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

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

New Real Techniques Bold Metal Collection.

Well it's been a while since RT brought out something as new and exciting as this. While I loved my Sam's Picks collection in November, I have to admit I started to feel as though RT were just changing the names and handle colours of brushes we have seen before. 

Last week, there was a bit of a buzz in the blogosphere from our friends in America who gave us a heads up on the latest release from RT. And this time, it's all new and all exciting. 

You can sign up to the waiting list on the Boots website (I've already done this. As soon as it was announced...I'm over keen) and apparently these are rumoured to be available around the end of January. I'm yet to find a concrete source on the release date so don't quote me.

I've also heard  that these will be limited and ultra exclusive. And pricy unfortunately. Some people are saying £25 per brush. This may be being confused with the American dollar prices, but still is confusing. 

Over in the states, 

Salsatapatia0126 on Instagram posted this when she spotted the brushes available in an American drug store. 

Also this, 

 

The flat contour brush up close. I think this is easily going to be the most popular. It looks like a nifty little alternative to the Nars 'ITA' brush that no one can ever get hold of as it's permanently out of stock. 

Also worry noting is that while in packaging, the handles look like they end in a point, this is apparantly just the effect of the packaging and not the brush design. 

Need. Need. Need. 

Naked on the Run

Sooooo this was in my Christmas wishlist, and I bought it for myself while Christmas shopping because I'm selfish and needed it. 

Urban Decay Naked on the Run palette. 

£37 in Debenhams. 

I didn't realise this was so cheap to be honest. I thought it was around £50!

I'm actually not a huge fan of the packaging. Which is unlike me. 

I am a fan of how useful this palette is in terms of being a multi-use product. 

Inside it has five eyeshadows, all very neutral, workable shades that can be used for a natural eye, a smoky eye or a party look which I think is really useful. 

It also has a bronzer, and it's a great shade for me, because I don't tend to use bronzer, and this may be converting me. It's a very soft and gentle shade which suits me far better. 

The little highlighter is also great, and is very creamy in texture given that it's a powder. 

The blush may be my favourite. It's such a pretty colour and I was genuinely really surprised by how complimentary this colour was on my skin tone. I must be terrible at picking blushers, because this is the second one I've gotten recently that I've thought would be awful on me and I've really suited. I'm now branching out in blusher shades and am eagerly awaiting my first Tarte Amazonian clay blush arrival which I think may be very similar to this. 

It also has three more cult classic products from Urban Decay. The 24/7 eyeliner kohl pencil, a Naked lipgloss and a mascara. 

Eyeliner isn't something I wear regularly, but now that I've found I suit it better without colour or shadow on my eyes, I'm trying it more. Lipgloss, I also don't usually wear but after falling in love with Orgasm from Nars, this one may be another new try for me. 

Perversion mascara is a product I've been desperate to try. Mostly because I love makeup products with slightly suggestive or naughty names. Because I'm a bit cheeky like that! 

When I opened it, I was dissapointed as I'm not a fan of the old traditional mascara wands with bristles. However, this does work for me quite well. I envisioned it being very full on and it's not. It seperates my lashes really well, and gives them a lot of natural looking length. The only thing I don't like about this is that it struggles to reach the tiny lashes from my inner corners. My lashes here are very blonde and I like a mascara that catches them easily which this doesnt really. 

Overall, this is a useful palette. While it's a little big to call 'transportable' it's still a good buy for weekends away and things. Rather than carrying a full naked eye palette (which I'm terrified of doing because I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they end up smashed and crumbled to death) or mac quad along with contour kits, mascaras and lip products, you could get away with this, a base and a couple of core brushes. 

Also, it encouraged me to get a new Debenhams beauty card which I've needed for a while. I got a lot of points in store due to a few deals they had on. I think I spent around £130 so got lots for that and also got a £5 giftcard and £10 worth of points for spending £80 on YSL products. Happy happy days! 

I also asked the Urban Decay girl for some advice because I recently purchased their Naked skin illuminating beauty balm. When I opened this I was horrified as the product looks like a cakey, bright orange paste. However she assures me that it's not going to apply like that and that the formula sort of disappears and melts into your skin and moulds to your own skin tone. I'm yet to try it so only time will tell I guess!!! If anyone has experience of this product I'd love to hear about it. 

Kirstie 

Xxxx

Bonding with the Bestie

This evenings post begins with a little change. My face gets a bit boring really, and I'm not its greatest fan, so this evening, I used my best friend and flatmate, the fabulous Miss Chelsie, as a model.

Also, the Naked 1 palette is so well suited to her that she had the perfect face for showing off a make up look with it.

Chelsie and I have very different face shapes. Her least favourite thing about her face is that its always been fairly round. Personally, I think she has a lovely face with very pretty features and a great profile, but she never listens to me.

This means she insists on the old contouring, which I'm really not a fan of, and therefore am not particularly good at.

Despite this, we thought we would share my attempt. If nothing else, it will be amusing for you.

Sooooo.... to begin with, Chelsie is having a bit of a breakout at the moment, much like myself, so I started with my usual Collection concealer base, using a a brush to apply the product from my hand, to avoid any cross-contamination of bacteria.

Dat face tho. 

Chelsie's current foundation is in the same shade as my own Mac Studio Fix Fluid. The shade is NW15, but actually, since she's had some skin changes, she should probably be using an NC from Mac.

NW (Neutral Warm) Mac shades are best for balancing out blue tones from dark circles or veins on the face. Whereas the NC (Neutral Cool) shades are intended to camouflage red tones, and Chelsie currently has a lot of red in her face from breakouts.

However, NW is what we had, so we worked with that, using a Real Techniques Face Expert brush and a Beauty Blender to create a base, also using the Sleek Camoflauge and Conceal palette for under eye and to mask some of the redness.

Then came our first attempt at my round-face contour, which, as you can see, failed miserably.

Basically, when contouring, you want to shadow out the parts of the face that you want to push backwards, and highlight the parts you wish to bring forwards. Instead, I just seemed to be almost framing the parts of Chelsie's face she doesn't like. Also, we used a liquid contour, which is much harder. The product dries quickly, so by the time I'd found and drawn in these abysmal contours, they'd dried to her face and couldn't be blended.

Before trying again, in true Chelsie style, she had a little dance....

She had a little snack....

And we tried again.

Now, this is by no means a great example of round-face contouring. But its getting there.

This time, rather than chance it with a liquid contour, we stuck to powders. I used the Sleek bronzer from this duo, and the highlighter from the Benefit contour box, which I got from my friend T and have used to death. The bronzer in this little box is far too shimmery for contouring, which is best done with a matte bronzer like our Sleek option.

I used the Real Techniques contour brush to apply the contour and highlight shades to Chelsie's face, then a Beauty Blender to pad it out, and a So Eco stippling brush to blend it into her base.

I keep trying to get along with stippling brushes, and never seem to stick with them too long. However, this one is larger than most, and the bristles are much much softer than any others I've tried, yet blend in products even more efficiently.

We then used the Sleek blush in the shade 'Flushed', which is genuinely the most beautiful winter shade I've ever seen. Weirdly, if I looked at this in a counter, I'd think it would be better suited to Chelsie's darker colouring, but it didn't show up quite as well as it did on my own skin.

A product I find useful if you find that you use brushes for more than one purpose, is the Elf Daily Brush Cleanser.

This is a really useful little spray. This Real Techniques contour brush also doubles as the brush I use for blush, and rather than do a deep clean on it, I can give it a quick spritz with this cleaner, a swipe down with a muslin cloth and it will take off enough of the previous product to make it usable again, without soaking the bristles so that they need to dry out. Really helps keep your brushes fresh in-between washes.

This is my beautiful little boy Winston. He heard all the hilarity from our tragic contouring failure, and wanted to join in. He also has a round face, and would love to have Kim Kardashian cheekbones.

Next, we began Chelsie's eyes using this primer from Superdrug's B range. I'm actually not a great fan of this range, but Chelsie quite likes them, so it was an opportunity to use this primer which is mostly going to waste in my collection.

'

The base shade on Chelsie's eyes is Sin from Naked 1. In the crease we used Toasted, blended with Darkhorse.

I've been waiting for a chance to try out the Mac Fluidline eye liner gel for a while now, as its just been sitting in my drawers unused. I know this gets mixed reviews, but having tried this tonight, I am definitely glad I bought it. Its one of the smoothest gel liners I've ever tried, and it applied seamlessly with the Mac 208 brush.

Chelsie has far better brows than me, but I filled them in just slightly using the shade 'Brun' from my Mac palette, and the Real Techniques liner brush from the Sam's Picks set.

I used a set of quite fine strip lashes for Chelsie's eyes. She has a terrible habit of applying and then pulling out individual semi-permanent lashes, but pulls out half of her own lashes with them. Which is a vicious cycle, as then you have to keep applying falsies again.

These cute owl tweezers were bought just for decoration as they were £1 for a set of two from Primark and I didn't expect they'd be any good. However, they honestly work just as well as any others I've had. They are PERFECT for false eyelash application, because the owls have these little pointed ears which are ideal as little points for pressing the strip onto the lash line.

After a touch of Benetint on the lips, I set the look with the Smashbox Photo Finishing powder, and the Real Techniques blush brush, which I far prefer to use for powder because the thing is huge and far to big for just my cheeks.

So there you have it. I may not be the worlds greatest contour artist. But I have a patient, hilarious and beautiful best friend who I am lucky enough to have lived with for over a year now. We have been through far more together than a Contour Crisis and we have soldiered on, having only gotten stronger and happier.

If she does steal any more of my Pepsi Max, or leave any further clumps of her hair on my bedroom floor though...I may be posting about how to bury flatmates in back- gardens.

Kirstie

xxxxxx