The Week of Hauls... #2 Crown Brush UK

Heya lovelies!

So i got some more goodies through the post today i thought I'd share with you. I'm planning to do a full review with actual photographs (rather than this slightly shoddy Instaspam one) of all the brushes seen here, so don't you worry!

10 Slot Leatherine Case - £6.57
I've needed a travel case for quite some time, as much as i love my Sigma Make Me Up holder, its bulky and doesn't actually hold a lot of brushes. So this little, inexpensive case seemed to be the perfect buy!

Pink Zebra Tweezer - £6.99
My Mum is sick of me using hers to put it bluntly and i can't apply false lashes for shit without them. Ha.

7pc HD Set - £29.99
Impulse buy! This beauty comes with 7 brushes, a pretty swish case, a mixing palette and a spatula! First impressions, OH MY these are soft brushes! And no longer will i have to mix my OCC Lip Tars on the back on my hand! Full review coming soon.

C160 Angle Liner - £2.29
This is a repurchase as i love mine and would like to keep one specifically for brows as i tend to reach for this for lining my bottom lash line.

C433 Pro Blending Fluff - £6.09
My go-to eyeshadow brush. I am one of those lazy people who could basically do an entire smokey eye (bar botton lash line) just with this brush. I'm a big fan of these and they are such an affordable alternative to the MAC 217.

C323 Lip Brush - £2.19
Another repurchase, you just can't have enough lip brushes!  

You can check out all of these on the Crown Brush UK website here.
Just one more haul left this week... And its a MAC whopper!

Who makes your favourite brushes?

xox

Review: Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush

 

Ello lovelies!

In my last haul post i showed you some of the bits i picked up on my travels and this one had to be the first thing i reviewed. I'd been a big ol' snob when i came to Ecotools. I had pretty much turned my nose up at high-street brushes other than Real Techniques and I'm now seeing how very, very wrong i was...

Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush (try saying that three times!) is pretty fucking fantastic. It has SO many good qualities; its extremely soft, its dense, it has a nice weight to it, it has minimal shedding, blends like a dream and finally its pretty damn affordable too! I use this primarily for bronzer, my face is on the chub side so i use this for an all over bronze or some very lazy contouring. I also think this would work wonderfully for setting powders but its a little too big for blush.

I am gobsmacked at the quality of it, its one of the softest brushes i own. It makes applying bronzer a dream. It's dense enough to pick up enough product and fluffy enough to blend it out with ridiculous ease. It sells between £9 and £10 from most retailers but you can always find offers on it, at the moment Boots has them "buy one get one half off". At around the same price in dollars as it is in pounds it does work out a tad more expensive here. But considering the superb quality if i lost this I'd literally be running out to get another one!

This is probably my favourite discovery of the past few months and considering my giant Florida splurge, that really is saying something. I really cannot recommend this brush enough!

Ecotools Bamboo Bronzer Brush is available from a ton of retailers including the Boots website here.

Have you tried any other Ecotools brushes? Let me know!

xox

My Top 5 Eye Brushes

 

Hello Lovelies!

So today I've got the next instalment of my "Top 5" series! Like i mentioned in the first post i wasn't really keen on doing a "Collection" post, so i decided to do a Top 5 of all the things i love, which seemed like a much better idea than me! Although i may do a post on my storage, when i can finally manage to get it all tidy!

I'm not too fussy when it comes to eye brushes, I'm much more likely to spend a bit more on face brushes since shadow isn't something i wear every day. But even so I've got some firm favourites in my collection and i don't see these changing any time soon!

Crown Brush C433 Pro Blending Fluff
Now its not the particular brand of brush i like on this one, its the shape. As you're probably all aware its very similar to a popular Mac blending brush and there are plenty of copies or dupes available. I have similar brushes from Sigma and Bdellium Tools and love them all pretty much equally! I love the fact its multipurpose, i can use it for concealer, i can use it for blending or I've even used it for an entire lazy smokey eye in the past just using both sides of the brush. Personally, i think this type of brush is a collection staple, everyone should own one!

Sigma Small Angle E65

Again i have a Crown brush that works just as well as this one, but this is my brow staple! Its the only thing it gets used for as I'm not fond of gel liner. Its firm enough to be precise but not too firm its scratchy. Not too much to say about this one really.

Elf Professional Blending Eye Brush

This brush gets a LOT of love, and for good reason too! Okay so its not the softest brush in the world and it has shed slightly but i absolutely LOVE it for blending / crease work. I have 5 or 6 of these beauties as i went a little mad at the last 50% off sale but i don't regret buying them one bit. I have smaller eyes so this makes blending a dream and fits perfectly into my crease. For people with smaller eyes, or for more detailed work they do a crease brush that works wonders too. Its not fancy, but at £1.50 you can't complain!

Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush

 This is a little bit of a cheat brush for this category. Its designed as an eye brush, but i mainly use it for concealer. But that's under the eye, so that counts, right? It blends concealer like a dream, better than i dare say the crown brush does. Real Techniques have brought out some corkers when it comes to brushes and although the face ones are my favourites, this one does not disappoint! I also love it for applying highlight to the brow bone.

Elf Professional Eye Shadow Brush

 Another great, no frills, bargain brush from Elf. Again i have about 5 or 6 of these and i wouldn't be without them. Yes they shed slightly, but for a basic lay down brush, they do the job! If you're after fancy brushes, this one isn't for you but if your after a bargain I'd go check their website!

So thats it for Eye Brushes! I did have a little trouble narrowing these down to 5 brushes, but if i had an extra I'd certainly pop in a pencil brush! Next in the series, Lipsticks!

Are these any of your favourites? What do you recommend?

 

xox

My Top 5 Face Brushes

Heya lovelies!

I thought I'd start a little series today, "My Top Five...", starting with my favourite face brushes!

Thinking back to a few years ago i actually only owned one brush, an Avon Kabuki that i used for powder and blush and was a bit lapse on cleaning (ewww). But now I've got quite a small collection of different brushes so i thought I'd share some of my favourites. Most of these are relatively budget friendly, i don't own Mac brushes because i am just too stingy to part with that much money. But the ones i have, i love, and they do the job!

Real Techniques Contour Brush

I've got into highlighter in a big way recently, and this little beauty has probably been half the reason so. I personally find it too small for its suggested purpose but i adore it for highlighting. If I'd of done this post a month or so ago it'd be 60% different. Real Techniques brushes are my new love. Okay, so some of the sets have a few less great brushes but the couple of gems in the face set more than make up for it! This brush is a tapered, gorgeously soft beauty that just works perfectly for powder highlighters!

Real Techniques Buffing Brush

There's a good reason why this brush is so hyped about! Works perfectly for most of my liquid foundations and tinted moisturisers and leaves a beautifully blended, airbrushed finish. Again, a month or so ago i would of sworn by my Sigma F80, as i guess a lot of people would of been before discovering this brush. Like all the others its wonderfully soft, and just applies liquid foundation like a dream. Its not overly dense which i think is actually a good thing, since this drys a hell of a lot faster than other brushes. I'm SO glad i purchased this!

Real Techniques Powder Brush
So now I'm starting to sound repetitive, right? This is probably my favourite brush right now. I'd been trying so hard to keep loving my Sigma F20, but the dye had started to run whilst it was washed and it shed so much it looked like i had facial hair! Seriously, it was that bad! So this brush was a welcome addition to my collection. I've been wearing less powder recently but I've been loving this for a quick, less precise application of bronzer.

Crown C141 Small Chisel Blush
I picked this beauty up at IMATS earlier in the year and has been a staple in my makeup bag ever since. Its great for contouring and precise application of blush. I've had this almost constantly in my handbag for blush touch ups while I'm out as its small enough to shove in a small makeup bag. I think i only payed around £5 for it too, bargain!

Sigma F40 Large Angled Contour

Whilst having a love / hate relationship with a lot of my other Sigma brushes this one has remained a firm favourite. My only slight niggle is that it does slightly splay at the edges and stains particularly easy. Other than that its one of my most reached for brushes, perfect for contour and blush.

So i didn't want this post to be essay long but i thought I'd add a few honourable mentions:

Bdellium Tools - 953 Small Duo Fibre
Sigma F05 - Small Contour

Elf- Complexion Brush
Elf - Powder Brush
Sigma F80 - Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki

I'm really looking forward to writing this series, as I'd never really wanted to do a collection post but this gives me the opportunity to share more of my favourite products in different categories. Up next, eye brushes and lipsticks!

What are your favourite face brushes?


xox

Sigma Synthetic Face Kit Review

Hello m'lovelies! I've been meaning to do this post all week and now i have some time off work (yay!) I've been able to get round to it. These are probably one of my favourite beauty purchases ever, so i thought I'd do a review and let you all know why!

I've had my eye on some Sigma goodies for quite some time but I've been a little cautious due to not wanting to wait a long time for them to arrive and not wanting to pay customs fee's. I eventually couldn't resist any longer and decided on buying the Synthetic Face Kit as it was at the top of my wishlist! Using the cheapest shipping to my surprise they arrived in just a week with no evil customs charges. I was ecstatic! And to top if off they come in a remarkably cute blue pouch with instructions and details of the brushes. In total these came to about £30, that's including the fast, low cost shipping!

Here's what Sigma say about these:

"F80 - Flat Top Kabuki

The F80 Flat Top Kabuki brush is perfect for applying and blending liquid, cream, and powder products onto the skin. The flat surface allows perfect buffing with flawless results. Features synthetic Sigmax HD fibers.

F82 - Round Top Kabuki

The F82 Round Top Kabuki brush simplifies precise makeup application under the eyes and around the nose. This brush is also perfect for achieving flawless coverage using liquid and powder products. Features synthetic Sigmax HD fibers.

F84 - Angled Top Kabuki

The F84 Angled Top Kabuki brush is the perfect brush for precise, yet blended application of products on the cheeks. It seamlessly applies cream, powder and liquid products. Features synthetic Sigmax HD fibers."

The F80 has been a new favourite in my daily routine, using it to apply liquid foundation mainly my Skin79 BB cream and it's made me love that product even more! It leaves all my uneven skin tone covered beautifully without feeling like I've got a layer of foundation on, giving a flawless finish. I've been using it for a good few weeks now and I've had literally no shedding even after washing them a few times, the bristles have stayed in shape and are super soft. I'm absolutely in love with this brush.

The F82 and F84 haven't gotten as much use as i would like so far as my routine has been a little boring as I've done little else but go to work the last few weeks. So I'm determined to have a good play with these soon. Again they have both stayed soft and in shape but I've had a little shedding with the F84, but i mean under 10 hairs which i really can't complain about.

Everyone loves a free gift and this one was definitely not to be sniffed at. Every purchase on the Sigma website over $30 receives a free E25 blending brush, and like the F80 this has managed to work its way into my daily routine and given me an excuse to place another order to get a few more! Although it did shed quite a bit initially and has splayed out ever so slightly this is a fantastic blending brush in my opinion. Although I'm only used to the E.l.f ones so I'm not sure how much my opinion is worth on the subject! :P

All in all i think this set is fabulous and well worth looking at if you're looking to invest in some good quality brushes. Always look out for promotion codes when purchasing anything off the Sigma website as there are generally a few 10% off codes flying around at any given time.

This set can be purchased off the Sigma website for $42 + Shipping here.

Let me know through comments if you guys have any reviews on Sigma brushes as I'd love to read them!

xx