Instanbul Haul — Flormar and Golden Rose cosmetics

I couldn’t resist a spot of beauty shopping whilst in Istanbul. The city has a good selection of stores selling both high-end and high-street beauty, but I was on the look out for brands that I hadn’t heard of before and that weren’t available in the UK.

 

The first brand I spotted was Flormar, which reminded me a lot of Barry M with it's bright coloured store. They had a good selection of makeup, makeup brushes, nail polish and even hand/nail cream and perfume. I asked in store if the brand was Turkish, and was told yes, but the bag I left with and the website both say founded in Milan — go figure!

I lot of the eyeshadows and blushes were very shimmery and frankly I really shouldn’t be adding more of these to my collection. Instead I picked up a BB cream, which when I swatched in store I realised is actually nothing like a BB cream but may be a very nice tinted moisturiser, based on the consistency and feel of the product.

I also picked up three lip liners. Recently I have been wearing bolder lip colours, which could do with the additional lip definition. One thing that immediately impressed me about the lipliners is that I recognised names on the ingredients list, with the main ingredient listed as hydrogenated palm oil.

Another brand (which I believe is Turkish) was Golden Rose, which I found in pharmacies and convenience stores and therefore had a smaller product range. Again the products here all seemed to be very heavy on the shimmer. One thing I spotted, which I now regret not buying, was a baked eyeshadow set that could be used wet or dry. However, what I did pick up was the Terracotta stardust blush in the shade 03, again this is shimmery, but with a light hand I believe this will look very pretty.

Istanbul seemed to offer a lot of was homemade beauty, soaps in particular. I found a few individual shops selling homemade goods and there were also a few stalls in the spice and grand bazars.

The stalls listed the ingredients/scent use and the benefits that the ingredients were meant to have.  I however, based my choice on smell and chose Olive oil with cinnamon and fig. Both smell gorgeous and although generally I don't use soaps on my face, if I find that these aren't suitable I know I will be able to use them on my body. The soaps cost just over £1 each, which is a bargain compared to the cost of handmade and natural products in the UK.

I will of course do full reviews of the makeup products once I have had a chance to test them. I would love to know if you have heard of or tried either of these brands and what you thought.