My Favourite e.l.f Makeup Brushes!

 As a makeup nerd, a reasonably sized brush collection is so helpful to have, but can easily start costing you a hefty amount! Enter budget brands...

 

 E.l.f, like a lot of cheaper brands, can be pretty hit or miss sometimes, but luckily I've found they really do have a few winners in their brush range and some of these are in amongst my most used
brushes!

 

The black brushes are from the 'Studio' line, which is e.l.f's more expensive range and all cost £3.50 each. The white brushes are from their regular line and all cost £1.50 each. The Studio line are synthetic Taklon bristles. No information is listed for the regular line, but I believe they are synthetic also.

 

L-R: Powder Brush, Eyeshadow Brush, Blush Brush, Eyeshadow "C" Brush

Powder Brush, £3.50

 

This is a really interesting little gem. It's basically a flat-top kabuki brush on a long handle - it's very dense and lovely and soft. I love this brush for setting my makeup with powder, especially on a shoot or for a design with greasepaints or facepaints. It's perhaps a little large for working liquid foundations into the face and it's flat shape means it's a little harder to get all into all the nooks and crannies, but if you're not sure if buffing is for you, this isn't a badly priced brush to experiment with! I imagine it would work really well with mineral makeup too. I've never used another kabuki brush as I love this one so much - the handle makes it much more appealing to me - but be warned that as it's so dense it sometimes takes a bit of effort to wash!

 

Eyeshadow Brush, £1.50

This brush is only £1.50. ONE MEASLY POUND FIDDY. And I absolutely love, love, love this brush. It's a great shape and density for placing eyeshadow on the lid and it's just fluffy enough on the edges to softly blend the colour out. It's not a blending brush and you won't be able to create a super-soft, complex look with it, but if you're in a rush or just want to apply one shadow, this will soften
out that harsh edge for you in no time. I really like this brush for beginners and have given it to friends and clients to practise with, and always take one with me when I'm travelling - I think I have 6 or 7 of these! They're not the most handsome of brushes (the white handles can get a little grubby) and they're not super soft -they're not harsh or scratchy at all but you're not going to swoon over the softness. The price is a bonus, I have to say - when e.l.f have their 50% off sales I always stock up - you can't beat a good, basic brush for 75p!

 

Sadly I have to add that I don't rate the rest of the £1.50 line I've tried, although I've not tried all of them.

 

 

Blush Brush, £3.50

This is my favourite blush brush! It's a slightly flattened, pointed shape which makes it really versatile as the tip is quite small and slim, meaning it's great for contouring or highlighting with powders as well as traditional blush application. Because it's so multi-purpose, I really like taking a couple of these with me in my kit. While the smaller size makes it good for small faces and prominent cheekbones, it's still great for blending colour out on the cheeks and is lovely and soft. If you're a fan of indie makeup, this brush is a nice size for dipping in to small blush containers without making a mess, too!

 

 Eyeshadow "C" Brush, £.3.50

A similar shape to the eyeshadow brush before, but a bit more curved, larger, and with much stiffer, less fluffy bristles. The idea of this brush is that the 'C' shape fits in nicely on the outer corner of your eye, giving you a nice neat application. Now, this greatly depends on your eye size and shape (it's a fairly large brush) as well as the look you want, but that aside, this is a really great brush for packing on eyeshadow. Again, I have several of these and love using them.

 

The reason I've added two pretty similar eyeshadow brushes in here is that I find it *so* difficult to find good, reasonably priced, simple eyeshadow brushes for just laying down eyeshadow, especially in UK drugstores. If you're stuck between the two, I'd probably say go for the £1.50 - it picks up loose eyeshadow a little better and as it's smaller it's more likely to fit your eye.

 

 

I have at *least* two of all these brushes, and have some of them for several years and they're all doing really well! While my brushes don't get as much use as a full-time makeup artist (I work on shoots and clients on the side of my full-time job) they get a LOT of use and I wash pretty much all of my brushes at least every ten days or so, so these are well tested! With the exception of
a *slightly* wobbly ferrule on my oldest of the flat-top brushes, I have never had a single issue with them - no shedding, they don't seem to get dented or scratched up and they stay lovely and soft while keeping thier shape. There are some brushes that e.l.f make that I don't rate at all, and others that I like a lot too, but these ones here? Full on love, regardless of the price point.

If you're in the U.K, you can pick these up at www.eyeslipsface.co.uk

May Favourites

I said I wouldn't do another favourites post, and apparently I'm a liar. Ah well. Let's see what I've been enjoying this month.

Chanel Chance Eau Fraiche
There's something about a Chanel fragrance that's so luxurious to me! This is an old favourite of mine that my boyfriend bought for me for my birthday - he says it smells of me, so I guess I have to wear it! Shame. It apparently has notes of 'Jasmine, Water Hyacinth, Citron, Teakwood, White Musk, Patchouli Amber, Vetiver,' but I don't know what any of those things smell like - to me it smells awesome. I should really write more perfume reviews.

Fyrinnae Damn Paladins
My favourite neutral and go-to shadow, I've been bunging this on quite a lot lately! Soft clay-taupe with green/blue shimmer - really unusual and beautiful, but still subtle enough for those gotta-get-outta-the-house mornings! I'm wearing it here, here, here... you get my drift. If my makeup was on fire, this is one of those shades I'd burn my hands to shit for to save.

Milani Orange-Gina
Ok, so I only got this right at the end of May as a gift from Wendy, but I love it already! You all know I love an orange lippy and I'd been lusting after this for ages! It's packed with a pretty intense gold shimmer - it's just uber flattering on me and I love it. You can see me wearing in our Inglot haul video here.

Special Makeup Effects for Stage and Screen by Todd Debreceni.
Yes, it's a book. Since I got my Kindle, pages confuse me, but I keep picking up this bad boy, opening a page at random and learning something new - this book is crammed with prosthetics stuff I had no idea about! My mum bought me this book for my birthday because she thought I'd find it interesting. If you always skip to the makeup on DVD extras, this book is well worth a look. It's got everything from facial anatomy to bald caps to wigs to making false ears.  Really cool book, fanks Mum!

Calvin Klein Eyeshadow Brush 2.
I bought a load of discount brushes from Fragrance Direct and this a really cute eye brush. It's a fluffy paddle shape, so nice if you blend with a windshield wiper motion, and dense enough for application if you want a wash of colour. Nice all-rounder, bargain at £2.99!

Well, that's all folks - not that much from me this month, I know, but it's been a very makeup-less month - I haz a lazy. I have a feeling I know what June's favourites are going to be already though! Feel free to point me in the direction of your May favourites posts.

Blending Brushes! Comparing and contrasting and yaddy yadda..

So, I have recently acquired a LOT of brushes! I've trebled what I've had at least and am a very happy bunny. So I thought I'd do a post comparing the blending brushes that I have, because I've got lots at different price ranges, so this can be an 'archive' sort of post and hopefully help someone out! This is a long post, so go and make yourself a cup of tea before you start. (Oh, and for y'all foreigners, that coin is exactly the same size as a Candian quarter.)

Blending Brushes I own:



From top to bottom, e.l.f blending eye brush, Revlon Contour Shadow Brush, Mac 217 and Mac 224.

Unfortunately I can't show you how these brushes apply colour, because my camera batteries have just died on me. Sorry! But I'll do my best.

First up: The e.l.f brush. E.l.f says this brush 'Expertly blends multiple eye shades while softening dramatic edges and fine lines. Brush can also multitask – use it to set powder or liquid concealer.' The website doesn't say whether its synthetic or natural, but it feels fairly soft.

Now, on the website, this brush looks much more like the MAC 224 than it does in real life. In real life, its more of a squat shape, much more comparable to the Revlon brush. To be honest, I don't care because I just bought this brush to see if there is such a thing as a decent brush for £1.50. And there is! I prefer my Revlon brush to this one, but not by much. If you want a blending brush and you don't want to or can't spend a lot of cash, this is a decent brush. Its reasonably well made - I've had very little shedding, the hairs on the brush are dense with an even shape and the ferrule is sturdy.



Second on the list - the Revlon Contour Shadow brush. I heard a lot about this online and saw it in a fair few YouTube videos so I bought it. Its got 4.6 out of 5 on Makeup Alley, too. Revlon says this brush is 'Designed to create definition and contrast, the contour shadow brush features a rounded, slanted tip for precise application along the crease. The exquisitely soft, all-natural bristles are best for applying powder shadows, while the long handle allows for superior control.' Mine cost me £6.99 but as of this post, it's £2.99 on superdrug.com!

I love this brush, basically. I prefer it to my e.l.f brush as it has a slightly more pointed shape, which means its easier to get into the crease with it. It feels softer on the eye than the e.l.f and it's also about 3m longer (handle-wise) than the e.l.f brush, and for some reason I prefer longer handled brushes. It also gives a slightly softer wash of colour and is slightly more fluffy than the e.l.f brush. These differences aren't big ones, though I expect the Revlon one will last longer than the e.l.f one, so while this brush is on sale, I'd totally recommend this one over the e.l.f. Also, its black while the e.l.f is white, so it just looks much slicker. I've also had no problems with this brush shedding.



Next up is the MAC 217. Sorry, mine is so stained already! MAC says this brush is 'for shading or blending of colour or creamy products. This brush has fine, densely packed fibres that are arranged in an oval shape.' This brush costs £14.50, and while MAC doesn't say if its synthetic or natural, its super soft. Also, I may be wrong but I read white MAC brushes are synthetic while black are natural? Corrections please!

This brush doesn't compare to the previous two at all! This brush is more flat and paddle-shaped as well as being wide and fluffy, so this is great for actually applying colour as well as blending it out. I find I can get a lovely precise application with this brush. Basically, I love it. I could live without it as there is nothing wrong with my Revlon brush and I have other brushes for application of colour, I just find this brush is much easier to use. Which is what we want, right? Also, where this brush is 'flat,' it also has two sides, so you can simply flip the brush over when you're using it for application, so you can apply two shades and not have to change the brush.

Again, its lovely and soft, and I've had no shedding problems. I only have one gripe about this brush and that is that the embossing that says 'MAC 217' is starting to wear off already - the print is right by the ferrule. If it were further down the brush perhaps it wouldn't wear off as quickly. I know this is so nit-picky, but I paid almost £15 for this brush! Stay pretty, dammit! It's also stained, but a lot of people have said they have this, so its something I already knew about.



And lastly, the MAC 224. Mac says this is for 'controlled eye shadow application. This brush has soft fibres which taper to form a medium size dome shape.' It costs £20.50, so its my most expensive blending brush.

I'm not sure about this 'controlled application' thing. If you look at the tip of this compared to the rest of the brushes I've talked about, it has a bigger circumference. All the other brushes are also a lot more dense - so this brush gives a much softer wash of colour. In all honesty, I haven't really figured out how to use this brush properly yet. Its probably perfect from some people but if you know me, then 'soft wash' is not really what I'm all about. This is too fluffy to apply a strong crease colour as the bristles are too long -the shape of the brush changes when you apply pressure. It'd probably be great for setting your concealer, etc, or perhaps even applying a highlight colour under the brow. Knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting this brush. I hope I can come to love it as it is lovely and soft and while I've only washed it once, it didn't shed and kept its shape well. Any suggestions for use would be much appreciated.



Fluffy Blending Brushes:

So this type of brush is intended for blending things out or off, or applying a sheer wash of colour. I have two of these style brushes:



The top one with the cerise handle is 'The Love Brush,' by Tigi Bed Head, and the bottom is MAC 227. As you can see, the MAC is a fair bit bigger than the Tigi, so its not fair to say its a dupe, just a similar style brush. The blurb for the Tigi brush claims its for 'precise application for the whole lid,' which is of course, bollocks. MAC says the 227 is perfect for 'applying, blending or highlighting any powder-based products.' Both brushes are natural bristles.

I've washed both these brushes a couple times, and I was expecting mega shedding from each one. I haven't had a major problem with either of them - just a few hairs from each one. And while the MAC is super soft, the Tigi one is pretty darn soft too - much better than I was expecting. I use these brushes to blend out colour toward the brow or clean up the shape of my shadows on the outer part of my eye, and I highlight with the 227.



That's one swipe of each one. As you can see, the MAC 227 gives a much more sheer wash of colour, which is why I prefer this brush - its just less work than the TIGI brush.

On the other hand, though, the TIGI brush is £3.40 (I got mine from feelunique.com, which also has free shipping) whereas the MAC 227 is £20.50 and maccosmetics.co.uk don't do free shipping unless you spend fifty quid. Plus the Tigi is purple. So while I much prefer the MAC brush, if you're in the market for this style of brush but don't have that much cash, or you want an alternative while you're washing your own 227, I'd really recommend this Tigi brush.


Phew. Hope that helps someone! I'll do some more comparisons of pencil or angled brushes that I have if people would like that, too.

Love and kisses,

Robyn xxx

omgyay!!!!

So I went to MAC today... first time evaaar! I had my little list with me and after being served by a lovely helpful (I mean hot) guy I came out with:



Yay! I got vouchers for my brithday and I'm so happy, no way could I have afforded that on my own! I know its not a massive or exciting haul but I am very happy.

The brushes are:

-210. Thin eyeliner brush. Got this because I'm fed up of applicators that come on liquid liner. You can never get a thin line or do detail work.
-219. Pencil brush. Everyone in the world told me to get this, so I did. I've literally been gagging to get my grubby little paws on one of these!
-217. Blending brush. Not the shape I was expecting! Its kind of flat, where I was expecting something rounder. Excited to use it now!
-227. Large fluff brush. Leesha of xsparkage calls this the 'magic brush.' The MUA at MAC said it would be great for higlighting, though I bought it with the eye area in mind. I love this brush already, its so cute!
-187. Er....face brush! Again, this is a lemming thing. I cannot wait to try it for blush, it feels so nice on my face. Mmm :)
-224. Tapered blending brush. I don't remember asking for this one but I guess I must have! This is what I was expecting the 217 to look like.

I got Gesso eyeshadow but its pretty boring so no swatches. Its matte, its white, pigmentation is decent. Onto the good stuff... of course, I got Viva Glam Cyndi:



Sigh, I LOVE this! Love it love it love it. Was worried neither lipstick suited me but I bought them anyway. I felt guilty spending £160 on makeup so buying the Viva Glam lipsticks made me feel a bit better about myself! (I presume you all know, but all the profits from MAC Viva Glam products go to people suffering with AIDS and HIV.) I wouldn't have normally paired it with the e/s I have on in this picture, its just a lil swatchyswatch. Anyone got any ideas what I could wear with it?

And I bought Gaga too!



...Does this suit me? I don't know! Please tell me what you think. Also, WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME HOW GOOD THESE THINGS SMELL?! Gorgeous vanilla scent! And they feel soooo creamy!

I'll get back to you on how these brushes work out for me soon. I'll have a lot of brush reviews and comparisons coming up soon because I am waiting for the postman to bring me:

-Kent Angled Contour Brush
-Kent Definition Socket Line Brush (looks like a fat 219!)
-Kent Angled Eye Countour Brush
-Kent Angled Eyebrow Brush
-Bare Escentuals i.d Precision Liner Brush
-Tigi Beadhead The Love brush

As well as Lancome Hypnose Mascara, Lily Lolo blush and bronzer and Bare Escentuals Quick Change Brush Cleanser. Oh! Also the Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual, Makeup your Mind (I think this is the NARS book), a Marie Claire book and another makeup book which I can't remember. I love having a birthday!

And my outfit today:





This is very girly for me but OMFGITSTOOHOT. So here it is. Don't know where the dress is from, my Dad bought it for me while we were out one time. The top half of the back of the dress is a big bow, so it has a little cutout area above where your bra goes. The belt which I freakin' adore is from a vintage store in Vancouver which I really miss - it was so awesome.

And lastly the look I rocked for my birthday:



I wish I could have had proper victory rolls, but I can NEVER do them when I am actually going out, only when I'm muching about. I wore a huge 1950s-style a-line dress which is bright pink with l'il poodles on it! We went to All Star Lanes which is an amazing retro bowling alley with a diner and a cocktail bar. Everything was amazing. I love bowling but I hate chavs (chavs are... well, rowdy, rough delinquent, people who look like this) they and this place was very chav-free. And I had the best damn chilli I've ever put in my mouth. There's a few sites across London so check them out!

Sorry for the long post today!

Love and Kisses,

Robyn xxx