MAC – sarah fynn

Foundation of the Month August- MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation

Hey guys and a happy new month of September and welcome back to my foundation of the month series! For August I wore the ever so popular Mac Studio Fix Fluid Foundation

I’m sure you have heard all about this foundation as its one of MAC’s popular items and OG of foundations when it comes to dark skin. I actually only bought this foundation last year when I was going to Rome but didn’t take my foundation. I wanted to buy a new foundation I had tested and approved lol (Mac Mineralise Moisture Foundation, review here) at duty-free. However, they didn’t have the dark shades in that foundation available (another thing I have noticed, brands will have the dark shades available but go to duty-free at the airport and it’s nowhere to be found!). The only dark shades of a foundation they had were the Studio Fix Fluid so I decided to get it then ( I remember I ended up not even wearing it lol)

The Mac Studio Fix Fluid is a medium to full coverage, oil-free foundation with a natural matte finish. It is now available in 53 shades! I have the shade NW50

Experience

I used the Studio Fix Fluid during the heatwave we had in the UK and it was the perfect foundation for it! I still paired with an illuminating primer and liquid highlighter and layered both matte and hydrating setting sprays afterwards (it doesn’t make sense I know). The foundation holds well in the heat and doesn’t melt at the first ‘sight’ of sweat. My tzone did get oily after many hours of wear but it was something I could get away with without blotting.

I’m really not the one for matte full coverage foundations which is why I stayed away from this for the longest time. But I have learnt over time, you have to build to full coverage plus the tools you use ( sponge/brush) also has an impact. With most full coverage foundations, you won’t necessarily get full coverage from 1 pump of straight away! Since then I have been more open to trying out these types of foundations although it won’t always be my first pick. I also now pair all my matte foundations with an illuminating primer and a liquid highlighter to give me a ‘matte glow’

I really can understand the hype of this OG foundation, MAC was one of the brands back in the day to provide dark shades for this and I clearly remember everyone using this foundation when I started uni and first got into makeup! Even though my first ‘highend’ foundation was MAC I went for the Match Master foundation instead of the Studio Fix Fluid because I didn’t want that matte dry face every one had.

Verdict

It is one of the oldie but goodie foundations and I can see why. I am finally part of #studiofixfam. If you’re like me and you’re not really here for matte foundations you can always mix in an oil or liquid highlighter and use a sponge for less coverage. I love the Estee Lauder Perfecting Illuminating Primer and the Makeup Forever Radiant Caramel Primer ( also doubles as a colour corrector) it’s what I have been using with all my matte foundations. All this though can seem like extra work when there are perfectly perfect illuminating/dewy foundations on the market.

MAC Studio Fix Fluid is £26 at MAC

DO you have this foundation? Let me know your thoughts!

xoxo

Autumn/Winter Beauty Trends 2015

Hey my loves how’s everyone doing? Good I hope!

So the autumn hasn’t officially started (I believe the 1^st official day of fall is 23 September, but I could be wrong) but I’m here with some serious fall/winter trends you may want to start thinking about! After all it’s getting colder!

I will include some products recommendations which will suit every budget, from ‘I’m on a serious tight budget’ to ‘where the stuff at? I got money to spare’ so get a notepad ready and let’s go shopping together!

Nails

Just because we will be hiding our hands in our pockets or pretty gloves doesn’t mean we should neglect them! Switch from the bold and bright nail colours for the spring/summer and paint your talons with some dark and mysterious colours.

Try nails

Collection’s Blackberry, £1.99 from Superdrug (This polish gives you up to 7 days of wear!)

Essie’s nail colour in chocolate cakes, £8.00 from Debenhams

OPI in Russian navy, £12.50 from Debenhams

Lips

Lip gloss is back this season and was seen on all over the runaway of Rag & Bone and Fendi (Raise your hand if you hate lip gloss or anything remotely shiny on the lips lol) as always dark vampy colours are back and better than ever. Remember the most important aspect of wearing any lipstick (including lip gloss, urgh) is exfoliation, exfoliation and more exfoliation then moisturise, moisturise and moisturise! Fall/winter also means dry, chapped or cracked lips which equals doom for any lip colour esp. matte colours ( have you ever tried wearing MAC ruby woo on cracked lips?) make sure you regularly have a handy lip balm on deck and you exfoliate frequently. From experience I noticed if you regularly moisturise your lips, exfoliation a 10x easier and quicker!

If you detest lip gloss like me you can try lipstick with a sheer/lustre finish or use Vaseline on top of your fav matte lip colour as a D.I.Y sheer lip colour. To be fair, I will give recommendations for both lip gloss (urgh) and lipsticks

Try

Lip gloss lipgloss

Makeup Revolution salvation intense lacquer in Rebel, £3 from Superdrug

B. Brilliant lip gloss in Morello, £6.99 from Superdrug

MAC vamplify, £18 from Debenhams

Lip Stick

It was hard, oh so hard to narrow it down to 3 choices! So I narrowed it down to 6 (so I cheated a little) I won’t include the classic ruby woo or heroine or cyber or rebel from MAC £15.50, (Ok so I cheated a lot) because I am sure by now everyone and their sister’s boyfriend’s side chick has that but I will give you an alternative and cheaper red!

Try

Makeup revolution in make me tonight, £1.00 from Superdrug

MUA Luxe velvet lips lacquer in kooky, £3 from Superdrug

Barry M Lip paint in black cherry, £4.49 from Superdrug

Sleek’s rioja red, £4.99 from Sleekmakeup.com

MAC’s matte royal (For the brave ones), £15.50 from Debenhams

Bobbi brown lip colour in black raspberry (This is a very popular shade!), £19.50 from Debenhams

Lashes

Bigger than life lashes were very popular too. For this trend the easiest way out is to pop on your fav pair of falsies and go right? But what happens when you can’t seem to get it right? Like never? Mascara and go! Finding a mascara that gives you the maximum length and volume with zero clumps is as hard as finding your perfect red shade (Ok maybe not as hard but you get the point), here are my tried and tested recommendations that will leave you with puppy eyes!

Try

Maybelline Great lash, £4.99 from Superdrug

Maybelline colossal volume express, £6.99 from Superdrug

Clinique high impact mascara, £17.50 from feelunique.com

Benefit they’re real, £17.55 from feelunique.com

By Terry growth booster (my current fav), £33.50 from feelunique.com

That’s all folks! Let me know what you will be rocking this season! I tried to give products suitable for different budgets and I think I did well. What trends have you seen and are loving?

Until next time

Love

Sarah

MAC LIPSTICK COLLECTION AND SWATCHES. WOC

Hey guys, happy new month! (Can you believe 2015 is just 4 months away?!) Anyway hope everyone is doing well and preparing for back to school. I hope all your summer plans were successful and was a nice welcomed break!

So today’s post is something a bit different. It’s a collection with lip swatches of my mac lipsticks! I hope it helps someone trying to find suitable shades for their skin. ( I also made a video you guys for YouTube, bear with me whilst I laugh at myself and edit it hopefully I can edit this post later to include it)

But I decided to do this because there isn’t many lip swatches on YouTube for WOC especially. And sometimes the swatches on the hand do not do the colour justice. Also I found that most people combine the lipsticks with lip liners/other lipsticks whereby interrupting the true colour of the lipsticks, so with my swatches no other colours used! Just lipstick and lips LOL. Since I am terrible at describing these colours, I got the ‘official’ description from the mac website for you! Also I have linked a few videos of some lovely ladies on YouTube whose lip swatches helped me pick some of my colours. Check them out they are very useful.

If you are interested in the acrylic lipstick holder ( I’m sure by now everyone has heard of them) I got mine from eBay for about 2 pounds I think but I just found really good ones and bigger too on amazon. click on the picture. it will take you straight there. They are perfect for people who like to display their makeup.

Ok guys this post may be a long one. Sit back and relax. And whilst you are here check out my eBay store. (http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/slimtings1?_trksid=p2047675.l2559)

Let me apologise in advance some of these pictures don’t show the true colour because of the lighting. Sorry guys.

Ruby woo- vivid blue red. Very matte

All fired up- bright fuschia matte. ( retro matte)

Flat out fabulous- bright plum matte ( retro matte)

rho virgin hair. kenya moore inspired colour. check out the posts on these!

Heroine- bright purple. Matte finish.

Pink nouveau- bright pink. Satin finish

Viva glam 2- muted pink-beige with shimmer satin finish

i promise you i dont walk out of the house like this! this shade is a bit light for me so i always mix it with a darker nude

Vegas volt- full power coral. Amplified creme

Up the amp- lavender violet. Amplified crème

Half and half- creamy pink amplified creme

Alright folks thats all! I do apologise for the lighting. But these videos do the shades justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omO0Bc0Gik8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVwfPAP9JNs

http://youtu.be/RekhGOSfxTY

Follow me on twitter and I will let you know of any sales or offers going on with online shops and more! @slimtings1

stay blessed xx

THE BIRTHDAY POST- HAUL, PRESENTS AND COLLECTIONS

Hey guys so this is just a quick update on what’s been happening with me so far this year.

Firstly, its 4 months into my black hair survival challenge (for more information read these previous posts http://sarahfynn.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/a-year-without-braids-or-weaves-whatt-a-black-girls-survival-guide/ ). And so far so good! I have been tempted yess lol to get my hair braided but fortunately the hustle of travelling all the way to London to get it done put me off! But I will have to get my hair weaved in June for something! I know. But I will let you know why soon

Ok so it was my birthday on the 22^nd of April!!! Whoop whoop finally 20! I am so grateful to God for the addition of another year and to all those who wished me a happy birthday! I pray this year brings me more success, wonderful surprises and the continued development of close friendships and relationships.

So the real reason for this post? (Bear in mind its exam season!) I quickly wanted to share what I got for my birthday. (Also I have not updated my blog in a while). I got some really really nice gifts, some of which were a total surprise and some I really wanted. So quickly here are my presents. I also want to say thank you to all who got me something.

Most of my friends know that I’m a collector of things: bags, perfumes, lipsticks, shoes name it! I love (over love) lipsticks. (This reminds me I need to get a new lipstick organiser. If you have a few and need a really cute way of storing it, check out these on eBay for really good prices http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-Lipstick-Make-up-Cosmetic-Clear-Acrylic-Organiser-Organizer-Display-/370800863651?pt=UK_Health_Beauty_Make_up_Cosmetics_Make_up_Cases_Bags_PP&hash=item56557429a3).

Anyway, I recently started getting into MAC ( I know I’m late but I didn’t want to jump into the HYPE just because) so I got my myself( for my birthday of course, the match master foundation, studio fix concealer and fix plus spray) and I loveee it. I also got the viva glam two lipstick(satin finish). During the Easter, Debenhams has a sale on their MAC lipsticks (12.60 not a huge difference but just enough for me to purchase two more lool) I bought the candy yum-yum lipstick (matte finish) because it was soo hyped, I got it and it’s not even that great and the half and half (amplified finish). This was the first ever MAC lipstick I tried on last year and fell in love with it so obviously I had to get it and I LOVE it.

matchmaster foundation(9.0), fix plus and studio finish concealer (NW45)

So knowing this my friends got me four more MAC lipsticks!!!!

Ruby Woo (retro matte) – my girls are so proud of me for getting this. Apparently (true) all my lipsticks are neutral colours lool but hey you can’t blame me for that lol.

Pink nouveau (satin) – I like this better than the candy yum-yum.

Up the amp (amplified) – the most amazing purple lipstick everrrr.. LOVEE

Angel (frost)- also one of the MAC lipsticks I fell in love with

from right to left: up the amp, angel, half and half, viva glam 2, pink nouveau, candy yum-yum and ruby woo — from top to bottom: up the amp, angel, half and half, viva glam 2, pink nouveau, candy yum-yum and ruby woo

Perfumes

I have 6 perfumes already not a massive collection so I was planning on getting some more. Insert birthday insert presents 3 new sexy perfumessss

Roberto cavali aqua- I have been wearing this all week. I love love love the same of this. This perfume came with a free gift; a large golden bag which will be great for when I have to start travelling. Love the smell love the bottle top for some reason

Coco Chanel- perfect mistake. I told my friends to get me the Coco Mademoiselle( you know the one with keira Knightley in the advert? The pink one?) But they forgot and got me this one instead. This is okay because I love this scent. It’s such a classic ridiculously expensive perfume (lol). Love it and you know I will only be wearing it on special occasions. ( Still contemplating if I should get the Coco Mademoiselle)

Calvin Klein one- I dislike strong perfume and this one is quite strong. I was happy to get a CK perfume but I’m not a big fan of this scent. Hmm maybe it will grow on me.

perfume collection: right to left: armani code, christina augilleria, ghost, CK one, roberto cavalli, thierry mugler angel, rihanna nude, estee lauder sensuous noir

I love bags. Omdz. Walk into my room and I have all manner of bags. In particular, I love the structured-put-me-down-and-i-will-still-shine-bright-like-a-diamond kind of bags( I just made that up but you know the office structured bags)yh. So my girl got me the Zara office bad in black and boy. I loveee that bag. It’s got so many different compartments. I used that bag for 3 days and I still have not used some of the compartments in it loool. That bag is now beside my other Zara bag( you know the large shopper bag that was the HYPE last year?)

THE ZARA BIRTHDAY BAG... LOVEEEEEEE — THE ZARA BIRTHDAY BAG… LOVEEEEEEE

structured bag collection- back- zara bags, front- black- random purchase from ebay, orange- boohoo

Shout out to my lovely brother who got me an itouch last year and an iPad this year.. Now obviously I had to do some co-ordination so since my laptop and itouch were already white, I asked him to get me a white iPad. Plus I got a white case for it ( guys you have to check out acme made cases for iPad and laptops! It’s so slim, not bulky and water resistant. http://www.acmemade.co.uk/product/The-Skinny-Sleeve-Fits-all-iPads,38,3.htm I loveee it oh my. I already started downloading so many apps for it( he went all out 64 gig)

all white everything white then a black nexus lool excuse the background. its exam season

I also got a 2 asos dresses

lovely bodycon low back dress( cant wait to rock thisss)

2 earrings

multi coloured one is from misguided, dunno about the other one

With birthday money

Asos wedges

I bought a new camera- all the pictures were shot with it. canon powershot A810 HD

Peruvian hair. Actually this I bought in Jan with my wages for my birthday. By the way I know I haven’t updated my wig making post( if you haven’t already check it out http://sarahfynn.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/survival-series-1-wig-tutorial/ ) but it was the same hair I used and I have finished the wig and made its debut on my birthday. Check out virtue glamour, the lady from who I purchase the hair from https://www.facebook.com/VirtueGlamorLtd

I’m also thinking of buying new conserves but I haven’t decided if I should or not.

So guys these are what I got and I am really grateful for everyone who came to my lunch( since we are all under a lot of pressure and that epic fail afterwards when we said we would go to the library lol), all everyone who called me as well or text or instagram or tweeted me God bless you.

End of post getting back to my revision. I am in the library.

I will be doing swatches of my lipsticks at some point in life, but not now, not when I have impending papers.. Second year uni student!

ELF HAUL AND SWATCHESSS

super quick on long overdue post….. 10 mins go!

buy one get one free you say?? i went a bit crazy.. i have been promising myself elf products since 2011! i know, just never got round in buying them, so when i got the email you know i just had to… this post is loong over due, forgive me! the products are a mixed of thier essentials line ad studio line.. lets get to it!

essentials line £.1.50 each

PhotoGrid_1362873331502 — classy is the one on the right.. the paler swatch

studio line £3.75 each

from left to right: mellon pink, nice and natural and peaceful pink

hd blush in showshopper and headliner, although swatches are the other way round lol

ok so thats all folks.. please excuse my ratchet lool pics.. i will be posting reviews of these products soon and my favs as i have had it for quite a while now… also if you have any ideas for my next post please tweet me at @slimtings1 or follow me on instagram @slimtings and comment on one of my pics with what you would like to read…..

thats all folks see you laterrrrr xx

ps birthday coming up… you know we have to have a brithday haul plus i got a mac haul for y’all soon!

pss my product junkiness got worst lool…!

have a happy dayyyyyyyyy