Madara Moon Flower Rose Beige Tinting Fluid - A Review For My Pure*

I love the summer don't get me wrong but the heat doesn't half play havoc with your make up. Like a lot of people in the summer I switch up my make up routine. Instead of heavier, full coverage foundation I switch to mineral powders, BB creams and tinted moisturisers. I'm always on the look out for new tinted moisturisers and BB creams so for one of this months My Pure reviews I went for a tinted moisturiser, the Madara Moon Flower Rose Beige Tinting Fluid.

One the most interesting aspects of My Pure as a website is the wide range of brands that they sell. Whilst I was familiar with a lot of the brands on the site some of them are brand new to me including Madara. Madara are an organic skincare brand who rely heavily on plant ingredients and ingredients in particular from Northern Europe and the area surrounding the Baltic Sea.

Madara Moon Flower Rose Beige Tinting Fluid, is designed to tint, illuminate,and even out the skin tone, leaving the skin fresh and radiant.

It contains a wide variety of ecologlocial, and organically sound ingredients, including rose flower water, rose hip extract, chamomile and calendula flowers,  and plantain extract.

The product comes boxed, and comes in an airtight, 50ml pump action dispenser, which makes it easy to control just how much product you use.

Rose Beige as the name would suggest is a flesh toned, pink shade, perfect for my skin tone. It has a fluid yet creamy texture, and it blends into the skin easily without any obvious streaks or demarcation lines

It feels very moisturising on the skin, but at the same time it feels quite light. It dries down to give quite a matte finish making it ideal for all skin types including my current oil slick like complexion. It isn't a flat matte finish though by any mean, it seems to give the skin an almost radiant and healthy glow

The coverage isn't the heaviest so this products is definitely for good skin days, or days when you just don't want to wear much make up. My skin hasn't been the best lately so I've been using it alongside a tiny bit of concealer and setting it with powder just to try and counteract some of the redness, and some of the heat induced shine. These before and afters aren't the best to be honest but I hope they give some idea of the texture, the radiance and the coverage x Just a heads up, in real life and real lighting my neck and ears don't look as though they are a different colour - stupid lighting ;)

Before

After 

I have to say I've really enjoyed using this, and it's probably had one of the sternest tests it could have with the high temperatures and humidity. Although it is not the most full coverage product I've ever used, it's provided just enough coverage, without feeling overtly heavy or sticky and it's also provided a decent amount of moisture to my skin. I also found that it lasted pretty well, all be it with a bit of powder on the top.Mummy Lou also tried this and she also liked the feel of it on her drier, more mature skin, and she also liked how it evened out the redness across her nose and her cheeks.

No product is perfect though and this one does have a couple of drawbacks. The first one, well it's a familiar one for me and it's the smell. It has quite a strong scent, it's a natural, very green scent, that my mum described as a real garden smell, and I described as the smell when you clean out your juicer! It doesn't last very on the skin which is just as well because it is quite overpowering.

The other negative is the price, this isn't a budget product by any means, the Madara Moon Flower Rose Beige Tinting Fluid retails at £23 for 50 ml of product, although it is on offer at the moment for £18.40 from My Pure. It does seem to only come in the one shade but they also offer the Madara Sunflower Golden Beige Tinting Fluid which supposedly gives a more of a summer tan like finish. Do you switch your make up in the summer? Leave me a comment and let me know x I love reading what you have to say x 

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It's A Skin Thing ! Perfect Your Skin With Liz Earle Colour.

If you've been a follower of LouLouLand for sometime you'll already know how much I love Liz Earle I've been using the line for about 7 years now and this brand quite simply revolutionised my skin car regime, I actually panic if I don't have a couple of spare bottles of Cleanse and Polish in the house ! Over the 16 years that they have been in business, the company has gone from strength to strength, winning numerous awards and accolades along the way. The line has continued to expand over the years with new additions to their skincare line, a full bodycare line, and more recently the introduction of Liz Earle's haircare line, which has already won numerous awards..

Never one to stand still though the brand continues to innovate and expand, whilst at the same time maintaining their own high standards in production, ethics, quality and customer relations. There are two popular sayings "The Customer Is Always Right " and "What The Customer Wants They Get" and with Liz Earle those statements are certainly true. After numerous customer requests over the years Liz Earle listened and this year sees the launch of Liz Earle Colour - a capsule make up collection based on founders Liz Earle and Kim Buckland's experience of working with top make up artists, and a belief in natural make up which enhances the skin rather than masking it.

The first product to be launched from the Liz Earle Colour range is the Sheer Skin Tint. Marketed as the perfect bridge between skincare and make up, a tinted moisturiser was an obvious first step for the brand. Containing botanical ingredients such as natural source vitamin E, avocado, and borage which you'll recognise from the skincare line, it also included a mineral based UV protection  of SPF 15.

I have to admit I have always been a bit wary of tinted moisturisers in the past, despite being over 30 my skin is still prone to oiliness and the odd breakout, and I've found that they either don't provide enough coverage or they just make my skin look like an oil slick but loving Liz Earle as I do this was something that made my eyes light up straight away.

A little while ago I was lucky enough to be sent a full size tube of the new Liz Earle Colour Sheer Skin Tint to review for you lovely people. The first thing you notice is the packaging, its's quite different from the gentle blues and pale yellows, and whites were used to from Liz Earle, It has a dark almost inky colour and a pearlised finish. This colour packaging chosen for the Colour range was inspired by the brands home on the Isle of Wight, and more specifically the dark and glinting depths of the Solent, my only memories of the Solent aren't great I have to say, I went to the Isle of Wight many years ago with my parents and getting tossed about on a Wight Link ferry while my mum squealed the place down is an abiding memory of the place. Less of my personal reminiscing though what this does show is the brand maintaining it roots.

The skin tint comes boxed and in a squeezable tube. It has a nice sleek expensive look but  it is 100% practical and easy to use.

The product comes in a choice of three shades Bare 01 - for paler skins , Beige 02 for medium skin, and Beach 03 - for darker skins. As it's summer and I've been faux glowing a bit I chose Beige 02. This is very much a summer colour for me, the shades do seem fairly adaptable but for 80% of the year I think I will probably be Bare.

The first thing I noticed about the product was the smell, or more likely the lack of smell, a tiny hint of the Liz Earle Skin Repair Moisturiser maybe but nothing overly noticeable. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Sheer Skin Tint compared to some other tinted moisturisers I'd tried was the texture. It was a lot thicker than I expected, with a smooth creamy feel My immediate fear was that it would be hard to blend but this certainly wasn't the case.

Despite it's thicker than usual texture it blended easily into the skin. I tended to apply it after cleansing and toning. Here is a scary before pictures

and a not quite so scary after picture

As you can see despite the thicker texture it gives a fairy decent coverage and leaves a nice dewy finish to the skin, Mummy Lou kindly remarked that it gave a really natural finish and gave my skin a nice glow - high praise indeed! I have to say I can see where she's coming from it certainly gives you skin a lovely natural, no make up, make up look. However I do have a few issues with this product on my skin. First of all coverage and this is just a personal thing, I prefer a heavier coverage than this, you can still see my blemishes and so on so I would still need to use a concealer alongside it. I also have oily to combination skin, and I think this product is a tiny bit too moisturising for me, after a little while my skin tended to look a bit shiny, so I needed to powder down my t-zone. Despite that though I still think that this is a good tinted moisturiser, especially if you have a drier skin, the coverage is better than a lot of other products out there, and Liz Earle is definitely a name you can trust. I don't know about you but I am certainly looking to see what else the Liz Earle Colour line has to offer.
Liz Earle Colour Sheer Skin Tint  retails at £21 for 40ml and is available from tomorrow the 8th September from all the usual Liz Earle outlets including their own fabulous website, not only that but if you order your Sheer Skin Tint directly from Liz Earle you will receive samples of all three shades so you can try your sample before you open your tube, ensuring that you are completely happy with your purchase, and helping to minimise returns, and a negative environmental impact - they really have thought of everything :)
If you have any questions please leave me a comment xx

(The Liz Earle Sheer Skin Tint 40ml In 02 Beige Was Provided By The Liz Earle Team For Review Purposes )

ELF Goodies Courtesy Of Momma Lou - Swatches and a Mini Review

Hi Guys
I'm always a bit of a sucker for a discount code and over the weekend the fabulous people at ELF had a free shipping code when you purchased £10 or more worth of goodies. Disaster though I am really watching my spends this month after a lot of splurges last month and at the beginning of this month, so I really don't have any dosh at the moment, step forward my usual knight in shining armour, well a top, skirt and a cardi - Mummy Lou. She kindly lent me her little piece of lovely plastic to purchase a few treats so long as I stuck to pretty much the £10 limit. Well the eventual bill came to just £10.50 so I did ok I think. I noticed a lot of new studio products on the site so I ordered 3 things.

First up I ordered the the Studio SPF 20 Tinted Moisturiser - I'd wanted this since it came out but it never seemed to be in stock, so when I saw it was in stock I got it

It comes in a very similar tube to the Revlon Mineral Mousse black with just a clear section so you can see the product. The colour I went for was Nude which seems to be a pretty good match for my skin - it actually gives pretty good coverage for a tinted moisturiser - I'm pretty impressed so far I have to say apart from the smell which is pretty chemically but for £3.50 you can't really argue

Next up I ordered a cream eyeshadow, as you know I love my cream eyeshadows for quickness and for using as bases, I like the normal elf duo cream eyeshadows so I thought I'd try one. The first thing you notice about these shadows is the size of the pot, it is huge, here a pic of it with my Blackberry so you can get an idea of the size!

The shade I went for was the most neutral Candlelight - a slightly shimmery ivory

Its has quite a dense texture that remind me a bit of MAC Paintpots, or Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadows, a little swipe is all you need for super pigmented creamy colour - Momma Lou is a big fan of this and has already borrowed it - I guess she's allowed since she paid for it ;)

The final item I got was another one of the new introductions, the Matte Lip Color

These are twist up lip colours in a pen style applicator the colour I went for is Natural - a nice neutral pink shade

It seems quite smooth and it's really well pigmented, my one minor complaint is the taste which is a bit plasticy, never mind it's a pretty colour and I am sure the taste can be remedied with a bit of yum tasting lipgloss or balm

At just £3.50 per item I am pretty pleased with these three items, yet again ELF shows itself to be a brand where the quality defies the price. The cream shadows are probably my pick and I can definitely see myself  picking up a few more colours. If you have any questions or ELF recommendations please let me know xx

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