Can we first get an Ameen for that fact that I manage to find a foundation online,order it and it matched all at the price of £5.90 *screams AMEEN* Okay so after my initial excitement I realized it's slightly a bit too light however it is Autumn so I can get away with it. Anyways excitement aside The Ordinary foundation launched quite a while back but due to it selling it out so quick I never ended up trying.

After applying the foundation I quickly realized despite it being high coverage it was super dewy and anyone who know me knows I love to glow. So my initial feeling was 'AYYYY' and this was with the first pump however one pump is not gonna give you full-coverage which is cool if you have clear skin but I used around two pumps and got the full-coverage I was satisfied with. Coverage and finish asideI was pretty happy with my shade and how they organised the shades it comes in undertones which makes it easier to buy online.

.Also can we get a round of applause for the price tag it's cheaper then a lot of drug store foundations. So even with it being slightly light it still wont break the bank also it hurt a lot to think that 6 of these is the same price as my Nars foundation. Which just goes to highlight another problem in the beauty industry and how many WOC have to spend more on their makeup compared to their counterparts.

Also the Ordinary did pretty well considering it was their first release which begs the question that brands who have been in the industry longer are either lazy or don't care for their non-white market ( I have feeling its both)

My personal issues with foundation aside I'm very happy with this foundation it also held up pretty well after a gym session and has quickly become my go-to! If there are any other foundation recommendations let ya girl know because I'm always on the hunt for a new foundation.

Glossier stretch concealer - Dark

Ahhh so I succumbed and bought a Glossier product,it doesn't help that I read ITG religiously and the GRWM videos on YouTube don't help either. I am officially millennial trash , moving on I really have had the weirdest luck with concealers but that's due to the fact that I inherited my dads hooded/dark/sunken under eyes not exactly a feature I would've chosen had I had the option. So naturally most concealers get swallowed up by my under eyes BUT and this is a huge but I've finally figured the trick to concealing under eyes. Correct,conceal and banana powder it's the only way I can do my under eyes and it really does take practice. 

Now glossier's products didn't appeal to me I went back and forth debating on whether I need anything from the website and most the stuff was just regular stuff+had very mixed reviews. Seeing as I have to pay for shipping I really wanted to get something I would use often and that is concealer ! I don't really have the luxury of having bright under eyes so concealer can do wonders for ya girl.

Now the actual concealer itself is described by Glossier as ''A traditional concealer sets to a stiff, flat, dry finish—a dead giveaway that you’re wearing it. Ours is a new type of concealer with elastic micro waxes that move with your face instead of caking on top of it, and nourishing oils that give a dewy, glowing finish. The build able formula covers everything from dark circles to redness and blemishes. In five shades painstakingly developed to enhance, brighten, and—most importantly—completely disappear into the widest range of skin tones.''

Pros-

• Its a very moist concealer which I love so much because a lot of concealers can be very drying under the eyes and with winter fast approaching I can't afford to look like a ghoul.
• It's build-able a lot of base products will often claim they're buildable but tend to fail and your left with caked under eyes. The stretch concealer is build-able in a way that you will get more coverage and little creasing/cake/dry under eyes.
• I hate pot concealers usually but It's a nice kinda round so that I don't dig my whole finger in to the pot. 
• easy to travel with ! honestly who has the time to be cleaning concealer stains out their luggage

Cons-

•   THE SHADE RANGE, nah but for real what is it with brands and 50 shade of beige you do know the worlds population doesn't come in 5 shades. I know Glossier is a newish brand but considering that they're pro everything they can do a-lot better. I've seen them use many black women in their campaigns but it's not very reflective in their products so please for the love of god EXTEND YA RANGE.

Glossier is available online and now ships to the UK


Let me know what other glossier products I should buy x

End of summer favorites.

Ah, Summer has ended not that we had much of summer and with the end of summer comes Autumn *sighs* in seasonal depression. Whilst I'm somewhat ready to embrace Autumn I do want to share some products I loved during the summer and hold onto the fact that (very dry skin and looking ashy) season has approached.


I have to say that I am a face mist addict whenever I purchase one I tend to finish it within a week, its just a nice way to hydrate the face! My go to has changed over the years but I went back to a cult favorite the Mario Badescu Rosewater spray. This mist works really well to prep the skin and also sets makeup really nicely it helps to give me that dewy look that I adore. For my skin I've been enjoying using vitamin E Oil this one from Dr organics helps to keep my skin nice and soft without clogging my pore or sitting on top of the skin like some oils do. Aloe vera is a very popular skincare ingredient I bought a plant and loved it but sadly my very Somali mum decided it was taking up the fridge and dashed it in the bin.Luckily for me I managed to find one with tea tree which has been helping my blemishes ( shout out to the Holland&barett deals that saved me my coins !).

For exfoliating I've been sticking to my acids in the form of lactic acid from The Ordinary and my trusty Nip+Fab pads for those sweaty nights/congested t-zone. And lastly a life saver for my hair has been JBCO* since I'm a somewhat newbie in the natural hair community I can only give my two cents but what I do know is JBCO fixes things in particularly my hair , hell I'd even recommend it to my neighbors rabbit that's how much I love it. My edges are growing back and its a temporary distraction from the lack of growth in other aspects of my life.


Let me know what your summer favorites were or not !

* Jamaican black castor oil

My ''No make-up'' Makeup.

I somewhat have become a pro at no ''makeup'' make-up and why you ask well it's a lot to do with the fact that my life isn't as baby girl as I would like it to be and doing contour and a snatched face for the supermarket and my nanas house seems a bit ludicrous. That and the fact that the British summer has been let down means I've somewhat mastered how to look like me but even better. I'm going to be honest I had pretty clear skin up until 2-3 years ago hyper-pigmentation, scarring and dark circles have been the bane of my existence. And whilst I'm quite a comfortable (she says as she spends £££ on beauty products) I still like to do a little bit of concealing here and there.

I'll start off with my base I've skipped foundation completely because no matter how lightweight the claims seem to be I just don't need it. I use my trusty combo of my LA girl concealer in warm honey and my Bobbi Brown corrector in deep peach. These two products under my eyes and around my mouth make my skin look a bit more even and my under eyes a lot more like I get some sleep.

After that I like to glow so I reach for my Sleek highlighting palette in Cleopatra's Kiss which by the way is the most beautiful and inexpensive highlighting kit I've ever seen. And dust sphinx on the high points of my cheek which gives me a natural inner *I drink green juice everyday* glow.

For my eyes I always wear eyeliner no matter how hard I try I can never neglect a cat eye and the best gal for the job is the essenceliquid ink liner shootout to my good twitter buddy Randa for introducing me to this. And what is a cat eye without lots of coating of mascara in all honesty any L’Oréal mascara is a win for me, closely followed by my precious whiteeyeliner and Voila your eyes are complete.

Lastly how can I ever leave the house without something on my lips I tend to layer my MAC verve with my NYX berlin. And i'm good to go.

Rosehip oil - the holy grail of face oils

Every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to know by now that one skincare item I swear by is Rose hip oil and yes it's my answer to the  ''what would you take on a desert island'' question.

Lets go back to when my love affair started,around two years ago when I was starting uni I experienced for the first time dry/lacklustre skin. Now up until then I had enough natural oils on my face for the US to raid but come winter,my skin had become almost snakeskin like. I decided that oils was the way forward now I had tried bio-oil,coconut oil and olive oil and found that they would sit on my skin thus cutting out oil completely. After a random whim on feelunique I came across Rosehip oil and since it was on offer (my student finance had just dropped) I thought why not.
Since then I've repurchased Rosehip oil 4 times I've tried so many different brands both high-end/budget friendly. With Rosehip oil and I'm confident enough to say that the brand doesn't matter and just that its pure.

 Some of the benefits of rosehip oil are

• it helps improve skin texture especially dry,flaky and uneven skin
• It absorbs into the skin better then other oils
•  Its a natural source of various vitamins especially vitamin A and high in antioxidants.
• It's also super great for scarring which has been the main reason I've used it and continue to do so.

The Ordinary- Caffeine solution

Hello hello beautiful people I am back, and I have another Ordinary product that I am going to be reviewing. I have completely fallen in love with The Ordinary mainly because its affordable and produces skincare products that are traditionally higher up in the price point. Their oils,acids and retinols have made it easier on us skincare addicts wallets and minds alike.

This time round I purchased the caffeine solution which promises to help reduce the look of puffy eyes and dark circles. Everyone and the grandma knows how my bad my dark circles are which stems from my allergies and often having very sore/irritated eyes often leaving me with dark under eyes and lids. Now I'm no idiot and know there is nothing on this planet that will permanently get rid of my dark circles however I do have hope that I might find a product that will slightly reduce them. And also stop people from asking if I'm ill *sighs*.
 The caffeine solution is a light weight product and sinks into the eyes straight away personally it didn't really leave my eyes dry or hydrated but then again it didn't claim that it would! I don't struggle with puffy eyes so I can't say it backs its claim however for dark circle I noticed a very small and I mean very small difference. My under eyes unfortunately are still dark and so not much changed but for someone who's under eyes may be dark due to environment etc it may work.

All in all I wouldn't recommend it purely because I didn't notice a huge difference,personally I'm just glad it didn't cost my kidneys to purchase.

Summer Make up Moodboard

I put together a summer make up mood-board of make-up looks I've been loving. I'm trying to get out of my comfort zone with makeup, my looks are always the same a nude lip and a wing but its a bit boring and every now and then I feel inspired by editorial looks. I love the glossy look the most .I find wearing gloss on the lids a bit impractical but I'm willing to risk the discomfort of sticky eyelids since it almost always comes out very glamours and unique. I'm also still experimenting with foundations and concealers but one thing that is important to me is to have a fresh dewy face. It doesn't matter what season we're in I always want my base to look as skin like as possible.
 The last look which is more on the peachy side usually comes out every spring but who says you cant wear spring looks in summer ? not me! Anyway I hope you enjoyed my make-up mood board let me know what your favorite look is!

Black girl friendly nudes

So I thought since summer is here and I've somewhat abandoned bold lipsticks its only right I do a guide to black girl approved nudes. I've pretty much been wearing nudes in the past two years, they suit every form of makeup look out there whether you want be bold or do the whole ''no-makeup'' makeup. Whoever you are and whatever makeup you like wearing there is nude for everyone!

The matte Nudes.

For a matte nude my favorite is MAC verve this nude for me is a classic mauve and suits all complexions. It can be paired with a brown lip liner and some gloss for that 90's nude or just worn on its own for that natural lip look.

 My second favorite matte nude is NYX matte lip cream in the shade Berlin this is a beautiful brown cream to matte formula and is very comfortable on the lips.
And last but not least is the wet and wild mega-last lip-color in  the shade Mocha-licious. This is more of a dusty nude and has a light grey undertone but also slightly peachy I love this for my daily makeup looks.

All about the base #1

Ok, so I couldn’t really help it with the title but I’ve finally found the dream team for base products! The Nars all day luminous and soft matte concealer have been my go to this past month and I’m very happy with the two. I’ve been struggling with foundations ever since I got into makeup during the beginning of uni, makeup artists have the tendency to colour match me to red-orange undertone foundations. Partly due to the fact that foundation shades for black women are horrible there seems to be this one size fits all approach by brands to just add 3 darkish shades and call it a day.

I got the shade Tahoe after wrongly colour matching myself to Cadiz *sighs* it was truly a waste of money the first time round that I was a bit hesitant to go back to Nars and had my heart set on the Milani 2in1 which seems to be great for us yellow toned girls. But a random stop with a friend made me want to give Nars another go I wasn’t interested in the sheer glow which I got the first time round (too thick for my liking) so I opted for All day luminous. The foundation is very watery which is great for me or anyone who hates feeling like they have foundation. The coverage of the foundation I would say is medium the reason I don’t agree that it’s full is because I could still see some scarring and hyper pigmentation around my mouth peeping through.

 The lovely lady who matched me also asked me if I wanted to try the matte concealer which newly launched. Now I hate pot concealer for hygiene purposes but this concealer; wow is all I can say I have pretty deep dark under eyes so naturally have to colour correct but the shade caramel which is quite yellow did a good job on its own. As for the consistency it’s not as thick as your typical pot concealers so it’s pretty easy to work with and the coverage is great. Naturally I was worried about creasing but my under eyes are deep with fine lines so its unavoidable, my left eye which is not as sunken seemed to not crease as my right.

I don’t wear foundation every day or for long hours but after about 8-9 hours I could see it was starting to wear off. Probably with a primer and setting powder it would last longer but like I said I don’t wear foundations long enough to test its durability. All in all I’m pretty happy with my purchases and don’t think I’ll be needing a new foundation for a while.

Himalayan Charcoal Purifying Glow Mask

I’m finally reviewing a mask I’ve been absolutely in love with, the body shop charcoal mask I thought it would be like your standard clay mask but I was left very impressed. The mask itself contains charcoal from the Himalayas and is meant to be an exfoliating mask. I personally refrain from physical exfoliators especially since my skin type has changed over the years to being drier almost eczema like. The mask itself dry’s pretty quick and gives a slight burn which my skin doesn’t mind since I’m not sensitive but for those who are be cautious!

I applied the mask and waited for it to dry and washed it off and my skin instantly felt incredibly smooth and appeared clearer. I don’t however think it did much for brightening the skin but I also follow up with rose hip oil which works a dream with this mask. I also used it straight after a breakout so using this for the past couple of weeks has helped fade them ( which exfoliating does anyway). All in all I’m very impressed with this mask and can’t wait to repurchase it, the mask is £16 for 75ml and is available at the body shop store and online.

The Ordinary Skincare

I'm finally back and this time I'm reviewing The Ordinary Skincare, I've been wanting to try this brand for quite a while ever since I noticed it in the guardian article. Not only is the brand pretty affordable it also carries products that I'm used to seeing higher up in the price bracket. A lot of the products The Ordinary carries consist of acids,retinol and serums which are really good for battling hyper pigmentation.

The two products that I tried were the rosehip oil and the Vitamin C suspension, rosehip oil I'm quite familiar with and have been using for years however the ones I've tried before have always been above £15 so they are quite pricey. I opted for this one because its cheaper and also 100% rosehip oil. Just like the ones I tried before this rosehip oil was very thin which I liked and sunk into the skin pretty quickly. I applied it before I went to bed and added it to my moisturizer in the morning. All in all I was pretty impressed with the price and product and will definitely be repurchasing it. However if you are prone to suffering from flaky/dry skin then I wouldn't recommend it,its way too thin for incredibly dry skin hence why I used it when my skin was normal.

As for the Vitamin C suspension, I wasn't actually sure what the purpose of this product was I think the price got me slightly excited and with the lack of sun in this country I could use all the glow I can get. I tried the Vitamin C for the first time on its own however it has such an awkward consistency it felt like I was rubbing beads into my skin. I then opted to put it in my moisturizer which worked much better however I didn't notice any difference using it other than the slight glow. Which was a disappointment because I had bought it for the hyper pigmentation around my mouth. Either way it didn't bother me because of the price but I am definitely going to try more from The Ordinary I have my eyes on the caffeine solution and a couple of other acid products.



The Ordinary can be found on ASOS and BeautyBay.

The well used and abused dry skin saviour

Every winter I find myself battling with dry skin and like everyone else I splurge out on creams and oils to stop the dry patches on my skin from getting worse. Not only are the patches of skin incredibly dry I also find at times they can become flaky and itchy. A couple of years ago I was watching a YouTube video where the you-tuber named the Welda skin food as her dry skin savior and because it was reasonably priced ( at least a bit better than the £20-£60 oils usually recommended by you tubers) I decided to go to Holland&Barett and buy some, since then I haven't looked back or bought any other item for my dry skin.

The best way to describe the Welda skin food would be a ''thick balm'' for me this is where I think it's nourishing properties lie all though you can use it anytime of the day I would recommend using it in the evenings before bed. The reason for this is unlike other dry skin products you to rub it in and it  sit's on your skin quite a bit before hand so It wouldn't work well under makeup hence why I apply it religiously before bed so I can feel the difference in the morning. After using it for 3 days I noticed the dry patches around my mouth and eyes began to fade but I continued to use it until they were gone.

All in all for my oily/combination skin the product has been a god send if you suffer from extremely dry skin I'm sure you'll love it even more. For me personally this product is not only great for the face but also my elbows and anywhere else I have dry/rough skin.

Welda skin food retails for £6.95 at 30ml and at 75ml £9.95

Winter skincare products

In the last couple of weeks I've felt my skin become bumpy and lack luster mainly because I was using a cheap facial wash that wasn't doing anything for me. I wanted to get my skin back on track so the best thing for me was to buy treatment products these products are the ones that are optional in your skin care routine however I find make the most difference.

The first product I got my hands on was the acid exfoliating pads by Nip+ fab and the second was some Korean sheet masks. I find that with most people cleansers and moisturizers don't make a huge difference however mask and exfoliaters do. In the past I've used all sorts of masks but since its winter Korean sheet masks are the most beneficial for me. These masks literally make your skin glow ( or it could be my lighting ⋅😜) and also give you that intense hydration you need in the colder months. Most sheet masks are saturated in a serum which tends to be excessive and you can rub it pretty much anywhere on your body.

The acid exfoliater however is a new one for me I was used to using physical exfoliaters aka scrubs but I found myself treating my skin like wood that was being polished and it was too intense. I think the Nip+Fab ones are great because they're always on offer at boots or super drug and also you see results instantly and works well in your evening skincare routine. They're also great value there are 60 pads in the tub and you only need to use 1 around 2-3 times a week.