Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman

I'm a huge fan of the Pixiwoo sisters on Youtube. They are breathtakingly amazing at their jobs. If you don't know who they are then check out the link and be sure to subscribe!!! You won't regret it I assure you: http://www.youtube.com/user/pixiwoo?ob=4&feature=results_main



So when I heard Sam from Pixiwoo was releasing her own range of makeup brushes I was so excited as she's a makeup artist who knows what tools are needed for great makeup. The range is called Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman and can be found in store and online at Boots in the UK. They are synthetic, hand cut and seriously soft!


I have a few of the brushes now and am looking to buy the remaining few to complete me set :) so I thought I'd do a quick overview of the brushes I have and why I recommend them.


My first purchase was the stippling brush. This brush can be used to either stipple on your foundation for a heavy/full coverage or to buff into the skin. Either way you get amazing results with a flawless finish. I loved this brush but found that becasue I have normal/dry skin it highlights the dry areas on my forehead so I stopped using it when I found a replacement.


The replacement is part of the Core Collection. In this set you get a buffing brush, contour brush, detailer brush and a pointed foundation brush. Let me start with the buffing brush. OMG this brush seriously blew me away. Its so amazing I have no words to do it justice. It helps the foundation glide onto your skin giving you a gorgeous natural finish that you will not be disappointed with.


The contour brush is great too. It fits into the hollows of your cheeks perfectly allowing you to apply your bronzer exactly where it's required to make your cheekbones prominent. I also love it to apply concealer!


The pointed foundation brush is a little on the small side for me. I find that it requires a bit more effort to get the finish you want due to it's size so instead I use it either for my concealer or to for powder to set the concealer under my eyes.

The detailer brush is the perfect size to apply lip products. It's great for precision too!


The next set I have is the starter kit which has all the tools you need for perfect eye makeup. Now I'm not a fan of eyeshadow on an everyday basis so I've found alternative uses for them. That's one thing I should point out actually that these brushes are great multipurpose brushes.


First up is the base shadow brush. Obviously this is to pack on your eyeshadow over your eyelids but I use it too highlight my brow bone with a light eyeshadow.

Next is the deluxe crease brush which fits into the crease of the eye beautifully! Again, I use this to apply my concealer under my eyes and around my nose and its perfect! I know this a popular choice with many people.


The brow brush at first looks far too big as we're used to angled brushes being small for better precision. However, once you get the hang of this it makes filling in your brows so easy! The thickness and width allows you to do it faster than ever with brilliant results.


The accent brush is, to me, a smaller version of the detailer brush so I use this for top liner and it works rather well when pushing the gel eyeliner into your lash line.


Lastly is the pixel point eyeliner brush. Now I find this hard to use for top liner but I know most people find it easy to work with so this doesn't really get much use from me.


My recent purchase is the blush brush. It initially seemed too big but works well. I haven't had it long so I'll go into detail at a later date.


Overall, these brushes are fab! fab! fab! They've easily replaced my mac and sigma brushes and are very cost effective. Check them out guys. You'll love them.


To see Sam use the brushes check out the following link: http://www.youtube.com/user/realtechniques?feature=results_main



Thanks xx

My must have eye khol!!! (a quick review)

Now I'm pretty sure that anyone who wears eyeliner on their waterline has been through so many different brands  trying to find the one that stays put nearly all day.  Well.... I've tried eye khol's from chanel, estee lauder, mac etc and while they're good they haven't blown me away. But that all changed when i got introduced to the YSL Dessin Du Regard.  I have it in number one which is black.

This eyeliner, for me, is flawless.  It actually does what it claims to do.  Firstly, the pigmentation is unlike any other I have seen in an eye khol.  It really is jet black.  The formula is a dream to work with.  So soft and it literally glides onto the waterline.  The best thing about this eye khol is that you can get it in the waterproof version which is the one I have.   Like every other eye khol out there, it will not stay put all day but compared to other eye khols I can vouch for this and say it doesn't budge for atleast 8hours.  After this you can always do a quick touch up!!!

At £19.00 it certainly isn't cheap but the way I see it is that instead of wasting lots of money trying out new eye khols just invest in a decent one such as the ysl dessin du regard!!

Click here to buy:  http://www.selfridges.com/en/Beauty/Brand-rooms/Designer/YVES-SAINT-LAURENT/Pure-Chromatics-Dessin-du-Regard-waterproof-eye-pencil_456-84033258-CRAYONYEUXWATERPROOF/

Thanks guys xx

For a long time I was told to try Soap and Glory products but for some strange reason they never appealed to me. I finally went ahead and decided to try out some products because there was an offer going on that was hard to resist.

During the christmas period Boots had a fab offer where a hamper of Soap and Glory products worth £60 was available for £25 so I went ahead and got myself one. Let me tell you that at first I was reluctant because £25 is a lot of money to spend on something that had never appealed to me before and that I could end up disliking but curiosity got the better of me anyway!

So, in the hamper I received:
1. Mist you madly body spray 250ml
2. Hand food 125ml
3. Heal genius 125ml
4. The righteous butter 300ml
5. Pulp friction body scrub 300ml
6. Clean on me shower lotion 500ml

7. Face Soap 150ml

8. Off your face cleansing wipes

9. Calm one calm all 500ml

10. Sexy motherpucker lip plumping treatment 7ml

Mist you madly is a body spray that you squirt all over your body. The first thing I noticed was that it smelt like aftershave with a hint of vanilla. It's perfect for summer. It makes you feel refreshed and smell lovely at the same time!!

The hand food is a staple product for most soap and glory lovers. I've seen reviews where people say they HAVE to have the miniature version in their handbag as it's the best hand cream out there. I have to disagree. While it smells luscious and does indeed give u softer hands, it feels very greasy on the palms. Now of course once it dries its fine but compared to other hand creams, for me, it takes a while to sink in and that puts me off.

Heal genius is something I didn't get to test out properly as I got this during the winter season and my feet were never on display. However, I did try it a couple of times and yeah I suppose its a decent cream which leaves your feet feeling soft and smelling nice but it doesn't do anything revolutionary!

Probably one of my favourite things from the hamper is the righteous butter. Its a thick body cream which feels very luxurious. Yes it does take a while to rub into your skin but believe me the results are worth taking the time to apply this all over. My skin literally felt as soft as a baby's bum :D. Definitely one to try out guys!

Pulp friction is a body scrub and is my favourite soap and glory product. When you rub this onto damp skin and rub in circular motions the little particles/grains feel as thought they're exfoliating your skin and leave it feeling new and repaired. I urge people to try this. It's AMAZING!!!!

Face soap is a daily facial wash which to me smells a little like teatree oil.  It's fab for using first thing in the morning.  It cleanses the face nicely and the little beads/grains feel like you're getting a very gentle exfoliation at the same time.  When using this, I often felt that the skin on my face felt tighter and incredibly smooth.  The only problem is after about a week of using this I broke out :( I continued to use it hoping it would clear up but it didn't.  My skin cleared immediately after I stopped using it.

The off your face cleansing wipes claim to cleanse and soften the skin and if you apply a little extra pressure they can also be used to exfoliate.  My skin is very sensitive so for that reason I haven't used many of these wipes as most wipes, apart from my Simple ones, irritate my skin.

Calm one calm all is, I would say, the bath version of clean on me.  It smells almost identical and has the same colour/texture.  It does bubble up in the bath and it leaves your skin feeling velvety!  I am much more of a shower person hence why I adore clean on me :D

The first time I tried clean on me in the shower I was really unsure about it. I found the pump annoying as it distributed too little product for me and I found I needed a good few pumps to gather a decent amount into the palm of my hand. However, I continued to use it as my other shower gel had finished and I wanted to get some use out of this. I found it to be far too thin and it the water would just wash it off my skin. Then one day I decided to keep rubbing in to my skin and OMG, seriously it's awesome! When you apply it to damp skin the key is to keep rubbing it into the skin. The more you do it the more creamier it gets and it lathers up! A little goes a long way. I truly love this stuff.

Lastly is the only cosmetic item in the hamper. Sexy motherpucker is a lip gloss/lip plumping treatment. So I've never been into lip plumpers. I have very small lips but I just don't believe they work. I thought I'd give this a shot and oh my golly gosh it tingles like crazyyyyyy. To the point where I had to wipe it off and I haven't used it since. For those of you who like lip plumpers give this a shot as the way it tingles I'm pretty sure its getting to work lol.

Hope you enjoyed the review guys. Xx

Bioderma Crealine H2O Micelle Solution

I'm usually a makeup wipe kinda girl (one wipe all over my face and eyes and I'm done!) but lately I've been trying to be more gentle with skin.  Every so often I go through this phase only to realise why I always go back to my simple baby moisturising wipes. 

Hey guys!!

So after months of resisting I finally gave in and decided to buy the bioderma makeup remover.  Now I have sensitive skin that is prone to breakouts where skincare is concerned. 

The problem I tend to have is that everytime I try to "look after" my skin i.e. cleanse, tone, exfoliate etc, I break out.  Some people will think surely it's a good thing being able to remove your makeup solely with a wipe and not breaking out even though this does not remove all the makeup from your face.  Yeah I have to agree it is the quickest option and that can be handy however, there are times where I feel like my skin not necessarily 'needs' some extra cleansing but it would be nice to give it a bit of a deep clean.

Over the years I've tried out so many facial scrubs/exfoliaters/gels/serums etc and while some of these work wonderfully it only takes around 7 days for my skin to react.  Some people have said 'oh don't worry about breaking out it's only because your skin isn't used to a thorough cleanse, it'll clear up.'  I've taken this on board and continued my regime many times but unfortunatley the onely way my skin clears up is as soon as i have stopped using the skincare products.  Like seriously any breakouts I have will disappear within usually 3 days of me no longer using the products.

Anyway! Enough of all that!  So, I had heard rave reviews about the bioderma and how it was a water based solution and it didn't irritate or aggravate the skin and how your makeup was magically meant to slide off.  Now, bioderma is available in France and it's pretty hard to get hold of here unless you're willing to pay extortionate delivery charges.  But fear not guys! In this day and age we're all blessed with Ebay where you can pretty much find just about anything :D.

The bioderma comes in 3 sizes (well three that I'm aware of; 100ml, 250ml and 500ml).  I decided to go with the 250ml bottle just because I thought i wouldn't get an accurate result with teh 100ml as it wouldn't be enough to make a decision on and I didn't want to waste my money buying the 500ml only for it to break me out.

The 250ml included p+p came to around the £10 mark.  So when i received the parcel I couldn't wait to test it.  The first thing I should mention is that the bottle is made of plastic and not glass which is a misconception that many people have.
Moving on, I poured some of the product on to a cotton pad.  The solution is basically water, it looks like water and feels like water.  I used 2 cotton pads fpor the whole of my face and one each for my eyes.  It's true that your makeup slides off and there is absolutley NO irritation to the skin.  As for eye makeup, I held the cotton pad to my eyes for about 15 seconds and then wiped away thinking the majority of the mascara/eyeliner would come off but it didn't.  It requires a bit more work than that unfortunately.  Nevertheless, it's nowhere near the effort you need to put in when using a wipe.

I've been using the bioderma for around 2 weeks now and I've got just under a quarter left.  I seriously cannot believe how amazing this product is.  It's something you don't really believe until you've tried it and I suggest every person who wears makeup tries this!

No more irritated eyes yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

thanks guys xxx

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum

Hey guys, so this is my first time in writing a blog (fingers crossed i'm doing this right lol) and I thought what better way to start then to discuss an amazing foundation.

Now, I've been lucky enough to try some seriously stunning foundations including chanel vitalumiere aqua, jemma kidd light as air etc however I'm aware these are pretty expensive! I'm sure any person out there who wears foundation religiously wants to find a great foundation which gives good coverage and stays put all day but without the heavy price tag.

So after umming and ahhring (does that even make sense??? lol) i decided to try the bourjois healthy mix serum and I got it in the shade 53/beige claire.  With all the rave reviews surrounding this foundation o youtube and on blogs, I couldnt wait to get home and try it out.

My first impression was the packaging was nice and sleek.  Not the usual bulky foundation bottles but slender and lightweight yet with still the avearge amount of product in.  The downside to the packaging is the cap/lid literally slides off with very little effort required (and i mean VERY little!).  Seriously, don't bother taking this foundation if you're travelling unless you pour a small amount into a sealable container.

Moving on I immediately noticed the smell.  Now, I'm not a fan of fragranced foundations as I have sensitive skin and even though they dont necessarily break me out it's just something I'd prefer not to have.  At first the smell was so strong and overpowering i actually contemplated not using it!  Anyone wondering what the smell is?  Its quite strange...almost like berries and pomegranets which isn't something i want sitting on my face lol.

Anyway, I'm rambling now! so, after applying 1 pump on to the back of my hand (i tend to go for light coverage as touch wood i dont have problematic skin) I used my buffing brush to buff the foundation into my skin to give it a natural look.

The results were amazing! seriously amazing!  The foundation glided on to my skin.  It was a dream to work with and required little effort.  The consistency is perfect; not too thick and not too thin.  The foundation boats 16 hour coverage and do you know what? I agree.  I can have this foundation on from 6.30am up til 9.00pm and it still looks good.

I own so many foundations and this particular one is on it's last legs (boo :().  But without a doubt I will indeed repurchase.  I recommend everyone tries this foundation.  It retails at £10.99 and can be found in Boots and Superdrug.

I'm gonna stop rambling now because I'm not sure how people will react to this.  Please let me know what you think guys.  I'm aware this isn't covering every point and can be more detailed but I've literally had ten minutes to write this!

thanks guys xx