Favourite beauty product of the month: December

Not only has this month been the beginning of a new season but it's also the beginnings of a festive and warm atmosphere. This month I've been loving browns, warm purples and maroons in general for makeup. The product I'm about to introduce has quickly made its way to my heart as it is versatile and absolutely stunning! Meet the Sleek blush by three palette in 'Sugar' a gorgeous collection of three extremely pigmented, different textured colours. 

I'm especially in love with the dark pink and middle shade (which actually looks bronze) that once you apply on the skin gives the perfect deep flushed look with gorgeous shimmer. I especially love using the middle colour in my crease to add warmth and shimmer to any look. One thing that you must watch out for is the crazy pigmentation! only pat your brush in gently and tap it off before application... unless you like the tomato face look..

What's your favourite beauty product this month?

Habiba Da SIilva x

Autumnal makeup favourites + OOTD: Casual & Sleek

Hello everyone! I really apologize for the lack of posts lately - I've been so overrun with uni work and assignments. I have many posts yet to come including a few reviews, my daily skincare routine & current favourite makeup bits and bobs. How does that sound? Also, you can always request a post of your choice. Simply contact me via the contact form on the right hand-side of my blog or comment underneath this post :)

This is a very simple outfit which brings together some of my favourite clothing pieces of the month. The makeup also is my favourite November look - smokey brown and natural. Read on for more info!

Hijab decided to do something funny here..

Hijab: Bank (it's a jersey scarf with fringes - initially an  infinity scarf but I cut it up - a current absolute favourite!)

Long grey sleeveless shirt: H&M

Coat: New Look (I get compliments on this coat wherever I am - strangers are always asking me about it- great quality, comfortable and great for this weather)

Skirt: Ebay

Shoes: H&M

Infinity woolly scarf: www.etsy.com/shop/ElaKnit


Makeup: This autumn I've been loving a brown natural smokey, I usually pat on a mid-town matte brown shadow on the lid and blend it outwards above the crease (from Stila 'happy ever after' palette) I also sometimes blend in a dark brown through the crease. Or if I'm in a hurry I'll use the Maybelline colour tattoo in 'On and on Bronze' which is a gorgeous shimmery brown and lasts all day! For eyebrows I'm currently having a love affair with HD Brows kit in 'Foxy' (I think this affair might go on to something serious!). A phenomenal product; lasts all day and colour pigment is amazing. For lips I have been mixing my favourite nude 'Yash' by Mac with Sleek's 'Vamp' to create a gorgeous neatral brownish/reddish/nudish colour, it's not very clear in the above photos. My favourite blushes are featured in the Sleek Blush-by-3 palette in the shade 'sugar' - amazing autumnal colours with stunning pigment and alternating textures.



I hope you enjoyed this post, many more are to come! :)

Habiba Da Silva x

Beauty B November Selections Box Review

Beauty B are a UK based website that sell well-known international brands such as Ben Nye, Coastal Scents, BH Cosmetics, Sigma and many more as well as their own brand with free UK delivery. I've purchased many products in the past mainly from Coastal Scents, Sigma and a few Beauty B brushes. Delivery and customer service has been on point on all occasions! This month there are a few products which have been highlighted by the Beauty B team and they have chosen me to review them. Here are some photos and my thoughts on each product. 

First of all is this 'Make-Up-Matte'  which is a little handy square matte with pockets to put on the floor or whatever surface you use when applying makeup. It's funny because my mum is always nagging me to use something to put my makeup on because I work on my carpet. It's also very handy because you can put your brushes in the little pockets. The material is amazingly soft and even though its quite thick can be folded compactly. And the print is so pretty and hard to resist! (there are other patterns to choose from.)

This is the Coastal Scents concealer camouflage palette. As you can see it has 10 very versatile colours. I LOVE this palette, it's perfect for contouring and highlighting, and the coverage is amazing! I love using this for concealing any scarring or blemishes before applying foundation as it has full coverage and lasts so well. You don't need too much product to completely conceal scars/blemishes. Also, as I've already mentioned, it's great for cream contouring using the deeper colours. 

This is the Sigma tapered highligher brush (F35) an amazingly soft and perfectly shaped brush to get the highlight right at the top of the cheekbones. I've even used this for blush. Love this! 

This is the Beauty B brush cup holder, in the picture above it is closed up and can hold your brushes in - great for MUA's who travel as it can also be used as a brush holder when opened. 

This Coastal Scents glitter is the icing on the cake. This is an amazing product! Very minimal fall-out which is so surprising since its a loose glitter. It looked so vibrant on the lid and stayed looking immaculate for over 8 hours. (For more details on this look check out my instagram @lifelongpercussion) 

Overall I'm honesty impressed by all of the mentioned products and they've been a pleasure to use. Make sure you check out Beauty B for even more amazing products, I will always be a faithful customer - they are one of my favourite websites for buying makeup, especially brushes.

Check out Beauty B at:

Their website: http://www.beautybcosmetics.com/

Instagram: @beautybcosmetics

***

For further inquiries do not hesitate to contact me using the contact form on your right. 

Habiba xxx

7 deadly sins of beauty TAG

I've been requested to do tag posts every now and then, this was one of the tags requested so I thought WHY NOT? Haha, enjoy.

1. GREED: What is your most inexpensive beauty item? What is your most expensive?

Most inexpensive will have to be my MUA products which cost around a £1 each (lipsticks, eyshadows and blushers mainly). Most expensive... hmmm I'm not sure, it'll either be my Chanel Perfection Lumiere foundation which costs around £36/£38 or a big Artist Colour palette by Sephora, and my Emma Hardie cleanser (£34).


2. WRATH: What beauty products do you have a love/hate relationship with? 
Dark lipstick shades, I'm only just coming to terms with getting out of my 'nude' lip phase. I'm a big fan of nudes and neutrals when it comes to makeup!

3. GLUTTONY: What are your most delicious beauty products? 

My Lush lip scrubs, YUMMY! Best thing is that they're made of sugar and are edible :D

4. SLOTH: What beauty product do you neglect, due to laziness? 

Highlighter, every single time. 

5. PRIDE: What beauty product gives you the most self confidence?

Probably foundation.

6. LUST: What attributes do you find most attractive in the opposite sex? 

Respectful, easy-going and understanding.

7. ENVY: What items would you most like to receive as a gift?

The Urban Decay Naked 2 palette :3

High-end foundations: hits & misses

As my Instagram followers might have noticed by now, I am a massive base/foundation addict, I love my skin to look perfect at all times and believe that if my base looks good then my makeup is all good. It's also the most thing I enjoy when working on clients or myself, I find it amazing how I can sculpt a person's face using makeup, this also comes from my love for drawing faces. With simple tips and tricks you can easily make your face not only look flawless with all problematic areas covered, but you can also make it look so natural and almost-not-there which is a look I've been loving recently (comment below if you'd like me to do a foundation routine post!). 

In the past year I've also learnt that when it comes to foundation it's almost always best to splurge a few extra pounds for the quality of the product, rather than wasting money on a product that won't work. Now obviously everyone's skin is different and so we all look for different things in a foundation so the foundations that I might dislike, you might like and vice versa. My skin is conbination/dry and I like a semi matte finish, I used to love a completely full coverage foundation a few months ago because I had more problematic areas I wanted to cover and I broke out frequently, but alhamdulillah (praise be to God) since coming back from holiday my skin has improved a lot and I now much prefer a light/medium coverage foundation. I also like to make sure there's a perfect yellow-toned shade for me, I usually go for a foundation darker than my face because my hands are slightly darker and because I like to look a little more tanned. 

Foundations I LOVE *worth the money*:

Makeup Forever HD - This is by far my favourite foundation at the moment, it has all of the attributes that I'm currently loving - light/medium(buildable) coverage, non-cakey/very natural looking, yellow-toned and my perfect tan shade (153) and a lovely fast-setting semi-matte finish - not forgetting that it also looks GREAT on camera/flash photography. In my opinion this product is very much worth the price. (I think it costs around £35/£40 pounds - I bought it while in Dubai so I'm not completely sure.) I would recommend this foundation for people with normal/combination skin, after reading some reviews by other bloggers I've learnt that it can be a problem for oily skin-types as it doesn't hold in oil and it makes dry skin appear flakey *DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE PURCHASING ANY FOUNDATION* I'm not very oily nor am I very dry so I've not come across any problems. It also wears very well for me and doesn't end up 'separating' which can happen with some products. 

Urban Decay Naked Skin - This is another great medium coverage foundation, it's also semi-matte, natural looking and you don't need much product to cover up. I have the shade 4.0 which is a little too light for me at the moment, but the shade is a great yellow-undertone for us Simpsons. Lasts well and looks great! This retails for £27.

Illamasqua Rich Liquid: This is the perfect liquid extremely full coverage foundation I've yet to come across, it's SO pigmented and if applied correctly can look amazing on the skin. If you have a foundation which you'd like to give a little more coverage to simply mix in a drop of this and you have more coverage. It doesn't last amazingly so I would recommend it for occasions instead of a normal long work day, it sets semi-matte and I think it would suit all skin types. It also has no SPF which make it perfect for photoshoots. This retails for £22.50.

Illamasqua Skin Base - I've been raving about this foundation since the day I discovered it, I have about 6 bottles of this (that's how obsessed I am) in various shades. It's the perfect all-round foundation, great for all skin types, medium/full coverage and looks great in photos ~ I have a full detailed review here. 

Nars Sheer Glow - Another favourite, perfect medium/full(buildable) coverage, looks great and lasts great on skin, semi-matte finish and I would say perfect for all skin-types. The shade I have is Strombolli which is a perfect match and has very strong yellow undertones. Retails for £30.50.

Foundations that are OK:

Chanel Perfection Lumiere - This is a very decent product; looks natural, medium/light coverage, matte finish, sits well on skin and feels very light, shade 06 is a bit too dark for me as it oxidizes as soon as I apply it so I'm debating on whether to swap it for a lighter shade or not. One of the things that disappointed me is that it doesn't last very well so I wouldn't recommend it for very oily skin-types. And it is quite pricey at £36. 

YSL Touche Eclat - If you like very light coverage foundations you might really like this one, it smells amazing and feels and looks amazing on. I have a very light shade (BD40) which I only use on my cheeks (I like to use more than one foundation for different parts of my face for a 3D effect) because I don't need any coverage there and it really brightens my face. Retails for £29.

Mac Studio fix - A decent foundation, good coverage and nice semi-matte finish full review here.

Foundations that I DISLIKE *not worth the money*:

Estee Lauder Double Wear - I know a lot of people love this foundation but I have got to say this is the WORST I've tried in my entire life and I believe it's because of the change of formula recently. It's supposed to have full coverage but for me I would definitely say it is a medium/light, it look INSTANTLY cakey as soon as I apply it and I've tried every possible technique, I tried to like it but honestly it looks so hideous. It does not last on my skin at all, I couldn't find a perfect shade match, all colours ran disgustingly orange/pink, It separates on the skin and flakes around blemishes euughhh sorry but this is just a horrible re-run into my previous experience with Revlon Colorstay which I also cannot stand (I bought 4 bottles of that crap to try and like it but nothing changed). They smell exactly the same and they perform exactly the same. So if you like Colorstay you'll probably like this. Then again if you have oily/very oily skin you might like this too. I bought two bottles of this but had to return them because of the disappointment. Retails for £28.50.

Mac Studio Sculpt - This is another foundation I couldn't bring myself to love, looks way too obvious on the skin, separates, crap coverage and it just sits on the skin really weirdly and doesn't really set, not as bad as DW though. Costs £24.

Diorskin Nude - this foundation is pretty decent but I was disappointed by a couple of things it didn't do for me - although 031 is the darkest shade it is actually even lighter than my NC25 winter skin so I can't use it all over my face (I currently use it on my upper cheeks sometimes), the coverage is bad and it doesn't last very well. Retails for around £32.

Thanks for reading!

Habiba x

The Favourite Five - Habiba's May Favourites

Hey guys! I decided to start doing a different monthly post called 'The Favourite Five' where I will have to pick a monthly favourite in five different categories. I hope you enjoy these posts and they can turn to be somewhat insightful and interesting! The five categories are; beauty product, skincare product, item of clothing, accessory/fragrance and song/book/poem. These posts will be light and not a hassle to get through. So here is the preface of The Favourite Five and although it is now June I will be introducing my May favourites instead. Enjoy!

Makeup ~

This will have to be my hardest category as I have so many beauty must-haves this month! But I think I will have to go with a lipstick as I've been buying lipsticks this month like never before. As some of you may know, I am obsessed with Illamasqua and I can solely and honestly say with no hesitation that it is my favourite makeup brand. Even though it's causing a very apparent dent in my bank account I still will always bat for the Illamasqua team. Some of you will know that I've never chosen one brand above all and always said that no certain brand has the perfect foundations/eyeshadows/blushers etc, there are faults in every brand; for example if I was to buy a good drugstore lipstick I would often look to Revlon, but their foundations are not to my taste and neither are their eyeshadows. But Illamasqua, oh Illamasqua, everything is simply PERFECTION. From the foundations to the eyeshadows to the pigments to the blushers and concealers. Utter perfection I'm telling you. Half of my makeup collection is Illamasqua. So be warned, I will brag about their products a lot. (DISCLAIMER: I do not work for Illamasqua nor have I been paid to say this). *breathe* so this month's makeup favourite is the Illamasqua lipstick in 'over', it is the perfect neon coral/pink that instantly brightens the face, perfect spring/summer bright lip. The texture and formula of this lipstick is incredible; it's completely matte and lasts for ages so you don't need to reapply every now and then. It looks lovely with both a clean or smokey/defined eye. The only negative I can say about the formula is that after wearing it for a couple of hours the pigmentation tends to gather around the inside of your lip but with all honesty that occurs with many other (if not all) lipsticks so it is not a big issue. The price of this lipstick is £16.50 which is an average price for high end lippies.

Photo taken from www.thesundaygirl.com

Skincare ~

My skin is bipolar and currently it's deciding to be more dry than oily so I've been insuring that it gets all the moisture it can get. The look of flaky skin accentuated by foundation is not pretty. Oilatum is one of the best moisturizers I've found that fixes any dry and inflamed skin without the irritation you get from mainstream branded moisturizers (*cough* L'Oreal *cough* full of perfume *cough*) and without the greasy residue. I've been completely loving this and it's definitely a staple in my skin care routine (will be doing a post on my routine very soon!) to read a review I did on Oilatum click here. I've been using it right before I apply my primer as well so that the moisture is locked into my skin even when I have foundation on. 

Clothing ~

One clothing item I have been wearing time and time again is the stunning speckled/gem/sequin nude hijab from HK Scarves, it is the PERFECT shade of nude that matches my skintone and I just love how the little specks reflect light and just create a luminosity to the face. Check out HK Scarves on facebook. (I will be reviewing them soon too!)

Accessory/Fragrance ~

Ok, hands down, this is a no-brainer. My D&G L'imperatrice perfume is my SIGNATURE/PERFECT summer scent, it's so light and fruity and just makes me visualize the sun and happiness and a glowing tan. I'm completely in love. Previously I was really into the Lancome La Vie Est Belle and I was in love with the heavy fruity/muskiness of it, but smelling it now it just smells too heavy and slightly overbearing for the summer heat, whereas L'imperatrice has the perfectly light amount of fruit and musky undertone. RRP is £39 for 100ml which is pretty decent for the size.

Song/Book/Poem ~

Ok, call me mainstream but I've been listening to Justin Timberlake's 'Mirrors' all day/err'day. The entire 8 minutes of it is simply perfection; the lyrics, the beat, the mood, everything. Love it. 

Thank you for reading!

Follow me on instagram @lifelongpercussion for more photos and daily updates! Email me at lifelongpercussion@gmail.com for inquiries. 

Habiba xxx

REVIEW: Favourite drugstore foundation featuring L’Oréal True Match

Good morning my lovely readers :)

As the title states, today's review will be on my *current* favourite foundation (*and I stress on 'current' because my favourites change constantly*). True Match by L’Oréal quickly gained a really good response from beauty bloggers and general makeup-wearers nation-wide. I will discuss the aspects I like and dislike from this foundation and WHY it is a current favourite of mine. Let's read its description first;

"Following research into the skin-tones of women from around the world, the L’Oréal Laboratories have developed a unique palette of 12 skin-true shades in L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation.

The result for L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation is a natural looking, skin-true colour without tide-marks and outstanding coverage without caking.

L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation has a micro-fine, creamy texture that contains 3 light, non-greasy oils. You can build up layers of L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation coverage for a made-to-measure finish.

L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation gives outstanding coverage without caking.  L'Oréal Paris True Match Foundation conceals imperfections, without caking : its micro-fine, creamy texture blends perfectly with the skin's texture."

L’Oréal True Match, Golden Beige (W3) and Golden Natural (W4)

I decided to buy this foundation after reading and watching countless reviews. As any other foundation, I prefer to do my research before purchasing and my research mainly revolves around the shade range (there MUST be a yellow toned medium/light shade), the coverage (I don't bother buying a foundation with light coverage, I only buy light/medium to full coverage foundations) and price (I prefer not to buy anything too cheap or too expensive, the most expensive foundation I own is £32 and I don't think I'd go over £30 again as I find the more expensive foundations are based on the name of the brand instead of the quality of the foundation). I was pleased with the price tag of this foundation (£10.29, and I believe it's even cheaper in the US) and that the shades were split into W (warm undertones - yellow, orange), N (neutral undertones - a mixture of yellow and pink) and C (cool undertones - pink) so there's a shade for everyone. If you have dark skin it will be difficult to find a perfect shade as this foundations doesn't run too dark which is a shame, and typical of a drugstore foundation. I initially bought the shade W3 but quickly noticed that it was a tad too light for me and it ran slightly pink which disappointed me so I went and purchased W4. I would say W3 = NC20 and W4 = NC25/NC30

Top: W3 Bottom: W4

The texture of this foundation is very, very runny (liquidy) and very thin, initially I thought this might cause less coverage then I'd hoped but I quickly learnt that that was not the case at all. The foundation blends like a dream and gives medium coverage which can be easily built up to fuller coverage. 

It dries matte and I would generally not recommend this for people with dry skin as it can accentuate flakiness and dry areas. I powder my T-zone because it is very oily and avoid powdering the rest of my face as I am prone to dryness. It lasts for around 5 hours before it begins to disintegrate which is not bad for a drugstore foundation. I find applying this with any foundation brush gives the same finish, but a buffing brush gives the most even finish with really good coverage.

What I like:

• good coverage
• blends amazingly
• lasts a decent time
• good colour range for warm undertones
• not overpriced 
• a pump to dispense product

What I dislike:

• accentuates dryness and large pores unattractively (I use a good primer to combat this)
• no sun protection (no SPF)
• very runny

Overall, I find when I want to use a drugstore foundation I'm always reaching out for this one from my foundation collection because of its overpowering good qualities and ease in application.

I hope this post was beneficial and thank you for reading :)

Any questions or enquiries email lifelongpercussion@gmail.com or comment below.

Habiba xxx