New In | Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

I've never used a make-up sponge, but so many people swear by them, so I thought why not give one a try (I say one but I also bought the Beauty Blender set.... More on that later). I wanted a budget option to try first, and the Real Techniques one fit this as its only £4.99 (ish).

I'm going have to do a wee bit of research into how you use this best, this one you can use wet and dry - they also recommend you wash it between 1-3. The shape of it is different from the standard beauty blender. It's got a flat edge that is recommended for use around the nose and eyes, a pointed tip to help cover spots and imperfections and the sides for overall blending of the face. 

It feels really soft, I'm going have a wee play about with it and see how it works. I'll give it a go with other foundations too just to see how other foundations work with it. I know that some I have are better blended with brushes and other with fingers. So this will be fun! 

I'll probably have a comparison post at some point comparing the Real Techniques ones too the Beauty Blender. But that might not be for awhile as I want to get lots of use out of them before I give a proper review. 

Do you like make-up sponges? What's your preferred way to apply foundation? 

Starting Off: Bronzer

Bronzer is something I don't tend to use. I own one in a Sleek palette - so as you could guess this is going to be a fairly short post. I was considering not doing this post, but I decided to just go ahead with it. I like how bronzer looks on other people, but I can never seem to master it. I end up looking like I've had a fight in some mud, not cool.
Bronzer is basically used to give people that summer sun kissed glowy look all year round. I envy those of you who can pull off bronzer. When I use bronzer I use it purely for contouring my cheeks. I bought the Sleek face form kit purely to try out contouring, and when I do contour I love how it looks. When applying, I start off the application by sucking my cheeks in and making a little fishy face. After I've found the area I'm applying it I stop sucking in my cheeks and blend away. I tend to only bring it down a little, otherwise I look a little silly. I don't usually take it any further down than where the apples of my cheeks is. That is the only place that I apply bronzer but you can if you want apply it on your temples, your hair line and your jaw - essentially any where the sun would naturally hit you.
Remember to go in lightly, and if needed then you can add more. Trying to rectify a heavy hand will be harder than gradually adding more. When applying, I use my Real Techniques contour brush, it just creates such a lovely effect - something I don't think a big fluffy brush could.

Are you a fan of applying bronzer? 

★

October Favourites

Well, there's another month gone. Only 61 days left of 2013. I'm going to have to start Christmas shopping soon, since there is only about 54 shopping days till Christmas day - that's not very long when you think about all the people you need to buy for: mum, brother, friends, cousins, grandparents. This month I've been trying out quite a few new products and been trying to use up a lot of what I have already - mostly ski care wise, I've gone through quite a few skin care things this month.
My last favourites video was about half an hour long, I didn't even notice how long it was until after I uploaded it - oops. I think from now on I'm going to try and keep my favourites to a maximum of 8 products to stop it being to long.
Skincare wise I've not really been loving anything overly much, so this months post will be prominently make-up, I think I'm going to throw a couple of random favourites in here as well. Since y'know its only kind for me to tell you about the food and fashion things I love.

Real Techniques Blush Brush

Oh geez, can someone tell me how I managed to apply blush before I had this brush? Oh wait thats right, I didn't really manage. This brush is amazing, if your wanting to buy a new brush please let it be this one. You will not regret it. I've not had a bad blush day with this yet, and if I do get slightly over excited with a blush I can easily blend it out with this. Perfect.

Lord and Berry Foundation

This is the only foundation that I've been using this month. And all I can say is WOW! This give me the coverage I'm looking for, whilst still giving me a natural finish. This doesn't specifically say that it is for oily skin, but I find it controls oil so well. It might cling a little to any dry patches, but a good buff into the skin and you should be good to go.

Seventeen Phowarr Paint

If you have any under eye problems, be they big or be they small - I totally recommend this to anyone wanting to look more awake in the mornings or just even brighten up their eyes a bit. Go, buy it, you won't regret it.

Soap and Glory One Heck Of a Blot

Best powder ever. Hands down. The Rimmel stay matte has nothing on this bad boy. Keeps you matte, doesn't look powdery or cakey. Absolute sheer blissful amazingness. My description isn't great, I know, but holey mother this powder is great, best £12 ever spent. Please, go out and buy and try and love it and never look back.

Lord and Berry Magic Brow

This is such a great match for my eyebrows, magic brow is really well named. It makes my brows - that never look good - look pretty damn amazing. Seriously blooming amazing. Lord and Berry isn't spoken of enough - they deserve to be talked and raved about so much more than they do!

Stila In The Light Palette

I love this palette, it is seriously amazing. There is one eye look I've been wearing quite a lot, by quite a lot I mean once a week when I go out with my friends on a night out. I'm trying to find a look that is pretty, simple and quick to do - so I can maybe wear a little eye makeup for university. I'll let you know how I get on.

What have you been loving this month?

★

Starting Off: Make-up Tools

I'm probably still considered a beginner when it comes to make-up brushes and other things like that. Despite this, I'll try my best to talk about my experience with make-up tools.
For both face and eye make-up, you can use either brushes or sponges. For eye make-up, I think there is only really one say to go and that way is brushes. You don't need to spend a fortune on brushes, but I do feel they are 1000x better than the little sponge applicators. I love the Real Techniques brushes, you can get their eye set for around £20 from Boots (or £11 from Iherb), when you think about the price of one MAC brush - which I would love to be able to afford - at around £20, you get 4 for that price from Real Techniques. Does that make sense? I hope so.

 Face make-up wise, I think how you apply is completely down to choice. You can use your fingers, brushes or even sponges. I haven't used sponges for years, so I can't really comment on how they apply - my cousin swears by them - she also hates brushes - and she is a beauty therapist. I love brushes, and I am constantly switching between my Real Techniques Buffing and Expert face brush. For me, I think it gives such a lovely almost airbrushed finish. I mean who doesn't want air brushed skin. I do want to try the new Real Techniques sponge, it looks really good and I've seen lots of good reviews of it.
I don't really know what else to talk about, so I think I'll give a few brushes that I think are a must have.

Firstly, a nice little lip brush - I use my Real Techniques Detailer Brush. For a lovely perfect lip look I feel a lip brush is needed.

 Another brush I think is a huge must have is a good blush brush, and again I really have to recommend the Real Techniques one - applying blush has never been easier since I bought this.
The last and final type of brush I think is a must have is a decent shadow brush. So many eye looks can be made with one good shadow brush, having multiple shadow brushes is good as you can use one of them for the crease. The only crease brush I own is quite big, so it doesn't really fit in the crease area so I do tend to just use a fluffy shadow brush.

The only other make-up tools I would say is worth mentioning is eyelash curlers, tweezers and a sharpener. I don't think you need an eyelash curler, but they are nice to have to make your eyes look wider and you more awake. Again with eyelash curlers you don't have to spend a fortune on buying these, since you can get a good pair for as little at £5. Tweezers again, are really cheap. And are quite good for catching stray eyebrow hairs, or even those pesky eyelash hairs that wont sit right. Sharpener is pretty self explanatory. If you use shadow pencils, lip pencils or eye liner pencils that need to be sharpened then you'll need one of these - I've actually lost mine, but you can pick them up for really cheap.
The final note on make-up tools, please remember to clean your brushes. You wouldn't leave your make-up on your face for over a month with out taking it off once, so why would you leave your make-up brushes un-cleaned for months at a time. I don't wash my brushes every week, I keep thinking my brushes wont last as long if I wash them every week. I try to wash my brushes every two - three weeks, and I think I'm going to buy myself a daily brush cleanser from MAC later on - just for extra cleanliness.

I hope this post wasn't overly boring. What do you use to apply your make-up?

★

Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman | Blush brush and Expert Face Brush

Hello everyone, I hope your al doing well! So about a month ago I made my first order with iherb.com, and was so happy with the price that I got the brushes for that I made another order - basically as soon as the other ones arrived. In order to avoid customs I have to keep the cost to £15 or less, meaning I can only really buy two brushes at a time. I'm not too fussed about that though, since it keeps the cost down and forces me to pick the ones I really want.
The two I bought this time were the Expert face brush - so many people talk about this brush and I wanted to try it out since people say its better than using the Buffing brush - and the Blush brush - I don't own a brush for blush, so applying blusher is a bit of a hassle and doesn't always look nice, hopefully this will make the application of blush look so much nicer.

The Blush brush is so soft and fluffy! I don't actually think I have ever felt something quite as soft on my face! On the iherb site the blusher brush costs $9 - which works out to be around £5.50. Pretty good price and a bargain if you ask me! The blush can be used to apply both cream and powder blushes - I only have powder ones though so I won't be able to comment on how well it applies cream blush.

The brush is such a high quality and does not shed any bristles! When you use it to apply blush, it feel soft and doesn't feel scratchy on the skin - like some other brushes can. The brush looks really pretty, the handle is a lovely metallic pink and the base is round enough that if you wanted to you could stand it up on your dresser or where ever it is you apply your make-up.

 The brush picks up a good amount of product and applies like a dream, its really easy to use - it makes blusher look lovely on the skin. I don't really know what else to say about this brush, except that if you don't have this brush already then you should definitely go out and buy it. Its beautiful.

The Expert Face Brush is so also soft, the bristles are packed closely together and the bristles are quite short - perfect for blending and buffing in foundation. Just like the Blush brush this brush costs around $9 on iherb. Meaning I got this brush for about half the price that other shops in the UK charge. The brush is used for applying foundation, and it gives such a nice finish.

 I found that with this brush - unlike the buffing brush - you use it more like a paint brush, using small strokes to apply the foundation, instead of using circular motions. Doing this gives such a lovely air brushed look, I would say flawless but the foundations I use aren't the type to give a really full coverage, but it does help make my face look a lot more even and pretty close to being "flawless".

 Just like the Blush brush you can - if you want to - stand this brush up by setting it on a flat surface, I'll probably just put this in my brush pot and take it out when I need it. I think I'll probably be reaching for this brush more than my buffing brush, I find its a little easier to use. And I don't think it swallows up quite as much foundation as the buffing brush.

I am slowly but surely collecting all the brushes, even if I don't specifically need it I think I'll probably still buy them.

What brush do you recommend I buy next? 

★

Real Technique Brushes

My love affair with Real Technique brushes started when I got really into watching Pixiwoo on YouTube. I had never used a make-up brush to put my make-up on before buying these - even my eye shadow was put on with those rubbish sponge things.

My collection is slowly growing, the first Real Techniques brushes I bought was the Core Collection. This is such a lovely set, and the brushes are so versatile. I use 3 out of 4 of the brushes in the set, but recently I have been using all 4.

The detailer brush is meant for concealer and can even be used for lipstick application. I use this brush for applying my lipstick, I find that it lasts so much longer using a brush to apply it than applying straight to my lips. I also found that I could get a nicer shape, and not go over the lines by using a brush.

The pointed foundation brush is one of the brushes I don't use very often. It's meant for liquid foundation but I find I can get a nicer finish if I use the buffing brush to apply my foundation. I've started to use this now though to brush over my face to soften out any lines on my face.

One of the brushes I use most often is the Contour brush. I love this brush, I have a chubby little face and I love the way I can make my face look by using my Sleek Face Form kit. I use this for 3 different things. - blush, bronzer( contour) and highlight. I am in desperate need of getting myself a blush brush, and some brush cleanser.

Buffing brush. Well, what can I say about this? It is fantastic! I use this to apply my foundation, I don't use it straight away. I first use my fingers to apply the foundation and then finish off with the buffing brush, I think it just gives a really nice flawless looking finish.
The brush isn't specifically for liquid foundation, in fact I don't think that is what it's meant for at all, they say that you can use it for full coverage application of powder and mineral foundation.
This is such a lovely set and totally worth £21.99.

One of my newer sets of brushes is the Eyes Starter Set. I got this set from a site called iherb. Iherb is an American site that sells loads of different health care things along with quite a few different make-up brands - including physicians formula. This set cost me around £12(£21.99 in the UK), which is a massive saving! I've not had much of a chance to play around with these yet so I wont be able to give a huge amount of detail on these. The kit contains:

Base shadow brush, this is the brush you would probably just use for any wash of colour on your lids.  The brush is really soft and fluffy, it's really dense as well so will be perfect for packing on shadows.

The deluxe crease brush is just the thing I was needing. I've gone for so long with one cheap fluffy shadow brush. Been unable to do any proper make-up looks because of my serious lack of brushes. The crease brush is lovely, soft and thick. It looks like the perfect size for fitting into the crease of the lid. It's described as brig " soft, oversized design for effortless contouring". Perfect. Just what I needed.

Pixel point liner brush this is quite a thick brush considering what it is meant to be for, I'm by sure what else I could use it for but I'm sure I could think of something.

The brow brush looks like it would be really nice for using powder to fill in your brows, it seems quite thick and sturdy so your brows should be looking lovely in no time.

I wasn't sure what The Accent Brush was for, it's said to be "designed for precision detailing, spotlighting, highlighting, and smudging". I think I could use this for highlighting my brow bone - instead of using my finger - and maybe even making a smoky eye? I'm not sure, so many possibilities.

Another brush I recently bought also from iherb, is the Fine Liner brush. I love gel liner, and have been wanting to buy a nice eye liner brush for quite awhile so I could get a nicer line. It's really soft and the perfect size for the cat eye flick. This cost me about £3/4 so I saved about 50%. Bargains!!

If your planning on using iherb.com, you can use the code VKK826 for up to $10 off your order! Gotta love a discount code.

What are your favourite brushes? Do you like Real Techniques brushes? 

★