Alva Coleur Organic Lipstick - A Review For My Pure*

I've tested a few make up products from Alva Coleur, along my My Pure journey, with differing results. The eyeshadow duo was really impressive, the fluid foundation and the baked foundation slightly less so, but as I've said before a disappointment should never put you off a brand so I decided to give Alva Coleur another go.

Like all of their cosmetic products Alva Coleur Organic Lipstick contains their exclusive Wellmune complex which gives the range anti-ageing properties, and makes it especially suitable for sensitive skins. Their lipsticks also contain Castor Oil, Apricot Kernel Oil, Natural Source Vitamin E and Cocoa Butter to nourish the lips and leave them super moist.

Packaged in a sleek black, and silver bullet, the lipstick comes in 6 shades, the one I chose was 3 Pearl Pink. The name describes the colour perfectly, it's a really pale, shimmery pink. Again though the colour chart on My Pure was slightly off, it was much paler than I was expecting.

It has a slight cocoa butter type fragrance, and taste. The texture is smooth but not overtly creamy, and as a result the lipstick lasted quite a long time on the lips. I have to be honest and say I have used lipsticks that are a lot more moisturising than this one. Maybe it was the pale colour but I did find it a tiny bit drying, and it did tend to cling to the odd dry patch on my lips

I also have to be honest and say that I don't think the colour did an awful lot for me either, my mum implied that I looked as though I was ill, especially when I wore it with dark, smokey eyes, never mind. Would I purchase one of these lipsticks? I have to be honest and say I probably wouldn't, I'll definitely use it up but for the price I really want something with a much better texture, and obviously a more flattering colour. Unfortunately this lipstick shade is no longer available but Alva lipsticks are still available on the My Pure website. If you have questions please leave me a comment x

*Sample

Alva Naturkosmetik Coleur Fluid Foundation - A Review For My Pure*

As you know over the past few months in my reviews for My Pure, I've been trying out a few products from natural, organic make up manufacturer Alva, this month I decided to try one of my staple products, a foundation. Alas my skin just isn't good enough to even contemplate going bare faced, so I took the opportunity to try the Alva Naturkosmetik Coleur Fluid Foundation.

Containing all sorts of natural ingredients such as Evening Primrose, Macadamia Nut Oil, Chamomile and Vitamin E, this foundation like all of Alva's other make up products is Paraben Free and is certified Organic

Packaged in quite a stylish black squeezy tube with silver lettering, and a silver tone lid, the product dispenses easily through a long nozzle

The colour I chose after reading the My Pure site was 1 Light

I have to say this is my first issue with this product, it only comes in 2 shades 1 Light and 2 Medium, my skin is pretty pale but not porcelain, and very pink toned, and prone to redness. This foundation as you can see from this swatch is not exactly pale and it's quite yellow and golden in tone

It doesn't have too much of a smell really the only thing I vaguely got was something, maybe oily or nutty. The texture of the foundation also confused me, described as a fluid it's a lot less fluidy than say something like Nars Sheer Glow, in fact it almost has a creamy feel to it. I tried a few ways of applying this product including a damp sponge, and a foundation brush, but I found the best way with to apply it with my fingers like you would apply a tinted moisturiser, I wonder why that worked so well? This is where my next gripe comes in, the coverage, to be honest I found that you needed to use an awful lot to get any form of cover. My Pure describe this as ideal for smoothing the skin and covering irregularities, well not really in my opinion. On my skin it gave much more of a tinted moisturiser feel rather than a true cover foundation, it also didn't leave me with the matte complexion that it promised my skin was actually left looking pretty glowy, and I definitely needed to powder down, and conceal after application. Time for some hideous befores and afters

Before - Bare Skin - lots of redness!! yuck!

Afterwards - just the foundation no concealer or powder

OK I have to admit the after does look a bit better there is certainly less redness but this is after about three squirts of  the foundation. You can also see that my skin doesn't exactly look matte hmm. I have to say though that despite the scary colour in my hand it doesn't look too bad on my face, it's definitely not a winter colour for me though, I may be able to get away with it a bit more in the summer. It does last OK but after a while it did tend to make my pores a little more obvious, this was improved slightly though by using a primer underneath. My big bugbear with this foundation though was the oxidisation - after an hour or so on my skin it tended to turn a bit orange - you can see this on my hand here - the foundation had been on for just over an hour and you can see how orange it's going.

I have to say in case you haven't already guessed I didn't like this foundation at all, the colour was way off, the coverage and texture just didn't work on me and it basically it didn't do what it promised. If you have a more yellow toned complexion, slightly drier skin, or you don't want or need much coverage this might work for you but at £18.85 for 30ml it isn't going to be something I would repurchase. As I say I'll give it a go again in the summer to see if the colour works better then but to be honest the colour range at the moment is just too limited for me. Alva Naturkosmetic Coleur Fluid Foundation now comes in 3 shades and retails at £19.50 for 30ml from My Pure. Any questions please ask x

*Sample

Alva Coleur Eyeshadow Duo - A Review For My Pure*

OK it's still snowing and now my twitter won't work so why not catch up on some reviews :) This month I chose to to receive a make up items as part of my review items from My Pure. The item I chose was the Alva Coleur Organic Duo Eyeshadow in 04 Gold .You may already know a little bit about the Alva Coleur line from my powder foundation review (click here) but if you don't just a bit of background. A German brand, Alva pride themselves are been fully certified as organic, using their unique Wellmune beta-glucan complex in all their products, they are ideal for anyone with skin sensitivities. Their eye colour products in particular also contain Red Grapevine extract to protect and strengthen the skin around the eyes whilst at the same time protecting from UV damage.

 

The shadow duo comes in pretty non remarkable, basic plastic packaging in clear and black. You get the customary double ended foam applicator, and two squares of coloured shadows.

I chose 04 gold - I have to say the colour representation on the colour chart isn't a 100% accurate but the colours are still good. The chocolate brown shade has good pigmentation and lovely coppery finish, where as the paler shade is a lovely neutral ivory shade, with a gorgeous pink shimmery duo chrome

Both colours are super soft and blend down nicely. They look great together or used on their own, and the longevity is pretty good. Now for an eye look - apologies for the not great pictures the lighting at the moment is awful either too bright or too dark

In these pictures I've used the paler colour all over the lid, and the darker shade in the crease and outer corner and just a touch of mascara x

So pretty and perfect for creating a really natural look - I've used this an awful lot this month and it really has become a make up bag staple I would have no hesitation in recommending these on quality grounds but I do have two gripes which may put me off buying more.

First of all the price £14.00 for just 4g of product is a bit steep but the quality is nice and your getting a natural product, so fair enough, but I have to say the major issue I have with this product is the packaging. OK not everyone buys products for packaging but it is a bit basic and dare I say it not very well made.

I have had this for less than a month and it hasn't even left my house, I like to think I've treat it pretty well and already the paler shade pan had came loose and not only that the entire plastic insert has also come loose :(

A really good product let down by poor packaging for the price which is a great shame - I really hope that this was just a one off :(. The Alva Coleur Organic Eyeshadow Duo is available in 6 shades retailing at £11.95 from My Pure. Any questions please let me know x

*Sample

FOTD and A Play

I'm a roll second post of the day :) this one is a little face of the day for you I filmed a You Tube video so I had another play with my Naked palette :)

OK so I took some pics, filmed my video then I played with my camera and would you believe it I might have found `a way to take some eye pics where you can actually see the colour and texture of the shadows -  it's a work in progress but it's a start sorry it's a bit creasy but you can get a better idea of the colours x

Let me know what you think as I say it's a work in progress xx

Today I Wore

Rimmel Match Perfection Foundation - 100 Ivory
The Balm - Time Balm  -Light*
Boots No7 Trio Concealer - 2 lightest shades
Alva Coleur Organic Baked Foundation - Light (to set)*
Bourjois Coupe de Theatre 2 in1 Mascara - 51 Noir Exceptionnel
Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil - Whiskey
Urban Decay Eyeshadows - Virgin, Sidecar and Darkhorse (all from the Naked palette)
Boots No7 Lipstick - Nude Rebellion

(*provided for review purposes)

FOTD and Some Pics Of My Swap Goodies

Hey Ladies
I've got a super quick face of the day post for you :) I'm on the holiday countdown now so I'm trying to get a few things done including some new You Tube videos, one of which I recorded today :) Anyway my make up look today was a super quick one using a few new items, including some of the swap goodies I received from Michelle. The FOTD pics themselves aren't that great, the lighting today is awful, but I've included a few pics and swatches of some of the swap goodies from Michelle that I used today, which will hopefully show them better than my original post did - enjoy x

Today I Wore

Alva Coleur Organic Baked Foundation - Light *
NYC Blushable Creme Stick - Plaza Pink

Maybelline Eye Studio Quad - 60 Spirited Seas (shimmery cream and bronze only)

Bourjois Coup de Theatre 2 in 1 Mascara - 51 Noir Execeptionnel

Boots No 7 Lipstick - Nude Rebellion

(*Provided by My Pure for review purposes)