disappointing products :(

Now before I get comments like "but you use this product all the time!" or anything like that, this post is called DISAPPOINTING products. I use all of these really often, however they either don't live up to the hype, or just aren't what they used to be, sadly!

The Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Body Milk is something we heard a lot about over Christmas. This was many people's "holy grail" skin care product. The scent is just to die for, so sweet and lovely - so definitely not for those of you who don't appreciate sweet, kind of artificial scents - but for me, it didn't do much on the hydrating side. I feel a little greasy afterwards but it quickly soaks in and leaves me soft for around 12 hours, then I want to apply it again, which is not something I imagined to feel after all the rave reviews!

Now this is a product I'm super disappointed in, I don't even know why I bought it. It's the 2000 Calorie Waterproof Mascara by MaxFactor. How could this mascara ever be very volumising when the brush is SO small?! It's tiny. It makes my eyelashes look ridiculous, spidery, gave no volume or length whatsoever. It just look awful. I've started to use this on my bottom lashes just to use it up to be honest!

Benefit's They're Real Mascara  is an award winning, cult product. But of course you all already know that. It's good, I wear it, it's nice and does what it says, but it doesn't blow my mind. For me, it's nothing I can rave too much about, it's lengthens and gives nice volume, but if I apply it onto bare lashes it makes them go all sparse and crappy, so I must use another mascara as a base. This is something I'll definitely use, especially when it comes to travel make up, but I doubt I'll repurchase it, it's blooody expensive!

This has been my every day, go to foundation since I started this blog, so for what, six months? But lately my MaxFactor Face Finity Foundation has been pretttyy bad lately. It's just not blending into my skin anymore. It'll kind of, roll up.. That sounds so gross but seriously, it'll roll up and come off my skin. NICE. None of my brushes are working with it either, nor does it apply well with my fingers, I dunno. The colour has randomly gone quite dark too, eurgh. On the hunt for another nice foundation.

Illamasqua Illuminator in Slay, which has recently been recontinued, is a product I'm really trying to love. I did a review here, and you can tell how desperate I am to like it, but I cannot deal with the dryness anymore. Ten seconds left on your skin, it dries and you will not get rid of that mark. It can drag my make up off and ruin eeeverything. I use this still, I love the colour and effect, when it decides to be nice so!

And finally the POREfessional Primer from Benefit is another cult product, and another I didn't used to get along with, but am finally finding myself liking more. I don't know what I dislike, I'm just not mad over it! It's not exactly drying, but it does dry up a bit, and feel bitty sometimes. I really can't pinpoint what I don't like, I guess it just wasn't worth the hype for me!

So this was a loooong post! Sorry about that, guys!

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illamasqua highlighter in 'slay'

I'd never used a highlighter, but I was actively looking for an affordable one to try out when I came across Illamasqua's Illuminator in Slay (this product has now been discontinued). This is a silver, pearly, shimmer which applies wet, but dries quickly. Very quickly. That's a massive flaw in this product.

When doing my highlighter, I like to make sure I'm applying it in exactly the same place on each side but I'm unable to do it with this product, you have to blend it as soon as you've applied it otherwise it dries and when you try to blend it goes patchy and pulls up your foundation - disaster.

On the Illamasqua website, their 'Artist Tips' suggests that you apply this/blend this with a blending/highlighter  brush. This also didn't work for me, again it dried up and pulled my foundation. I much prefer to apply this product in small sections and press or dab it onto my cheekbones. I find this gives a much more natural sheen as you can control easier how much you apply and you're not pulling it along your skin so it won't pull off. I do find though if it does dry, if you lightly dampen your finger you can just work with it a little more to blend, but not much. In the swatch above, I didn't blend as much as I usually do so you could see the pearly colour more, but usually blended well it looks really natural and has a lovely sheen to it.

I love applying this on my cheekbones to highlight, in the corner of my eyes to make them pop, on my cupids bow when wearing lipstick to make it stand out more and a little bit down the centre of my nose to create a thinner appearance.
If I do find the shimmer is a bit too much, applying a little powder settles it down a bit, but it carries on highlighting really nicely.

Another little grumble with the product is the packaging. If you're opening and closing it so much (which you have too when applying it in small amounts) the product comes up the top when you're closing it, if that makes sense, and when it's fully closed you have product coming out the sides which is a huge waste. I've only used the about 6-7 times and you can see how much product is dried around the top. It's really annoying!
I'll be showing this product in a What I'm Wearing post soon, so keep an eye out!

What's your favourite highlighter? Since this has been discontinued I'm looking for more!