MAC Blush - Gingerly

MAC Sheertone Blush in 'Gingerly' - £18

Unlike a majority of the beauty blogging community, I only own a small handful of MAC products. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why, as I find their range really amazing but it's never attracted me like a new Benefit or Bobbi Brown launch has.

Over a year ago I bought this Sheertone Blush in 'Gingerly', which is described as a 'capri bronze'. It's definitely very warm-toned and has a lovely matte texture. I can see why this shade would be too dark for some, but I would say that I have fairly pale skin and I can make it work. 

The issue is (and I never thought that I would complain about this) that it is almost too pigmented, which means application isn't always so easy to blend. It's definitely very easy to pick up too much product on your brush and then from there, there's no going back! You either have to put some foundation on top or wipe it off (I opt for the latter rather than risking the possibility of looking cakey with the former). 

I'm pretty impressed with the quality of this MAC blush but I'm not completely smitten and it's not one that I find myself reaching for on a daily basis, due to the effort I have to put into application. I'll continue to use it, especially as it's a lovely autumnal shade, however it won't stop me from trying out blushes from other brands too!

Summer Favourites

While 'Summer favourites' posts aren't very common, I decided to write one simply due to the fact that this summer I've not had enough time to do my monthly favourites. It just so happens that at the end of both June and July I was away and couldn't write up the posts/take the photos so I'm making up for it with a huge favourites now! For some reason I completely forgot to photograph my lip favourites of the summer but believe me when I say their absence in the picture in no way lessens my love for them! 

Max Factor CC Sticks

Max Factor CC Sticks in 'Green' and 'Yellow' - £9.99

For me lately my base makeup has been less about concealing by using just flesh coloured foundation and concealer but more about correction. It may seem like a strange concept to use green and yellow coloured things on my face but I promise that with enough blending you wouldn't have been able to tell I had anything on my face - although you might be wondering where my under eye circles/redness has gone…

Enter the Max Factor CC Sticks. After I got over the initial shock of seeing a stand of purple, green and yellow sticks I then decided what concerns I wanted to address - Green for redness, particularly around my nose, as well as Yellow, to correct under eye circles. 

I apply these pre-foundation onto my bare skin and I must admit, it's a little scary at first to see green and yellow streaks on my face. The consistency of the sticks is quite thick which means the preferred application method is to apply a bit then blend - for reference I prefer to use a mixture of my fingers and the Real Techniques Setting Brush - then apply a bit more and blend again, until I've reach the desired level of correction.

Out of the two the green's colour is a lot more prominent and takes some more work to blend into the skin seamlessly and make sure that it's all gone. Without the extra blending I find that my skin can be tinged slightly green so that's definitely something to bear in mind. For that reason I'm more reluctant to use the green stick unless I have time to get ready, it's not really a product to use when you're low on time.

On the other hand the yellow stick is really great on no makeup days where all I want is to get rid of my dark circles. Again it takes a bit of effort to blend it but it's not as obvious as the green stick, since the yellow tinge give it a lovely brightened look. It doesn't crease under my eyes unless I'm heavy handed with the application (which isn't hard to do, given its thick texture).

Overall I'm pretty impressed with the Max Factor CC Sticks however I'd consider them to be pretty pricey, at just under a tenner. If you really wanted to try them I'd recommend the shade Yellow the most but if redness is a problem then Green would probably be the way forward. If you're lucky you might catch them on a 3 for 2 offer and stock up on some other favourites while you're at it!