A Few Beauty Dislikes

Most of us buy a beauty product and end up with a disappointing result. As it happens, every individual's skin, hair, nails etc differ, therefore they will determine the results. However, nothing is more annoying than when you've spent a good amount on a hyped up product, only to wish you could get a refund...for hygiene purposes that's not going to happen! I had this "traumatic" (joking of course) experience with a  few products this year!

(Source)

I'm going to start by reviewing Maybelline Baby Skin, Instant Pore Eraser Primer

It went onto my skin "smoothly" and SLIGHTLY minimised the appearance of the pores on my nose. It was "good enough" but getting the job done isn't enough, I expect more from such an over-hyped product but like I mentioned at the start of the post, everyone's results will vary.  That sounds like a pretty poor excuse to put this product in a beauty dislike post right? It had been a matter of DAYS since using this product that I broke out in an hideous amount of spots on my nose, including the pores appearing larger than before! I stopped using this and the breakout went away almost as quickly as they appeared. Can I also mention that I was disappointed with the size of the product? The price is ridiculous for just 22ml of it!

Primers have took the beauty world by storm and once you find the right one for you, it's unlikely you'll ever "not" use one again! I personally love Boots No7 "Perfect Shine Free" primer to eliminate my oily skin and it works well to prevent eye-shadow creases since skin oil is a cause of sliding/crashing make-up occurring throughout the day.

Now, Maybelline claims the Baby Skin product acts as a "lightweight" base for your make-up as well as reducing the appearance of pores. Many bloggers across the globe claim it's a dupe for Benefit's SEVERELY OVERPRICED "Pore-fessional" primer. At the time of purchasing Baby Skin, I didn't own my travel sized pore-fessional as I assumed it would do the trick - unfortunately I wasted my money. 

As you can see; it's a clear, thick formula that I thought was excellent due to my experience with tinted primers and their lack of suitable skin shades. 

Next I bring you Mac Select Moisture Cover up. NC15, £15.50

£7.99

 This concealer comes in a lipgloss shaped fashion, complete with a foam wand applicator. The swatch shows shade NC15 is a pale "olive"  shade with yellow tones so think of a lightly tanned skin colour to get an idea of who this colour would suit best. The consistency is fairly thin, you can see that it's not the thickest concealer from me spreading out the formula on the back of my hand.

I feel that the  tube holds very little product and a little does NOT go a long way.

To me, it looks like nothing is covered and the finish looks a little dry which loses so many points for me! Trust me, the finish is no different on my face than it is my hand, hence why I needn't bother taking additional face photos. I am super disappointed that I paid an extortionate price for such a low quality product that offers little to no coverage on my skin. It's not useful if you have dark circles or blemishes so therefore, it's not going to do much good for anyone unless you have a near perfect complexion! 

I thought I'd better save the worst till last: Mac Select Sheer Pressed Powder, NC25, £20.50

I bought this off a lovely lady from Depop, a buy and sell app that has a layout similar to Instagram. As you can see, it originally costs a heft £20.50 but I only paid £12 for mine along with shipping. It had been used once and it was clear to see as it looked completely full when I opened it - a new sheer pressed powder holds 12g of product. Not everyone is genuine on Depop so be mindful of the fact there are a lot of scammers that will take your money and either not deliver anything to you or send you some broken piece of rubbish.

When I first tried out this powder, I was super happy with the result! The image below shows it's quite pigmented in colour. My skin looked like soft velvet and the coverage is absolutely spot on for a powder product.

 I wore this everytime I went out with friends or my boyfriend, so it was worn on average 3/4 times a week. I felt like I'd got my moneys worth and was strongly considering repurchasing once it had ran out....till something horrible happened.

WARNING: Not the most flattering pictures of me! However, sometimes you have to let people know what products can achieve whether it be good or bad. In my case, obviously bad...

The above pictures were taken of me near to a window to get the brightest image possible. I wore no make-up of any kind, but did apply spot healing treatment and moisturiser prior to taking these photos. Your first thought process might be: "Oh, maybe she didn't take it off properly or maybe she's just getting general acne breakouts."

I don't suffer from acne and haven't done since I was 15. Due to a medical condition that caused horrendous breakouts, I was put on long term medication to combat the side effects, so since then; my acne has never seen the light of day. I have always removed my make-up correctly and don't even wear it on a daily basis, or a lot of it for that matter. There had and still have been no changes to my diet, hence my reasons for being at least 95% sure it was this very powder that caused the sudden break out. Lastly, the reason I am so sure is because since I stopped using the product; my skin cleared up and no signs of acne have returned since.

Now, I'm not saying this will happen to whoever might be reading this, not at all! After doing some online research, it would seem that various Mac products have caused breakouts for some people such as the liquid foundations and other powders the brand has to offer. For example, I used to use Mac Studio Fix Fluid and had no issues whatsoever whereas others who reviewed the foundation have said otherwise! Clearly, there's some ingredient in Mac Cosmetics that doesn't take too kindly to skin and because of this; I strongly advise you use Mac's face products on the occasion rather than a regular basis, such as nights out.

Thanks for reading. Shez :)