Vivo Ultimate Base Concealer Kit

The Vivo Ultimate Base Concealer Kit is a kit that is supposed to help you create flawless skin.  It comes in just one shade, contains two "creamy" concealers, one setting powder and a liquid highlighter. The packaging is really simple, but works really well. You have four products in one so the size is actually really nice.

I'm not a huge fan of this, and I'm not surprised to be quite honest. I have never really gotten on with 'creamy concealers'  but I thought this one might change the bad experiences I've had with them. 

It comes in one colour,which isn't the best. It work for me, and I would say I'm about an NC/NW15-20 in MAC but if you are paler or of a darker skin tone, this isn't going to work very well for you. They are both similar in colour but each has a slightly different tone to it, pink and yellow. 

They offer little to no coverage, and even when I managed to build something on my skin it didn't last very long at all. The texture is far from the creamy concealer I was expecting, and is actually very tacky and hard to work with. It doesn't blend easily, and it leaves a horrid feeling on the skin even with powder over the top.

The setting powder is fine. I don’t think you can go wrong with a simple setting powder but I don’t use it because I don’t use the palette at all.

The one redeeming thing in this palette is the gorgeous highlighter that comes with it. It’s a small size, in a cute little black tube, with a doe foot applicator. It’s a beautiful white highlighter with a pinky/peachy iridescent sheen to it. I love it! I chuck this in my bag, and it helps me keep that nice glowy look everyone is after. 

Overall I wouldn't recommend the Vivo Cosmetics Ultimate Base Concealer Kit.  It is cheap (you can purchase it here) but it's not worth that. I would recommend trying something like the Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer (from £18)  if you want something like that, but I am going to stick with the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer (£4.19) for blemishes and something like the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer for under my eyes (£5.99)

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Do excuse the terrible pictures here. I had so many technology fails that this is probably about the best I could do.  

Vivo Cosmetics Haul + First Impressions

 
Vivo Cosmetics isn't something I see talked about very often but from my experience they are a great budget beauty brand. Very similar to brands like MUA and Look Beauty (I'm sure they are owned by the same company) they offer some good quality products at an amazing price. 

A few months ago (this haul is super late, SORRY!) they had a half price sale and I put in an order. The already great prices were half of the norm, so why not try out some new things. 



I picked up one of their pearl eyeshadows in shade 9 Goddess. These are very, very similar to the MUA shadows and this is identical to shade 30. The only difference is the packaging. The Vivo version, 50p more expensive than MUA, is encased in a more sturdy square compact. It's easy to store, and because it's more sturdy I feel better about chucking it in my makeup bag for on the go. 



I grabbed two of the Vivo lashes to try out. I've been getting into false lashes more and more recently, but the things are expensive. These retail for between £2 and £4 and are pretty great for the price. The Natural Night lashes are my favourite. They are half lashes they look relatively natural when on. The glue that comes with the is quite crappy but with the Eyelure Lash Adhesive I like them. 
The Flirty Wink variety aren't as amazing. The bad is just a bit to thick for my liking and it's pretty obvious you've got lashes on. 


The next thing I decided to try out was the Matte Lipsticks. At just £1.99 a pop, they are ok. I should have done some more research on the colours because the colours aren't my favourite. The formulation isn't the most long lasting, and it's not 100% matte, but  for the price they last long enough for me. 

Naturally Nude is my favourite of the two, although without a gloss it can make me look ill. On the website the colour looked deep, and more brown but in person it's a lighter nude shade that washes me out. 

Pink Sweetie looked like a gorgeous medium pink online. I thought I would snap it up because you can never have to many wearable pinks. Sadly it's not that wearable. It's a bright, light pink that I can only descirbe as barbie. It doesn't suit my pal skin tone, and when I've tried to wear it my mum told me I looked like I was 7 and just got one of those Barbie endorsed makeup sets with those horrid shades nobody can every really wear.  It's not showing up quite as bright or pastel in the swatch but believe me it really is. 

 

The last thing I picked up was the Vivo Highlighter. This retails for £5. In the tube it looks like a yellow/golden tone in the tube but blends out into nothing. It leaves a very slight shimmer on the skin but nothing noticable. I thought this would be great to use to highlight or mix in with foundations but all it really does is sheer out the foundation. I'm not really impressed with this and I thought it has so much potential. Sadly, it's not the best.  

Overall, I would suggest trying some bits out from Vivo. They are available in some Tesco stores and online here.  They have free worldwide shipping at the moment too, but it's worth a look.

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Foundation Routine | Great for Dry, Pale skin.

Solait Bronzer link, Collection Sheer Loose Powder link, MeMeMe Beat the Blues link, Rimmel Wake Me Up Shimmer Touch link, Rimmel Fix and Perfect link, Soap and Glory Hocus Focus link, Vivo Highlighter link, Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid link, Bourjois Flower Perfection primer link, Sleek New Skin Revive foundation link, Collection Lasting Perfection Concealers link and Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer link.

I finally have a foundation routine that I'm happy with and thought I would share it with you. It works for my dry skin, and helps cover up the extreme redness and blemishes and scars I can get. The products I use are also pretty good for those who are Casper the friendly ghost pale like myself. I'm going to jump right into this because I have a feeling this is going to be a long post! Thanks for reading.

I've only just really found some good drugstore primers that work for me. For some reason, most of the primers that I tired made my skin feel great but my foundation (or BB cream or anything else really) wouldn't sit well on top of it. It made it look streaky and horrible so I gave up my search. 

But after getting the Bourjois Flower Perfection Primer in a Secret Santa present I thought I would give it a try. To my surprise it works really well. It smooths out my skin, and helps mask some of my pores. It leaves my skin feeling really soft and smooth, and the foundation I used sits on it really well. It helps the foundation last a long longer, and it doesn't have a matte finish which is great for my dry skin. At little dew is great.  

The Rimmel Fix and Perfect is another great primer that works very similar to the Bourjois one, and I love it all the same. I think if were to repurchase though, it would be the Rimmel product. It lasts a long longer, and is cheaper. 

I swap and change these when I feel like it so, obviously, I don't use both at the same time. 

 

I use Hocus Focus from Soap and Glory to add some glow to any foundation I use. It's great to mix in with foundation because, as I already said it gives it a nice glow and if it's thick full cover foundation like I tend to choose it makes it a little more liquidy and easily blendable on the face. I mix it with both Dream Satin Liquid and New Skin Revive, which I use on different areas of the face. 

I use the Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid in Light Porcelain in the centre of the face, and it works really well. It gives me a nice coverage, and it's just a touch lighten than my skin so it gives a highlighted effect as well. It's easily blendable and while it does last a long time it doesn't give that super matte finish like others can. The finish is quite natural and leaves my skin looking fresh and just all around nice. 

I use the Sleek New Skin Revive in Sand on the outside of my face and it's just s touch darker than my skin. It makes the Dream Satin Liquid look a little more highlightery (is that a word) and creates some natural shadows without it being horribly obvious.  It offers a similar coverage and finish to the Maybelline foundation so they work well together. 

I apply these with either a Real Techniques Buffing Brush, a Stippling Brush or a Beauty Blender sponge (damp, of course). 

 

Concealer is my faithful friend. It helps hide the sins on my face, so what more could I ask for. My favourite concealer ever is probably no surprise to anyone because it;s raved about my everyone and their dog. It is of course the Collection (or Collection 2000) Lasting Perfection Concealer. I have two shades of this because I use them in different areas of the face.The lighter shade is used to cover the inner portions of the face, while I use the darker shade (still really light thought) on the outer portions of my face. It covers well, lasts a decent amount of time and doesn't break the bank so a winner on all counts. 

The Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer (in Ivory)  is probably the only concealer that I have found that does a light enough that it actually makes the area under my eyes brighter and lighter. It really does wake me up, makes my dark circles a thing of the past for the day and doesn't crease. It's not to expensive, and the shade range is pretty good for the pale people out there. It's doesn't have that may darker shades though so be aware of that.  

I just blend these products in with my fingers. I have tried using brushes but they just don't work for me. My fingers leaves the products nice a warm so it blends into the face well and it leaves the finish looking pretty natural too which is great.  

I always highlight. I think I have quite dull skin so I use whatever I can, whenever I can to get some radiance back. Highlighter is a subtle makeup products, but in my opinion makes all the difference to a look. I've been loving liquid highlights best since the winter hit but in the summer I'm partial to a powder highlighter of two because my skin isn't quite as dry.   

The first highlighter I love is one that I got 'free' with an eyebrow kit form Vivo. It's only a small little thing and I hope you can buy it on its own because it's great. It's a white highlight in the tube, but when blended out it's almost translucent but it leaves a lovely pink iridescent shimmer on the face that looks gorgeous.

The second highlight I love is great for when I want a more subtle highlight. It's the MeMeMe Beat the Blues Highlight.  This looks quite yellow/gold but it blends out to almost nothing just leaving that 'glow' everyone wants on the skin. I believe it's a dupe for Benefit Moonbeam, and it's much cheaper than that. It works just as well (I've tried High Beam) lasts a decent amount of time on the skin and doesn't cause my foundation to go cakey. 

The last of the highlighters that I've been reaching for recently is the Rimmel Wake Me up Instant Shimmer Touch in 004. This is the least subtle highlight that I use, and for that reason I only tend to use this on nights out or bronzed days. It's a nice gold/bronze highlight that has more a shimmer/glitter than the others. It highlights beautifully but it's a lot more noticeable.  

   

I blend these over the tops of my cheekbones and down the nose with my fingers or a Real Techniques Stippling brush.  

 Finally we come to the end process. I'd give yourself a pat on the back if you made it this far! The last things that I do is pop on some bronzer, blush and powder. The blush changes day to day, so I didn't include it but the bronzer and powder rarely change so I thought I'd say a little on them. 

The Solait Maxi Bronzer in Golden Glow is a brilliant bronzer for the pale girls. It's not too orange or to dark. It's not full of shimmer (in fact it's matte) and it looks great on the skin. I used this to half bronze/half contour. I don't hard core contour but I do add a little under the cheekbones  and chin to add some shape to my round face. I then add some around the outside of my face, focusing on the temples and blending it to my forehead . I used the 3E technique that people talk about to make sure it's blended and to add some definition to the face. 

The powder that I reach for most of all is the Collection Sheer Loose Powder. I's just a nice fine powder that sets the foundation without adding coverage and caking the foundation up. It's only £2.99 and this pot is seriously lasting me forever and a day. It's so worth it. 

I use an angled blush brush from Forever 21 to apply the bronzer, and either RT Blush brush or Powder brush to dust the powder over my face. I use light downwards stroke for the powder to make the foundation look a little more flawless.  

PS: Sorry this was so freaking long but I hope this helps in some shape or form. This is for 'full makeup' days, and I don't do this everyday but this is my full routine. Hope you enjoyed. 
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Vivo Cosmetics | Baked Bronzer Review

Hey guys, 

I picked up the bronzer ages ago but I just haven’t gotten round to reviewing it, so here it is today. Vivo cosmetics is available online and in Tesco and it’s super cheap brand that does some pretty amazing things. 

First things I should address is the shade. This is shade 3, called healthy glow and it’s a light (VERY light bronzy shimmery shade). It’s actually so light that I can use this as a highlighter. I got this online when I brought a bunch of other stuff, and I wanted quite a light shade because I’m a ghost. I didn’t really look up real life swatches before ordering, and just grabbed what looked like the lightest shade that would suit my skin tone on the website. It’s far too light to use a bronzer, so I’m glad some way to get some use out of it. 

 

I love the formulation of this bronzer. It’s a really nice, soft powder that glides onto the skin really nicely. The pigmentation doesn’t look the best in the picture because it’s such a light shade but the pigmentation is really great for what it is. 

The packaging is a little chunky, which I don’t like but it’s nice and easy to store because the sides are both flat. The top is clear which I like because you can see the colour, and the black on the bottom makes it look nice too. 

Overall, it’s okay. I can’t really use it for the reason I brought it, but that is my fault for getting the wrong shade. 

Have you tried this? Do you like it?

Vivo Cosmetics | Ultimate Brow and Eye Kit

Hey guys,

Just another little review on one of the things that I picked up a little while ago from Vivo online. There are three brow colours in this kit, and a clear brow gel to set your brows. There is also a little brush that comes in it, but I just threw that out because it wasn’t any good. 

This little kits comes in cute black packaging, with clear windows so you can see the colours, and a gap for the brow gel to sit nicely. It’s a little tough to open, which makes it feel a little cheap, but I can accept that for the price. 

The palette only comes in one shade, but the three colours that come in the palette are pretty universal, so most people should be able to use it. The first shade is extremely fair, the middle is a nice brown colour with a slight hint of red to it. This colour is perfect for me because I have ginger hair, and a red dip dye but my brows are blonde, so this colour makes the look really great! 

 

The last shade a cool dark brown, which I use a crease colour or a brown shadow liner. I am really fair, so I can’t use it a brow powder but I like it for my eye lid when I want a truly matte colour.

The brow gel is by far the stand out product in this kit. The powders are nice and work just fine but the brow gel it great. It really does set my brows and they don’t move all day. It’s a nice wand to, so it combs through the brows well. I really like that they put a gel in here, rather than a wax like other brow kits I’ve tried. I much prefer the mascara like packaging to a wax in a pan like the shadows are. 

So, overall I’m impressed by this. It has a nice range of colours, and the gel is AMAZING! 

Have you tried this? Do you like it? 

Thanks for reading guys, 

Sarah xo

FOTD + How Much My Face Costs?

So, today my post includes an awkward mirror pic and some shocking makeup news! I've seen a few of these How Much is My Face Worth hit the blogs as of late, and I just wanted to throw in my two cents on my everyday look and how much that costs!

Sorry for the weird picture. I’m not always comfortable on camera (and the horrid hair) but today on my face I’m wearing: 

• YSL Touch Eclat Foundation in B10 | £28 
•  Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer in 2 Light | £4.09
• YSL Semi Loose Powder in 2 Sand | £38
• Solait Maxi Bronzer in Golden Glow  | £4.99
• MAC Blush in Immortal Flower  | £17.50 
• MeMeMe Moonbeam  | £5.25 
• Vivo Ultimate Brow and Eye Kit  | £5 
• Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain | £7.99 
• Dior Eyeshadow Palette in Corquette |  £40 
• MeMeMe Eyeline in Coal |  £4.99 
• Sleek Eau La La Liner in White |  £3.99 
• MUA Every Lash Mascara in Waterproof Black  | £3 
• Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara in Extreme Black |  £7.99

The total price of my face today is £170.79, and that is just the makeup. I dread to think what the total would be if I added the skincare/prep I use. I also have not counted brushes! With the tools I used to apply everything my total would be £212.78!


How much is your face worth?

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