Wednesday, May 29, 2013

One big giant Haul # 1: Brushes etc...

Hi! 
So this is a Haul because I haven't done any so far and I wanted to share the sweet deals that I made on the internet. I will try to describe the products and say what I used them for and how too. There's a lot of stuff but I'd still like to keep it a bit short so this post will be in two parts.

So let's start with the first.




This is a japanese lash curler and it's really good if you want to curl your lashes after applying false lashes or to curl someone else's lashes. I know how awkward it can be to curl someone else's lashes since I've done it a few times already. I'd suggest telling the person you're gonna curl their lashes and asking if they're comfortable with it or not. I usually show them the lash curler and tell them that if they want to they can do it themselves and I can do the rest. Most of the time, the person feels better after seeing and even holding the lash curler. You just have to show them that it's not a torture weapon. ^^

These are my favorite Daiso Japan products (then again I've never been to the store because Iget these online) and I don't think I could replace them. The first is a Charcoal Face wash and the second is a Peel-off charcoal face mask. The face wash leaves my skin squeeky clean and the face mask is unforgivable for black heads and sebum. It really gets in there to pull all the dirt out and it's actually so good that if you have peach fuzz, it will totally pull those hairs out too (I learnt the hard way by accidentally geting some on my forehead, never again) but my point is: it works 100%. I use the mask about twice a month (because I forget to) and the face wash when my skin is clear and doesn't require the use of Body Shop's Tea tree oil face wash.

This is the detergent that I use to wash my makeup brushes, it really cleans them very well and a little goes a very long way. You just need a little drop for small brushes and a little more for bigger brushes such as face and powder brushes. I will do a complete review of this to follow up on my blog post about caring for my brushes.

These little bad boys are double nail art pens, there's a pen tip, and then there's a fine brush tip to do nail art, they're really handy and come in a very large variety of colours but they smell quite strong so I would suggest using in a well ventilated room (and away from the BF =P cuz mine hates the smell of nail polish, he just won't admit it).


These are shadow pigments: I bought them from an ebay seller that I bought a few brushes from. I really like these because they're really like light but buildable too, they're very pigmented but not in an overpowering way, since they have glitters it kind of makes it a bit more subtle. I think these woud suit any kind of skin tone.
These are some beauty blender dupes, the best I've found so far.

This brush is one that I got specially to use for cream foundations because that's my favorite kind of foundation and it's complicated to use with any kind of brush, you need somehting that is firm but that's not gonna scratch your face either. This brush is perfect for that, the bristles are quite stiff as in they are firm and the brush is thick but the tips of the bristles are super soft so it feels really nice when applying the foundation, the fact that the bristles are soft at the tip help blend the foundation out too. 
This is the box that I got from Iherb and it's the one that I've been the most excited about because it had the Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman brushes. They're awesome! that's all I'll say for now as I'll do a separate review for them. They deserve it =)

For now, you can look and imagine how soft they are!










I also got a MAC brush that I wanted for quite a long time, it's the . And yes I can assure you that it's as soft as it looks!

This brush I bought from Ebay and it's a dupe of the Yachiyo brush by Nars. I just love it for blush or contouring, it's perfect because it doesn't pick up too much product and it blends effortlessly. I mostly use it when I use very pigmented products as it helps blend them better. This is an awesome find and the white one and the foundation brush version exist too.




This palette is quite the thing: I bought it from Ebay expecting to get a plain brandless packaging  and this is what I got, I don't know if MAC actually has a palette like this with the bronzer on one side and the highlighter on the other but if so I'd like to see it. I did find this though (http://www.multiply.com/CONTOUR-AND-HIGHLIGHT-MINI-PALETTE-550/p-bij0DLkkKs) and it looks a lot like what I have here. The powders are completely matte though and that's exactly what I was looking for.

I think I'll stop buying brushes for a while now because I'm becoming a brush hoarder, I'm actually scared to count and see how much I have... And yes there will be brushes in part two, that's how bad it is.

See you soon for part two ;)
Until then, take care.

Sonam

Friday, May 17, 2013

How I wash and take care of my Makeup brushes!


Hi!

I thought I would do this post after watching a video of Naseem Delan where she explained what well known and very hyped up products she didn't fall for and why.
I've been watching her videos for a few weeks now and I'm happy to have discovered  her channel as she is a very sweet and authentic person, which is quite rare on Youtube these days.
I liked this video because she expressed her honest opinion about a few things including the famous Sigma Spa™ Brush Cleaning Glove (here you can see MakeupSavvy found a much cheaper dupe of it =)).
I'd like to talk about that because at first I thought that it seemed like another completely useless and over-hyped product and it's also way too expensive, but there's actually one good side to it: it sparked my imagination!

When I saw this I figured that I could use a simple object to take my brush cleaning to another level. Any makeup user or makeup artist knows how time consuming and plain boring brush cleaning can be so anything that can make me save up some of my precious time is more than welcome.

Here's what I use to wash my brushes:



Daiso Japan Makeup brush cleaning Detergent
and this:






I trimmed some of the bristles for smaller brushes or thick brushes with shorter bristles!

It's actually a brush that I use to wash my hair, it really gets in there when you want to scrub your scalp or if you need to detangle your hair when it's dry (doing it wet is a big no no!!!). This is quite inexpensive. I saw it on Ebay for a few dollars (if you follow the link you can see a few suggestions).

I also use this to make them dry, they're dupes of the brush guards and I got them for pennies on ebay here and here.


It allows me to put them upside down in a container so that the water will drip right out and not damage the base of the bristles where the glue binds them together (example here), it also preserves the shape of the bristles.



What I do: I take all of the brushes and wet them a bit then I lay them flat (so that the water doesn't get into the metal thingie ferule!)
Then I take them one by one and apply some of the soap on them and start swirling the bristles on the hair brush,

this will remove most of the residue as you can see here. Then I rinse,but  for my bigger or thicker brushes I wash them again to make sure that it's really clean


and then I put them in these brush guard things that I got from Ebay and put them head down in a glass container and leave them until they're dry. 



Voila!

These few steps may seem complicated but they're actually quite easy and they will help you keep your brushes far longer and save you some time and water because the brushes are very clean very fast.
Sometimes we pay big bucks for our brushes so the least we can do is take care of them as much as we can.
Th detergent that I use on the brushes is quite drying, when I used to wash my brushes with my hands I noticed that so maybe you would like to try something less harsh or more eco-friendly, for that I suggest using some liquid castille soap (example here). You can also add some olive oil with the soap that you use to make the bristles stay nice and shiny.


The picture that I linked of a makeup brush and what is inside is from Evgeny Cosmetics' Facebook Page, I thought that it would be a good way to show the inside of makeup brushes and understand why you should be careful when washing them. He used some sort of twine to keep the bristles together then there's glue binding them on the tips but I've seen the inside of another random makeup brush and there wasn't any twine so you can imagine that if the bristles are only held by the glue, it's quite delicate.

Also if you are interested in beauty and fashion you can visit Naseem's Youtube Channel she has some amazing makeup looks and also some fitness tips there. There's also MakeupSavvy's blog where you can find a lot of makeup tips and tutorials and even blogging tips too! I will soon make a section with my favorite beauty Gurus on the blog.
I also wanted to add this link that gives some more information about makeup brushes: link.


I hope this post helped you in some kind of way. If you have any questions don't hesitate to leave them down below, I will be more than happy to answer them.


Take care,Bye!

Sonam