My Laura Geller Beauty Collection...

Laura Geller is a brand that I feel does not get enough recognition in the UK. It is only sold through QVC, which is where I first saw all the demonstrations of all the amazing products.

So some background info on Laura Geller herself...
Laura is a makeup artist from New York, who started her career as a makeup artist for Broadway, then in 1993 opened her first makeup studio. It wasnt until 2002, that she created her makeup brand for QVC. Laura has a great philosophy about makeup, in that it should be accessible, welcoming and fun! Her products are universally flattering and easy to use. She is probably most known for her cult products from the Spackle range (primers) and her Balance and Brighten Baked Foundation Powders. Both of these are my fave products of hers.

I have ended up with quite a collection of her products, which I have been using for years and I can get quite addicted to QVC...I always get sucked in lol! I always have to get the Laura Geller TSV, which for those of you that dont know, is an item of the day that has a special price for 24hours only. The most recent TSV was the Tuscan set, which had 5 full sized products, a brush and a cute straw bag (which im taking on holiday as its such great quality) all for around £40!!! That is amazing value and me and my mum tend to share this between us!

So because I love this range sooo much, I thought I would review them all for you!

 So starting off with Spackle...
I have two of the primers one with an SPF 30 and one with a subtle shimmer called Ethereal.

L-R SPF 30, Ethereal

Bothof the Spackle has a lovely gel texture and is full of skincare benefits (which vary according to different spackles) These do not have silicone in, which I like because sometimes I feel like my makeup slides off it and it just seems to sit on my skin, almost making it too slippy! Spackle sinks straight into my skin creating that barrier you need between moisturiser and makeup. My skin feels instantly refreshed when applied as it gives a cooling sensation and my makeup lasts all day!! This is without fail on my face every single day and I cant be without it :)


Next up is the base products I own...

L-R Real Deal Concealer in Medium, Balance n Brighten Foundation in Medium

This powder foundation is my favourite of the lot! I always need to have this product in my drawer and tend to always have a backup, just incase lol! So this is a baked powder, which if you are not familiar with what baked means, here is what Laura does...

Balance and brighten starts its life as a swirled liquid pigment, that is baked on a terracotta pan for 24 hours by artisans in Italy. This results in a smooth, soft focus powder that corrects uneveness, blurs imperfections and leaves a flawless looking finish. Laura blends lots of colours in this powder to be able to correct colour in the skin. This powder can be used alone, which is my go to for my natural makeup days but I also use it to set my foundation. It never looks cakey or powdery, it blends seamlessy into the skin and never looks muddy or orange. Isnt this what everyone wants from a powder? Over the years I have tried other powders, I love Smashbox Halo powder, but I always come back to this :)

This little tube of concealer I have had for ages, it doesnt seem to go down at all and is definately worth the money. As you can tell from the name, this is for serious coverage. The texture is creamy but thick and tends to work better by being blended out using fingers. This covers my dark circles easily and covers any imperfections on my face. I then set this using the vanilla powder from Laura geller.

Real Deal Concealer in Medium

Real Deal Concealer blended out

Next up is the baked blushers...

L-R Neopolitan, Siena, Apple Custard

These are my favourite blushers of all time, big statement I know, seeing as I have LOTS of blushers. But I just love everything about these. The neopolitan, I tend to just use the vanilla powder most to set my concealer. It also highlights and I also use as an eyeshadow base, as it helps with any darkness in areas. Siena and Apple Custard have been my go to shades recently, partly because they are newer to my collection. But the Siena is a beautiful coral shade, has a hint of shimmer that looks lovely on the cheeks, great for summer time. I have also been using this for eyeshadow, as it blends so beautifully! Apple custard is a great rosy pink colour that will flatter everyone. It has a bronze colour running through it, but doesnt come out too dark. Again this has a lovely shimmer running through it, which never looks too much, just a lovely sheen across the cheeks. So these two definately check all the boxes for me, shimmer, great colour payoff, beautiful colours!!

These are my other two shades of blusher, the larger being a baked one and the darker, smaller one being a matte shade. Unfortunately I have depottted these to fit into my blusher pallette, so I do not remember the shade names. The baked pink blush is again a lovely, universal colour and has a gold running through it giving it a lovely flush of colour to the cheeks. The smaller darker shade is the only matte blusher I own, which to be honest is not something I reach for regularly, Im all about the shimmer lol! The colour is a beautiful rose shade, great for winter time with it being that little bit darker. Again blends easily like all the others. I cannot fault the formulation of these products at all.

Top-Bottom Depotted pink blush, Siena, Apple Custard and matte/dark blush

Top 3 shades = neopolitan
Last = All 3 together

Next up is the eyeshadows...

L-R Baked highlighter in Honey Lavender, Baked Eye Stripes in Plum Torte, Eyeshadow Duo in Fine Wines, Depotted Eyeshadow Trio

Top-Bottom Honey Lavender Highlighter, Plum Torte Trio

Top-Bottom Eyeshadow Duo in Fine Wine, Depotted Eyeshadow Trio

The eyeshadows are also winners for me, extremely pigmented, super soft and easily blended. Only the duo is matte and again not ones I use alot. The rest are fairly shimmery, with the depotted trio being the most and it also has a little glitter too. To be honest I dont notice this too much when applying, as there is hardly any fall out anyway. All of these can also be used with a wet brush and I have used this method with great results. Using a wet eyeliner brush I have used the darker shades in both trios, as eyeliners. They went on sooo easily and lasted just as long as other eyeliners. This is thumbs up from me as cuts down on weight when packing for holiday, with not having to take as many products :)

The Honey Lavender highlight, is my current fave highlighter. I do not own a colour like this and is beautiful to look at. A lovely gold shot through with a pale lavender colour, bends together to a great golden/pink hued highlight. Also looks great as an eyeshadow for a quick pick-me-up on natural makeup days! One thing I havent mentioned about all of the baked products in this post is that they seem to be never ending. I have had some of these at least a couple of years and they just do not seem to be disappearing. This just shows how little you need and how pigmented the products are!


Last up is two lippies...

I mean how gorgeous do they look?! When have you ever seen a marbled lipstick??!! Pigmentation is beautiful, texture is creamy and non-drying and are fairly long lasting on the lips. Rosato is a gorgeous plum colour, again great for autum/winter months. Strawberry toffee is great for everyday and is a natural pink.

L-R Rosato, Strawberry Toffee

Top-Bottom Rosato, Strawberry Toffee

So if you didnt know already... I  LOVE Laura Geller Products lol!!
I havent come across anything that I hate and I definately want to try more. If you havent tried anything from the range, I would strongly recommend doing so, you wont regret it!! Also look out for those QVC Todays Special Values, there should be a Laura Geller one before christmas.

Is there anything I havent tried that you recommend? Please let me know...

Thanks for reading

Soraya xx

My Makeup Revolution Haul...

After hearing lots about the new brand Makeup Revolution, mostly good reviews and especially amazing pricing, I had to place a little order to see for myself!! It was very hard to choose what to get as I wanted sooo many things but the Hubby set me a budget and I had to comply lol! So here is what I decided on...

Flawless 32 Ultra Eyeshadow Palette, Cover and Conceal palette and Medium Matte Bronzer.

First up is the matte bronzer for £2 and you get 6.8g of product...amazing!!! 

The bronzer's packaging is a little strange but sturdy and just literally discovered a mirror on the back...great for on the go touch ups. The bronzer is a true matte and has a lovely tone to it, not too red or orangey, perfect for my skin tone. It warms up my skin a treat and has been the bronzer I have been reaching for on a daily basis. The product blends beautifully and lasts on the skin. It is a little light for me to do some contouring but is great for a subtle look. All in all a great product, great pricing and I am looking to try other bronzers from Makeup Revolution to add to my collection :) I already have the Baked Bronzer which I have reviewed in my Bronzer Collection...http://allthatshimmers14.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/my-bronzer-collection-and-review.html

Next up is the Flawless Eyeshadow Palette £8 for 32 eyeshadows....

The colours are just beautiful and there is a mixture of matte, shimmer and metallic. I can honestly say this is an amazing palette, the shades are all wearable and doesn't seem to have any dud shades like a lot of palettes do! The eyeshadows blend lovely and are easy to work with, very pigmented and true to colour. The packaging is sleek and shiny black with a huge mirror, which I love! This making it great to travel with as its very slim and compact, considering it has 32 shades! So this is a definate winner for me.


Next is the Cover and Conceal Palette £6 in Light-Medium....

Well surprise surprise...another winner for me (sensing a pattern here lol!) A great shade range for my skin tone, with some to highlight and contour if you like to use concealer (I prefer powder...much easier) The concealers are lovely and creamy and blend sooo easily. The coverage is probably a medium to be honest, so if you are looking for very high coverage I wouldn't recommend this particular palette. I haven't tried any of their other concealers to compare but hopefully in the future. These concealers definately need setting with a powder as they are quite creamy but they seem to last quite well on the skin. As you can see from the picture below the pigmentation is great and the swatches are literally one swipe of the product...amazing!! The same sleek, black packaging which is very sturdy and a big mirror also. This is a great product if you are a budding Makeup artist trying to build up a kit, which is extremely costly. But for £6 you get 8 shades which can cover a few different skin tones, you can't go wrong :)

So I think that this was a very successful haul for me, there is not one product I don't like and definately not a waste of money!! I am very much looking forward to purchasing some more from the brand. I love that they are constantly adding new products to their website all the time.

What do you recommend from Makeup Revolution? Anything you can't live without?

HD Brows Professional Eye & Brow Palette

After reading Miss Makeup Magpie's post on a bargain HD Brow Palette, I knew I had to have one for myself. So after ordering the palette straight away, I was sooo excited to have a play with this when it arrived. I tried to tell myself that it was for my makeup kit for clients (because of the shade range), however I couldn't resist a sneaky little use for myself (ooopss!!).

HD Brows Professional Eye & Brow Palette. Top L-R Ash Blonde, Warm Brown, Medium Brown
Bottom L-R Dark Brown, Rich Brown and Carbon. 

 In the palette you get a huge 4.725g of powder per shade. I purchased the palette for £11.99 with free shipping from Ebay, so this was an absolute bargain. Comparing with my beloved Beautiful Brow Powder which is £15 for one colour.

Picture taken in sunlight. 

Picture taken in natural light

As you can see there is definitely a shade for everyone and I mix two colours to get my perfect brow colour (Dark Brown and Rich Brown). These powders are the most pigmented eyebrow powders I have ever come across. Literally, a little goes a long way with these, so I can see this palette lasting for ages if you were to use it just for yourself. The powders blend seamlessly into the brows, giving such a natural finish to them. I then tend to finish off with a clear brow gel to groom the hairs into place. I haven't yet used these as eyeshadows, but I can imagine they would blend so easily into the lid. I have also found that these powders do not transfer, once its on, its on and staying put until you use a makeup remover. I love long lasting products, as I don't like to reapply lots of makeup throughout the day. 

So in my opinion everybody should own this palette lol! At this price and the quality and quantity you are getting....its a no brainer for me :)

Is there an eyebrow powder you can't live without?? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Thanks for reading...

Soraya xx

My Bronzer Collection and Review ....