REVIEW: Eyebrow products

Over the years I have tried a couple of different eyebrow products, I didn't get into the routine or obsession with filling my brows in until about 3 years ago when I was 20! Now it is a must to fill in my brows.

Here are my bare brows. My hair looks extra ginger in here..

I'll start in ascending order of products I have used so far.

Rimmel professional brow pencil

Excuse the scruffy brush, I haven't washed it for ages since I don't even use it..

Being a makeup newbie at the time, I purchased this Rimmel brow pencil in shade 002 Hazel, as my hair is brown. But even then, I didn't really use it much! The pencil lid has a little brow brush for you to brush out and blend any harsh drawn lines in your brows. Over time the brush will gunk up with product so make sure you clean the brush every so often.

The colour of the pencil is really off of the colour that I want it to be (to complement my dyed hair colour, which is always a shade of brown). It comes out ORANGE on application and just looks really wrong. I just don't like the finish and look of my brows after I use this product. I also wasn't really a fan of the brush design, I'm a spoolie girl.

Wearing Rimmel brow pencil in 002 Hazel

As you can see... the outcome is really unflattering on me. It just looks weird and very unnatural because it stands out so much.

As I got more and more educated about makeup products and techniques, I can now confidently say that I will not go back to this product.


Maybelline master shape brow pencil

As my Rimmel brow pencil was nearing it's end, I opted for Maybelline brow pencil in soft brown, just to try another brand. I find that this product is way too wasteful, I have to sharpen it after each use, as it is quite sheer and I have to layer it on, but even then I'm not really satisfied. The life span of this pencil is very short due to this. I also find that this product is way too waxy, and it leaves my brows looking like I've rubbed Vaseline on them... so greasy. Of course it is better after I use the brush to brush it out, but in the end it is still quite sheer. Coverage is very minimal for the amount of layering I've done.

Wearing Maybelline brow pencil in soft brown

On the plus side, this pencil comes with a spoolie brush on the opposite end to brush and blend your brows. I don't use the pencil anymore, but I do use it's spoolie! Therefore I will not purchase this again.


Collection 2000 Work the Colour Eyebrow kit

The brow gel is not pictured, I used it up ages ago and discarded of the empty tube!

As you can see, I hit the pan in the brown shade. Shows how much I use it!

I was looking for a brow powder to try for the first time, so I opted with a drugstore one to see if I liked the results compared to previous pencils. I ended up with a collection 2000 one since I saw that it came with 3 colours and a brow gel, which gave me a chance to try two new things at once! My first brow powder and I love it. Ever since switching to powder, I haven't looked back to pencils. It gives me a much softer look, the perfect colour to compliment my hair, and is easily build-able to achieve the desired effect. The palette contains 3 different shades; black, brown and light, which gives me a great option to mix and blend to get the right colour brows I want. I use the brown shade the most to colour my brows, the black shade to fill in any sparse areas, and the light shade to contour my nose.

Wearing Collection 2000 work the colour eyebrow kit

It comes with a little double ended brow brush, one side angled flat, and the other is rounded edge. I have always gone for the angled side of the brush as it work best for me. There's also a mini brow gel for you to set your brows after filling and shaping them to your desire! This is also what got me into eyebrow mascara. I love this product, but once it runs out, I will try another brow palette, just because I like to try and test new products.

GOSH eyebrow mascara 

As my hair is dyed brown, I find that my black brows look too harsh on my face. Although the brow powder helps to lighten my brows, I was also looking to get a coloured brow mascara to kind of 'tint' my brows temporarily each time. Looking at drugstore products, I found these GOSH brow mascaras in two different shades of brown, 002 and 003. There were no testers (Do people just steal testers? Loads are also missing!) so I just went and bought both of them to try myself and give my verdict.

The result? They don't add colour to my brow hairs. But they do keep my brows in place. Which is okay but not what I was looking for. Would I purchase these again? No.

MUA clear brow gel

Not much to say about a clear brow gel. It was cheap and does the job! You get a lot of product too as the tube is long. This is value for money and I'd go back to it.

Soap & Glory Archery brow tint & precision shaping pencil

My first try of Soap & Glory cosmetics! I had heard good reviews about the Archery brow products, so I went and bought both of them. I got the shade 'Brownie Points'.

The Archery brow tint is a light liquid pen brush applicator, and the shaping pencil is retractable. It took me a few tries to get the perfect brow look with this pen, the first few times my brows kept ending up looking thicker than usual. So after I brushed just below my brow shape to keep it from going too thick, and in the end I got the hang of it!

Wearing Soap & Glory Archery brow tint & shaping pencil

This product is good, however I am still straying back to the good old Collection 200 brow kit, as I am just more comfortable using powder. I do use the shaping pencil after filling my brows in with the powder, as the pencil is a little waxy, it helps to shape my brows even more. Also, you can use the brow tint to draw a precise line under the brow if you want more definition, just make sure you don't use a heavy hand. This is a product that I would definitely go back to.



Soap & Glory Archery 2 in 1

I've heard other beauty bloggers compare the Soap & Glory Archery 2 in 1 brow filling pencil and brush to the Anastasia Brow Wiz, which made me want to get it and try it out myself. First look at the pencil, it is really thin. Like reaaaaalllyyy thin, it feels very delicate compared to other brow pencils/pens i've used or held.

Wearing Soap & Glory 2 in 1 brow filling pencil

I like the result, although it is a little slightly darker than the brow powder, it isn't much of a difference. Easy and precise, as the pencil is retractable and its thin, you can draw nice soft thin lines to fill and shape the brows. The brush spoolie is also small and thin which makes brushing more accurate. I think I have a thing for small products, it feels so dainty and I love it!

This is another product that I would definitely go back to. I'd recommend this Soap & Glory 2 in 1 brow pencil to those that want a good Anastasia brow wiz dupe because you don't want to break your bank! 

REVIEW: Ciaté Caviar Manicure

I received this Ciaté Caviar Manicure set as a birthday gift from a friend! I've been out of the whole nail art thing for a few years now. I used to do all sorts of patterns and designs, then I stopped painting at all for a good year, and only recently got back into the habit of painting my nails. Although just plain colour and that's it.

So this is a nice and easy way to make my nails look more interesting than just a plain coat of colour!

You get a bottle of caviar micro pearls, a bottle of black nail polish, and a funnel.

Close up of the caviar pearls

It was my first time using this, and I only did the ring fingers of each hand as I think doing all of them like this would be too over the top.

It's important to keep everything in the packaging, as the plastic lid doubles up as a tray to catch the pearls when you pour them over your nails, and makes it easier to pour back through the funnel into the bottle, to reduce any wastage!

For my first experience trying this out, I did find it difficult to get a nice even spread of pearls. There are some gaps on the nails that are not covered! I need more practice. I'm not used to the feeling of having things stuck onto my nails, the raised texture and all. Also paranoid that the pearls are going to drop/fall off into my food and I'll end up eating it...

In the included booklet, it said that the best way to seal the pearls is to apply a top coat to only the tip of the nail?

You can see the little gaps in the photo. It's an interesting look... I'd never do this to all of my nails though. Reason being is that when they start to fall off, it'll be uneven and start to look a bit mank! One nail on each hand is enough for me.

This product isn't something that I would by for myself. It was nice to receive it as a gift though, as I've got the chance to try it out, something I never thought of anyway.

I'll be a good pairing with my Tsubasa inspired nails I used to rock a few years back! 

REVIEW: Garnier Olia permanant hair colour

It was time for me to do a root touch up as I've been dying my hair for many years now, 8 years to be exact! I've stuck to having some sort of brown shade for about 5 years, with the odd bleaching it ginger and attempting to go back to my natural hair colour here and there inbetween.

I picked up the new Garnier Olia dye pack as I saw it has no ammonia, and it's oil powered! My choice of colour is always a really light frosty/ashy/pearly blonde as this is the best way for people with naturally dark hair to achieve a lighter brown shade of dyed hair... It's notorious for us to end up with ginger tints everytime we dye our hair though. So I always expect it now.

I found the shape of the bottle slighter harder to grip compared to previous designs which is the standard cylinder shape. The applicator tip is also different to what I usually use which comes with a comb applicator, or foams and masks. All that said, it wasn't that bad, still did the job and all.

The smell of the formula is much better than others with a quite potent pang to it! I think that's the ammonia smell?

The way I apply hair dye when it's like this is a squirt a line across the roots and use a plastic tooth comb to distribute it through.

At the end my hair came out like this:

It came out pretty orange! It's not as orange anymore after a couple of washes and me trying out a new shampoo (for blondes)... I think it isn't the right chose of shampoo that I chose.. but i'll talk about that in another post :D

Final verdict is that I think this is one of the better hair dyes I have used! It isn't drying and does what I expect it to, the formula is brilliant too.

I won't say the best because my actual desired hair colour isn't achievable without having to bleach/lighten and tone it. Maybe I'll do it some day!

NEW: Jewellery Display

I've been wanting to get a jewellery display/stand for quite a while but I couldn't find a nice one, or they were too expensive for what it was. Then of course I looked on eBay and I found the perfect one, for a decent price!

The reason for wanting one in the first place is because I'd previously just kept them in boxes that they came in when I purchased them, and they were just stacking on top of each other and making it harder for me find the ones I wanted to wear, which takes up precious time for me getting ready!! So this was a must for me, and it had to be nice and pretty.

I like this design as there's 3 little birds on a tree. This came in either bronze/gold or silver, I opted for silver as the majority of my jewellery is silver at the moment... I might buy the bronze/gold one as well when i get more gold jewellery and my current one gets full.

The price I got this for is £7.30. In stores their ones were selling for around £16, and the design wasn't as nice a this one I found on eBay. I really love this! It even has a tray at the bottom for studs and things you can't hang.

When you receive the package, it will come in two parts. The tray and the branch needs to simply be screwed together and that's it! Simple. 

NEW: Lipstick storage

One problem of just storing ANY makeup in just a makeup bag is that you'll have to always dig around to look for the product you want. This got very annoying for me especially when I was in a rush to get ready in the mornings!!

I have a dedicated makeup drawer,which actually isn't big enough to fit everything I want so I have a makeup bag as well. 

I've already organised a lot of my makeup and my next step was to organise my lip products.

I had a look around and found the best deal on eBay (yet again) around £2.72 for a 12 slot lipstick holder! What a bargain. In TK Maxx, they were selling a 6 slot for £4.99.... I thought  that was too little for that price and I was right.

It's sturdy and nice, and great value for money! Definitely recommend buying off eBay! 

I will buy more when my lipstick collection get bigger for sure!

NEW: Makeup Brush Storage

I've already shared photos of this on my instagram and facebook, but now I've decided to blog about just talk about it in more detail.

I used to store my brushes in this stationary pot:

But I found that after a while dust will start to settle on the heads of my brushes so I'd have to wash them again even if I haven't used the brush at all (this is in a span of 1-2 weeks). So I decided it was time for me to look for a better storage system for my brushes. At first I was looking at the brush pouches that can roll up, kind of like a makeup brush belt holder thing that makeup artists use, but i just wanted the roll and not a belt version. I came across a couple of nice one, but the issue with those were that they didn't hold much brushes. I then found this lovely brush holder!

I got mine on eBay. This holder has 26 slots to hold 26 brushes! It's great for drying brushes after washing them, not letting dust settle on the brush heads, and organisation!

Slots:
16 small slots
6 medium slots
4 big slots

It's easy to assemble, I didn't even look at instructions, it's a simple slotting together. When you receive it it'll have a layer of brown paper stuck on top which you need to peel off.

I'd definitely recommend this product to you guys as I really love it! Its a 3 in 1 product, why would you say no? But I admit I am a bit OCD and I'm currently going on a storage spree :p      

Eyeliner collection!

Hello everyone!

I'm going to be sharing my current eyeliner collection so far.

Here is all I currently have

I'll start off with the E.L.F eyeliners.

From Top: E.L.F Mineral Eyeliner in Coffee. E.L.F Brightening eyeliner in Black. E.L.F Shimmer eyeliner pencil in Gunmetal. E.L.F Shimmer eyeliner pencil in Black.

 

 

From Left: Shimmer Black. Shimmer Gunmetal. Brightening Black. Mineral Coffee

The shimmer eyeliners look really pretty, the other two are just quite plain and normal. I don't use these at all because they smudge really easily! Not good.

From Left: Shimmer Black. Shimmer Gunmetal. Brightening Black. Mineral Coffee.

It's a shame really since I really do like the shimmer liners, but hey, what can I expect from a budget makeup brand hmm?

Will definitely not purchase these again. I can't deal with smudging makeup...




Next up is BarryM   

Kohl pencil by BarryM in shade 18

 

I really don't like this pencil. I've actually had this for MANY years now... I have no idea how old it is. I'm not sure if it dried up because it's really old, but its really hard to apply and it's scratchy. I had to draw over and over to get it to show up like this on my arm, and it made the area sore from all the scratching...

Also because it is a purple eyeliner which is a colour I don't opt to line my eyes with on a daily basis. AND, it smudges too.

Onto the Rimmel liners.

Top: Exaggerate waterproof eye definer. Bottom: Soft Kohl kajal eyeliner pencil.

 I use the Exaggerate waterproof liner currently to line my water line as i find this soft and easy to apply without having to keep scratching/scraping it on my waterline. It is a retractable pencil where you just twist the top to let the product come out, it also comes with a spongy smudger on the other end of the pencil to help create a smokey eye look, and a sharpener if you pull the sponge end of the pencil out.

Left: Exaggerate waterproof eyeliner. Right: Soft Kohl kajal eyeliner.

Left: Exaggerate waterproof eyeliner. Right: Soft Kohl kajal eyeliner.

Both pencils also smudge. Which is why I only use to line my waterline.



Miss Sporty Mini-me eyeliner.

050 Snow

It was actually hard for me to focus on this swatch because it was quite faint.

Then when I did a smudge test it almost nearly disappeared.

I bought this years ago to do the whole 'highlight the inner corner of your eyes to brighten and widen them' but when I did it on myself, I didn't like it at all. I'll maybe use this for occasions such as Halloween.


Maybelline Gel liner

Eyestudio Lasting Drama Gel Liner 01 Black

I think my gel liner is getting a bit dry now hence why the application isn't as smooth as it used to be. I used to use this gel liner a lot because it would stay put on my eyelids.

It does smudge so you have to be careful, which is why I stopped using it and drifted onto liquid liners!



Liquid liners

From Top: Eyeko Skinny liquid eyeliner Navy. Eyeko Skinny liquid eyeliner Black. Eyeko eye do liner. Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner 15. Rimmel Exaggerate eyeliner 001

From Left: Eyeko Skinny Navy. Eyeko Skinny Black. Eyeko Eye Do. Make Up For Ever 15. Rimmel 001.

From Left: Eyeko Skinny Navy. Eyeko Skinny Black. Eyeko Eye Do. Make Up For Ever 15. Rimmel 001.

Liquid liners are currently my favourite right now, I'm always reaching for them. The one i'm using on a regular basis right now is the Make Up For Ever Aqua Liner in shade 15. I forgot the name of the shade... I originally wanted a black colour but they had sold out so I went for the next darkest shade which was this shimmery grey one. Quite happy with it!

As you can see above, only the Rimmel liner smudges, the others do not budge one bit!

I prefer the 'pot' style liners such as the Make up for ever and rimmel liquid liners, as the applicator will always have an even coat of product on it. As for the Eyeko liners, they are a felt tip applicator, and my eye do one has slightly dried out so when I attempt to draw a cat eye, it comes out really rough and uneven, rather than the straight sharp line I am trying to achieve. I find the 'pot' liners much easier to achieve a straight sharp line. Though I must say, I really did like the Eyeko liners when I first got it them (before they started to dry up). I store the Eyeko ones upside down (tip down) to help keep the product near the tip to keep it moist and ready for use, but it's still quite rough.

All in all, liquid liners are my go to right now!

I hope this post was interesting to you...

Until next time~~~!