Brush collection - Blending brushes

Hello everyone!

This is part 2 of my short guide to eye brushes. I am going to show you what brushes I like and what I use them for. Remember that there is so much choice out there you can easily find not so expensive brushes that perform briliantly. Try to experiment and you might find completly different purpose for your brush than what it was originaly designed for.


I bought this Lancome no 17 brush on ebay. I don't remember how much it cost but I am not sure if it is genuine. This brush is very harsh and I don't use it too often as I find it scratches my eyelid. However it is very useful when it comes to blending stubborn eyeshadows.


Sigma Small Tapered E45. This brush is dense and pointy. It is perfect for contouring the eyelid. Pick up some of matte brown shadow (shade depends on your skin tone. Lighter for light skin tones and darker for darker skin tones) with the tip of the brush and use windscreen wiper motions to blend the shadow in the crease. Point of the brush will apply the shadow and middle part will blend it.


ELF Blending Brush, Sigma SS224, Ecotools. They're all soft, medium density and dome shaped brushes. Perfect overall blenders.


Crown IB119 Deluxe Crease and S225 Shadow Crease. These two brushes i bough on crown website. I have to say they are not what I was expecting. Both if them are too soft to blend anything. Hairs are lovely to touch but shape is too big for my crease and as I mentioned it's is almost impossible to blend anything. I did find a use for them thou. They come in handy for applying powder over undereye concealer or light application of eyeshadow over whole lid.


Mac 217 and Sigma SS217. Mine and many other make up fanatics favourites. They are practicly the same brushes and off course Sigma is cheaper. It is possible to achive whole eye make up with just that one brush. It's dense enough to apply shadow like a shader. It's soft but bristles are densly packed so it blends perfectly. And also size is brilliant for outer corner shadow application and blending. If you're starting out with make up I recommend getting this brush as your first blener and you probably won't need any other one.

Hope this was helpful and enjoyable
Love Sylw xxx

Carmine box October 2011

I received my first Carmine sample box on Thursday and I can't even tell you how excited I was to open it. It was like Christmas! I fell in love with the idea of sample boxes and decided to subscribe to feelunique.com box too. Unfortunately they had a massive demand and my first box will arrive in December :( But back to the Carmine box.

What's a Carmine box?
5 hand-picked products delivered each month, from make-up to skincare to fragrance. Deluxe product miniatures (you know, the generous size) in seductive packaging.
£10 per month + £2.75 p&p with cancel anytime subscription. All boxes are delivered by the 10th of each month.
For who?
For girls who love to discover and try out new brands and products. If you like to have a total control over what you buy and have all time favourite products which you hardly ever change then this isn't for you.









First of all I really like stylish black cardboard box. It looks nice and it's very well made and will definately be great for storage. I already have lots of ideas on what I'm going to store in them (my crafting stuff, nail varnishes, back up products etc).
Along with the products there was a lovely card with product description and 2 discount vouchers for full size products. To my surprise I received 3 full size products which I think is incredible. I will be trying all of these out soon and will let you guys know what I think. I will try to combine testing those out as well as carrying on Project 10 Pan. So bear with me on that one!


Also on the carmine.co.uk website there is more info and tips about the products plus possibility of purchaising full size items.

My box content:
*Balance me super moisturizing hand cream 30ml
*Caudalie Sorbet Face Cream 10ml
*Trind nail repair 9ml (full size!)
*The Balm Frat boy blusher 8.5g (full size!)
*Daniel Sandler Eye Delight in Peach (full size!)

Do any of you like the idea of beauty sample boxes?

Project 10 pan

I did a bit of organizing this past weekend and realized something truly terrifing. I own 8 face creams and 6 cleansers! How did this happen? Where do they come from? Did I buy them? Althou answers to these questions will remain unknown I do have a solution. I am starting double project 10 pan due to overload of cosmetics. The idea is to use up 10 products before buing anything new. To me it's not only about using up the stuff and saving money. This will also give me a chance to use products I have neglected. I always wonder why a lot of cosmetics don't really work for me. Maybe the problem is that I get bored of them, don't stick to using them regulary and move on to another thing.
After the project is finished I will be able to give you guys true opinion on the products I've used up.

Skin care:
*Lirene face wash
*Lirene Intensively Moisturizing Mask
*Nivea Daily Essentials Cleansing Lotion
*Lirene Face Cream
*Sanctuary Body Butter
*The Body Shop Strawberry Hydrating Spray
*Morrisons Foot Butter
*Avon Pedi Peel Pads
*John Frieda Healthy Attitude leave-in spray
*John Frieda Conditioning treatment




Make up:
*No7 Skin Illuminator
*Clinique Superfit Foundation
*Elf Warm Bronzer
*Max Factor Eyebrow Pencil
*Avon Supershock Mascara
*Sephora eyeliner
*Revlon eyeliner
*Urban Decay Primer potion (depoted)
*17 Mirror Shine Beehive
*Revlon Pink Crystals Lipgloss





I just thought that this is a good timing for Project 10 Pan. It will be good to finish off some of the stash as Christmas is coming and everyone knows how cosmetic obsessed I am so will probably be getting a top up from Santa ;)
I have to admit I am braking the rules a little bit. After all the hypes I've been reading for beauty boxes I've subscribed to www.carmine.co.uk . I will treat this as my mothly fix ;) Will of course let you guys know my opion on it.

Hope you enjoyed reading!
Love Sylw xx

October Haul

Hello everyone!

First of all I wanted to apologise for not posting what I packed for my trip. I didn't have much time to get everything ready and my flight was early morning.
I don't think what I took beauty wise was good example on how to pack anyway. As always I took too much and didn't use half the stuff. I will try to be me organized next time and not only pack light but also make a post about it.

Now about the haul. I had a few things to buy in mind before I went and tried to stick to it. Obviously I got a couple unplanned bits but overall I didn't spend too much :)

Airport
Even thou I don't need yet another face cream I picked up Clarins Energizer Moisturizer. My skin has been very dull, gray and tired looking lately so I'm looking forward to try this out.
I bought Benefit creaseless shadow to create quick going out smokey eye when I'm in the rush. I'm hoping to try this out on the weekend. It's a dark black/navyish colour.


Catrice cosmetics and Max factor mascara
I have heard a few good things about this German brand. I haven't tried any of these yet but so far good scores for price (none of them were more than £4) and packaging (sleek and stylish).

*Light reflecting concealer 030 Rosy Beige
*Absolute Eye Colour Eyeshadow 130 Sitting On A Volcano
*Gel EyeLiner 020 It's Mambo nr.2
*Made To Stay Cream Eyeshadow 040 lord of the Blings
*Ultimate Colour Lipstock 010 Be Natural
*Nail Lacquer 200 From Dusk To Dawn
*Nail Lacquer 410 Pool Party At Night
*Nail Lacquer 040 Petit Four As Dessert

My friend also recommended to me Max Factor 2000 Calories mascara (£5.10 on offer). I have tried it and love it! I would say it creates less dramatic effect than False Falsh but seperates lashes beautifuly and doest not clump at all.



Maestro Brushes
I have been using these brushes for the past few days. Some I love and some are not special at all. Review coming up.




Cleansers
Cetaphil (£7.40)
Pharmaceris Cleansing Foam (£6)
These two are waiting in line to be tested :)


Hope you enjoyed my haul guys. I will keep you updated on how my purchases are performing.
Sylw xx

Look of the day

My work outfit for today was simple LBD with gray accesories. I had a bad hair day so I just pinned them in a bun which did not make them look any better but hey ho.
Pictures are a bit pants but I did take them 5:30 in the morning and I had to leave for work 5:40. Yes, I do have to get up at stupid o'clock :( Anyhoo, I hope you like todays look.

Clothes:
*Dress Miss Selfridge
*Blazer New Look
*Shoes Dorothy Perkins
*Bag New Look

Make up:
*Revlon Color Stay Foundation
*Sleek Nude Collection for eyeshadow, blush and lips!
*Max Factor False Lash Effect mascara

Dose of randomness:
*I bought Batiste dry shampoo at Home Bargains for £1.50!!! Normally £2.20 at Asda. Name of the shop says it all: A Bargain!
*I am loving my Sleek Pout Paint and Polish combo at the mo (Minx and Bare minimum)
*I won't have much time to pack on a Saturday night (I'm leaving on my holiday Sunday morning) but I will try to do "What's in my suitcase" post
*I just ate an ice cream and I'm cold now :(

Hope you enjoyed
Sylw x

My Autumn/ Winter favourite Nail Polishes!

I found this nail wheel thingy which I thought will be super cool to show you my favourite nail polishes on. It turned out it's not that cool :( It's messy to apply, polish slides of of it and colours somehow don't look that good against clear plastic. I'll show it to you anyway along with my little collection. I hope these pictures give those gorgeous colours at least a bit of justice.

From left to right:
*OPI Chocolate Moose
*OPI Barefoot in Barcelona
*OPI Tickle my France-Y
*OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?
*Inglot 974
*Essie Midnight Cami
*Essie Topless & Barefoot
*H&M Nerd
*Inglot 57
*OPI Malaga Wine
*OPI I'm not really a waitress
*Essie In stitches
*Essie Angora Cardi


Notice the random hair is still there in H&M polish :)

So it looks like I'm a barefoot nerd who pretends to be a waitress and drinks wine somewhere in France, Barcelona or Malaga :)

Hope you enjoyed!
What are your favourites for the coming seasons?
Sylw x

Brush Collection: Shader brushes

Welcome to my brush guide. I would like to share with you all my best brushes and give you a little advice on how to use them.
I have to say that I do have a bag full of horrible "I regeret spending money on" brushes. I never use them and they are hidden somewhere under the bed in the darkest spot. If you ask me why I just don't throw them away...khm I simply don't know!
Anyhoo, what I'm showing you are only brushes I think are woth recomendation.

Shader is a flat brush used to apply eyeshadow all over the lid. There are few kinds depending on what application you're going for.

*Crown Brush B6 Deluxe Shadow
*only 1 brush I like from 24 set bought on ebay (please don't waste your money on these!)
These two brushes are best for light, natural application. They're both soft and on a fluffy side wihich allows you to also blend the eyeshadow.

*Sigma makeup SS239 (now E55)
This brush is dense and shorter than first two. You'll be able to pack on more intense colour on your lid. It's still soft so little bit of blending can be done. Brilliant for applying eyeshadow on the lower lashline.

*Sigma SS252 (now E60)
This one is dense and bristles are packed together. Great for creating that intense concentrated colour on teh lid. Yu won't do any blending wih this one.

*Eco Tools. No name or number. It came in a little set.
This is the only synthetic brush from the ones featured here. Althou soft to touch it's pretty dense. Great for applying powder eyeshadow all over the lid but even better for cream products. Not good for blending.

Hope this was helpful! Look out for other parts of this series. Next time: blending brushes.
Sylw x