Laura Mercier: Tinted Moisturizer

Ever have one of those days where your skin just needs a breather? Or you need to be out and about but don’t want to pile a whole heap of foundation on your skin? Well, I feel like I've pretty much found the solution (that works for me at least). 

Laura Mercier Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer

The thing about me is that I have extremely dry skin, so as soon as I put any form of makeup on my face, it immediately dries me out and gets crazy annoying. I’m talking so irritated that I feel the need to scratch my entire face off (a bit dramatic?).

 Mostly I will deal with it because I do want the full coverage that these foundations provide, but for days where I just need a little bit of help to even out my skin tone, no way is my usual foundation going to cut it. 

Yes, I know there are BB creams or even light weight foundations, but personally these have never really worked for me. No matter what, I still feel them very heavy and uncomfortable on my skin, with no real outcome. 

I’ve heard for a while that Laura Mercier has probably one of the best solutions to this problem—their Tinted Moisturizer. But of course I was not so quick to believe it, until that was I made my way to Sephora and had a little test of my own. This stuff actually is amazing! To be honest, with the steep price tag of RM169 I was hoping it wouldn't live up to my expectations, just  so I wouldn't have to fork out that amount of money.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for my skin) I absolutely love it! It is so light weight and literally just feels like a moisturizer absorbing into your skin- except with the benefit of some coverage to even everything out.  

I picked up the  Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer in the shade "Tawny" (swatched below). I feel this shade matches me pretty well, but considering the nature of this product, it will pretty much blend into and adapt to your skin tone- which I love! (provided you pick up the round-about correct shade).

Laura Mercier Oil Free Tinted Moisturizer: Tawny

Pros

• Light weight- Perfect for those lazy days where you don't want to put on a lot of makeup, but still want that tinted glow
• Natural finish- Lets your natural skin peep through, so it actually looks like skin- just better ;)
• Protects you- It does have SPF 20 in it, so actually protects you from the harmful sun rays

Cons

• Scent- It smells like straight up sunscreen. If you were blind-folded, you would 100% think you were applying sunscreen onto your face. But hey, some people do enjoy that scent- me, not so much.
• Coverage- Like I said earlier, it has very light coverage (well it is a tinted moisturizer- not a foundation) so may not cover as many imperfections as you would like. Personally I have an issue with dark circles, so on days I want to put in an extra effort I will go in with some concealer over top problem areas and I'm good to go :) 

Hope this was helpful!

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MeNow Long Lasting Lip Gloss

Hey guys I'm back!

And going to jump right into a quick review of these new MeNow Long Lasting Lip Glosses I recently picked up off eBay.

Firstly, I need to start out by saying these are in no way a lip gloss, so I have absolutely no idea why they are marketed that way. They are definitely more of a matte lip cream which do dry completely matte and literally don't budge (very comparable to the Makeup Forever Aqua Rouge Lip Colors). So guess they nailed the 'long lasting' portion of it's name- the lip gloss part however, not so much. Not that I'm complaining as  love me some matte lips!

They come in a variety of 36 colors, mostly all opaque and matte with the occasional two or three that do have some shimmer in them (still of a matte finish). I picked up 20 of these as I did feel that some of the colors were somewhat similar, and therefore not necessary for my collection.

Here are swatches of the shades that I picked up:

As you can see from the swatches above, these are super pigmented and dry completely matte (two of my favorite things)!

Pros:

• Completely matte!

• Super long lasting - And I mean like eat and drink anything you want, its staying put!

• Great pigmentation - For the most part (keep in mind that lighter shades, for example #14 will require a couple more swipes in order to increase opacity, unlike the deeper shades which are pretty intense upon the first swipe. 
• Easy application - The shape of the doe foot applicator as well as the long wand allow for precise application, making it real easy to carve out the perfect lip without the use of a liner.

• Good range of wearable colors- All the basic shades any girl could ask for; from nudes, pinks and reds to purples and browns- pretty much got you covered.

• Price- Super affordable! I got mine off eBay, but it did take a while to get all the way to me here in Malaysia. Note that it did come in the stipulated time and the seller was lovely :)

Cons:

• Drying on the lips- Because these do dry completely matte pretty fast, they tend to dry out your lips, and you will definitely feel that when you first put it on. You get used to the feeling after a few minutes but I definitely recommend applying some lip balm before hand if you hate the feeling- I dont really mind so much.

• Tend to peel and crack if over-applied- This is just a tip not to over apply as the product will start to crack on your lip. This happens when the product has dried and you add another coat on top of it. Because of this I recommend you work pretty quickly. Put on a couple of coats before it dries. Keeping this in mind will definitely save you removing everything and reapplying- trust me, I've been there!

• More adventurous colors- This may be down to personal preference, but i would love to see more bold colors such as  blue, orange, deeper purples or even black! I just think it'd be so fun to play around with more bolder colors in the complete matte finish this product offers. But hey, that's just me :)

Check out my video for some swatches :)

Hope this was helpful!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this product or if you keen on picking some up :)

P.S How cute is the packaging!? Reminds me of little test tubes! :)

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