How I | Clean My Make Up Brushes

I will admit, I'm not the best at cleaning my brushes which I know isn't brilliant, but I do clean them at least once a week just to prevent putting bacteria on my face and causing bad skin. So I'm just doing a quick post on how I clean my brushes.

First of all you'll need any exfoliator, I just use this one because it's what I have at the moment (and it smells amazing). It was only £1 from a local pharmacy.

The other product you'll need is a baby shampoo, these work best because they're not too harsh on the bristles. You can buy this from Boots for £2.35 for 300ml.

This brush isn't too dirty as I don't regularly use foundation brushes like this, but it needed to be cleaned anyway. I bought this brush in a set a few years ago in Boots however I don't think it's available anymore.

First of all I put some exfoliator on my hand and work it into the brush on my hand and it helps get out most of the product. After that I rinse it off and then repeat but with baby shampoo to make the bristles softer.

Finally it looks perfectly clean again, and I just leave it to dry overnight so I can use whatever brushes I need in the morning.

I also cleaned my Elf stippling brush which I sometimes use to apply powder.

Hope this was helpful.

xx

Maybelline Age Rewind Concealer

A while ago I was watching Sam Schuerman's youtube channel and she mentioned one of her favourite concealers, and as I love her videos it made me want to go and buy it straight away. The only slight issue with this concealer is that I think it's been discontinued, but I got mine on eBay for about £3.70. You can buy it from this seller currently. I got mine in fair because as I always say, I am very pale and especially for under the eyes you want a lighter concealer.

The packaging in my opinion is average, I don't dislike it but there's nothing amazing about it.

I think it's good that the applicator is quite small so you don't get loads of product at once, however despite that I would recommend only using a small amount as a little goes a long way.

You can see that a little does go a long way. Considering I use this under my eyes to hide dark circles, it had enough coverage to hide them, but it's not too thick to make it look cakey.

xx

Accessorize Baked Blush in 'Scandal'

A while ago I went into Accessorize and I ended up purchasing a baked blush in 'Scandal'. I don't own any other baked blushes and I thought they looked similar to the MAC baked blushes and for only £5 it was so cheap as well!

I really love the packaging (sorry mine's a bit dirty - it's got eyeliner and mascara on it), the butterflies look really cute and you can see the blush as well.

As you can see it's in Scandal as I previously mentioned.

The actual product is even prettier than the packaging. I really like how this can be used as a highlighter and blush in one. I'm very pale, and so it gives a nice glow to the skin and means I don't have to highlight as well.

It's domed like the MAC Mineralize Skin Finish's and I've been using this every day for a good few months and there's still so much product left.

As you can see there is a slight shimmer to it, without being too over the top.

Overall I love this product, it's such a pretty colour and it's really inexpensive which is a bonus! I'll definitely be picking up some of the other shades when I have a chance.

xx

Cute summery nails

In my recent Elf haul from the beginning of the month I blogged that I'd bought a few nail varnishes, and I've been trying them out, and the quality and colour is amazing! So today I'm showing you how my nails have been recently. Please bare in mind that I am not a perfectionist when it comes to painting my nails as I get impatient waiting for them to dry. So if you can recommend me a nail spray that will dry my nails quickly, preferably for under £5 I'd really appreciate it!

Anyway this is how I've currently done my nails...

I've got on two of the Elf nail varnishes I bought and I've got an accent nail too just to make it look a bit cuter. I put two coats of the pink on and one coat of the glittery polish on.

This is the base colour I used which is called Passion Pink and cost £2.50

For the accent nail I used one coat of this over the top and it's called Twinkle and was also £2.50.

Miners Cosmetics Highlighter | Review

A while ago I made my first order from Miners Cosmetics after I'd seen a few people mention how good their products were. I watched some reviews and read some blogs on what products people recommended and so I bought a few things.

The product I'm reviewing today is the Beauty Brilliance Highlighter and I got mine in the shade 'Pixie' because I thought it looked slightly similar to Benefit's High Beam. I will admit I had quite high hopes for this product and I wanted it to be similar to High Beam, however it was not. I'm not saying it's not a good product, because I do still really like it, but I think i expected too much. It was also only £2.99 (on sale at the moment as well, where as it's usually £4.49) compared to £18.50 for High Beam.

I'm not a massive fan of the packaging, but it's not awful. As you can see you do get quite a lot of product for the price, 9g to be exact. 

This is the colour pay off after swatching it quite a lot, it is such a pretty colour though. The colour would suit any skin tone in my opinion, and I'm extremely pale and it doesn't look too shimmery on my skin either which is a bonus. I do still love this highlighter, even though I feel this review has been fairly negative.

It lasts a good few hours and I just put it on the top of my cheek bones for a nice glow. I would recommend this highlighter if you're looking for a well priced drugstore cream highlighter.

xx

Accessorize Highlighter | Review and Swatches

For a long time I'd wanted to buy the Accessorize highlighter but I'd never got round to it, so when I saw it on sale in a blog sale recently I decided I'd buy it! I only have one other make up product from accessorize and I love it, so I had high hopes for this product.

I think the packaging is quite pretty and you get 50ml of product which is a good amount for £7. I like to put a little bit in my foundation to give it a bit more of a dewy glow.

The only negative thing I have to say about this product is that the nozzle is quite big and so you have to be careful that you don't get too much product out.

It's a yellow toned highlighter and it's got quite a lot of shimmer but not too much that it looks silly on your face.

You can see from this photo that it gives a nice glow and it looks even nicer recently since it's sunnier in England (even though that'll change soon probably!)

Hope you're all well xx

No7 Nail Varnish - Milan 110

Boots often do the £5 off no7 vouchers and I realized I had one more day before mine ran out, so on my lunch break on Saturday I went into Boots to see what I could buy. As my Boots is quite small there's not a large selection of make up so I usually end up going for the nail varnishes, although if I had planned ahead I would of loved to buy the no7 highlighter. Anyway this is the nail varnish I purchased in the end.

I know you can't read the writing properly, but it's the best photo I could get!

So as you can see it's such a beautiful colour! And the name is 'Milan 110' as you can see. I applied 2 coats and a top coat and this is the result!

(p.s sorry about the pink hair dye on my hand, I've just dip dyed a strip of my hair pink and it won't come off my hand!)


Overall, I think this is my favourite no7 nail varnish because it hasn't chipped and it dries pretty quickly which I love because I'm impatient!


Hope you're all doing well xx

Elf haul (June 2012)

Over the Jubilee Weekend Elf had a few offers on, and I chose the 30% off option. So these are the things I bought!

As you can see I got a fair amount! I'm featuring the majority of things in this haul, I've only missed out the fan brush and the eyelid primer.

 Nail polish in Passion Pink. Not the best lighting, but I will be doing swatches when I wear it!

£2.50

Nail Polish in Mod Mauve. Once again I apologize for the lighting. 

£2.50

Nail Polish in Twinkle. Again, apologies for not having amazing lighting. But I thought this looked gorgeous, and as my current nail polish with glitter in is running out, I thought it was time to re-purchase as I love putting it on over other nail polishes.

£2.50

 Blush in Tickled Pink. I love their other studio blushes and this colour looked gorgeous!

£3.75

Blush in Candid Coral. Another beautiful colour, I've actually worn this today and yesterday and I love it!
£3.75

Final blush I bought from ELF. Although most people (including me) use it as a highlighter. It's in Gotta Glow. I love buying new highlighters, and so far I've been loving this. I just applied it using a fan brush and it's not too shimmery.
£3.75

Swatches, from top to bottom:

• Tickled Pink
• Candid Coral
• Gotta Glow

As you can see Tickled Pink and Candid Coral  look sort of similar in the swatches.

False lashes - Natural Lash Kit. I've not got too much to say as I've not used these yet. However once I've used them I'll make a post about it! 

£1.50

Mascara Primer. I did try and get a good photo of the brush but since it's white and the background is white, it was extremely over exposed. Anyway, you just apply this before normal mascara and it's worked amazingly so far! 

£3.75

I 'made' an elements palette, even though it's not full yet. 

Top left (eye shadow) - Pink Ice

Bottom left (blush) - Flush

Bottom right (blush) - Glow

All were £1.50 each, and the palette is also £1.50

I bought two cream eyeshadows. 

The first shade is Candlelight.

£3.75

The second shade I got is Dawn. 

These are meant to be similar to the Mac Paintpots, but a lot cheaper! I haven't got the paintpots so I can't really compare, but so far they seem to apply smoothly and stay on for a good few hours!

£3.75

Sorry this has been so picture heavy! Also I put the prices as they currently are, not what I got with 30% off as that offer is no longer available. Although ELF do regularly have offers on, so watch out for those.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

xx

Free Benefit make up in Glamour magazine (June/July 2012)

So as some of you may know, last year Glamour was giving away sample sizes of Benefit products in summer, this year they're doing it again!

For only £2 as well, it's such a good deal! As you can see i got the 'Porefessional' and 'Bad gal' mascara. There's also a 'That gal' brightening primer available but I couldn't find that one in Tesco. 

I haven't used this mascara yet as I have plenty of mascaras on the go already, but the packaging alone is gorgeous! I'll definitely be doing a review of this and the primer once I've used them.

Even though it's only 7.5ml of product rather than the 22ml full size product it's still quite a generous sample size!

I've been using this for a few days so far and i will do a full review when I've used it for a little longer.

If you want to get any of the Benefit sample sizes from Glamour magazine, I'd recommend going soon before they sell out!

xx