Three New Makeup Tools

Splurging on expensive makeup is pretty pointless if you don’t have good makeup brushes and tools to apply them. I am slowly but surely building my makeup brush collection by trying to find the perfect brush/tool for each area of makeup and I recently added a few more to my collection.

Bobbi Brown Full Coverage Face Brush – If you seen my 2015 wishlist you may recall seeing this included. I heard so many great reviews on this brush for foundation use with many YouTubers and fellow bloggers raving about it. Prior to using this one I relied on my Real Techniques Buffing Brush which is a great option for foundation and a much cheaper alternative. When I first got this I was a bit unsure since I was pretty happy with my RT brush but now I am a total convert. Paired with my Nars Sheer Glow this is the perfect brush for such a flawless finish. It is much more dense than the RT brush and is smaller too making it perfect to really get into every area of the face. Only negative is that I am now lusting over a couple more Bobbi Brown brushes!

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge – Now I may have traded my RT buffing brush for an alternative but I don’t think I would ever turn my back on Real Techniques altogether. They really are a fab brand, making quality brushes at an affordable price. One thing I never thought I would be buying though is a sponge. When I first started getting into makeup the one thing I used to apply my foundation was those cheap sponge wedges which were pretty disastrous. Although it is safe to say this sponge isn’t any were near that level. I bought this sponge after seeing the Beauty Blender being raved about a lot as well as this being mentioned as a dupe so I thought why not jump on the bandwagon. I have been using this mostly for concealer as the shape is great for covering the under eye area and also the tip is also good for dabbing in other areas. I’ve really been liking using this although I am yet to try it for foundation so I will definitely need to try that out too!

MAC 217 Brush – The iconic 217. I must admit I am a bit of an eyeshadow noob. A smokey eye for me is more like a got into a fight black eye situation. Not pretty. Now everyone basically raves on end about how great this brush is and for the longest time I really wanted it and pretty much needed it. Its meant to make eyeshadow a breeze and my god it does. I don’t even know how I survived this world without a MAC 217. It works as a good all-rounder, packing colour onto the lid and blending out in the crease. If your eyeshadow isn’t quite up to scratch then I suggest this mighty brush! I could quite do with a second 217 if I’m honest…

Are you a fan of any of these tools? What tools do you rely on? 

 

How to Clean Your Makeup Brushes

Cleaning makeup brushes is weirdly something I take pretty seriously. I always can’t help but think back to when I first started wearing makeup dabbling between a variety of sponges and cheap useless makeup brushes including that unusual spongy applicator eyeshadow brush (I still don’t understand them) and I cringe thinking of how I never cleaned my brushes. Cleaning my makeup brushes is only something that really came to me when I really got into makeup and I started to learn more about it thanks to blogging. Just to think that I used a makeup brush on a constant basis that had never been cleaned and sat in a pot to gather dust makes me wince. I know that many people still aren’t great when it comes to brush cleaning but its pretty important, so important that someone nearly died from a unclean makeup brush – true story, check it here, apologies for scaring anyone. Anyway here is how I clean my brushes…

Daily Clean

Now the word ‘daily’ may seem slightly over the top to many of you when it comes to makeup brush cleaning but strangely to me its part of my daily makeup routine. After applying my makeup I like to give each brush a quick spritz of makeup cleaner and wipe the brush on a paper towel to give them a little refresh ready for the next use. I used to use the Elf Brush Cleaner however I have found that the MAC Brush Cleaner is actually must better value for money considering the size of the bottle. The only annoying thing with this product is that it comes with a pour style lid rather than a spray so I usually put the product in my empty Elf cleaner bottle which has a spray making it so much easier! Again this step of daily cleaning is something most people wouldn’t do so this is pretty optional, if you were to clean your brushes I wouldn’t just use a product like this alone.

Thorough Clean

Now this step is a lot more important. If you were to pick one out of the two then this is the one to go with. Daily cleaning is simply something I do to refresh my brushes and take off the top layer of makeup from the brush while thorough cleaning does what it says really and gives brushes a good deep cleanse by clearing out all the dirt left behind. It depends on how often I wear makeup to decide how often to give my brushes a deep cleanse but this can vary from weekly, fortnightly and monthly. For thorough cleansing I go for an affordable but effective option: baby shampoo. By putting a drop of the shampoo in the palm of my hand, I then swirl the brush around and rinse under hot water. It is also important when cleaning your brushes with water to lie them down flat with the bristles hanging off a table to prevent the water from damaging the bristles in the brushes. If you are a newbie to brush cleaning then this is a step I recommend.

So are you guilty of not cleaning your brushes or are you a clean freak like me!?