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Monday 13 April 2015

REVIEW: BeautyBlender and Micro Mini BeautyBlender

Monday 13 April 2015
The infamous BeautyBlender is something I first heard about when I started watching beauty gurus on Youtube about 5 years ago, back then the thought of spending £16 on a sponge that I would have to throw out after a few months was ludicrous. Anyway fast forward 5 years and here I am the proud owner of a BeautyBlender (£16) and Micro Mini BeautyBlender (£13), I did A LOT of research on these and found that the original pink BeautyBlender came across as "the best" over the white pure and black pro BeautyBlenders. As for the Micro Mini a lot of people claimed this to be unnecessary and not functional due to its tiny size, I decided to give it a shot anyway just to see if I could find a way to use it.

beautybelnder and micro mini beautyblender (both damp)
Okay first up is the original BeautyBlender which I adore, this honestly is something really special. My foundation applies so evenly when using the BeautyBlender and my skin always looks so flawless as the BeautyBlender really works the product into my skin. At first I found the idea of applying foundation to my face on a wet sponge a little odd but it works so who am I to complain. I have also used the original BeautyBlender to blend in concealer and cream bronzer which worked amazingly too.

damp beautyblender, top - dry mini micro beautybelnder, bottom - damp mini micro beautyblender
I bought the Mini Micro BeautyBlender to blend in my concealer, I didn't have a brush in my collection which was specifically for blending in concealer and when using heavy duty concealers I was really struggling to blend it in nicely. For concealer I love this product it works just as well as the original and leaves a really nice flawless finish. When I received the mini micro I was really shocked at how small they are, they do expand when damp to be a usable size though! 

BeautyBlenders make their own solid and liquid cleaner for the beautyblendes which are supposed to be really good but for now i've just been using baby shampoo which is working just fine for me. They are surprisingly easy to clean actually, I clean mine after about four or five uses. 

I think the biggest question surrounding BeautyBlenders is are they worth the money? You have to take into consideration what you already have - I use the Real Techniques Buffing Brush to blend in my foundation and even though the BeautyBlender does give a smoother finish it isn't a product that will last you years like my Buffing Brush will. 

Saturday 11 April 2015

Wishlist #1

Saturday 11 April 2015

I feel like I am forever lusting after beauty products, here are some that I am dying to get my hands on at the minute!

1. Zoeva Rose Golden Complete Eye Set (£57) - Even though I have a million make up brushes I always somehow need more, lately I have been drooling over this Zoeva rose gold brush set. I feel like this has every eye brush I will ever need and so buying it makes perfect sense... right?

2. Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow (£49) - Everyone has been going insane over contouring and highlighting recently and i'm not going to lie I may have jumped on the bandwagon. I've already splurged on the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Palette which I do love don't get me wrong but these powders have a lovely glow to them which I am in desperate need of.

3. Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade (£15) - I've got the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, I love it. I've got the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo, I love it. So naturally I need the Dipbrow Pomade. I feel like this is a big statement but Anastasia has single handedly made me confident and good-ish at filling in my brows, there products are such good quality and match my brows perfectly honestly what more could you want.

4. Seche Vite Top Coat (£5) - I've recently started painting my nails on a regular basis again and my Barry-M top coat really isn't hitting the mark anymore, I need something with a bit more umph. Loads of beauty bloggers and youtubers went wild for this top coat last year and I figured all the hype around this product must mean that its an amazing top coat.

5.Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Contour and Highlight (£19 each) - As mentioned my contour and highlight obsession is endless and I really want to try a cream contour product and this one by Clinique looks right up my ally, i've swatched this in store and it really is beautiful natural contour shade. I don't really mind bronzers with an orange undertone, I think they compliment my completion but these products would be great for a no fuss contour and highlighting routine.

Sunday 5 April 2015

March Favourites

Sunday 5 April 2015



Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz - I have only really recently started filling in my brows, I have pretty big and full eyebrows so for the longest time I never really thought there was a need for me to do my eyebrows. But one day I just decided I at least wanted to give it a go, I mean what can go wrong right? So I picked up the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz because this product is talked about so much I thought it was probably my best bet. I bought this online which was the pretty risky but I eventually settled on the shade Dark Brown which matches me (hallelujah). I love it. Yep I love it, it takes me about 5 seconds to define my brows and because it is so tiny it doesn't make my already full brows look like two rather large caterpillars are placed above my eyes. I set it with some clear brow gel and i'm ready go to, my eyebrows are defined all day.

Bourjois Bronzing Primer - This is a product that has been out for a while but i've only just recently acquired it. Now I know this is called a bronzing primer and I think your supposed to use this under your foundation but I don't use it like that. How I like to use this product is after i've used foundation, concealer and powder I place this in the areas where you bronze/contour and then I go in with a bronzer over the top of the bronzing primer. I find using this method creates a really lovely natural bronze look which I love. The product itself has a mousse like consistency and smells really nice too - I think it smells like the seaside for some reason.

Maubelline Dream Touch Blush - I don't usually gravitate towards cream blushed but I have fallen in love with this one from Maybelline. I use my Real Techniques Stippling Brush to blend this in and it just gives a really lovely fresh spring sheen to my face.

from left to right - anastasia beverly hills brow wiz in dark brown, bourjois bronzing primer and maybelline dream touch blush in 02

Clinique Moisture Surge - I use the Clinique 3 Step System and have recently been finding that the Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel hasn't really been up to the mark to deal with my dry patches. So I have started using Moisture Surge at night in my skincare routine and have found that it has worked really effectively is rehydrating my skin.

Naked Basics 2 - I have been loving wearing the Urban Decay Naked Basics 2 for just day to day looks, the cool toned palette has everything you need to create a variety of neutral eye looks. My personal favourite look from the palette is Skimp all over the lid with Frisk in the crease.

from bottom to top - skimp, stark, frisk, cover, primal and undone

Thursday 2 April 2015

My first Z Palette and depotting eyeshadows

Thursday 2 April 2015
I recently decided to finally get myself a Z Palette, due to the fact that both my Urban Decay Naked on the Run palette and the Urban Decay 50th Anniversary palette had beautiful shadows in them which I just wasn't using because of the size of the palettes. Now I don't know about you but when it comes to palettes slimmer is always better in my mind. So I bought the small pink Z Palette from Amazon (£14.99), it comes with some magnets which is good but the magnets are awful - I would recommend just buying your own, my eyeshadows keep sliding all over the place... For £14.99 I think it is over priced, the quality of the actual palette is good but at the end of the day it is just an empty magnetic palette.




Anyway I have little to no experience in depotting, the only thing I have ever depotted before today was my MAC All That Glitters eye shadow because I had to have it in my MAC palette. There were a few casualties (r.i.p Midnight 15 and Ace) but I thought I did an okay-ish job. I just used a lighter to heat up the bottom on the palette and when it seemed hot enough i pushed my nail scissors through the plastic. Once the shadow was out I stuck on a magnet and voila!



And this is my finished palette, i'm quite happy with it to be honest. Hopefully now I will use the shadows more than when they were in their bulky original packaging.

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