SUNDAY SPECIAL: My top 10 make-up brushes

I often get asked which brushes are my favorites – do I prefer drugstore brands or is it worth investing into more expensive brushes. I also get asked about fake brushes that you can purchase from various websites – if you want to know about my experience with those, let me know in the comments below!

Anyway, I own both drugstore and high-end brushes – too many of both, to be quite honest with you, since I love buying and trying new ones. As you will see, my favorites consist of both. These are the brushes I use on a regular day when doing my go to make-up look. I listed some prices below, but to find the best deal, check out *this post* I wrote about my favorite online stores and their offers!

No make-up shopping until 2015?

I tried my best with this resolution dating back to October, I really did. But with all the sales and great deals, I was destined to fail before I even really attempted to succeed and not buy any make-up until 2015. So over the course of the last month, I picked up (or was sent) quite a few of the products and I am only showing you the ones I already have an opinion on or I am really excited about. I hope you won't mind the pictures terribly - it's obvious now that since I will never be home in time to shoot the pics in daylight, I will need to do something about my camera, but for now, we are stuck with what we have. 

Let's start with face products. This Chanel Vita Lumiere foundation (in beige) is my first ever Chanel foundation. I will have to give it a few more tries but so far I am less than impressed. It's quite sheer and tends to stick to the dry areas of my face although I am using a primer. For the price, I was really hoping that it would be a full coverage foundation that would still somehow make it look like I am wearing nothing on my face. That is what I was promised and I must say, that not only does the product not deliver on the promises; it fades in comparison to some of the drugstore foundations. I will try it with another primer, but I am disappointed so far. 

 I can only say completely the opposite about the Sleek blush palette (in Pink lemonade). This was sent to me by Licila.si and I absolutely love it. The packaging itself is beautiful (although I'll admit it's a bit hard to open with long nails) and the palette contains two powder blushes (Pink mint on far left and Icing sugar on far right – both have a very slight shimmer to them) and one cream blush (macaroon in the middle). Until this palette, I was sure that the only blush that would look good on me is light, almost neutral, pink, but I have been getting compliments from left and right wearing the darker Icing sugar. All three blushes are highly pigmented so they should last you forever. 

The only brush I recently picked up is the bhcosmetics duo fibre stippling brush. I was excited to try a new brush but the best I can say about this one is that it is very pretty. For me, the fibres are too long and it's difficult to get into every nook with them and besides that, it's already shedding on me after two weeks. Not impressed. 

Next, we have two palettes – one high end and one more reasonably priced. 

I've been wanting the Lorac palette probably since the first day I decided that I will learn to do make-up properly and I've finally picked it up. So far, I am pretty impressed. It's very pigmented and has a beautiful range of shimmery and matte shadows. The only downfall is the kick out, but that is perhaps also due to the brushes I use. 

I Hear Makeup – I Heart Passion palette I received a while back from Licila.si but at the first glance I immediately decided to keep it safe until the holiday season. I mean, just look at all these beautiful strong glitters. I am sure I will be creating many looks with this palette come December. And display the packaging proudly because it is absolutely stunning. Would you like a review of this palette? Comment below! By the way: is anyone else under the impression that the people at the branding department of I heart makeup did not think things through when naming the brand? I mean, the graphics with the heart are beautiful, but the name just seems wrong to me :)

Moving right along we again have two products that are priced very differently. I have heard so many bloggers rave about the Benefit They're real! push-up liner, how perfect and easy it's supposed to be and immediately decided I need it in my life. Well, I was in for a disappointment. I mean, it is easier to do a nice line that with a regular liquid liner, but it's far from easy and I still recorded some massive failures with this liner. For this price, it should jump out of the box and make a perfect winged line which would magically disappear at the end of the day by itself. Not impressed at all. 

The same goes for the I Heart Makeup lip combo named Yesterday's favourite. Well, it might have been someone’s favourite, but it's never been mine. On one side, we have a matte lipstick in a gorgeous red colour but it's so drying that I cannot wear it without  a gloss. The perfect solution would be the gloss on the other side, but it has so much shimmer in it that I was literally glowing like a Christmas tree. So the product was quite disappointing in my opinion. 

Last but not least, the nail polishes. I have quite recently cleaned out my polish collection and of course I needed to stock up on what I felt was missing from it. 

I have already talked about Zoya nail polishes and how much I love them. Yes, they are expensive, probably one of the most expensive brands out there (besides Chanel, Dior and all those premium brands), but I feel you really get a lot for your money. I picked up two colours – Noel, which is a sparkly blue colour and will be perfect for the holidays, and Yuna that is a silvery colour with glitter from their Fall Ignite collection. 

From Make-up Revolution line, I picked up the coppery No Good Waiting and the golden green Make Me. Both of these are fabulous colours and really inexpensive, but for some reason the glitter inside has already started to condense (I cannot find another word to describe it) and the chunks of glitter just sit on top of your nails, making the surface uneven. I am not sure of the reason why this is happening, does any of you have similar experiences with these polishes?

Last up, I knew I was in trouble yesterday when I spotted the Essence Christmas line in Müller. I managed to contain my excitement and only pick up one item, although it's technically three (but they are really small though) :) It's the Essence Come to Town (01 – Naughty or Nice?) polish collection. The polishes themselves don't have any names which I don't really like, but we have two regular polishes - one in red with bright pink undertones and the second one in a lovely plum shade which is a perfect dupe for the Essie Bahama Mama that I love. The set also contains one topper with smaller and larger pieces of gold glitter. I have not tested them out yet but I am expecting them to be reasonably good considering my past experience. Would anyone like to see them on my nails in all the combinations?

I hope you enjoyed reading this. Don't forget – my holiday giveaway is still up and running, so enter, if you haven’t yet!

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!

 

Fun Friday - Low maintenance?

Yesterday, my significant other watched me put on make-up from start to finish while he was taking a shower. When I was done he was utterly amused by the fact that I am writing my blog under the »low-maintenance beauty« name. Because, in his words, I'm anything but. And you know what? After reviewing my morning routine I realized he is right. What I want to know from you is if you find the bottom list something normal – something you do as well – or am I taking it a step too far?

This is the list of everything I put on yesterday + all the tools I used for application in the exact order I use them.

• moisturizer (Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel) and lipbalm (EOS)
• face primer (Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser) + fingers
• eye primer (Too Faced Shadow Insurance) + fingers
• liquid foundation (Rimmel Match Perfection) + Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge
• compact powder (Bourjois Healthy Balance) + BH Cosmetics Powder Brush
• light concealer (Make Up Revolution Concealer) + Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge
• under-eye concealer (Instant Age Rewind Concealer) + Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge
• bronzer (Tarte Mineral Bronze Powder) + Ecotools powder brush
• blush (NYX Blush in Pinched) + BH Cosmetics Blush Brush

• eyebrow powder (NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder) + brush that comes with it
• eyebrow gel (Essence Lash and Brow gel)
• eyeshadow (Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette) + 3 BH Cosmetics eyeshadow brushes for application and blending
• eyelash curler (no idea of the brand, picked it up at Walmart for a few $)
• mascara (1 coat of Maybelline Volum Express Colossal Mascara + 1 coat of Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara)
• eyeliner (Maybelline Master Precise liquid eyeliner)
• lip liner (Uma Cosmetics)
• lipstick (Barry M)
• setting spray (e.l.f. Make-up Mist & Set)

 Total? 19 products and 9 tools.

I'll be the first to admit that this is a full face of make-up, although I apply it in a way that is still appropriate for daytime. I mainly separate daytime and night time looks by the amount of contouring and the darkness of the eyeshadow – there is probably some other things that could also be taken into account? How do you change your daytime/night-time make-up?

At the moment, putting this on takes me a good 15 minutes, which is a ridiculous amount of time. I hope to get a bit faster eventually, but so far it is what it is. What I will say though is that I absolutely love the mornings now because every day I get to play around with make-up and try something new, which is something I never did before. 

What is your favorite part of mornings?

Until next time, stay beautiful, stay awesome!