make up brush reviews

This is a bit of a mixed bag in relation to the brushes, there are two E.L.F brushes, some No.7 ones and two Superdrug own brand ones.

The E.L.F brushes are the 'total face brush' and the 'concealer brush'. Hopefully the pic will appear, sorry about the flash kind of messing it up but this is the best I could get.

total face brush and concealer brush

Again, sorry if you cannot see the concealer brush for some reason my camera is playing up with the flash and seems to have whited out the actual brush. The brush is quite small, I did think too small at first but after using it with a concealer I found it worked very well under my eye and around my nose and on small spots or freckles I wanted to hide. It feels soft and picks up a good amount of product which it applies evenly from what I could see and was able to blend well, probably due to its size. All in all a good concealer brush and for £1.50 it is definatly worth it!

However, the total face brush (also from E.L.F £1.50) was a disappointment. The packaging claims a soft brush but I found it quite harsh against my skin. And I do not have sensitive skin either. I used it first on a pressed powder compact and it broke down far too much product and a lot was wasted from either tapping off excess or just falling off the side of the compact so I would not use this brush for pressed powders. I then used the brush on a loose powder compact and it seemed a lot better, it picked up a bit more product than I wanted it too but as I could kind of control the amount of product which comes out anyway it wasn't as much of an issue as the pressed powder. (The loose powder used is natural collection and I control the amount which comes out by tipping the product into the lid before using my brush.) I would not really reccommend this brush as even though it is cheap, it felt harsh on my skin and seemed to waste product.

The next brushes are a set I got as a christmas present and are No.7, yay for 3-4-2!

No.& brush set...again flash!!

These brushes are amazing and so so soft. I think that even though this is a set you can probably buy the brushes seperatly form the No.7 counter in Boots. Left to right the brushes are; lip brush, eye shadow brush, eyebrow brush and comb, blusher brush and powder brush.

The lip brush is quite large so make sure your lips are well lined before you use this if you have smaller lips like me. It is very good for coverage and can be controlled easily due to the large handle.

The eye shadow brush is very soft and so I use this more for blending shadows rather than applying them as I feel it does a better job when used for blending. It is a C shaped brush so maybe not the traditional blending brush but it gets in the crease of your eye very eaily and blends the shadows beautifully.

The eyebrow brush and comb does what it says really...nothing to add except it brushes and combs your eyebrows to tame them...or mess them up if your really bored and feel like scaring people.

Moving to the blusher brush which is amazing! The bristles are super soft and are shaped in a way that kind of tapers down on all sides so it blends the product in as you apply making it a lot easier to see where needs more product or where needs a bit more blending. Definatly would recommend this brush but sadly I can't check the price as the boots website is down for maintenance.....of course it is when I need it, tsk.

But, my favorite brush of them all is the powder brush. It has been a favorite since I got the set but after my disappointment with the E.L.F total face brush it has had a new lease of life. Again super, super soft and blends as it applies which makes my skin look lovely and porcelain and puts a decent amount of product on without it looking too powdery and so my skin doesnt look really oily quickly. I have oily skin making powder a nightmare, too powdery or too oily usually but not with this brush! :) If you want, give it a clean and use it as a bronzer brush or a large blusher brush but I would say this is a must have!

My final brushes are two eyeshadow brushes. An applicating one and a blending one.

applicator and blending brush

These are from superdrug and are own brand...I think. At least they are not a brand I can remember and are not branded, so superdrug own it shall be. They were about £2 each and are very good.

The applicator brush looks flat at first but has a slight curve to it with quite a thick amount of bristles making product application very easy. Pressing on eyeshadows is made a lot easier with this, especially things like barry m 'dazzle dust' which can have a lot of fall out.

Used with the blending brush eyeshadow is highly pigmented and blended wonderfully making them a perfect team (haha cheesy). It is useful to have more than one blending brush incase you decide to add a new colour and only have a dirty brush left, but grab the clean one and away you go. Cheap and cheerful, definatly worth a go.

I will be amazed if you make it down here...my first 'beauty' post. I will try to scale down the next one, I promise :) please follow me and comment on how to make this a better more readable blog.

Thanks!

there is a tree in my room

Ok this is a post just to say I am still about and planning on talking photos and everything for this blog to work properly. However at the moment I haven't had much chance, hence no posts after a flurry of three haha. I do have to say though that babies are everywhere!!! Lots of my friends and family are having or have had new babies this past few weeks and there is another 2 due within the next two weeks...and all boys strangely. The ones who are about though are soooooo gorgeous and cooing over teeny shoes and clothes is definatly on the agenda right now.
Re the title, there is a tree in my room as we are redecorating and so a tree has been moved into my room 'for safe keeping'. I should add it is potted not an actual massive tree but it's big enough to take over my room practically. Especially since I need to tidy up again.


But yes, next post should be glorious and all that with photos of things I love, at the moment it seems to be anonymous things since I am listening to She & Him and about to watch Him and Her on iPlayer. Give it a go and let me know what you think of them.

nostalgic night

It is amazing what you find when you bother to actually look. Whilst sorting out all my clothes into what I want/don't want I decided to carry on and clear the rest of my room. In my wardrobe above the clothes rail there is a shelf where I keep old toys and teddies, I did think I knew what was in there as when I first put them up there I lined them up in a way I should have been able to still see what I had. I obviously hadn't or had put something up in the way of most of the toys because there were some lost treasures up there waitng for me and my memory to discover. I am so glad I didn't remember what was up there because it was such a treat and suprise to find old dolls from holidays long gone, a vert special 'pocahontas' troll doll that used to come on each holiday with me. Even my old stuffed teddy named 'Pinky' inspired by the fact it was pink....I was about one when I got Pinky though so I think it was quite inspired, especially as it is also blue and yellow.

I was so happy with these fabulous finds, well rediscoveries really, that I had to take a select few to show the rest of the house who were not as impresses as I thought they should be. But that's how it goes, and really I shouldn't have taken them down during match of the day. The rest of my room is yet to be conquered and there is the issue of what lurks under the bed, toys unkonwn and possible school reports await me.

I do think the nostalgic vibe is being heightened as I am watching 'Home Movie Roadshow' on BBC iPlayer as I am sorting through my stuff, which I do reccomend for watching as it is genuinly interesting and this ep has home movies from the pythons and Terry Gilliam, including an interesting short about deckchairs :)

So, go and search through old boxes you know are filled with things from long ago and remember where everything came from and what it meant, whilst decluttering the junk you were sure would be priceless in a few years time. Between now and the next post I am going to need to find a home for all the old tickets I have kept from the theatre, cinema, travel and even some sport along with all the hotel leaflets I have kept 'just in case' I feel the need to look them up again or go back and prove I was there 3 years ago because I have the old leaflet. Have fun!!

10 things I love about June, July and August

Had to get the cheesy pun-ish title in there, inspired don't you think. Alright it wasn't but it does tell you exactly what is going to happen in the post, which is something. I think i have figured out pics...but they will not be featuring in this post as it might go horribly wrong and I will look even more of a technophobe. So, onwards with the list :)

1. Generally I get to go on holiday last week of July and first week of August due to my dads work. So I love these months for providing me with a sunny and exciting place to travel to in order to get away from the wonderful Welsh weather.This year was Zakynthos (Zante) which was beyone beautiful! I heartily advise you all to go now! And to Alykanas, not to Laganas etc, if you want less of the touist neon city stuff...not like it is like that in Laganas but it is more geared towards tourism. But it is such a small island you can get to places like Zante town and Laganas in about 30 mins which is the other side of the island....awesome!

2. My birthday. As I am usually on holiday on my birthday aswell this is a double gift from August and I get to be fussed over by locals and go on amazing trips whilst on holiday, this year I went to Olympia in mainland Greece. So good I could have spent forever there and considered becoming an archeologist just to stay and marvel at the site.

3. Socialising, it is the summer holidays kids so get out with those mates from 'back home' you haven't seen for months due to you all being crully seperated by universities half way across the country and not having the money for train fare.

4. End of exams. Yes, whilst exams are usually still happening in June, which is cruel of June. The generally do also finish in June, a nice gift to us all whilst May does nothing to make up for the fact exams start.

5. It is officially summer, the sun may not always be shining but it is actually summer. What do you expect from the UK weather though? Can't always be sunny in the summer, we would get scared and confused and begin doing raindances on a mass scale because we have a hosepipe ban. But summer is great, summer holidays for one thing, pimms on any piece of grass you can find and try and look civilised on and gingers everywhere stock piling the sun cream for fear we turn the same colour as our hair (but sadly we just turn pink and peel, or get major freckles described as 'cute').

6. Carrying on with the theme of freckles, I do quite like having them. It means I get id'd everywhere I go however which is really annoying but also funny when the shop assisstant apologises profusely after asking me for id for paracetemol when I am 20. It also shows that I will not forever be pink and can move one scale up on the foundation front to ivory...woo! Now that's a tan!

7. Strawberries, what else is there to say about these wonderous fruit/berries. Pick your own is so much fun especially as you end up eating as many as you put in the basket and try to sneak out with your punnet half hiding your stained face....yes you decided to lie on the tracks inbetween the bushes and lay down on a pile of strawberries...suspicious? me? eating lots of strawberries on the way around? noooooo, never.

8. Being as lazy as you want. Of course you get yourself a summer job, but around that and socialising you still get to have quality time with those dvd box sets (dr who of course) and disney films whilst eating ice cream and being on facebook. A day wasted some might say but lazing about in bed all day or on the sofa with a pile of films you just have to watch that day and junk food just says your having a good summer. Oh and of course, you get to update your blog :)

9. Long days. Grab a book and go outside in the sunshine, doesn't matter if you fall asleep middle of the day and wake up mid afternoon there is still hours of sunshine ahead.

10. Festivals and camping. Whilst this year will see me in my first camping festival I am already loving it. Camping is brilliant, not only because ghost stories are always so much more fun in tents but because after that you can stare at the stars all night and instead of complaining it is cold everyone will grab their sleeping bags too and poke their heads out of the tent to join you...bliss.

Hope you enjoyed it and share some of my love, add yours too if you feel like it :)

the good is the beautiful

Ok, so the blog name is actually a quote from Plato but it is difficult to come up with something as true without repetition. I would also like to say it is flattering but I doubt Plato would be flattered haha.




The reason for the name is to share with whoever stumbles across this blog some of the things I have grown to love, whether these be clothes, films, music, people or places. A big job it seems right now and there is the chance of it being a love/hate list of mine with gushing praise for anything and everything I buy on a whim but I shall try not to, and if I do...well, everyone gets overexcited once in a while.



I will try to post pictures to everything I talk about, but I need to figure out how to actually post pictures on here so number one is about how I like blogs.



I don't love blogs and blogging as such but I do really like them. A chance for anyone with internet access to tell the world what they want to tell them. It can be about anything which is amazing and a real insight and chance to learn from others. Blogs can change how people think and help people through difficult times, from famous sites such as 'PostSecret' where anyone can send in a secret on a postcard (obvious I know) to share with the world, in its best it shows that you are not alone in how you think about things, in its worst (if that is the correct word for it) it makes you concerned about all the pain and fear people go through daily and what they have to do just to survive. There are also the blogs that ensure you appreciate everything, again using a popular example of '1000 Awesome Things' for showing you the little things in everyday life and how awesome they are.



Although in the form I am going for, it's kind of a way to share with the world what you like and appreciate and hopefully having like minded people follow and comment on your blog. It's like a sense of achievement and a lovely ego boost which is always welcome (you cannot deny that). There is also the knowledge that whilst you will never be a massive blogger who everyone knows about and loves, you will hopefully have your own little group of followers who you care about enough to keep writing for, and commenting on their blogs, creating one big blogging family, awwwwh.



So the good is the beautiful, and blogging is one of those good and beautiful things that make the world a better place for those who chance upon it. And although this is my second blog it feels like my first proper foray into the blogisphere and I hope you will join me.