Make-up Brushes

Hey guys! I'm still trying to get to grips with all of this but on Monday I made a couple of purchases and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to write a new post!

On Monday I had to work and whilst at work I discovered that our Real Technique make up brushes were on offer 'Buy one get the second half price' and although I wouldn't say these brushes were particularly pricey as a student surviving off of Saturday job wages it was still an investment with a big price tag. So when I saw the offer I jumped at the chance to buy some new brushes.

I already have and use the Real Technique Core Collection brush set which I bought at work (Superdrug). It's price is £20.99 and I got 30% discount on top making them around £15, however I would have happily paid more than £20 for these brushes! The Core Collection contains 4 different brushes in a handy case that is useful for travelling but also doubles as a brush stand.

The collection contains:

• A detailing brush- the pack advises that this brush is used for precision and detailing and is recommended for applying lipstick, however I feel that the brush is too soft for lipstick and I use it for applying concealer and I double it up when travelling as an eye-shadow brush to reduce my luggage!
• A pointed foundation brush- this is recommended for applying liquid foundation with. I have used this brush a couple of times for this reason, however it is quite a small headed brush meaning that applying a full face of foundation takes a while, I tend to use this brush to help even out the application of BB of CC creams when I use them or if I want to apply just a little foundation.
• A buffing brush- this brush is recommended for applying powder or mineral foundation. I however use it to apply my liquid foundation with. Quite simply I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BRUSH. I had to pick one brush to use for the rest of my life it would be this one. It's compact, rounded head and soft bristles makes it perfectly for buffing and evenly blending my foundation onto my skin helping to even out any dark spots or uneven skin. This brush is perfect as it allows me to build up my foundation coverage which I prefer to do as some days I find I need to apply less foundation.
• A contour brush- this is recommended to be used to highlight and contour the face. I am still to master the technique of contouring so use this brush as a blush brush as I find its smaller head allows for more precision when applying blusher and I find it gives me more control as to where my blush ends up so that I don't end up looking like I have wonky cheekbones haha.

The reason I love and would recommend these brushes to everyone is not only is the price amazing value for the quality of these brushes but the brushes are ultra plush too. Although the bristles are synthetic they are hand cut so are angled perfectly for even application and are 100% cruelty free which is always a bonus! The handles are light and easy to hold and are very easy to clean and maintain. Also on the real technique website- http://realtechniques.com/  it shows you how to use the brushes and how to create different looks.

I also use the Body Shop make brush range, these also are fabulous and again I would recommend anyone to use them too. I got almost the complete collection of these brushes for free from my step sister after she finished working for body shop all I had to do was just wash a couple of them as they had been used by her once. I didn't mind this as I was saving myself quite a bit of money for the sake of a little bit of shampoo and water to get rid of a little bit of eye shadow on two brushes. My mum nabbed a couple of the brushes so I cannot say I have the full collection but I have all the brushes that I could need. The total value of the brushes I was given is around £80. All of the brushes I have from the body shop can be found and bought here individually http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/make-up/brushes-and-tools.aspx#/brushes-and-tools.aspx

The Body Shop brushes that I use a lot are:

• The face and body brush £16- I use this to apply powder as the large brush head is perfect to sweep a light coverage of powder to matte my foundation. The bristles are also very easy to clean. My only criticism is that after a while and lots of uses the bristles pick up oils from my skin and traces of foundation this is especially as I use this brush to apply powder on top of my foundation, though this is easily solved by washing the brush which you should do at least every couple of weeks or so.
• The foundation brush £12- before I got my real techniques brushes I used to use this foundation brush religiously It made applying my foundation effortless, however as the brush head is quite large it meant that if I wasn't careful I would apply too much foundation in one area. I still use this brush every so often as it gives a smooth finish and its nice to rotate which brushes I use. Again this brush needs washing regularly to avoid the bristles clumping together.
• The eye shadow blender brush £10 and the eye shadow brush £9- these are amazing! I love using these two brushes to create smokey eyes or to build up looks as the difference in brush size allows for perfect blending of different colours. Again this brushes are super easy to maintain.
• The slanted brush £9- this is the final of my body shop brushes that I use on a day to day bases, this brush I call my eye brow brush; I use this to apply brown 'brow shadow' to my brows. Its angle and fine edge makes the precision and accuracy perfect!

Sorry I realise this post has rambled on!! But I'll leave you with my new purchases. I bought two new Real Technique brushes, a stippling brush which was £10.99 and a buffering brush which is usually £8.99 but was £4.50 in the offer. Again I got 30% discount on these brushes, which made me a very happy girl and a little less guilty in making this unnecessary purchase!.

I will post a review on these new brushes once I've used them!

Thanks for reading guys!

What brushes do you guys use?

Smile beautiful :)

Lydia x

Hello and welcome :)

Hey there! My name's Lydia and I'm a 19 year old student who lives in a small town out side of Bath. I work part time at Superdrug which for those of you who don't know is a high street drug store. I was a sales advisor for just over a year and a half but in November 2013 I started training as a pharmacy assistant and have worked on the pharmacy ever since. I must confess this is the first blog I've ever attempted so please be patient as quite honestly I have no idea what it is that I am really doing haha.

I took inspiration from a couple of blogs that I follow that give honest opinions and reviews and I found that it gave me a glimpse on other peoples thoughts. The main reason that I decided to finally start this blog is because quite simply I love make up. I am obsessed with it. I love buying new products and trying out new looks and techniques, however through doing this of course I have found products that are fantastic and that I have fallen in love with but also those that I did not get on with. As I am not rolling in money, I started to do more research on the products I wanted to buy before I bought them to avoid wasting money. I tried to find honest reviews of products from people that would have no vested interest or bias in giving the product great reviews. Sometimes I found what I was looking for but more often than not I didn't, so I thought if I'm looking for reviews then surely others may be too and that was it I decided to write my reviews and opinions on products with the hope of helping others.

I guess I should probably tell you where my interest in make up came from and why I am the addict I am today aha. As a small child I used to take part in dance shows and I was fascinated by all the different costumes, hair styles and make up designs that I would change into each night and all of those around me, I was also aware that some of the make up artists were better than others and thus I came wise to avoiding those whose dancers looked like they had arrived from the circus. Of course I later learnt that the amount of make up you wear for a show is at least 10x the amount you would wear normally and that there were other eye shadow colours that just the bright stage make up blues, pinks and greens. At one point my step sister decided that she wanted to be a beauty therapist and enrolled in body shop make up and beauty course she was told that she had to bring a model so I volunteered to help her and when I arrived the ladies running the course asked me to take part and I passed the course and got the certificate all without paying. I also won prizes for my work that day in the form of free make up and skin care goodies. The thing that I think I valued the most from that lesson was about applying eye shadow, it was after that I must admit that my make up game really improved. Anyway I am rambling and most probably have lost your attention.

I will leave you with this for now :) Thank you for reading guys, until next time!

Smile beautiful :)

Lydia x