Friday Faves: Mattifiers

This week’s Friday Faves post is all about my favourite mattifying products. My skin isn’t oily – my skin is an oil slick! Some days it’s so bad that you can see little beads of sebum on my nose and the shine - oh, the shine! Unfortunately I still haven’t managed to find a holy grail product that keeps the oil and shine at bay, but this lovely lot make sure it’s not so bad.

  LOTIONS & POTIONS                                                                                                             

  MURAD T-ZONE PORE REFINING GEL*                                                                                                              

I’ve been meaning to review this for quite some time, but I absolutely love this stuff. I apply it underneath my moisturiser and it helps hold the shine off for a few hours. Unfortunately I’ve found that the longer I’ve used it the less effective it has become. However it makes an excellent base for my moisturiser and also my makeup. A tad on the pricey side at £45 though.

  MONU PURE CONTROL MATTIFYING LOTION                                                                                                 

Great lotion, great size. I don’t have anything bad to say about this product. It feels slightly powdery when you apply it and makes my skin feel a little tacky so it’s the perfect base for applying makeup. Again, it doesn’t stop the oil slick but prolongs a matte finish. At £14 it’s very affordable and will last absolutely ages.

  MURAD OIL-CONTROL MATTIFIER SPF15*                                                                                                        

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t usually tend to use SPF daily, I know, I know, no lectures please. I do however use it when I’ve had an abrasive treatment the day/night before to protect my skin from the sun. The awful thing about SPF lotions is that they can be quite heavy, so it’s difficult to find moisturisers containing SPF that don’t make my face look like a deep-fat fryer. It’s not what I’d reach for daily, but perfect for me after microdermabrasion or a glycolic peel. Quite pricey at around the £33 mark but great if you use SPF.

  GOOD THINGS MIRACLE MATTIFIER MOISTURISER                                                                                    

This smells gorgeous! Subtle blackcurrant without being overpowering or sickly. It’s not the best mattifyer, but it’s a lovely light moisturiser so doesn’t send my skin into oil production overdrive. It’s the cheapest lotion of all of them though, coming in at an insanely affordable £8 for a massive 100ml tube.

  BLOTTING PAPERS                                                                                                                 

When my mattifiers can’t hold off the shine I use blotting papers to dab away the excess shine.

  PAUL & JOE BLOTTING PAPER                                                                                                                              

These papers aren’t the best blotting papers, I tend to use them every couple of hours but not if my face is really shiny. They don’t really pick up much oil so they’re better for minor touch ups. The papers are very papery (go figure, haha) – by this I mean not entirely absorbent. I’d say they’re slightly overpriced at £10.50, but the compact packaging is just too cute.

  PRRETI OIL CONTROL FILM*                                                                                                                                

These babies are the daddy of blotting papers. I reviewed them here and they’re still my favourites. They’re not papers, they’re more like plastic sheets that absorb all of the excess oil on my face. The packaging has nothing on the Paul & Joe compact, but the sheets are fantastic. And at $5.99 they're as cheap as chips.

So those are my Friday Faves – have you tried any of these products? 
What do you use to keep the shine and excess oil away?

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Review: Prreti Oil Control Film Sheets

My fellow oily-skinned sisters will know that there’s nothing worse than spending time applying makeup in the morning, only for your face to be a shiny, oil slick by the afternoon. I’m not the kind of person that reapplies makeup, and I almost never carry makeup around with me. So I jumped at the chance of trying some Prreti Oil Control Film Sheets*.

They claim to “instantly soak up excess oil and remove shine from the face, without smudging makeup or leaving behind powder”.

The sheets themselves are blue, and feel like thin, flimsy plastic. They dispense easily from the cardboard case with a sticky tab that pulls them out one by one.

This is me [looking like a bug] after a long, hot day. The shine isn’t as bad as it looks here, the screen flash makes it look a lot worse!

This is me after blotting the right [your left] side of my face. As you can see there’s a big difference – especially on my cheek.

On the left is an unused sheet, and the right is the sheet I used on half of my face. The sheet itself turns translucent when it’s soaked up the oil, but as you can see it has also picked up some of my makeup too.

These sheets are great at soaking up the oil and getting rid of shine, however they do smudge my makeup a little. It’s not enough to stop be using them but if I’m out and about I’m not sure I’d really want to reach for them if I didn’t at least have a brush with me to fix any smudges.

Overall, I think these are all right. Whilst they don’t do exactly what they say on the tin, they definitely get the job done.

Prreti Oil Control Film Sheets* are $5.99 for 50 sheets, and are available from Natural Radiance.

Natural Radiance Giveaway Winners

Just a quick post to announce the winners of my Natural Radiance sponsored giveaway(*).

It’s been way too long since I posted, but I’ve got some time off of work now so I’ll be posting as regularly as I can (read: I’ll be posting so much that you’ll get sick of me).

Anyway, the winners were chosen through Random.org and will all receive a Cucumber Collagen Sheet Mask.

Congratulations to:

Alex, of I’m a Weapon of Massive Consumption

Emma, of Beauty by Emma, &

Emily, of Describing Beauty

I’ve sent you all an email so get back to me as soon as you can! :)

Lola ..x

Natural Radiance Giveaway Reminder! .. - CLOSED

Hey guys, 

Just a quick reminder that my Natural Radiance giveaway closes tomorrow at midnight!

To be in with a chance of winning one of three Korean sheet masks, head over to my original post and enter [link]! 

Lola ..x

Natural Radiance: Cucumber Collagen Mask Review & Giveaway - CLOSED

The lovely people at Natural Radiance kindly sent me some facemasks to try out last week. I was particularly excited because they specialise in Korean sheet masks and I’d never tried any before.

I received a Purederm cucumber collagen mask(*) with vitamin E, which “visibly moisturises the skin and restores skin tone after UV exposure”. Unfortunately I haven’t been in the sun, but working long days at a festival last week has taken its toll on my skin.

First impressions:

The packet says the liquid saturating the mask is 100% pulp. I was worried when I opened the mask as it seemed to be too liquid-y but it’s very thick and didn’t drip. I was hoping it would smell really fresh like cucumbers but there didn’t seem to be much scent to it at all.

The actual mask felt like baby wipe kind of material and was surprisingly thicker than I’d expected. It looked huge when I took it out of the packaging but I guess my face is bigger than I realised, as it seemed to fit with just a bit of overlap on the hairline.

I left it on for about 10 minutes more than the suggested 15minutes, until the edges started to dry. When I peeled it off my face felt a little sticky, but this disappeared within a few minutes once the residue was dry.

Probably the most unflattering mask I've ever tried! haha

Results:

Whilst I didn’t notice any visible difference in my skin, it feels a lot smoother and rehydrated. The boy even commented on how soft my face was. It was lovely and cooling, so definitely perfect for a quick fix once it gets a bit warmer, or generally if you’ve got dull, dry skin.

The only downside is that they make you look like a bit of a numpty. Excuse my miserable face in the pictures, it was a little awkward to smile!

Would I purchase?

Definitely. At just $0.88 each these are a complete steal! Unfortunately Natural Radiance doesn’t ship outside the UK just yet, but when they do I’ll definitely be buying!

Definitely check out the website, it’s sheet mask heaven!

I was also sent extra masks for a little giveaway so to be in with a chance of winning one of these lovely masks then to enter you must:

Image via WeHeartIt

    ♥ Be following my blog via GFC

 ♥ ‘Like’ the Natural Radiance Facebook page

   ♥ Leave a blog post comment with your GFC name & your favourite type of face mask.

Giveaway closes on Monday 21^st May.


There will be three winners, announced shortly after the giveaway closes.

Good luck! :)

*Product sent for review