The Lovely Laura from Petitmoi-bigworld has tagged me to partake in the five product face challenge.  I'm quite lazy really and make-up isn't part of my daily routine, I tend to only wear it if i'm feeling bored or particularly blue.  Occasionally i'll go through phases through which I realise that I do actually feel a but perkier when wearing it and will thus do so for a week or so but then I end up forgetting again.  I will however admit to the direct correlation between the increasing instances of me wearing it and my increasing age.

As a child I was in dance competitions as part of a group (yes really, me doing something physical and with other people too.  Obviously The Mother must have drugged my food) and make-up was mandatory, not just make-up but shed loads of it.  I hated it.  Then as a student with a zero hours contract at Principles I was informed that wearing make-up was part of the uniform.  I'm never keen on being made to do something.  Make-up became either a chore or a venting of expression.  I'd wear it as a statement, I'm a recovering Goth.  I saw little point in slaving over my face to perfect that 'I'm honestly not really wearing any make-up.  Honest' look so if i wore it, it was bloody obvious with thick black eyeliner, black, red or pink eyeshadows, coloured lashes and lots of glitter.  You get the picture.  Even at this stage though, because of the childhood dancing, I avoided foundation like the plague and stuck to plain old translucent (or white!) powder.

I'm getting older and sadder and I do actually quite like make-up and can see a difference now so I've finally relented and do have several variations of the 'making myself look human' au naturel look.  I even occasionally use foundation too.

I have a toolbox of makeup, yet for the challenge it's the go-to items, the ones you grab to use when time is limited and you just need the basics to make yourself look a little more human.

First off, you may have noticed I've already failed at the first hurdle.  I have chosen six items.  Oops.

1. I've tried several foundations ranging from BB creams, liquids, mousess, minerals yet I generally dislike the faff of putting it on, the feeling of wearing it and the colour.  I'm pale.  Ghostly pale.  I actually like it.  I don't want to be bronzed or orange.  I want to make my face look a tad less haggard without changing colour.  Even pale shades look oompa loompaish on me.  On a trip to the local market I was killing time looking at a make-up stall and found this little gem, Covergirl Tru-blend powder foundation.  It was a bargain at £2.50.  Besides the price, the good points are that it's compact, it goes on incredibly easy with minimal need for blending, it matches my skin perfectly in shade and it gives a decent coverage.  The bad point?  It's apparently discontinued and has been replaced with another bloody liquid foundation.  Needless to say i'll be stocking up on this whilst I can.

2.YSL Touche Eclat.  I already reviewed this here, so have a ganders to save me waffling about it again here.  I'm not one for fads or gimmicks but this does actually work.

3. LUSH Eyes Right Mascara.  Again, I've already reviewed this product here.

4. MUA Luxe Precision Felt Liner.  I have two eyeliner defaults, thick nasty smudgy grunge or else precision black with flicks.  For the latter this item is the bomb.  I've tried pencils, crayons, gels, liquids etc over the years but for a neat, quick, effortless line, in my opinion, a felt tip style liner is the way to go.  Every time.  You can buy far more expensive ones yet I see little point when in comparison this one does exactly what I want it too.

5. My favourate eye shadow for the quick human look is actually a L'oreal pallet there's one for blondes and one for brunettes depending on how I feel like looking that day.  They go on very smooth and the pigment is lovely.  However, I've not chosen them because for a quick and ready look you really can't beat the MUA Colour Blast eye tint in 'Stay' (I have some of the other colours too)  It's just a mere shine of colour that glides on.  No need to faff around with brushes, glide on and if needed give it a quick smudge and blend with your finger.  It gives a very subtle dewy look that's simple, natural and effective.  Incredibly quick.

6.  Yes, six.  Always one to deviate from the rules, sorry. It's only in the past couple of years that I've started to use products on my eyebrows.  I just never saw the point of doing anything other than plucking them before.  I'm not one for dramatic or silly statement brows so it just seemed a superfluous effort and purchase.  That is until I experimented.  I never realised how naked my brows looked before.  Giving them a bit of colour really does complete a look.  I'll even go so far as to say that when wearing make-up, I feel silly if I forget to do my brows.  I prefer the look powder gives them but for practicality and lack of smudge a pencil is far more logical a choice.  In typical Mama Undone style (or lack thereof) I go for the cheapest as all I want is a bit of colour and at £1 a pop including a brush you can't beat MUA Eyebrow pencil.

I'm suppose to tag five people here to do this themselves yet rather, if you're reading this and you'd like to take part, consider yourself tagged!

Still female: Mummy bags

I've never been unnecessarily huge on makeup, having performed in dance competitions as a child, it was more a thorn in my side then something to aspire to actually wanting to use.  Moving on to the teen years and it became a statement, black kohl and black lipstick were my friends, yes darlings i'm a recovering goth, do keep up.  However, now i'm of a certain age when quite frankly  I need daily intervention and camouflage from the shriveled and creased apparition that haunts my mirrors.
In particular thanks to The Toddler, those dastardly irksome shadows under my eyes.  It's like a stripe of motherhood we have to wear. I'm no makeup artisan, I'm just an every day pleb who's trying to look a little less ghastly with the aid of makeup, so what you have here is a no frills, bollocks free honest review.


Having tried various concealers and the likes over many years in sticks and pots and such, I remained unimpressed.  Lately I have invested in two products.

The first is PeepO by Lily LoLo, a corrector as opposed to a concealer having decided to take a new line of attack.  The blurb and indeed the reviews were surprisingly promising and since I'm a little bit in love with their foundation and finishing powder (more on that later) I figured I'd throw caution (and precious pennies) to the wind and to hell with it, give it a go.  It comes in the, by now familiar, Lily LoLo pot, with the nifty and practical design so you can actually turn and block the product from seeping out under the lid when not in use (take note E.L.F, this is something your mineral products lack) It's fairly tightly packed so you do have to give it a good old shake to get some content onto the lid to use.  Now I've tried using a concealer brush and my finger, I've tried blotting and I've tried dabbing and even, yes, buffing ... and not in the You Tube way either.  Yet, no matter what I try two facts remain 1) It's an absolute bugger to blend in and apply 2) For me at least, it doesn't actually work, insofar as to say after all the faffing I notice no real difference.  Arse.  At £7.49+ postage a pot, it's a rather expensive revelation.  Unfortunately they don't offer sample pots, a rather genius marketing decision on their part.  I really wanted to like this product, truly I did.

The second product is the terribly famous YSL Touche Eclat, yes I've gone all posh.  Even the makeup inept like myself can't fail to have heard celebrities, make-up artists and fellow plebs wax lyrical about this potent elixir of marvel for years.  The problem?  To be frank it's fucking expensive.  This is the one and only reason that it's taken me so many years to bite the bullet and try it.  As a rule I don't or should I say more honestly can't do expensive.  I have neither the money nor the justification to indulge. Fortunately I managed to source one at less then half price, surely that was an omen right?  It would have been rude to not try it.  Bare in mind though even at this price this is a rather significant expenditure for me.  What can I say?  I'm terribly cheap. It did take a while to actually order it as the shade guide had my brain twisting, seeing as none of the examples appeared to remotely resemble my skin, pink undertones? yellow undertones?  I thought the undertones were a band.  In the end with a mental tantrum I gave up and just opted for the original one.  Classic baby.  Yeah.

Firstly the boring stuff, the box, the gleaming sleek shiny wand pen of gold inside?  At least they had the decency to make it look expensive to match the price tag.  I admit to simply holding it for a while possibly expecting it to be real gold or to whisper sweet nothings to me to evoke instant l'amour. I even shook it a few times wondering why the spell hadn't been cast yet seeing as it's supposedly sheer utter witchcraft in a pen.  When you first use it, don't panic, you have to press the top up to 30, yes 30, times to get the product flowing.  Yes, I did have to check the instructions after I gingerly at first then somewhat frantically began pressing it panicking that I had an empty one.  I've read some people suggest using the brush end of the pen to apply it and others who insist you put the product on your hand and apply it with dabs of the finger, either way works, regardless I use my fingers to blend.

I really wanted to hate this product.  I secretly slip into a state of glee at finding out over hyped and over priced products are quite frankly utter tosh.  I'm a natural born cynic and find it terribly hard to buy into clever marketing.

However, I have to say, I love it.  It blends easily and although it's no surgical nor airbrushed perfection it does indeed cleverly deflect from the abhorrent shadow bags of doom under my eyes making them appear fresher, lighter and brighter.  Job's a good 'un.  It's really, unfortunately for the purse strings, all that jazz.  As it's technically a highlighter as opposed to a conventional concealer you can also use it on the contours of your lips, to contour your cheeks and other areas of the face.  It can be worn over or under your base and applied later in the day if you need to freshen up too.  The only cons are obviously, the price and over time the brush may become clogged with product if you don't precariously clean it frequently.  All in all it really is an absolute feel-good makeup item, several people list it as one of their must have products and yes, I can honestly see why.

I'm miserable with a cold right now, I may, when better update this post with some swatches and before and after application pics, but seriously people, don't hold your breath and if you're that interested, i'm sure Google is your friend.