L'Oreal Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Micellar Solution

I have been planning to post a review on the L'oreal Micellar Solution since the day I tried it. I wanted to compare it against my beloved Bioderma but really wanted to give it a fair review so I have been using this for just over 2 months time now. I picked this up as an alternative to Bioderma as Bioderma is so difficult to get hold of and the total when P+P is added really put me off. 

If you don't know what either of these products are where have you been hiding ;). It's basically used to remove all traces of make-up and draw out excess oil whilst being gentle on the skin. These type of products are loved by many including top make-up artists who use them on fashion shoots/catwalk as a quick way of removing make-up to prepare the skin for another look!

Before purchasing this I was using Bioderma for around 6 months and it was my holy grail pre-cleanse, or my total cleanse on lazy days (naughty I know.) It was perfect for removing all my make-up and preparing my skin for a deep and thorough cleanse without making my skin sensitised. 

As I mentioned Bioderma is really difficult to get hold of in the UK. I was picking mine up on Ebay for  around £14 but then paying an extra £3 for delivery so the total was coming in around £17 for a 500ml bottle. I'm not a very well prepared person so would find I would have finished a bottle and then have to wait for another to be delivered and in the mean time I was bioderma-less. Quite a lot of people pick this product up in France as it is so cheap over there but sadly I have never been to France nor do I know anyone that does go! 

When I heard L'oreal were releasing a Micellar Solution I was super excited and hoped it would be just as good as Bioderma. The fact I can just pop to my local supermarket or boots/superdrug also made me very happy. The bottle comes in a 200ml size and retails for £4.99 although I have never paid this much. I always find it on offer in one of the stores and can usually pick it up for around £3.50 which makes it a lot better value for money than the Bioderma.

Overall I would say they do the same job and my skin didn't react to them any differently. They both remove my make-up just as well and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference on the skin. The one thing that lets the L'oreal down for me is that it can sting my eyes when removing eye make-up which the Bioderma didn't! This isn't a major issue for me but I want a product I can use on my clients as-well as myself to allow them to remove their make-up quickly but I wouldn't feel comfotable giving them the L'oreal purely for that reason! Therefore I will be sticking with my Bioderma especially with my clients and on my eyes but I now have a back-up for my ill prepared moments when I run out!

Have you tried either of these? What ones do you love?

Also if anyone knows of any cheaper sites than Ebay PLEASE let me know!

My HOLY GRAIL Make-Up Brushes (Top 10)

Make-up brushes are so key in my kit. Without good brushes it makes it a lot harder to do an amazing make-up. I know this sounds like common sense but I have so many friends that don't use hardly any brushes to apply their make-up which is crazy to me, but whatever works for you. Being a make-up artist brushes are my tools. Someone once told me that a plumber wouldn't turn up to fix a sink with the wrong tools so why should a make-up artist. I will never forget that quote! I have a range of brushes from budget buys to high end so I thought I would share the brushes I cannot live without!


1. Original Beauty Blender - £16

The beauty blender was the first sponge I had ever used to apply my foundation with and I was blown away by the finish. This gives me a flawless airbrushed finish to my face and has done on all my clients I use it on. It's a very multi tasking tool as well, I use this for my concealer and have used it for my powder too. I have tried the copies of this but none of them have compared and don't leave the same finish as this. At the moment I only have 1 but I will be purchasing more as in my eyes you can never have to many of your favourite brushes/tools.


2. Sigma Flat Top Kabuki F80 - £18.75

I use this brush as a final finish to my foundation. I have very large pores on my face and I find using this to buff in any final product helps hide them a bit more. If you are after a full coverage look this is perfect and it really buffs the product into the skin.

3. Sigma E40 - £14.99

This is an almost identical dupe to the MAC 224 which is designed to be a 'tapered blending brush.' Although I do use this to add a transition colour into my crease my favourite use for it is to buff in my cream concealers when I am contouring and highlighting and gives me the flawless look I'm sure everyone wants. I will be purchasing about 5 more of these as they are seriously HG material.

4. Real Techniques Setting Brush - £8.99

I use this brush to set my under eye concealer and it's small enough to get right underneath my eyes. While some might not see it as a necessitiy I have really oily skin so if I don't really set underneath my eyes it will end up halfway down my face within about an hour ;) it's also amazing to add a bit of shimmer highlighter to the top of your cheek bones.

5. Real Techniques Contour Brush - £21.99

This brush comes in the real techniques core collection and surprisingly I actually use it for its purpose. It's the perfect shape to get right into the cheekbones and shape the face. If I am travelling I double this brush up as my blusher brush too! Unfortunately you have to buy the set just to get this brush!

6. MAC 129 - £27

Although this brush is pretty pricey as with all mac brushes they are worth it. This was the second brush I purchased from MAC. I use this to apply bronzer where I need it and also my blusher. The shape of it ensures your not left with any harsh lines and blends whatever powder product your using beautifully!

7. MAC 217 - £18

A pretty holy grail staple brush in the blogging world I think. So not much needs to be said apart from, GOODBYE HALF BLENDED EYESHADOW. You could do an absolute show of your eyeshadow and this will blend it right out! I need about 10 of these in my kit I use them so often! If you don't want to fork out the full price of this brush, crown brushes do a very similar alternative called the c433. The only difference is I found the crown one a bit scratchy on the eye but it still blends beautifully and it's a fraction of the price!

8. MAC 266 - £16.50

Eyebrows are my thing. If I don't have my eyebrows done then I'm not leaving the house. Some people hate how I do my brows but I am a firm lover of a the scouse brow and I'm not ashamed to admit it. As said in a previous post I always out line my brows with Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz then I fill them in with my HD brows powder. This brush is the perfect shape to get them precisely filled in.

9. MUA Concealer Brush - £1.95

This brush is a complete bargain. This was £1.95 which is insane. It doesn't feel cheap and I think it looks really sleek. I use this brush to put concealer round my brows and also tidy up my lips after putting on a bold lip. And for the price can you really complain about anything?

10. MAC 239 - £20

I use this brush to pack on colour onto my lids. It's really packed with bristlesand dense enough to build up colour easily without putting too much one and it being all over your face. It is a crucial brush in any kit as a blending brush isn't really the best for packing on colour
                                               

So there we have it, I'm quite impressed it's only 10 brushes to be honest. I thought I was going to end up with about 25 brushes. If I was going away for a weekend these are the brushes I would pack without hesitation.

I'm still looking for the 'perfect' brushes for other purposes, for example my eyeliner brush, every one I have tried hasn't blown me away. I'm hoping to pick up the MAC 210 brush in the next couple of weeks which has amazing reviews for gel liner. I'm also on the lookout for a new lip brush, so if you have any recommendations please let me know!

I hope this post was helpful! I would love to hear what your brushes you could not live without!

Lush Let The Good Times Roll

I am a sucker for any new products when it comes to Lush, I seriously can't speak highly of them enough. Everything I have tried from there has always blown me away. The only thing I don't really buy from there is the bath bombs which is strange as that's the most common thing people buy from there. I have tried them and loved them i'm just not really a bath person and never have been.

One thing that stood out for me is the face cleanser 'Let the good times roll.' Although this has been brought out in the Christmas collection I believe this is going into the permanent line which makes me very happy! I love trying out new cleansers and switching up my skincare products as I am a firm believer if you use the same products religously your skin will just get used to it and the products won't do their job as effectively.

Lush describe this product as ''Let The Good Times Roll is a gentle treat for the skin, leaving you soft to the touch with a lingering buttery caramel popcorn fragrance – when you look and feel this good you can give your Body Double the day off!''

Firstly this smells AMAZING! I have never had a cleanser that smells so divine. If it was safe to eat I totally would, it smells just like caramel. Secondly it leaves my skin feeling so soft. After using this I don't even feel like I need to use a moisturiser. It has Popcorn (yes really) in which is a really nice but not to harsh exfoliater on your face. With most lush cleansers they come in a hard form and you add a bit of water to a pea sized amount on your hand till it forms a paste consistency which you then rub over your face. It's strange at first but you soon get used to it! 

I have oily skin which is acne prone but is still quite dehydrated and I feel this cleanser really adds moisture back to my skin and gives me a really nice glow without making me any more oily than I currently am. I think this product would be suitable for all skin types! As all the ingredients used in lush products are fresh the expiry date isn't that long. I bought mine last week and it expires in January. I will definitely be getting my use out of it though! 

My skin care routine is predominantly Lush so if you would like a post on my full routine please let me know! 

Have you tried anything from the Lush christmas collection? I would love to hear your opinions on what I can get next!

You can pick up Let The Good Times Roll here for £6.35.

Beauty Haul

So it was payday and I was feeling a tiny bit naughty and decided to have a bit of a splurge. I really shouldn't of as it's near Christmas and I haven't even started my shopping for it yet. I am defiantly a last minute type of girl! Oh well, needs must and all that; I think I need beauty rehab.

Illamasqua Translucent Powder - £23 

My first stop off on the beauty train took me to the Illamasqua website. Being a trainee make-up artist I get 20% off all the products which doesn't really help my 'add to basket' button. God help me when I'm qualified and it goes up to 40% everything I earn will be invested back into that company! I had originally been lusting over the new Christmas collection palette 'Fatelle' but after careful consideration I decided I had enough eyeshadows and that can wait! A lot of my friends at college have the translucent powder and swear by it so being the oily chip pan face girl I am I decided this was necessary. With my discount it came to just over £18 which is quite hefty for a powder but I'm hoping I will get a lot of use out of this on myself and my clients. Illamasqua also sent me a 3ml sample of their Hydraveil which i'm really excited to try! 

Maq Pro Petite Fard Creme Palette PP01 - £21

My next stop and final destination was to Love-Makeup. This was my first time shopping on this website and it may possibly be my new favourite site ever. They have so many different brands that can be quite hard to get your hands on and all in one place. Amazing. After watching this video by Little Kiva I had my heart set on this concealer palette. Gossmakeupartist also raves about Maq Pro so I was keen to try it out. I am a huge fan of the bright under eye area and this has the perfect colours all in one palette to banish them dark circles. It's such a cute size too. It fits into the palm of your hand which is supberb for someone like me that has to cart a lot of make-up around on a daily basis. I have tried this out today and it really is amazing. I'm sure you will see it in future posts soon! 

Yaby Cosmetics Eyeshadow Refill Papaya Milk - £2.25

This was something that was an impulse buy. I had a quick browse in the sale section and there was some eyeshadow pans by Yaby Cosmetics on sale for £2.25. Most of the colours had gone and only a select few were left. I have wanted Samoa Silk by MAC for a while and this looked pretty similar so for the price I thought what have I got to lose. The pan is very small, I did think they were the same size as the MAC pans but for that price I can't really moan. I don't have a palette to put this in yet but I am considering investing in a Z-Pallete very soon! I can't wait to try this out! Unfortunately this colour is no longer showing on the website so they must of sold out. Although i'm sure a quick google search will bring up any other stockists.

Zoeva Crease Brush 228 - £5.95

The MAC 224 brush has been on my wishlist for an ever long time but I don't have a MAC store near me and I can't order online with my pro-card. Zoeva have been making a big impression on the blogging/YouTube scene for a while now and I heard this is a pretty good dupe for the MAC 224 and it's a fraction of the price. I disagree with it being a dupe for the 224 as the shape is quite different and I couldn't really use this for cream concealers as I originally wanted like I would with the MAC 224. Although I used this today with my regular eyeshadow and it blended the edges like a dream so all is not lost. This brush is amazing quality for the price and feels like a lot higher standard. Check out the nifty little packaging it comes with too! The case is a plastic type pencil case which would be fantastic for putting some eye brushes in if you were travelling anywhere. Although it isn't suitable for what I originally wanted I do think it's amazing at it's purpose of a 'crease brush' and I am going to be stocking up on more Zoeva brushes for my kit very soon! 

So there we have it, it's quite a small haul but I think these are going to be staples in my kit. For now though i'm off to think of other things I can wish for ;)

Have you tried any of these products? 

HD Brows Pro Palette

Back in the middle of October my college organised a trip for us to go to the Pro Beauty show in Manchester. I have never been to a beauty show before so I was feeling pretty excited. 

HD Brows had a HUGE stand there, offering the full HD brow treatment to people visiting the show and on the other side there was counters selling their  products which vary from brushes and blushers to the most obvious being brow palettes, all at trade prices! 

I knew I wanted to get a brow palette to put in my pro kit as they are so handy to have. The packaging is sleek and professional and all their range of products have compact packaging which is easy to travel with. Instead of purchasing one of the standard 4 colour palettes which come in a variety of shades to suit different hair colours I seen the Professional Eye & Brow Palette which is a lot larger than the 4 palette and the individual shadows are a lot bigger. It also comes with 6 shades to suit people with blonde hair to black hair. Perfect for any make-up artists kit as you have all your brow shades you will ever need in one palette. The palette also comes with a brush but to be honest I haven't used this at all. I swear by my MAC 266 brush.

The palette was on offer at trade price for £20 which is a complete steal but can be picked up on the HD Brows website for £29.95 which I still think is a really decent price for what you get,

Not only is this amazing for the eyebrows as it is so highly pigmented, you hardly need any product, it also doubles up as a perfect neutral palette for they eyes. I have been using the lightest shade 'Ash Blonde' as a transition colour on my eyes with 'Medium Brown' directly in my crease. Carbon is great for the outer V for a smokey-eye look also! I have been using this palette every day on my brows and it has definitely made a permanent place in my make-up kit.

(L-R)  Ash Blonde, Warm Brown, Medium Brown, Dark Brown, Rich Brown, Carbon

I currently use 'Rich Brown' in the front half of my brows and 'Carbon' on the tail to darken it up as I have black hair. I always outline my eyebrows with Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wizz in Brunette first as I certainley am a lover of perfectly defined brows!

You can pick up this palette here

Have you tried any of HD Brows products? What do you think of them?