4 Beauty Products That I Don't Get The Hype

I realise that for some people, some of the products on the list below might be someone's Holy Grail/ Ride or Die / Couldn't Live Without On A Desert Island Especially if Bradley Cooper Was There Product which is fine. Don't stop. While I love the brands below and have bought other products from them that I love to death these were the ones I didn't like enough. 

Stila Lip Glaze
These are one of Stila's bestsellers and were included in Harper's Bazaar's Beauty Hot 100. I have this in Raspberry and the colour is really vibrant and the taste isn't too bad, I'd describe it as a mixture between raspberry ice cream and cherry drop sweets.

The reason why I dislike these Stila lipglazes is because the formula is too thick and too sticky. I know the stickiness helps to make them more long wearing but my lips almost stick together when I talk and it is just a sticky mess if it comes in contact with your hair (e.g. on a windy day.) I am also not a fan of the packaging. You have to twist the end so that it clicks and dispenses the product. This is supposed to give you the right amount of product, Stila tells you to " Twist the pen until it clicks 10 or more times until the glaze appears on the brush. For top-ups just click a few times." Ten clicks is actually a bit of a faff and I find it annoying. I remember Ruby and Millie had similar packaging for their lip glosses as well. Another complaint is that you get so little product just 2.4ml for such a high price of £15. These are so overpriced in my opinion.

Benefit Cosmetics Benetint
Bentint is a rose tinted liquid cheek and lip stain. It is one of Benefit Cosmetic's bestsellers and was originally made for an exotic dancer in the 1970's. This gives a natural looking flush on the cheeks and a pink colour to the lips but actually it isn't very pigmented. Benefit claim this is long wearing but it doesn't last all day and on the lips it doesn't last long after a drink or snack. In fact you could say that it doesn't really stain anything.The fact that it's not very pigmented or long lasting made me feel really underwhelmed by such a cult product. I think that this is incredibly overpriced at £25.50  for a product that doesn't even live up to it's claims. 

Nars Blush in Orgasm 
This is a nice blush but it's a bit over-rated. I'd describe the colour as mid pink with gold shimmer. The colour would suit many skin tones. It's also long wearing. My main gripe is that this has a lot of gold glitter in it so it can get really sparkly. I think I would rather spend my money on a dupe where the gold is more of a gleam rather than sparkly glitter.

Nuxe Huille Prodigieuse
This is the number one dry oil in French pharmacies and a global hit. Nuxe Huille Prodigieuse
does have a lot of good ingredients- it contains vitamin E as well as tsubaki oil, almond oil, camellia oil, borage oil, hazelnut oil, macadamia oil and argan oil. It is free from mineral oil and silicones. I like the fact that because it's a dry oil it is not as messy and it drys fairly quickly.

My main problem with this product is that it's so strongly scented it's basically an oily perfume. Because of this it reduces the amount of ways I can use this "multi-purpose" dry oil on my sensitive skin. It is too strongly perfumed to go anywhere near my face. I have used it on my elbows which has moisturised the dry skin and made it soft, but it doesn't beat the powers of The Body Shop Mango Body Butter which leaves my elbows soft and moisturised 24 hours later without having to top it up with more product. I have used this to try and massage my finger joints when I was suffering from Repetitive Strain Injury but found that I needed something thicker like a cream. For a shoulder massage this could work. On my hair I used this as a 10 minute hair mask before I washed my hair. It made the lengths and ends of my hair softer but they still felt dry. If it was fragrance-free or less fragranced it would be more useful. I do like the smell of magnolia and vanilla but it's overpowering and the scent verges on traditional granny perfume. Putting oil in a glass bottle is also not that practical in a bathroom environment either. 

Let me know what products had that didn't live up to the hype?

Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Patina & Baca Review

Despite being such a cult favourite I was reluctant to go near Stila's Stay all Day Liquid Lipsticks for a long time. This was down to a bad experience with Stila's other lip products (namely Stila It Gloss Shimmer which was such a sickening sweet scent of vanilla it made me gag whenever I wore it) and the notorious reputation Patina had for being so drying according to reviews on Makeupalley.  

Well, the devil on my shoulder that pursued me down the beauty aisles of Marks and Spencer was right. I'm in love! This is in a completely different league and smells and tastes like buttercream or vanilla cupcakes. It actually can be kinda addictive. The formula surprised me as it's thinner than Jeffree Star's formula and dare I say it a little oily. It does take awhile to dry and on the lips it feels lightweight because the formula is thin. It is initially a little drying as most liquid to matte lipsticks can be, but after a while it settles down. I haven't had to exfoliate my lips to wear these. 

What most impressed me was that for the Patina shade there was practically zero transfer on cups and glasses and no transfer while eating a banana (a feat which hasn't happened to me before.) It is pretty much budge proof for 8 hours + even if you're drinking. However it will come off if you're eating a meal that contains oil e.g burgers etc. The shade does look darker on the lips when it's fully dried compared to when I swatched it on my hands. When wet it looks like nice mid pink Kylie Jenner look lipstick but dries down a pinky mauve. On my yellow toned olive skin this has a grey undertone. I'm glad I bought this as I don't have anything like this in my current collection. 

Bacca is in the new Stila Liquid lipstick packaging. It is a dark raspberry colour and it actually tastes like raspberries and buttercream. While Bacca is a matte vampy colour  it doesn't look too gothic. This liquid to matte lipstick is initially a little drying but then it calms down. The formula seems to be thinner than Patina and not at all oily. While it looks patchy in  the swatch it doesn't apply patchily at all. Bacca does transfer a little onto cups and glasses, though most of the lipstick stays on. However eating a meal is a lot trickier and I found that this lipstick can move over and away from the lip line and transfer, but generally it fades from the middle.  Dark colours require more maintenance but luckily this can be topped up (after a meal) and look fine and even. If you don't eat then this will look good even 6 hours after applying. 

Priced at £16 and available from the Stila website (UK) & Marks and Spencer 

Disappointing Beauty Products #1

Fortunately I often research products before I buy products so there aren't many things I've bought and later regretted. The ones I do, tend to be impulse buys and were fairly cheap mistakes.

Stila It Gloss Shimmer In 'Amazing' (now discontinued )


This was such lovely colour, it appears bronze in the tube but in application it is sheerer, shimmery gold-beige nude: a perfect nude lip gloss. However the vanilla smell it had was really overpowering. I hate vanilla flavoured and smelling lip gloss so I couldn't stand wearing this.It is moisturising and long lasting though. This retailed at approximately  £9-13 but I bought it at .TK Maxx with the 3 for £8 offer.

Stila Long Wear Lipcolour in Treasure ( £13,)


I really wanted to love this product. I bought it in Treasure which is a bronze colour with a metallic sheen, I loved the colour it was really unique. However each time I put it on, my lips felt really dry. I might have had a mild allergic reaction against it since my lips felt tingly and the underside of my lip felt a bit swollen. I haven't worn this for longer than 5-10 minutes so I don't know if it's long lasting. But from others I  have heard that they didn't find it long lasting.

ELF Mini Eyelash Curlers (£3.75)
I bought this after watching the make up artist Robert Jones and The Make Up Chair's Sineady Cady, who used them to curl the inner and outer eyelashes that can get left out when using regular eyelash curlers especially if your eye shape doesn't fit the curler. I found they made very little difference, either perhaps because I have a fantastic eye lash curler (from Cosmopolitan, Superdrug) or my eye shape is quite regular. I felt this was more of a gimmick than an essential product. Perhaps the ones from Robert Jones' would work better as they are more expensive and better quality, I have not tried his.

MEMEME Dew Pot in Woodland Truffle 1 (£7.25)
I have become obsessed with cream eye shadows and when I saw swatches of this it looked gorgeous, a kind of a colour unique and was reasonably priced for a cream eyeshadow. However despite appearing in a recent Pixiwoo tutorial I find that the colour fades and disappears quickly and all that remains is just silver glitter. If I wanted silver glitter I would have bought another product such as Barry M's glitter dust. Very disappointing.

Miss Sporty eyeshadow Duo (£1.99 blue and yellow discontinued)
I can't remember the exact name of this duo and it's now discontinued- a decision I heartily agree with. I bought this to create a bright vibrant yellow and blue eyes summer look. However the colours were chalky and dull. Yes Miss Sporty is a cheap brand and this was less than £2, so what did I expect? However their quad for smokey brown eyes has great pigmentation and staying power was longer than most eye shadows I've tried and that's even without an eye primer underneath.

Max Factor Miracle Touch Creamy Blush in 07 Soft Candy (£6.99 ) 

This gives a beautiful healthy peachy blush ideal for summer or winter. It looks loud and scary in the pan but since it's a cream it produces a natural finish on the cheeks. I love this colour but it did sting when I put it on my cheeks. This hasn't happened before with other cream blush products. It may be that I am in the minority that is sensitive to it, but for now I'm only keeping it so I can match and find a dupe.