Dior Sculpt Lifting Smoothing Concealer: 001 Ivory

Those of you who read regularly may have spotted me having a little moan about my puffiness and dark circle issues that popped up last year. I've already talked about a few products I've discovered which have helped reduce puffiness and I've also mentioned Dior's Sculpt Concealer in a couple of posts, but I thought it deserved a little post/review of it's own, as I really am quite impressed with this stuff. 

Dior Sculpt Lifting Smoothing Concealer

Dior's Sculpt Lifting Smoothing Concealer is described as a unique line-diminishing, lifting concealer, which smooths features and leaves the eye area visibly refreshed and rejuvenated. According to Dior, with daily use, telltale signs of fatigue diminish and the complexion becomes more radiant and even. I've been using Sculpt for around 6 months now, and while I'm not sure about the more radiant, line reducing and even skin claims, I will say that Dior's Lifting Concealer has become a firm favourite in the dark circle camouflaging department, as it does a great job at covering darkness and reducing the appearance of puffiness. 

The shade range is rather limited with only 3 different colours to choose from (Ivory, Beige & Honey). I went with the lightest option 001- Ivory, which is actually a pretty good match for my NC15ish skin tone. The product is packaged in a handy, travel-friendly tube and comes with a doe-foot applicator which dispenses product well. 

Texture-wise, Dior Sculpt feels slightly thicker than other under eye concealers I've tried and it feels quite creamy, but not thick. I find a few tiny spots of product is all that's needed to cover my moderate dark circles, the formula is buildable though and I can add a second layer for extra coverage without ending up with a cakey finish. I apply a small amount with the doe-foot wand and gently dab product into skin or use a small concealer brush to blend. I actually prefer to use fingers, but either application method creates a nice finish, and the product does a brilliant job at covering up my dark circles and reducing the look of any puffiness that I happen to have going on. 

Dior Sculpt Lifting Smoothing Concealer: 001-Ivory

While I do like Dior's Sculpt for the natural looking, decent coverage it offers, it's not the main reason I've been loving this stuff so much over the past 6 months. The thing that I like the most about Sculpt is the fact that unlike other under eye concealers I've tried, it doesn't settle into and emphasize fine lines. Creasing has been quite a big problem for me with almost all of the other dark circle cover ups I've tested, but Dior's Sculpt seems to hold up and stays put really well throughout the day. It keeps darkness nicely concealed and it feels comfortable and quite hydrating and light weight, too. I have also tried it out on redness and blemishes and it does an okay job at concealing both (it works better at camouflaging redness), but I prefer something slightly thicker like MUFE Full Cover or Vichy's Corrective Foundation to cover spots or acne scars. 

Dior Sculpt: 001 Ivory, MUFE Full Cover 4 & Vichy Corrective Foundation: Opal

Above, Ivory swatched next to Make Up For Ever's Full Cover no 4 and Vichy Dermablend Corrective Foundation in number 15 Opal to give an idea of the colour.

Overall, I think Dior's Sculpt Concealer is great stuff and is something I will definitely be repurchasing in the future. My only slight gripe with the product is the limited shade range, which might be a problem for some and the price, which is a bit steep at £17.85 for a 6ml tube (Escentual). To be fair though, I have had my tube for a while now and it's still going strong, because only a teeny tiny amount of product is needed to conceal dark circles. 

Dior Nude Tan Healthy Glow Enhancing Powder: 004 Sunset

Dior’s Nude Tan Healthy Glow Enhancing Powder is one of the make up goodies I received in my stocking last Christmas. It’s a product I saw reviewed and swatched a lot last year, and something I was very tempted to buy on quite a few occasions. For some reason, I never did get round to buying one, so I was over the moon when I found Father Christmas had left one in my stocking Christmas morning. In fact, there was a “oh wow, that’s pretty” moment, followed by an “aww shit, that’s incredibly dark” moment when I opened up the beautiful quilted compact and noticed that the shade was 004 (the darkest out of the four colours offered). Despite the colour being far too dark for my NC15/20ish skin tone, I decided to give it a go anyway, and was actually pleasantly surprised with the results.

Dior Nude Tan Healthy Glow Enhancing Powder: 004 Sunset

The powder comes packaged in a beautiful quilted, heavy silver compact, and included in the box is a mini kabuki stamped with the initials CD. I’m always pretty unimpressed with the applicators and brushes which are included with products, but I have to say, the kabuki is very nice. It’s soft, buffs product into skin nicely, and actually washes quite well too. I still prefer to apply with a bigger face or bronzer brush, but the mini Dior brush works perfectly well. 

The Dior Mini Kabuki

The powder itself is described as ‘A complexion-boosting, multi-toned bronzing face powder’, and is available in 4 colour harmonies: 2 pink harmonies to add a touch of freshness and a highlighting effect, and 2 apricot harmonies for a vibrantly sensual glow. Sunset is one of the apricot harmonies, and contains four different shades, which are supposed to be swirled/blended together to create a healthy glow. 

Dior Nude Tan Enhancing Powder: 004 Sunset

Dior Nude Tan Enhancing Powder: 004 Sunset

The two background shades are complimentary, slightly shimmery bronze hues, the D and U letters are shimmerier bronze-y colours, and the embossed N and E are an a apricot/peachy shade. Blended together, the colours create a pretty bronzer, which does a fantastic job at brightening and adding warmth to skin. 

All shades blended together and swatched fairly heavily on the left, and blended out on the right.

Even though Sunset is aimed at darker skin tones than my own, when used with a very light hand, I can just about get the shade to work for me. The apricot and bronze tones warm up skin nicely without looking orangey and the delicate shimmer adds a pretty glow. I’ve added a photo to show what it looks like applied. The fact that I can just about pull off the shade, despite it being too dark for me gives credit to just how subtle and natural looking Dior’s Healthy Glow powders are! 

Dior Sunset Applied with Chanel's Orchid Rose JC Blush

While I can just about pull off the shade, I think Sunset is something that will probably be stashed away for now and pulled out again when the weather warms up and my skin’s a tiny a bit darker. In the meantime, I think I may actually purchase one of the lighter colours on offer as I really am impressed with the subtle effect Dior’s Healthy Glow Enhancing Powder creates. The apricot tones, delicate glow, and the soft blendable powder are lovely! 

All of the four colour options are available from escentual (£31.45).

Quick Eye Look with Dior Iridescent Leather

After purchasing Becca's Enigma palette a few months ago, it quickly became my go-to palette and I found myself reaching for it almost everyday. The lovely shades are perfect for creating quick and easy looks which are natural and polished. I've been trying to mix things up a bit over the last few weeks though and have started to use a few other palettes I have in it's place, Dior's Iridescent Leather is one of them. 

Products used in the photo below

Dior Iridescent Leather with flash

The above photo was taken with flash so the shades look a lot more shimmery than they actually are, the photos below are a lot more accurate (apologies for the slightly blurry pics). I used Becca's Vicuna Eye Tint as a base (brilliant stuff), the pink from IL all over the lid, the light brown from the top right in the crease and the darker brown from the bottom left in the outer V. The liner is Maybelline's lasting drama in Black and the Mascara is Max factor's False Lash effect.

Dior Iridescent Leather

I've applied everything slightly heavier than I normally would in an attempt to get the colours to show up in the photo, but I think the result is still pretty natural. I'm not sure if I love IL quite as much as the Enigma palette at the moment, but the combination of browns, bronzes and the pretty pink do work together nicely and make creating simple, quick eye looks an easy task.

Do you have a go-to eye palette?

Review: Diorshow Black Out Mascara

I've mentioned in previous reviews that I'm not really a huge fan of mascara. I've tried lots of different formulas from lots of different brands, but I always seem to find something wrong with them. My lashes are quite dark but they're not particularly long or full so I tend to look for products which promise to thicken and add length but still look quite natural. I've tried quite a few of Dior's mascaras and I've really liked a couple of them (Iconic and Diorshow) so I decided to give Black out a go too.

What Dior say about Blackout

Dior reinvents mascara by incorporating pro techniques into one ingenious product. Courtesy of Black Fix Complex - a unique blend of deeply saturated pigments - this creamy formula is the first to reproduce the intensity of kohl. Thickening powder adds staying power, while an Arabic gum extract provides a perfect charcoal-like finish and adds to its incredible resistance. Spectacularly intense!

Diorshow Black Out

My thoughts

Well my first gripe with the mascara is the brush which feels quite large. In actual fact, it's no bigger than other brushes which I seem to do fine with (Benefit Bad gal) but for some reason, Dior's feels big and bulky and makes application messy. I find it very difficult to apply without smudging and I also find the actual bristles to be too soft which makes it hard to coat and define lashes without making them clumpy. The consistency of the mascara is quite 'wet' too which doesn't really help matters either.

Diorshow Blackout brush

When the formula dries, it feels stiff on my lashes and feels uncomfortable and heavy. My eye's also feel irritated when I'm wearing it, which is something I've not really experienced with other products.The mascara does darken and lengthen well but also looks thick and clumpy as you can see in the after picture (sorry about the poor quality pics).

Before

After

Black out doesn't seem to wear well on me either. Whenever I use it, I always seem to end up with smudges on my brow bone or underneath my eyes which are really difficult to remove. Getting it off at the end of the day is hard work too. Even when I use Clinique's Take the day off and cleanse after, I still have traces of the mascara on my lashes and always wake up with smudges the next day.

Overall I'm really not impressed with Black out at all. It's difficult to apply, smudges and smears and it's a pain to remove. It's a product I don't reach for often and one I definitely wont be repurchasing. I seem to be having better luck with lower priced mascara's at the moment so I think I'll be sticking with them for now.

Have you tried Black out? What are your thoughts on it?

Quick Dior Loose Powder Review

If you've read any of my previous posts, you may have seen me mention Nars loose powder. I've used it to set my make up for a quite while now and I love the stuff. It finishes my foundation really well, looks natural and I've found a great colour match (two actually, eden and flesh both work for me). My current tub is running low at the moment though so I've been using another powder for the past week in place of it. I purchased Diorskin loose powder a little while ago when I ran out of Nars and decided to give something else a go just in case it worked better for me.

The powder is available in three shades, transparent light, medium and dark. I normally go for the lightest shade available in powders but after swatching what was on offer, medium seemed to be a better match for me. The product comes in a sleek looking plastic sifter tub which is fairly heavy and looks lovely but doesn't seem to work all that well and can be quite messy if you use the lid to dispense product like I do. It also comes with a puff which is nice, really soft and it washes well and lasts ages too.

Dior Loose Powder

The powder itself feels incredibly soft and silky, blends with ease when I swatch it on arm and leaves just a hint of colour. When I use it on my face the result I get it quite different though. The powder still applies as well on my face and feels light weight and soft but doesn't seem to set my foundation well. With Nars loose I get a little bit of extra coverage and my make up looks fresh and even after application. Dior loose offers no additional coverage and I feel as though it leaves my foundation looking slightly patchy and uneven. Medium looks fine when it's first applied but seems to darken quite a lot after I've been wearing it for a couple of hours and has an unattractive orange hue to it, which is not a great look.

I've not had much luck with lasting power or oil control with this stuff either. My oily skin only stays matte for a couple of hours after applying so on top of the orange tint this seems to add to my skin, I also have an incredibly shiny face. Touching up with this is a bit of a disaster too as the powder tends to cake and take off my foundation instead of saving it.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I've only given Dior loose another chance over the past week because my Nars is on it's last legs. After trying the stuff again, I've decided that I really don't like it because it does absolutely nothing for me. The only positive thing I can say about it is, it doesn't break me out. When I pay £26.00 for a product, I expect it to do a little bit more than that though. I think those with drier skins may have more luck with this if they can find a colour match, I've personally given up on it and will be replacing my beloved Nars loose as soon as possible.

What are your favourite loose powders? Have you used Nars before but found something better? Please let me know.

Bronzer comparison swatches

I posted a couple of pictures of the most recent addition to the bronzer collection last week (Becca's pressed bronzer) and mentioned a few others that I've tried so I thought it might be helpful to swatch a few of the ones that I have in my stash for comparison.

L-R Dior essential bronzer Amber, Vincent Longo terra bronzer, Nars Zen, Becca Calypso, Bobbi Brown Light 1, Benefit Dallas

As above only with flash

Dior's essential bronzer in 040 Amber I purchased last year when my skin was quite a bit darker than it is now so it's a little bit too dark for my nc15 ish skin at the moment. It has a slight shimmer to it which is a lot more prominent in the pan than it is on skin. 

I've had Vincent Longo terra gold bronzer lying around for ages and rarely use it because it's looks quite orange on my skin. Again it has shimmer which is slightly more noticeable than Dior essential.

I know NARS Zen is actually a blush but I find it dark enough and pigmented enough to use as a bronzer. I love the fact that it's shimmer free and looks incredibly natural and I also find it works really well as a contour powder. 

Becca pressed bronzer I wrote about last week. This one has shimmer in it but I find it looks really natural and leaves a transparent hint of colour with a pretty glowy finish. Really liking this one at the moment.

Bobbi Brown bronzing powder in Light 1 is another totally glitter/shimmer free bronzer that I've had for a while. I find this one to also be really natural looking and like Zen it also works well as a contour powder. Out of the two though, I definitely prefer Zen to contour with.

Benefit Dallas is not actually a bronzer but I thought I'd include it since it does create a healthy bronzed look when I use it. The pink in the powder obviously means it can only be used on cheeks and not all over the face but it looks pretty when it's used in this way.

What's your favourite bronzer? Do you prefer matte, or do you like a bit of shimmer?

Brow pencil swatch comparisons

 There seems to be a lot of different products out there to make keeping your eye brows in check an easier task. I've tried all of them in some shape or form and the two I tend to use the most is powder and pencil. I find wax products messy and hard to apply and mascara type products aren't precise enough, don't give me enough control and seem to work better on thicker or fuller brows. Pencils allow me to fill in any sparse areas of my brows with ease and I find powder products give a softer look so I generally use a combination of both to define and shape. 

Finding a powder in a suitable shade wasn't a particularly hard task as I've found eye shadow (particularly MAC) works equally as well as products made especially for eye brows but finding a pencil to match my brows was slightly harder. I've found that most pencils seem to be red based which is a problem for me because I have no red in either my hair or eye brows and these types tend to look very unnatural and slightly gingery. I'm currently using Shu's hard formula pencil in seal brown which I love. It's a perfect match colour wise and the finish is really natural. I thought I'd post a couple of swatches along with some of the others I've bought and have lying around for comparison though.

L to R YSL brow pencil no 2, Dior powder formula in Chestnut, Dior powder formula in Sand, Urban Decay brow beater in Brunette Bombshell, Shu Uemura hard formula Seal Brown

Yves Saint Laurent's pencil was a bad choice and turned out to be much too dark for me, I'm not keen on the formula either though. I find the texture to be too soft and creamy and the lines it draws tend to be quite opaque and harsh.

Dior's powder formula brow pencils are nice and draw soft lines that look natural and are easy to blend. Chestnut is again too dark for me and has a slight purple hue to it but sand works well even on my fairly darker brows. 

Urban decay's brow beater is quite hard and draws quite sharp, accurate lines so I find I need to blend well with this one. The colour isn't bad but has a little bit too much red in it for my liking. 

Shu's hard formula was hard to swatch as it only draws on colour when the pencil mixes with the natural oils you have on brow hairs. Like Dior's powder formula, it draws soft lines but without the powdery feel/finish. Shu's hard formula is definitely the best match for me and is also the most natural looking and longest lasting.

What's your favourite brow pencil?

Dior Incognito swatches

The final lot of Dior palette swatches today and today's offering is Incognito, a palette that generally doesn't seem to get a lot of love. I must admit, compared to the other palettes I've swatched the shades do look pretty boring and uninspiring. 

Incognito is the palette I use the most out the ones I own though and is the only palette I've ever used up entirely and repurchased. The five mainly matt, fairly pigmented shades are perfect for creating natural, polished eye looks and blend brilliantly. Lasting power is also fantastic even without an eye shadow primer.

Dior Incognito without flash

Dior Incognito with flash

I personally love Incognito, it's my go to palette when I want to create a simple eye look that doesn't require much effort. If you're after a neutral palette of shades which blend and wear well, I highly recommend checking Incognito out. 

Dior Goldfever Swatches

Another lot of Dior swatches and today it's Goldfever. The iridescent palette contains five shimmery champagne and taupe shades that complement each other perfectly. All five shades are pretty sheer and leave a subtle wash of sparkly but non glittery colour on lids. I find myself reaching for Goldfever a lot, mainly to use the lighter shades as a highlighter but the taupe and Iridescent plummy brown are perfect colours for creating quick and easy eye looks.

Dior Goldfever Palette

Dior Goldfever

Dior Goldfever swatches

 

The palette was released back in 2008 and was limited edition but after searching around online, it seems it's still available from a few different places. While the colours in Goldfever aren't particularly unique and a couple of the shades are quite similar I'd still recommend searching around for one if you're a fan of champagne shadows, I don't think you'll be disappointed with it.

Dior Mystic Jade Swatches

Some more Dior swatches for you. Today, Mystic Jade. Another palette that I've not actually used much at all and another slightly weird combination of colours that I seem to have trouble using. The safe taupe/grey shade I tend to use quite a lot and I occasionally find myself using the shimmery peach but the other shades don't get a lot of love. 

Dior Mystic Jade Swatch without flash

Dior Mystic Jade swatch with flash

I attempted to photograph what some of the shades form the palette look like on but I had issues getting some of the colours to show clearly.

Does anyone else own Mystic Jade? Anyone have any suggestions on where to place the colours?

Dior Night Dust Swatches

Just thought I'd post a couple more swatches of the Dior palettes I photographed a couple of days ago. Night dust is a palette I've had in my stash for ages and unfortunately it doesn't get used often. The combination of shades are different to other Dior palettes I own in the fact that they don't really seem to complement each other that well. Maybe it's just the way I use/apply them? 

Dior Night Dust Palette

Dior Night Dust

Dior Night Dust swatch without flash

Dior Night Dust swatch with flash

I find the glitter in the black shade to be a little bit too chunky for my taste and the mauve has too much blue in it for my liking. I do find myself using the rich brown shade fairly often though and despite the colours not being quite right for me, they do apply and blend really well and lasting power is excellent!