Review: Make Up For Ever HD Blush

I love Make Up For Ever's foundations, but until now, that was the only product that I ever used from them. About a year ago now, they came out with their HD Microfinish Cream blushes.They are described on the Sephora website as "A cream blush that naturally sculpts and highlights the cheeks for a healthy glow. HD Microfinish Blush combines mattifying and reflecting powders to create a soft-focus effect for a radiant complexion. Its ultra-fine, second-skin texture blends seamlessly, imparting a healthy glow that's hard not to notice." They are also long-lasting, dermatologist tested and paraben free. They come in 14 shades on the Sephora website, I know there are more shades available however.

Review: Make Up For Ever HD Foundation

Make Up For Ever's HD foundation is quite possibly the most hyped up foundation ever, people love this foundation. It came out ages ago, just in time when the whole High Definition TV stuff was getting really popular. And it makes perfect sense that people would love this, it is supposed to act as an "invisible cover" foundation, designed for television stars (no SPF in this) to blur their imperfections and make their complexion look flawless. Sephora describes it as "An oil-free medium-to-full-coverage liquid foundation that covers skin imperfections flawlessly while remaining invisible on-screen and in real life. This foundation creates a soft-focus effect, which is designed to meet the coverage concerns of those in the spotlight. It leaves your complexion with such a flawless finish, it can withstand bright or harsh lighting." Sounds like the perfect foundation, so did I love it? Keep reading to find out.

Review: Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet +

Over Christmas, I went a bit crazy and bought all three of the Make Up For Ever liquid foundations. I heard great things about them and because I am greedy and foundation obsessed, I bought all three (not at the same time mind you). I have reviewed the MUFE Face and Body previously and loved it, and today I will review the Mat Velvet + foundation. This foundation is liked by many people, however more for those with oily skin. I have dry skin and kept hearing warnings not to get this, but I am curious person and I had to try it out for myself. The girls at Sephora were not recommending this on my skin either. If you have dry skin you should opt for foundations that offer a dewy finish, have light-reflecting properties and are gentle and light on the skin. So are the claims true that this is not really for those with dry skin?

♥ Best of 2010 ♥

Now that 2010 has come and gone and 2011 is here, it's time to reflect on what products did the job well in 2010. Here is my list of favourite products of last year. I've tried to incorporate as much as possible products that came out in 2010, but in the mix got products that just worked for me too, regardless of when they came out.

Best Foundation

NARS Sheer Glow

MAC Pro Longwear

MUFE Face and Body

Maybelline Dream Smooth Mousse

Best Concealer

Revlon Age Defying Creme

Benefit Erase Paste

Bobbi Brown Corrector (Light Bisque)

Best Lipgloss

Revlon Super Lustrous Lilac Pastelle, Pink Pop and Peach Petal

Best Lipstick

Revlon Soft Nude

MAC Jazzed

MAC Viva Glam Gaga

MAC Blooming Lovely

Best Blush

MAC Stereo Rose

MAC Peaches

Benefit Coralista

NYC Blushable Creme Stick in Plaza Pink

Best Eyeshadow

NYX Champagne and Caviar

MAC Naked Lunch, Sable and All That Glitters

Best Bronzer

Physicians Formila Bronze Booster (Light/Med)

MAC Golden

Best Powder

Revlon Colorstay Pressed Powder

Almay Wake Up Hydrating Makeup

MAC Mineralized Skinfinish Natural (Light)

Best Highlighter

Hard Candy Honeymoon

MAC By Candlelight

Best Mascara

Maybelline Lash Stiletto Voluptuous

Loreal Million Lashes

Cover Girl Lash Blast Fusion

Revlon Grow Luscious

Best Eye Primer

Urban Decay Primer Potion (Pro Size)

Best Skincare

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser

Clean and Clear Dual Action Moisturizer

The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost

Best Fixers

Neutrogena Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover

MAC Fix+ Rose

MAC Prep and Prime Skin

Best Perfume

Thierry Mugler Womanity

Givenchy Hot Couture

Best Nail Polish

OPI Suzy Says Feng Shui

OPI Jade is the New Black

American Apparel Malibu Green

Best Brush

ELF Studio Powder Brush

Sigma F80 Flat Top Synthetic 

Sigma E25 Mini

Sigma F25

What were your favourites of 2010?

Christmas Beauty Haul

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! I've been pretty busy lately, we spent Christmas Eve with my family (Europeans celebrate on the 24th) and Christmas Day at my boyfriend's family. I also had relatives up from Illinois so we spent a couple of days with them as well. And we still have Christmas dinner with my boyfriend's family tomorrow. Didn't do much Boxing Day shopping this year, decided to sleep in and relax instead. I am the beauty person in the family, everyone knows each year that I'd love to get makeup most of all and they came through. The above pic shows the goodies that I got this year.

Laura Mercier Silk Creme Foundation: My first Laura Mercier product ever, I heard this is great for dry skin and it was definitely on my wishlist. It's full coverage and hydrates nicely.

Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet +: I picked this up before Christmas technically but it was with a gift card for Sephora so I've included it here. Despite hearing this wasn't for dry skin, I think I prefer this to the HD since the coverage is better.

Bobbi Brown Corrector Light Bisque: Got this with a Holt Renfrew gift card. I asked the sales person if they give samples to try it out first and she looked at me like I was insane, since it's so small no they do not. So whatever, since I don't normally shop at Holts I picked it up anyway and it's great, may be the best undereye concealer ever since it corrects instead of just covering, very creamy too.

Sonia Kashuk brushes: Every time I am in the US, I always hit up Target and get some of these cause we don't have them in Canada (we really should!). I asked my cousin to get some for me, even gave them links to specific ones. I got the Synthetic Multi-Purpose brush, eyeshadow brush, dome shaped crease brush (love this the most) and one of the regular line eyeshadow brushes too. I love the handles on these, so cute.

Urban Decay Primer Potion Professional Size: Thank the lord they came out with this in a professional size, much more user friendly. However, I do find the product really hard to get out since it's thick you have to really squeeze the container. This will last me forever since I had the original UDPP for two years.

I will do full reviews on all these products once I use them up more.

Now for some Christmas shopping pictures. Here is the Toronto Eaton Centre, they had a giant Christmas tree in the centre of the mall, it turned. Also that is snow that you see falling from the ceiling there, not real snow of course but a short of soapy stuff that fell from the ceiling, it was really cool!

They also had a Ferrero Rocher tree. We lined up for like 15 minutes to get a free chocolate. If you can see in the bottom left corner they had a smaller tree, you'd take a chocolate off the tree, open it up and depending on what colour ball you had on the inside you could win money or gift cards, or at least a free chocolate. We got the free chocolate.

The top 4 pictures are of The Bay Christmas window displays, the pictures do not do justice to how cool these are, there are moving parts and they are so elaborate. One of the nice things of living in Toronto is finally being able to see this.

And here is how busy the Eaton Centre was on the 23rd.. people everywhere! I do not miss this at all. :)

Did you do much Christmas shopping this year? Or boxing week shopping? Did you get some nice beauty items in your stocking this year?

Review: Make Up For Ever Face and Body Foundation

If you are looking for a foundation that looks like a second skin, undetectable and gives sheer-light coverage, Make Up For Ever (MUFE) Face and Body will be the foundation for you. This retails for $42CAD ($38US) at Sephora, I bought it recently during the $15 and $20 Sephora coupons offer. This foundation is described as "liquid makeup combines an ultra lightweight formula with seamless coverage. The unique gel formula comprised of more than 75% water delivers a natural result suitable for all skin types. It gives the skin a uniform tone and leaves a satin finish. Easy to apply and water resistant, this is a also a perfect formula for the body." I love this foundation, it feels like nothing on, however I would only recommend it to those with decent skin because this won't cover anything really, it just gives colour and evens out, but it does give my skin a radiance I really enjoy.

Sephora MUFE Haul and New Almay Hydrating Makeup

I went Sephora shopping over the past two days and picked up some Makeup Forever, along with some other items. During trip #1 I got the HD foundation and Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I wanted to try the MUFE HD foundation for the longest time and finally got it in the shade 117. Then trip #2 I returned the Too Faced Shadow Insurance because it was a watery runny mess, see yesterday's rant here. Now correct me if I am wrong, but I am not happy with Sephora's return policy when using a coupon. I purchased the MUFE HD foundation $46CAD, and the TFSI $24, and used a $20 off VIB discount, the way they do that is take a portion of the $20 off each item (I had two). Then when I returned the TFSI I only got $19.37 back instead of the full amount. I tried asking the cashier why, and she agreed with me, but that's how the system does it. If I had used the $20 off on the foundation and then did a separate purchase with the TFSI I would of not run into this problem. Have you encountered this before? I know it's just $5 but it bothers me you know? I am getting penalized for returning it, but the foundation alone was the $40 minimum purchase.

I also picked up the MUFE Face and Body in the shade #20. I really wanted to get the Mat Velvet +, but after reading review after review about how it's not good for dry skin (which I have) I felt it was better to leave it out. The Face and Body comes with a pump which surprised me because the youtube videos that I watched people do, it did not. And despite being very watery and not great coverage, I think it's a good bet for my skin.

I am a Sephora newbie, but I tried my best to get samples today, since on the first day I got nothing, too scared of the staff there. Today I told the girl that I have dry skin and am looking for a hydrating foundation, she suggested Laura Mercier's Silk Creme Smooth, which was no surprise to me since I heard it recommended before by beauty reviewers, she got me samples in the shades Blush Ivory and Warm Ivory. However, I am probably more likely to buy the one that comes in the pump bottle, which is moisturizing too, we shall see how this one works out. Then I got some MUFE HD blush samples, that at point, she staff girl seemed irritated with me, I got the lilac colour and a peachy coral one, not sure of the numbers, I think it's #13 and #6.

I also picked up the Sephora #55 brush (picture above). This was $44, I know a lot but it was on my "to get" list for a long time and despite having a ton of makeup brushes, I thought this one would be sweet to have. Like others have said before, the packaging on this brush is ridiculous, took me like 5 minutes to get it off. The brush is soft, not super dense, but looks like it will be good for liquid foundation.

I also picked up the new Almay Wake up Hydrating Makeup in the colour 020 Buff. I read about this and the Revlon Mineral Makeup on Nouveau Cheap and noticed it was on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart. Both products are pretty much the same I think, marketed to do the same thing, Revlon has coconut water and Almay has cucumber something or other, both look to be good for dry skin. Almay was $13.99 and Revlon was $15.99 (both are around $20 normally!) so after humming over it for a few minutes I grabbed the Almay. First impressions: The brush is nice, but I won't use it, the powder has a sifter so I left the peely thing on in case too much comes out for me. The powder does have shimmer which annoys me (zoom in on 2nd image above to see it), I wonder if the Revlon one does too.

I am loving Toronto living so far. I can take a streetcar to Union station and then two stops and I am at the Eaton Centre, which is crazy good. But I am afraid I won't be seeing Miss Sephora for a while now because I have no moola to spend on her. But I am excited to try out these new beauties.

Have you tried any of these products? And have you encountered that hassle with returns at Sephora too? Le me know your thoughts.