First Impressions: Stargazer White Foundation (as a highlight)

For so long I have been looking for a cream matte highlight that would work on my NW10 skin, I've tried using concealer and it's still too dark, disaster right? For so long I had been wanting to try the Illamasqua White Foundation as a highlight but being on a tight student budget, I thought I'd hold off. However, on a whim I went into Moonshine in Paul St Shopping Centre in Cork during the week and saw that they were selling Stargazer products, and more importantly a Stargazer white foundation for €8. If Paul St. is too out of the way for you they also have their own website 

I'm not too found of the packaging, especially that spatula-like applicator it's pretty cumbersome, I didn't bother even trying to attempt to use that to apply it because I'd still be there applying it right now, looking inside the bottle the product looks pretty thick and almost congealed so I'd recommend giving it a good shake first. I applied the product using a Real Techniques flat foundation brush and blended using a Real Techniques sponge. 

                   

So when I was blending it the product was incredibly tacky and just difficult to work with, this is very likely because I was running around trying to find the best lighting, and then trying to take a good picture (blogger problems amirite? )So by the time I was blending it out the product had set, or else it's like that straight off the bat, who knows?
By the time it was blended out, I didn't feel especially highlighted, I just felt a little bit more like    Snow White (which is never a bad thing) Next time I'll try blend this out with my fingers, it might    give me a better coverage of the highlight.

                                   

As you can see from the shot above, it doesn't really look as though I've highlighted at all, maybe a little but I like my highlight to be seen from space, and if a white foundation doesn't do that for me... than nothing will. I found that the blending actually picked up some of my foundation and gave the skin a strange patchy, cakey texture. It doesn't look too bad in the picture below but I definitely could see it in the mirror

After I applied the rest of my make up I definitely thought that it looked different to how it would have if I didn't use the foundation, however I definitely didn't feel as 'highlighted' as I would have liked. 

In conclusion, I'm unsure I want to like this product, and maybe I will after I play around with it more, but as a first impression, I really don't know, perhaps I'm just too pale and that the NW10 Club will never stop our search for a perfect matte highlighter, maybe it's the brand itself and I should just have bitten the bullet and bought the Illamasqua foundation. If I find a way to make this product work in a way that I'm as highlighted as Kim K dipped in glitter, then I might do a 'revisited' post on this. Until then I'll keep experimenting.

Happy Friday , 

Laoise, Just The McGinning xo

Why Your 290 Could Be Better Than Their 625

So it's the night before the Leaving Cert results come out, feelings of panic and dread are pretty strong within me right now as they probably are with the other 56,000 who sat their exams this year. My only thoughts are about passing maths or not, I had been 'strongly advised' to drop to a lower level and refused, so the fear of failing is one that might be realised at 9am tomorrow morning.

I've never been 'the academic one', I read a lot as a child so most of the content from the Junior Cycle was material that 'I just knew' so I got by very easily with no study and quickly doing my homework the morning of (with the exception of maths)

Senior Cycle was a different story, suddenly I didn't know what the teacher meant when they said 'Subjonctif' or 'Vision and Viewpoint' I definitely didn't know a word of what my maths teacher ever said. It got to the point that teachers didn't even bother to ask me for my homework cause it was seldom completed. Most people would take this as an opportunity to work incredibly hard, which I tried, I'd do a week here and there of being a diligent student. But for the most part in 5th year I was just lazy. 6th year came and I was doing as much as I could, and I started getting the worst results I had ever got. At this point every time I sat down even to do a basic homework exercise I panicked, school was the same. Of course, I wasn't the only person who was stressed, we all were. But being stressed and getting good marks and working too much is a lot different than being stressed, failing and having your entire body shake every time you looked at a book. Things turned around and I started doing better in school, not good by most people's standards, but good for me, and I was so happy.
I found myself over the moon with a C3 in Geography when others looked at their B2 papers in disgust. I cried with joy after I got a C1 in German in the pre, despite the fact it was still one of the lowest in the class.

My point is, you might have studied for three hours every night, you may have put your social life, friendships, jobs, everything on hold for the Leaving Cert and you might be get all Ds, and for you that's an amazing achievement. Meanwhile, the girl sitting behind you still has a job, plays two sports, is out every weekend and gets straight B1s and complains about not getting As. Just because tomorrow you get 250 points or 300 points that does not mean you didn't work hard, or that you didn't try, Some people work harder to get 350 points than others work to get 625 points, and that is forgotten all over the nation. The smart ones are the ones you can rote learn and regurgitate information, that fella with the big smile on his face on the cover of The Independent with 9 As, yeah he sure worked hard for it, but where's the person who got all Cs who's just as happy and who worked just as hard?

The most important thing is that you're happy. So if you get 7 D3s in Ordinary Level and you're happy, you go. If you get all As and you're happy that's great too. Exams are relative, so please just because someone gets 'low' marks that doesn't automatically mean they did badly, because for them they could be the best results they've ever gotten

Good luck everyone!!!
Laoise, Just The McGinning xx

W7 Catwalk Face Shaper Review

I'm thinking of starting a series of reviewing products and specifically looking at them on my milk bottle, NW10 skin. Lots of bloggers look at products being 'pale skin friendly' but they're still a bit darker than me. I'm trying to think of a clever name for this series 'Milk Maids' 'NW10 Club' the 'Porcelain Party' ? I'm not sure, feel free to make suggestions though!
So, to kick this off I'm doing a review of W7's 'Catwalk Face Shaper' Apparently, this is a good dupe for Tom Ford's Shade and Illuminate, I haven't used that product as I'm not actually made of money. However, if you live that luxurious lifestyle, you do you. You go Glen Coco!

What is it? 

Pretty much just your run of the mill cream contour and highlight palette that comes with a brush, but cheaper. Around €8 I believe. 

 What's the highlighter shade like?
In a word? Woeful. Perhaps this would work on someone with a darker complexion, but this highlight does absolutely nothing for me. When foundation is over it it becomes very patchy and just sits on the skin. I live for a strong highlight, so this may work for you if you like a reeeaally subtle highlight. But honestly guys, I wouldn't waste your time with the highlight part of this product. Note on the swatch picture below, you can barely see the highlight shade. And I swear I swatched it, though it's hard to believe

How about the contour?
To be honest, this is more like a cream bronzer than a contour colour. I adore how a warm toned contour looks on people with darker colouring, however I prefer a cool toned contour colour on myself. This can get very mucky very quickly, and I really do spend a long time blending it out. I always use my NYX blush in Taupe over this and I think the two really compliment one another, though on its own I don't really like this product.

Is it NW10 friendly?
Not really, I use it cause I can't (yet) afford the cream contours that I really want and because I have played around with this enough to make it work for me. I think this would be good for someone with sallow skin, however if you're part of the NW10 Club this isn't ideal. I won't be repurchasing this product, but for under a tenner I'm really not complaining too much. In a word, it's 'grand'

All the best
Laoise, Just The McGinning xo