Dubai beauty haul

For a bit of a change of pace, we visited Dubai last weekend. It's a five-hour drive from Muscat, and it feels like entering another planet; the contrast between the places is so huge. Having not purchased any beauty products for six months -- I'll pause and let you take that in for a moment --  I was keen to see what was new and treat myself for being so restrained for so long.

Make-up has a whole new meaning for me since moving to the Middle East; frankly, it's not so fun. The heat here means makeup just melts off your face no sooner you step out the door. After watching a video by Lisa Eldridge about pinpoint concealing, I decided that is the approach I need to take: a light base to even, and a thick, full-coverage concealer for the problem areas.

So with this in mind I picked up a few things.

The first stop was Makeup Forever, which is available in Muscat, but the staff are so unhelpful (to the extent that they don't even acknowledge you have entered the shop) that I haven't actually tried anything yet. I know the HD foundation is meant to be good, but I picked up the Full-coverage Concealer (shade 7) and Aqua Brow (shade 23). I 'm not sure if the Aqua Brow is something I can get used to, I expect it will need a lot of practice, but on the day the makeup artist did such a good job of making it look easy (and my brows amazing) that it had to be purchased.

Next was Sephora, and I picked up the Nars Tinted Moisturiser in the shade L3 Groenland, which I really hope I have matched myself to correctly. I had a rather useless sales assistant who thought it was appropriate to match me to my hand rather than my face.

I also picked up another shade of the Cream Lip Stain (shade 6). I discovered my love for these after my last trip, although I heard they have changed the formulation so we'll see if the love remains with this shade. The shade looks a little light in the image, but it is actually a mauve/brown colour.

Finally, I also threw into the basket, rather impulsively, the Sephora Airbrush Foundation brush (number 58). I have, and love, the concealer brush, and this feels exactly the same, but it is a rather odd pointed shape. Having used buffing style foundation brushes for so long, it will be interesting to see how this compares.

So that's it, a modest haul from Dubai. I really want to hone in on products that really work for me. I feel like I have a good collection when it comes to skincare, but not so much when it comes to base products.

I feel it was quite a modest haul considering how long it has been since I purchased anything new. Look out for full reviews soon.