Thursday 15 October 2015

CLEANING MY MAKEUP BRUSHES.



Today I took on the mammoth task of cleaning my make-up brushes. It's something we all despise, but it needs to be done. Make-up brushes can harbour all kinds of bacteria - let's face it, it's something that's used all over our face, eyes, lips and anywhere else you apply make-up on a regular basis. If they are your personal make-up brushes, they may not need to be cleaned as often as those that belong to a make-up artist and are perhaps used on a number of clients. I like to try and clean my personal brushes as often as possible, and there are a number of ways to do so.

First of all - you want to find a product to clean your brushes with. When we talk about cleaning the brushes, we mean the bristles - not necessarily the handles which can be wiped down with a cloth or a make-up wipe of some variety. I've used a variety of different products - shampoo, baby shampoo, a solid cleanser, a liquid anti-bacterial soap, a regular brush cleaner - all of which do the trick, but I think it's all about finding a personal preference. I've heard about using Olive Oil but I haven't tried that and I'm not all that convinced that using a product that you use to cook food is all that good on your face. At the moment I've been using the Dr. Bronner 18 in 1 Pure Castille Soap in the scent Rose, (I purchased mine from ASOS, but you can buy it in a lot of other places) but you can use anything you like that does the job properly. I'd also recommend Johnson's Baby Shampoo, BeautyBlender Solid Cleanser and if you're in a fix - regular shampoo.

Let's talk as though you are using a liquid product (anything that's not a solid cleanser). You need to put a little amount in your hand and massage the brush into the product until the residue begins to appear the colour of the product originally on your brushes. When rinsing the product from the brush, you need to make sure that you are angling the brush downwards so that you don't get water into the ferrule (the metal bit) which is where the bristles are glued into place - any water in here and the bristles can get dislodged and eventually begin to shed.

I used to use the product in my hands, but after a few brushes I found it became uncomfortable so I started to put the cleanser on my make-up mixing palette and rub the brushes onto that instead, it worked a lot better and my hands felt a lot nicer as opposed to beforehand. This works brilliantly and gives my mixing palette a good clean too!

Once their cleaned, I give them a good squeeze and set them back to their original shape so that they dry nicely. Some of my denser brushes don't always rinse that well so more often than not I'll have to go back and rinse them out again. I then use an old tea-towel (nothing fancy at all), and roll up the end slightly so that the handles are higher than the bristles when drying - again, this stops any residue or water build up in the ferrule so prevents bristles from shedding.

I know it's tedious but it's something you MUST do! If you haven't done so lately, go and clean your brushes now!



CHANEL SOLEIL TAN DE CHANEL


The Chanel Soleil Tan De Chanel is an iconic product and something I had my eye on for the longest period of time - perhaps the product I own that I lusted after for the longest - and I can safely say it was worth it. As a Chanel product, it was pricey but I treated myself to it as a gift for finishing university with a 2:1. First of all, the lady on the counter when I purchased it was the most helpful person, and definitely represented Chanel with style and class - something I always love to see. She explained the product fully to me and told me all of the different ways in which I could use it.

The product itself is a cream bronzer - something I'd never ever worked with but always wanted to. It's also one of those products that's so pretty you don't actually ever want to use it - it took me a while, but eventually I did!

I use it two different ways - one way is to use it to bronze up your skin, which is going to be perfect when it comes to Summer and my upcoming holiday. I use my Real Techniques Contour Brush and buff it into the skin instead of using a powder bronzer. Over application can give an orangey-muddy look but if used correctly it can give you a bronze goddess summer glow which looks gorgeous.

Another way that I use it is as a cream contour product - I use the Real Techniques Bold Metals 301 brush which is a dense, flat contour brush. The density of this brush means that it doesn't suck up any of the product and creates a stiff line of contour on your skin. I line the outer parts of my hairline, my temples, hollows of my cheekbones, chin and nose with this product, apply whatever concealer/foundation I'm using to the blank sections of my face and then blend together using a Beauty Blender.

One thing I can say about this product is a little for sure goes a long way - it looks as though it's hardly been touched so I know it will last me a long time!




Wednesday 14 October 2015

TOO FACED BETTER THAN SEX?


The Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara has been at the top of some peoples make-up must haves for a while now, so I bought it for myself with some birthday money that I had. Considering I'd never tried anything from Too Faced before, needless to say I was eager to try it.

One of the first things that I noticed was the packaging - I've always been a fan of Too Faced's packaging, it's so iconic and allows you to immediately recognise the brand. The mascara tube feels as though it's made of metal, and is relatively heavy for a mascara however that didn't put me off at all.

The wand itself is relatively big and the hourglass shaped applicator is thick and at first glance seems as though it would give a false lash effect. The statistics on the packaging state that 90% of users saw a dramatic look with one coat so I had high hopes for this mascara, especially as I'd seen so many people raving about it.

The rumours were definitely true about this! It adds a lot of volume, although not that much length but it definitely adds a lot of drama. At first, I had to let this mascara dry a little as the formula is a little too wet for my liking, however once it had dried out the mascara was perfect for me and on first impressions alone has quickly become one of my favourite go to mascaras to use. I would definitely recommend a careful application, however, purely because the applicator is so big and if you wear mascara on your lower lashes then be even more careful with the application.

I'll definitely be using more products from this brand purely on the impression of this one product. 
Go Too Faced!