Hi Divas 

On one of my recent shopping trips, I was so excited to see the new L.A. Girl foundation stocked at my local Dischem store. I have watched many reviews on YouTube about this foundation and I really wanted to try it. I had no idea that it was available in South Africa and to date have not heard anybody talking about it. The reason for my excitement is that this foundation promises a matte finish with medium to full coverage and an affordable price tag to boot. I have combination skin and since Summer is on its way in the Southern Hemisphere, I need a bullet proof foundation that won't budge in the South African heat. This is my first L.A Girl product that I have ever tried as I skipped on their HD Pro Coverage Long Wear foundation. The shades that would have suited me looked a little too orange for my liking and the fact that the base transferred like crazy truly put me off. This new matte formula however has good undertones for my shade range and is transfer proof. Whoop!

The L.A Girl PRO Matte High Definition Long Wear Foundation comes in 14 shades. I chose the shade Light Tan, as this one is described as a medium shade with yellow undertones. For reference, I wear warm beige in Too Faced Born This Way and 290 in Fenty Beauty Pro Filtr' Foundation. The L.A. Girl light tan has strong yellow undertones and comes off quite warm on the skin. This would be a perfect Summer shade for me as I tend to tan easily in the warmer months. The foundation is packaged in a 30 ml glass bottle. It comes with a sturdy black pump and a matte black cap. The actual bottle is quite slender in design and seems very travel friendly as it is not bulky and can be stored easily. This sleek design is very pretty and looks sophisticated. I absolutely love the pump on the bottle as it feels really high end and not cheap or flimsy like most lower end/drug store foundations.  The matte black cap can get easily stained or dirty by foundation residue from finger tips, therefore do keep that in mind when using the bottle.

The product is described as a long wear matte foundation with a smooth suede finish and does not contain SPF. It promises to give medium to full coverage using a sponge or brush. For application I have to use three full pumps to completely cover my whole face as the pumps are quite small in size. The consistency of the foundation is a liquid but it is not too runny. It has a creamy texture and blends easily. I have used a sponge, hands and brush to apply the foundation. Using a sponge or your hands gives the most coverage and smooth finish. A brush seems to give a medium coverage as it slightly thins the product out. The sponge presses the foundation into the skin giving that full coverage effect. It definitely gives medium to full coverage but it is not completely full coverage. It covers my under eye bags well and smooths out any pigmentation problems on my skin. For blemishes or acne marks, you would need a concealer to completely cover those. The foundation dries down fairly quickly therefore you would either have to work in sections on the face or blend it out really quickly. You could probably get away with not setting your face with powder if you have very dry skin but I always set my face come rain or shine with a translucent powder. This gives a smooth finish and locks in all my liquid products.

As you can see in the photo above, the foundation looks flawless on my skin. It feels and sits really comfortable on my face. It does not transfer, slide down or tug at my skin. Sometimes, I even forget that I am wearing foundation as it feels truly light weight and breathable. Even though this gives a super matte finish my skin does not feel tight or dry. The suede feel is true to its claims and the foundation is long wearing too. I have worn this while exercising and it does not break down or fade away. The shade melts wonderfully into my actual skin tone, and you could probably not tell the difference between the two. I have not noticed the base oxidizing on me and that is a bonus to. At the end of the day I do notice some fading around my nose, but that is to be expected as that is where I get the oiliest and I sometimes have to blow my nose due to sinus issues that I have been having. I truly like this foundation and would totally purchase another bottle when I finish this one. It looks so natural on my skin, gives a soft matte finish, has great longevity, awesome packaging for travel and affordable too. 

*Have you tried this foundation? Let me know your thoughts below. I honestly have nothing bad to say about it. Oh, no wait the shade range can definitely be improved! Thank you for reading. *

Lots of Love!

Divalicious Kisses

Xxxx

(BH Cosmetics That's Heart Palette Winner Announced)

Hello Divas!

Hope you all are having an amazing week. This will be quite a short post on the blog. I wanted to share some of my manicures and nail art designs with you. These have been done over the course of about two months. I am becoming more confident in doing nail art and much more creative with my nails. I am no where near being an expert or nail art guru. There are many techniques I want to perfect and designs I still want to do. As they say practice makes perfect so I am documenting my little journey with you. I said before nail art requires tons of patience. If you don't have the virtue of patience you will usually learn it when doing your nails. I am still struggling with nail stamping. My designs are always filled with smudges. Sigh, the struggle is real people! Any way, I will let you know in up coming posts if I have mastered the technique or not. I will keep on with my smudgy stamping attempts.

 Let me know what your favourite designs are below. Until next time, have a fabulous week Divas!
 

 Nail Polishes used starting from top left to right: Tip Top in Speck-Tacular and Love that Shine; Catrice in Get the Blues; Tip Top Get the Party Started and Wet n' Wild On a Trip with Sephora Glitter polish.

 

Middle left: Tip Top in Peach Crisp; LA Girl Color Pop in Tantrum and Nostalgic; Tip Top in Black Forest and As the Beat Goes On with Sephora gold glitter polish.

 

Bottom left: Tip Top in Walking on Sunshine and Sinful Colors in Fig topped with Sally Hansen in Strobe Light glitter polish; Rimmel Salon Pro in Britpop; Tip Top in Cha Cha Cha and Innisfree in No.3.

And the Winner of the BH Cosmetics That's Heart Palette is.... 
KHOLOFELO MALATJI !!!!
Big congrats, darling! *Look out for another exciting giveaway soon ;-)*

Much love!

Divalicious Kisses

Xxxx

Hello Divas!

As most of you know I cannot resist a good beauty sale so when I saw Dischem had a huge one a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance to try some new products. In that haul I purchased these two nail polishes from L.A Girl. I have never used this brand before so I was pretty excited to try it. I chose the colours Tantrum which is a lovely bright pink shade and Nostalgic which is a pretty dark green glitter nail polish. The bottles hold 14ml of nail polish which is a little more than the nail polishes I usually buy. I like the logo and packaging of these bottles. It is quite pretty to display it on your vanity or in your nail polish holders.

So did these nail polishes pass the DIVA test? Read below! :-)

L.A Girl Tantrum
When I saw this colour on the shelf I instantly fell in love. It is a beautiful hot pink shade that I just had to add to my growing pink collection. The consistency of the nail polish is a perfect balance, not too runny and not too thick. It glides on the nail effortlessly and evenly. I was very surprised to see that the polish dries semi matte with not much shine. I was hoping for a bright shiny finished look. So I added my trusty Sally Hansen top coat and voila, the manicure had the shine I was looking for. The only con to this was that the polish changed to a slight coral colour as soon as the top coat dried. Sigh! I really hate it when nail polish does this. Alas, I am on the fence with this polish. It is a beautiful pink but it does not give the glossy finished look that I want and changes colour with a top coat. I really want to love this polish but I can't. So I won't be purchasing it again.  I give this polish 3 DIVA KISSES.


L.A Girl Nostalgic
I don't have anything like this in my nail polish collection so I thought this would be a nice addition. The polish consists of round metallic green glitter held together by clear polish. The particles are quite big in size compared to other glitter polishes like Sally Hansen and Mavala. The polish has a gel consistency when applied. The particles are big and far apart from each other so I added Tip Top Cha Cha Cha as a base colour and then Nostalgic over that. I added two coats of Nostalgic which is a good amount for a reasonable glittered manicure. I think this polish looks really beautiful on my nails. You cannot see it in the photo above but my manicure looked like blue mermaid scales when it would shine in the sunlight. I really love this polish and the finished look it gives. I can't wait to experiment and try it over different colour base coats. I would definitely repurchase this one as it is a unique metallic colour and makes manicures fun.
I give this polish 5 DIVA KISSES.

Hope you found this review helpful. Have a great week.

Divalicious kisses
Xxxx