Dawn Siler

By my very nature I am inquisitive (read nosy), particularly in regards to beauty products. I want to know what you use and why. Let me see the contents of your make-up bag in all its natural glory, let’s forget Instagram filters and pretty pink packaging. Show me what really works. Tell what you are loyal to and why. Give me your inside scoop, a behind the scenes glimpse into your life whatever your profession, budget or complexion needs may be…

Let me kick off #Projectmakeupbag…

If a product can leak, it will chose to do so in my bag – it seems to be some weird unwritten law, that or I am just entirely feckless. That’s why I personally gravitate towards the beautiful cotton pouches from Elizabeth Scarlett (you can find my exact one here) – it’ big, beautiful and worst case scenario it can be machine washed.

My everyday make-up bag serves two purposes:it contains all I need to tame my hair and oily skin throughout the day, yet provides all the essentials should I have to travel to a meeting in London at the last minute. As such everything is used at least once a day (even if that is just at home) and I like to think I have parred it back to the absolute essentials but I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Daily SPF you need it, there’s really no grey area when it comes to protecting your skin against UV rays as far as I am concerned. I do flip flop a lot between brands and formulations depending on my mood, budget and skin state. At the moment I am really enjoying Teoxane Advanced Protecting Shield SPF30; it’s lightly tinted, non-greasy and contains hyaluronic acid to help moisturise too. I have the full size bottle at home which I use to re-fill this little pump dispenser every so often.

I seldom apply base products straight from the tube, rather I tend to mix a few products together to create my own franken-foundation. At the moment I am using: The Ordinary Serum Foundation, YSL Touche Eclat Blur Primer, Collection Lasting Finish Lemon Colour Corrector and a little of Charlotte Tilbury Wonder Glow – if you look carefully you can see a few areas of the product in which I haven’t thoroughly mixed the products together. Yes, that is an old, mini glass Herborist Day Cream jar – it’s perfectly sized and seemed a savvy and environmentally sound decision at the time.

As someone with very oily skin it’s practically unheard of for me not to have some sort of setting powder on my person at all times. I can not recommend the Clarins Pore Perfecting Matifying Kit enough, it contains a lightweight blotting powder and set of paper blotting sheets so you can easily mop up excess shine on-the-go.

A few other "odd" things I do? I bundle my make-up brushes (Clinique Buff Brush, mini Laura Mercier Eye Crease Brush and It Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe French Botique Blush Brush) and  together using a hair-tie with a few hair-grips slid on so I always know where they are, and I stash my hoop earrings (never under estimate the power of a set of earrings) and any medicines that I may have inside my plaster box.

The reoccurring theme within my make-up bag is multi-tasking staples; if it can serve more than one purpose, chances are it will make it into my everyday beauty rotation.  I personally swear by Benefit Cosmetics mini’s – they last a deceivingly long time and often come free with magazines (but you didn’t hear that from me). I tend to lug around Benefit Hoola in mini form and use it both to contour my face and often as an eyeshadow. My other dinky essential is Benefit Benetint, a rose scented multi-purpose tint that creates the most perfect "bitten" red lip, that stays firmly in place all day long. My only other powder product is Essence Blushplay in 10 Play it Peach, again this serves a few purposes: blush, highlight and often eyeshadow too. I do tend to dab my brush into all three shades and apply as one product, rather than using each tone individually on my cheeks – I find this creates a really healthy and lifted glow.

In Winter (rain, snow and sleet) and Summer (heat and sweat) I rely on waterproof mascara formulations but for the rest of the year, I do tend to skip it and reach for something a little more gentle and easier to remove. Since it’s launch a few years ago, I have become heavily invested in Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara – sure it takes a little while to dry down to the perfect consistency but once it does, nothing else is all that comparable. Coincidentally in the Winter months, I do swap this out for the waterproof version.

I like big, bushy natural brows and for that gel formulations work best, I typically recommend Maybelline Brow Precise Fiber Filler. It fills, tames, plumps and holds the brows firmly in place, you can also add additional layers of product hours down the line for a more dramatic look and it doesn’t flake – the flat brush is also pretty nifty for creating a fluffy brow look.

MAC Angel Lipstick has been my go-to pink/nude for longer than I have been blogging, admittedly it isn’t for everyone but it works well with my complexion and pairs well with natural-ish make-up. Over the years I have learnt to spice it up a little with a deeper lip liner, which currently comes in the form of Kiko Sweetheart Lip Pencil in Shade 01 – super cheap but long-wearing and very creamy. I always cart around at least one lip balm and at the moment, I have been favouring Nivea Hydro Care Lip Balm – it has a lovely, almost velvet like finish so it is ideal for under any other lip product and yet it does offer substantial moisture. On occasion I will apply this over a lip liner to create a comfortable lip stain.

Now over to you #projectmakeupbag

"Bloggers (and vloggers) are a special breed and live enchanted lives. They are surrounded by thousands of loving followers, get free-flowing funds from eager sponsors, and enjoy oodles and oodles of freebies and goodies from every spot on the planet. In short, every blogger has it made".

Or so some seem to think.

From a readers point of view, I can see how the life of a blogger could appear a bit on the glamorous side, but there isn’t a single blogger or vlogger I know who experiences it like that.

There are some less fortunate sides to ‘putting yourself out there’ that aren’t made public and may only be mentioned privately in the company of close friends.

That’s what we’re looking at today.

Sadly it doesn’t take the bins out nor does it do the dishes.

Foundation is a fickle mistress, especially when you have combination skin. No scrap that, especially when you have skin anything other than a "normal" complexion – what is "normal skin" anyway? Normal to me is looking less than radiant and akin to heavy slog in the local chippy, in which I have used my face to blot up any excess oil. And yet normal to you might be a complexion drier than the Sahara desert. I won’t pretend for one moment that there’s a suit-all solution out there but the latest Clinique launch – Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup (foundation to us mere mortals) is pretty darn close.

Everything I like about a foundation, Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup offers from the get-go, including an easy to use squeeze-style bottle. If like myself you never actually get around to picking up a pump for your beloved favourite bases (looking at you NARS Sheer Glow), or simply hate glass bottles for whatever reason, this should be your favourite type of packaging. I personally find this style of bottle travels better and you can also cut the tube up to scrape every little drop out – it’s 2019, we waste nothing. The downside? Forget to pop the lid back on and let’s just say you’ll ruin any surface that the rogue liquid comes into contact with.

Odes to convenient packaging aside, the new Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup’s real selling point is the formulation and expansive shade range (27 hues in total) covering light, medium and deep skin tones, all of which come in various undertones such as warm, cool and neutral. In my experience, Clinique foundations do veer a little on the deep side so I would advise getting colour-matched at your local counter.

If like myself you don’t particularly enjoy the sensation of heavy make-up and yet you require something a little more than a tinted moisturiser, Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup is the answer. It is nourishing, and as the name suggests hydrating but not so much that it is overly rich and thus being problematic to oily complexions; rather it feels like a great gel based moisturiser. The beauty of the lightweight texture is that allows the skin to breathe, and yet it can be applied in layers, should you need more coverage than its default veil of a light to medium base. As this is slightly creamier than most foundations, I do recommend setting this product with a setting Powder and/or make-up setting spray to prolong wear, especially if you do have oily to combination skin.

My train of thought recently in regards to make-up is that if it is going to be on my face for several hours on end, it may as well do something beneficial – and this is what sets the Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup aside from the rest. The latest Clinique launch contains hyaluronic acid to help to moisturise and of course plump the skin. It also contains potent peptides (not individually named) to keep skin the smooth and create a naturally flawless surface, but perhaps most significantly of all, it contains salicylic acid to gently re-texture the complexion. Due to the latter ingredient, please couple this base product with a daily facial SPF to avoid sun damage to the complexion.

So essentially Clinique Even Better Refresh Hydrating and Repairing Makeup not only provides an easy to wear, comfortable everyday base but it also gently moisturisers your skin and gently exfoliates too. Make-up just got upgraded and if you are half as lazy as I am when it comes to exfoliating, you owe it to yourself to try this out.

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