Current Favourite Face Products

For every day makeup I like to keep things pretty simple, and it seems that I have finally found the perfect combination of products to achieve this kind of natural look. For my base product I've gone back to Benefit's the Porefessional which really blurs the appearance of my pores and helps make the rest of my makeup last longer. The Porefessional is like a translucent balm so it doesn't add any colour or enhance my complexion but it is very effective in creating a smooth canvas for the rest of my makeup. I just apply this in a patting motion with my fingertips.

I've been in love with my Nars Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturiser ever since picking it up earlier in the month, I would say that this gives light to medium coverage so its perfect for everyday use as you can still see your skin underneath. I have this in the shade Alaska. My favourite way to apply this is with my Real Techniques Stippling Brush as it is a brush that seems to work well with lighter produts to give a lovely sheer finish. The final product I use to set everything is my bareMinerals Touch Up Veil, which helps keep my face from looking shiny.

All these products together give me a really fresh and natural look that lasts me throughout the day and this is what personally works well for me for my every day makeup routine. I can see myself sticking with these three products for a while to come.

What are your current favourite face products?

bareMinerals Touch Up Veil

Touch Up Veil | bareMinerals | £22 | Link

A brand that I have been seeing pop up everywhere on the bloggersphere lately has been bareMinerals. Naturally I found myself lingering by their counter in Boots last month to see what it was all about for myself. I had some vouchers that were furiously burning a hole in my pocket. And yes you guessed it, I made my first bareMinerals purchase. Isn't there something exciting about buying a new brand of makeup for the first time? Just as a little heads up for you, if you don't know what mineral makeup is or want to learn more about it there is lots of information on the bareMinerals website and I'll leave a link here to the page which I found quite interesting and helpful.

I was on the look out for a new powder or similar alternative to set my foundation, as I hadn't been having a great time with my Rimmel Stay Matte powder which has a tendency to accentuate any little dry patch on my face.I had read that mineral makeup is beneficial for smoother looking skin and the sales assistant assured me that I wouldn't get that problem with the Touch Up Veil due to all the minerals and oils the product is made from. Having owned  a few of Mac's mineralised blushes/skin finishes and adoring those I was intrigued to branch out to a brand that are based solely on the concept mineral makeup. As a side reference I chose the shade 'light' in the Touch Up Veil.

If this were based on initial appearances alone I have definitely gone up in the world since my Rimmel Stay Matte powder with the Touch Up Veil boasting sleek matte black packaging and a nicely sized compact mirror inside, which is not essential but nevertheless always a nice addition. Of course the only down side to the matte finish is how easily the exterior becomes grubby looking (exactly like Nars packaging does) but that can definitely be forgiven as the product itself is quite amazing.

One of the first things that I noticed upon applying this was how it just made my face look much more put together, it does claim to produce an 'airbrushed' finish and I have to agree that my face looked flawless which I never thought I would say about a powder to be perfectly honest. Another initial impression I had was that the product has a very faint smell which I believe is from the oils it is made from, in my opinion it is a very mild scent that doesn't linger on the skin so it is quite harmless really. The touch up veil prevents any nasty shine without emphasising those pesky dry patches and just seems to erase any imperfections in my complexion. The best thing about it has to be that it doesn't look as though you're wearing anything on your face, this does not exactly give you 'coverage' because like a veil it is transparent and still resembles the skin underneath.

The staying power of this is also impressive as I didn't really notice that I needed to make any touch ups throughout the day. However on saying that because the product is so lightweight to apply touch ups can easily be made if your skin is a bit more oily than mine and perhaps more prone to looking shiny. Its worth mentioning that you don't need to apply a lot of this, I usually just press my Real Techniques multi task brush into the powder once or twice and repeat that a couple of times and this will usually be enough to cover my face or at least the areas that need it most, also meaning that the product itself will last longer.

This finally brings me round to the subject of price. For £22 this is not exactly cheap, but I've been using this for a couple of weeks now and I can tell you that its undoubtedly quality that you are paying for and I couldn't see my routine without this addition anymore. Plus as I mentioned this will last for ages because you don't need to apply a lot to begin with - remember that bareMinerals pride themselves around the statement of 'less makeup, more coverage' so this would certainly be an investment in my opinion. Overall I'm very satisfied with my first bareMinerals purchase and I'm already looking forward to trying more from this brand.

What are your thoughts on mineral makeup? Do you own anything from bareMinerals?