EL Bronze Goddess Exotic Blush & Topshop Haul!

Gorgeous day in Oxford :) Perfect time to go shopping! I apologise in advance for the crappy pictures :( I don't have my digital camera with me so these were all taken with my phone.

Onto the good stuff: My favourite purchase of the day - Estee Lauder's Exotic Blush/Bronzer from the Bronze Goddess collection. I know I'm kind of late to jump on the bandwagon with this collection which has been out for ages but oh well!

A very bad swatch, I hope you can vaguely see it! The product isn't actually that pigmented anyway.

I wrote a review of it on makeupalley.com :)

Just bought this today after the EL salesgirl put it on me. I had originally only gone in to buy the Pure Crystal lipstick in Crystal Baby (GORGEOUS GORGEOUS.. Go try it and you'll be surprised! I usually loathe pink lipsticks but this is sheer pinky-coral goodness in a tube) but with 2 purchases you got the free gift bag and I'm a sucker for any sort of "free" promotion.

Starting with the bad stuff: The compact is made out of plastic and on the bright side, this makes it very light and easy to carry, but for £26.50 I expected a more sturdy compact - this feels way flimsier than most drugstore products and the hinge already seems a little dodgy. Unimpressed. There is a huge mirror in the lid though which is lovely - gotta have a big mirror! So bad points - price and packaging.

The product doesn't come with a brush so instead of shelling the £32.50 on the new powder brushes the SA was trying to promote, I bought an ecotools powder brush, which is soft and gorgeous and I highly recommend it.

Luckily, the best thing about this product is the product itself! It has a zebra print swirl/pattern of a soft brown (the bronzer) and a muted pink (the blush). Apparently its supposed to be inspired by the coral reef but it just looks like a zebra print to me.

Upon swatching, it actually looks much more pinky than bronze - kind of like how Benefit's Coralista would look swatched but with a more pastel/chalky pink, rather than a coral tone. The bronze doesn't show up much on my finger.

When applied to the face (I am around NC25 but MAC stuff generally doesn't match my skin... I am a spot on match for Chanel Vitalumiere in 20 Claire or Lancome's Photogenic in 03), the product imparts a gorgeous glow, not quite bronzey, ever so slightly pink, not shimmery nor muddy - just like my skin is glowing! I was not convinced at first under the harsh Boots store light but once I went outside I had to run back and get it - under sunlight this makes you look so healthy! I have to use yellow-toned foundations to balance out the pink in my face and therefore have a tendency to look a bit beige and blah. This baby worked its magic and made me look a bit rosier (but not red or flushed or hot and bothered).

I would steer clear or use a very light hand when dusting this onto your forehead because it could pick up more rosy, but I think the product is sheer (for my skin tone anyway and I'm quite light) and pretty much foolproof. It would definitely be more of a highlighter for darker skins as its really not very pigmented, but fair/medium skinned guys and gals - go and give this a try. The SA applied it more heavily on my cheeks and dusted it all over my face and I was amazed at what a difference it made. The shimmer doesn't really show unless you dust it a bit more heavily. This product would be gorgeous as a blusher, light bronzer (if you want to fake a tan then this isn't the right product - its more glowy than pigmented) or all-over face powder (which I was sceptical about but it works!).

And I think its limited edition, if you needed another excuse to buy it :)

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More shopping goodies

The Estee Lauder gift bag which comes with a purchase of any two items. I bought the Exotic blush/bronzer and Pure Crystal lipstick in Crystal Baby. For my free gift bag, I chose the skin care range for younger/combination skin as opposed to more mature/dry skin.

The contents of the bag (turquoise thing at the back), from left to right:

- Lipstick palette with 4 lip colours

- Lipstick in Rose Tea

- Box and Crystal baby lipstick (my other purchase, not included in the gift bag)

- (Little turquoise bottle) Idealist - Pore Minimizing Skin Refresher

- Perfectly Clean Fresh Balancing Lotion

- Double Wear Zero-Smudge lengthening mascara & Lash Primer Plus

- Perfectly Clean Splash Away Foaming Cleanser

- Daywear Plus Multi Protection Anti-Oxidant Creme SPF 15

Swatches of Rose Tea and Crystal Baby

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Non makeup goodies include these Topshop flats - wore them immediately and got blisters :( They still need breaking in. But they look so cute and folksy, when the weather warms up I want to wear these with bare legs and minimal makeup.

Also purchased this pair of Lila jeans - again influenced by Tanya of pixi2woo who always looks so gorgeous in hers in her vlogs!

Love the zip detailing at the ankle.

Whats that you say? I just bought a pair of jeans? Shhhhh.

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FOTD:

• Maybelline Dream Satin foundation (bought this instead of Chanel Vitalumiere because I couldn't bring myself to give the extremely incompetent salesgirl any commission). I'm really impressed with this foundation - good shade (Nude), lovely to blend, sets really smoothly... so far so good!
• EL Bronze Goddess Exotic bronzer/blush on the cheeks - can you see how it just gives a little bit of a glow?
• A little bit of the EL mascara, a thin line of eyeliner, brow pencil and thats it!

I've missed blogging! But exams aren't over for me yet :( I still have one more before I have to start writing my dissertation! The fun never ends...

Hope you enjoyed this post :) I always get so excited about my new purchases and don't really have anyone to show them to (besides my boyfriend who is less than enthusiastic) so this is my little outlet for my shopping excitement!

Has anyone else hauled the EL Bronze Goddess collection? What did you think?

Love,

Geisha xoxo