Tuesday 13 January 2015

Makeup recycling.

When I was a bit younger, and even skinter, I ran out of my favourite foundation. Estée Lauder Double Wear Maximum. You know the one in the squeezy blue plastic tube? No matter how much I shook and squeezed that tube, it was done. Nothing would come out. 

I was obviously distraught over this and it was like a fortnight before payday. I was sitting, exasperated over my predicament in my friend Tammy's car when she said something very wise and utterly profound. 

'Uhhhh Kirstie? Just cut the tube open'

Yeah. 

I had never even considered this as an option. But low and behold, I cut the tube in half with some nail scissors and I swear it was SO full of product that it lasted it me even beyond payday. 

It really made me think about how much product I was wasting everytime I threw out a foundation that I thought was 'empty'. 

A lot of the foundations I use now are in glass bottles and I rarely actually make it to the end of one before I move on to another. So I haven't done this for a while. 

But tonight, I needed sonething to keep me busy. So I engaged in a little project. 

You know the Collection Lasting Perfection concealer that I and the rest of the blogging world never shut up about? Well, like any other hoarder...I have stockpiles of 'nearly empty' tubes of this Holy Grail product, because while they look ready for the bin, I know there's life left in them that I 'just might need' one day when I unexpectedly finish one properly. 

Tonight, I made myself a huge compact of concealer out of tubes that most people would have considered fit for the bin. 


These are the bits and pieces I used to get the product out. I used a knife and some little nail scissors to open the tubes. An old empty Dior container I cleaned out. Some makeup brushes to transfer the concealer into it. And a load of baby wipes because it got a little messy at points. 


So this tube is an example. Look how empty it appears? When you pump the applicator around, nothing comes out of this anymore. 

But look, when you cut this open....


Lots of lovely product remains inside. Just outwith the applicators grasp. 

From this one seemingly empty tube, I got this much concealer out. 


That is ridiculous. That's like half a tube! 

I know I sound kind of sad. Because, these are like five pounds. But it's my five pounds. That I worked for. And I'd rather the product I spent it on ends up on my face than in the bin. 


So here are the results of my little project. A compact literally packed full of a HG product I use daily and cannot live without. All of which I would easily have binned, thinking the tubes were just taking up space. 

It took me around 20 minutes. 




I'm quite pleased with myself to be honest. 

Kirstie. 

Xxxx


Sunday 4 January 2015

Zoeva Rose Gold Luxe Brushes Review

I have literally never waited so long for something I wanted to buy this badly. 

It's happened. 

I got my Zoeva's!!!!!!!!!


Beautybay had these around eight weeks ago. I had them perched in my basket, ready to press pay on payday the next morning. Payday morning came, and they had sold out. I was literally devastated. They remained out of stock all this time and when they came back in on Thursday, they sold out again within the hour. 

I was lucky enough to get a 10% off code from a friend the same day. 

I have ordered the matching eye brushes set directly from Zoeva, so I plan to post a comparison about my shopping experience. 

So, from BeautyBay, these were £56.95. Orders over £30 are free next day delivery. Orders over £50 include your choice of a free luxury beauty gift. I chose the Mario Badescu Rosewater cleansing duo. 


With 10% off, my order was £51.25 in total for the brush set. Free shipping, arrived next working day. 

The thing is, ordering these directly from Zoeva still isn't that extortionate in price. I know a lot of people desperately want these, and won't buy them unless Beautybay restock, because they are put off by the shipping charge. But honestly, the brush set itself is cheaper from Zoeva than it is on Beautybay. Only by £1. It's £55, and £7.50 shipping. Which is a bit more. And definitely not next day delivery, as they come from Germany. So if you can get them on Beautybay, it's a massive bonus but even at £62 these brushes are worth it, I swear. 




There are 8 brushes in total. 5 face brushes and three eye brushes. They come in this beautiful leather clutch with rose gold detailing. They are super soft and honestly, the application is flawless. I can't fault them for a second. 

My favourites from this set are the 110 Face Shape which I use for concealer buffing and the 102 Silk Finish I use for foundation application. 


I love that the brush name and number are embossed on the handle! 

My second haul, was directly from Zoeva. You can change the language and currency on their page to suit you. In British pounds this order cost me £73.50. 

Rose Gold Eye Set- £55
Face Paint brush- £11

Postage- £7.50 

I ordered the Rose Gold Luxe Eye set and the 109 face paint brush. 


Zoeva take so much care over the packaging it's insane. They took under a week to come from Germany and provided precise tracking through DHL. 

They came in a branded box, and were packed out with SO much bubble wrap. Probably a bit unnessasary but it did make me feel they really care that their products arrive in good condition. 



They come with care cards, and a note telling you who packed your order. Mine was done by Anya, so cheers for that Anya! Lol. 

The brushes are wrapped in Zoeva printed tissue. 


They again come in a lovely leather pouch...and the face paint brush also had it's own little pouch. 


I also love that every brush has this little silicone protector around the bristles. 





Between the two sets, there are four brushes that are doubled if you buy both. 


The concealer buffer, petite crease, soft definer and wing liner come in both sets. 

I am in love with literally every single brush. The Luxe set has every brush you could need for daily makeup and the eye set has everything you could want for a range of looks. I can't wait to find a use for all of them. 

The only thing the set may be missing is a lip brush. But to be honest, it's not something I ever use, and I have real techniques and sigma ones for that if I ever did. 

The face paint brush isn't from the Rose Gold collection, just the standard one but it's also lovely. Made for contouring, it has short, stubby bristles in a horizontal stem. 

These aren't overly dense, so are great for a soft but defined contour, and are so soft and flexible that they are also great for then blending out the contour lines. 




Beautybay pro's were the free next day delivery, the slight discount and the free gift. 

Zoeva pros were that they did come with just a little bit of extra special care in the packaging and the brushes themselves were cheaper. The shipping costs are a downside, but if you are buying a selection of brushes, or you team up with friends looking to buy from them, you can make it good value. 

Feeling very smug and very blessed to own these beautiful brushes! Would highly, highly reccomend checking them out! 

Real Techniques Bold Metal Collection Review.


The wait is over! 

Real Techniques Bold Metals collection was released last week! 

When I got the email, I hurriedly got onto Boots to check them out, and of course to buy them. 

I planned to buy the full collection. But it turns out that the rumours were in fact true. These brushes were priced really high. Starting from £10 for a liner brush, right up to £25 for the bigger face brushes. Ouch. 

I have to be honest, while I LOVE real techniques, the main reason I love them is that they are professional quality tools, at prices we can ALL afford. If we could all afford £25 for each brush in our lot.... Wouldn't we all just buy Mac and Sigma?

I just didn't think the new collection were as perfectly suited to my needs as their standard collections...and I spent £140 on Zoeva brushes the same day (review will be up soon)  So, with a heavy heart, I ordered just two of them and left the rest. 

From the chat on the blogosphere, Depop and Instagram after the release, it looked like a lot of people were bypassing these long awaited brushes due to the price tag. So I thought sales were going to be dissapointing and not what RT had anticipated when releasing the line. However, these have now mostly sold out everywhere, so perhaps not. 

I collected these yesterday after ordering online. I got the 300 Tapered Blush and the 201 Pointed Crease. The blush is part of the 'finishing brushes' and is rose gold, while the crease is an 'eye brush' so it's silver. 

And I know there's a lack of pictures surfing around so I've taken a bunch for anyone who wants a closer look. 








So. The verdict. 

I feel like this is total blasphemy. But honestly? I'm unimpressed. 

These are pretty to look at. They are gorgeous. The handles are much longer than any other brush I own and the handles are much more weighted which allegedly makes them more professional and easy to work with than a standard lightweight, shorter makeup brush. 

The tapered bristles are intended to make them good at buildable application, while a tapered handle should be easy to slot in a pro-MUA brush belt and give more control. 

The fibre bristles ARE very soft. But white. And very white. So these are likely to be a bitch to clean. 

They are also very dense brushes. The tapered blush in particular is very densely packed out with bristles. And weirdly, this is my greatest problem with them. 

They are so densely packed, that they swipe OFF my base, rather than blushing over. And I AM being gentle. They remove more makeup than they apply.  It's the most bizarre thing.

I don't know if I'm just resentful of the thing costing me £24 or if I am just underwhelmed by it's performance. But I don't for a second think this brush was worth it's cost. In fact, every other Real Techniques brush (and I do own every single brush) massively outdoes this in terms of performance. They obviously also trump it in value, as even the 5/6 brush sets cost less than this individually. 

The crease brush is just an anticlimax. It's ok. But it's no better in my opinion than any other standard eye shadow brush. It comes nowhere close to the blending abilities of a Mac 217, or anything else I've used. 

I am dissapointed with the collection. And despite how pretty these are, I honestly wouldn't reccomend spending this much on them. And sadly I won't be buying the rest. Maybe if I had the money just to have them because they are 'limited' and nice to display... But other than that, these are a bit of a rip off for what they are. 

Sorry guys!

Kirstie 

Xxx
 
Skint Again Beauty Blog Design by Ipietoon