it make your make up last?". Yes. It really maximizes how long my make up lasts for. I applied this at 9:30am and when it came to removing my make up at midnight (after waiting in the pouring rain for an hour and going to a gig) it was still firmly in place and I was still glowing with a healthy looking complexion.

If you're not a fan of an entire face of glow, this would be perfect to just apply on your cheekbones, down your nose and on your cupids bow so you can miss out the highlighter step and still with a really natural look.
Even my boyfriend commented on how "nice my face looks like that" which is quite a biggy coming from him!

If you're a little unsure about this, DEFINITELY go check it out at your nearest Laura Mercier counter - you will NOT regret it!

Have you tried this, or are you tempted?! Let me know!

You can find Hayley Loves on BLOGLOVIN' and TWITTER

Makeup Academy Undress Your Skin Flawless Skin Primer

I'd recently ran out of my primers, and was stuck in a bit of a rut. I find high street primers to be really expensive, and for something that I'm not entirely sure works, it goes through me paying for it. But I feel like I've missed a step when I don't wear it.

I popped into my local Superdrug and Boots, and this was probably the cheapest, but nicest primer that I came across.
It cost me £5 which is definitely one of the most expensive items from the MUA range, but since it's newly released I'd imagine the price will come down gradually.

MUA Undress Your Skin Flawless Skin Primer is really, really nice. It reminds me of the Benefit PoreFessional primer in that it's really velvety and clears any oil away leaving a really smooth, matte and clear canvas for the rest of your face products and you barely use any of it, just half a pump is enough for me. The only obvious difference is the colour as this is a clear formula. I've heard quite a few bloggers dislike it as you can't see where you've applied the product, but I have no problem with this at all, you can quite clearly feel where you've applied it! Even though it removes any excess oil, it's not drying at all.

Lately I've had a few problems with my foundations and such as it just looked awful. No matter how I applied it or what I used or how I prepared my face, my makeup just seemed to sit and look cakey. When I wore this I didn't have a problem at all. I found myself using less foundation and and it left a really nice finish. It claims to be radiating, however I've not really noticed much of a difference with this, but I'm not too fussed about this, it's not the reason I got it.

What are your opinions? Have you tried the foundation? I was super curious about it!

benefit 'how to look the best at everything' and POREfessional review

This holy bible like flawless complexion kit contains some of Benefit's most popular, cult products such as POREfessional and Hello Flawless foundation. The kit also contains the boi-ing concealer which comes in two shades, and the Hello Flawless powder. I picked up the 'light' shade, it also comes in medium and deep. I'm planning on doing a full review on the foundation and the concealer, so for now I'll tell you my views on POREfessional.

POREfessional is a balm which aims to reduce the look of your pores. It comes out a slightly beige colour. As soon as you apply this, it feels so velvety and smooth, it really does feel amazing. I was really disappointed about it though. For me, my pores looked exactly the same, no reduction, no cover up, no nothing. I do think this is really good as a primer though. It creates a smooth, even base for your foundation to go over. I don't use a moisturiser when I'm using this, I'll just use a toner and then apply this. I find it's already quite hydrating, if I had moisturiser, then this, then foundation I don't think it'd stick as well, if that makes sense! I feel it'd be difficult for the foundation to settle.

Back to the kit! The samples are quite small, but for £24.50, what can you expect? I love the size of the concealer though and the fact you can take them out and pop them in your bag is a plus. I do wish you could take the powder out though, or even that it had a lid on it. All you get is a plastic cover that isn't stuck to the box so it slides out all the time, but with the tips and tricks "book" on the top, sometimes the page opens and it gets the powder which is annoying. The tips and tricks book is great though, especially for people just starting out doing makeup seriously. You can open both sides to reveal a mirror and there's 5 pieces of advice. I absolutely love that, I think it's such a good addition to it.

Overall I'm completely impressed with this product. Find a link to it here and have a look for yourself!

clarins beauty flash balm

Clarins Beauty Flash Balm is one of their most popular products. I know of many beauty bloggers who absolutely rave about this product, but then I know of people that can't find many words to say about it. I'm kind of in between.
This claims to brighten, moisturise, smooth the skins surface, restore a youthful glow and much more. I think it over-exceeded it's own expectations. It's very good at moisturising and smoothing, it gives a slight glow, but not too much. I think it's main property that it doesn't claim to do, but I think is very good at, is making my make up last all day. I guess it seems more like a primer than anything else.

I really enjoy the consistency, it's quite thick which is nice, it smells lovely. It retails at £28 which is absolutely craaaazy, I would never, ever purchase it. I managed to get this in their radiance kit, I received four travel sized products for £15.

I'm just not overly impressed. It's great at keeping make up on, but in no way is it worth £28. I'm sure one day I'll come across another primer that does the same job for half the price. I'd probably rate it 5/10, but it really is a product you need to try yourself.
So I'm sorry for not doing a particularly positive review!

Take care everyone!

my current make up and beauty faves!

Rimmel Match Perfection Fix and Perfect Pro Primer

Soap and Glory Clear Hear Deep Pore Purifying T-Zone Cleansing Wipes

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer

Barry M Pink Silver Glitter Nail Paint

Primer: 

This looks and applies much like a moisturizer. It's white, fairly think but when rubbing it in it feels so, so silky and smooth, it feels gorgeous. It claims to 'smooth, resurface, brighten, mattify (is that even a word?) and protect'. It's definitely hyping itself up, because I definitely do not receive those results, however it creates a brilliant base for my foundation, it smooths and makes my foundation last longer. Although this is down as one of my favourites, I think I would buy MUA's as a cheaper alternative and I think it does a pretty similar job. 

Cleansing Wipes:

These wipes are the first Soap and Glory products I've ever used and now I want to buy more and more! You can really feel these wipes getting to work with a deep tingling feeling and strong tea-tree smell. I only get an oily nose, but occasionally I'll get a bit of an oily forehead and chin. I wiped it over with these once and it instantly dried out my skin, so please, only get these if you're really oily! They claim to pore-shrink. I can't say there's been a massive improvement of the look of my pores, but I guess if there's less oil, they're doing something good! At £4.50 for 25 wipes I do think this is a pretty good product. 

Concealer: 

If you keep up with my blog, you'll notice I had this on my wishlist (which you can find here). When Boots had a massive advantage card event on, I decided it wouldn't hurt to buy this as it doesn't exactly break the bank! I use this under my eyes and I suffer from dark circles and the coverage is amazing. I use a brush to blend it in in the corners of my eyes as well as underneath and it instantly brightens me up and eliminates any blemishes. I cannot recommend this enough.

Nail Varnish:

As everyone is aware, there's a huge glitter varnish hype, ranging from large disco glitter bits to small, shimmery, festive glitter. I'm not sure I really like it, it doesn't really suit me so much, sadly. If I'm being honest, light shades don't exactly suit me either. But I've had this in my box for a while and got it out today and realised just how pretty it is and I had to apply it. To my surprise it actually looked good. There's not exactly a colour too it, it's just a clear varnish filled with lots and lots of fine pieces of glitter. It's gorgeous to brighten up a dark outfit.

Do you have any current favourites? I'd love to hear, I'm always on the look out! 

Comment below with your opinions and links.

Take care!