REVIEW: Hair and Makeup Addiction Brushes

Recently I have been really addicted to perfecting my makeup. Many years ago I bought a brush set called Fraulein from Ebay, and at the time they were perfect for me I had everything - although I had no idea what they were for lol.

I got more interested in makeup and decided that in order to have a flawless made up face I would need better brushes, I had already had a pretty good basic collection for face from Real Techniques and ELF but for the eyes not so much. My friends told me to go for the Real Techniques but I had my eye on something else...

http://www.hairandmakeupaddiction.co.uk

Hair and Makeup Addiction is a company based in the UK, and is completely vegan friendly with synthetic taklon fibers with bamboo handles making them more desirable as they are eco-friendly.

I ordered the 'Special eyes kit' just after Christmas, and they came a week later - which I think is pretty good especially because of the busy period of the holidays. The packaging was super cute and I was so excited to use them!

The collection consists of:

-The Shader: Can be used for packing eyeshadow all over the lid. 

-The Blender: Best used for adding shadow to the crease of your eyes or even contouring of the nose. Something I'm still new too, and have found it blends really well.

-The Highlighter: Best used for adding shadow to the corner to create that smokey eye look. Which it does to perfection

-The Detailer: Great for smudging colour on the lower lash line and adding colour to the inner tear duct. 

-The Liner: Can be used to apply gel eyeliner. I haven't used this one yet, but I'm sure I won't be disappointed by thee brushes but my own unsteady hand

-The Queen: Great for blending concealer under the eye and possibly contouring if its not too big. I've never seen a brush like The Queen before and after using it, it made me rethink life (lol, too dramatic?) I don't think I could ever replace it

My New Years eve face

All of these brushes are incredibly soft to the touch and after a couple of weeks of use, I am in love and cannot wait to purchase more! I haven't yet clean them, so I don't know if any of the bristles will come loose, but I think at this point I wouldn't care because I love them too much.

The Special Eyes kit cost £20 plus P+P and can be purchased here.

Jade

xo

ELF Haul - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and an amazing New year! I thought I would start off the new year as I means to go on with a look at an ELF haul, that I managed to bagsy during their £10 off deal.

-Contouring Blush & Bronzing powder in Antigua        
-Lip primer & plumper
-Wet Gloss lash & brow clear mascara                          
-Eyelid primer in Pearl (they were out of the nude unfortunately)
-Cream eyeliner in black
-High definition Undereye setting powder

 Hopefully I will be posting more and more this year. So watch this space! (I know I know, I say this all the time, but I really am trying - so please bear me with ^_^)

Jade

xo

How I do my eyebrows!

I didn't really know how to review a make up brush and an eyeshadow so I thought I'd show you instead what I use it for. Apologies in advance as this will be very picture heavy!

So as you saw from my previous blog, my mini haul (here) I purchased these products the other day. I was looking for an inexpensive angled brush to fill in my eyebrows since my friend stole mine and came across this Barry M eyeliner brush for £2.99 at Superdrugs and I was in the lookout(?) for a a new eyeshadow to fill in my brows as the one I had was too glittery, so I bought one from Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in shade Rich Espresso (47) for £17, lucky enough Daddy bought it for me. 

1. Make sure you have a shape of the eyebrow

2. Fill them in - Doesn't matter how bushy or caterpillar like they look, as you will see in step 3

3. Clean that ish up with some concealer. I use Mac NW40 studio finish concealer (Which is a lighter shade than I use which is NC45). I then use a flat foundation brush to blend it in

4. I set my brows with the elf lash and brow mascara, so that they remain above my eyes and not by my chin, but you can use any clear mascara 

I actually really love the Bobbi Brown eyeshadow, its amazingly pigmented and I occasionally use it as a base on my eyes if I'm using eyeshadow. I really want to try more from Bobbi Brown, especially there gel eyeliners, at least the Barry M eyeliner brush will be put to multiple use!

Jade

xo

Review: MUA Matte Perfect primer

I'm not really a make-up wearer, and I usually wear most of my make-up in the autumn/winter. I guess because my skin doesn't look as delicious as it does in the spring/summer months. 

Before my foundation I used to apply just a face cream and then I was good to go. I then stepped it up a notch and started using Urban Decay Naked Skin Beauty Balm as a primer, and then eventually gave up with primers all together, until recently. I had it in my mind to purchase the 17 face primer but then I came across the MUA Matte perfect primer. I thought since I love MUA products, and haven't been let down by them before I should give it a shot, so I brought it from Superdrugs (here) for £4.

Its only a small tube 15ml to be exact, but trust me a little goes a long way. 

For a primer, the longevity of this product I'd say is about 2-5 hours, before I can feel it slipping off my face, it makes my make-up look really nice and flawless and makes my skin nice soft. As for a matte primer, I'll let you be the judge of that. Considering I have combo/oily skin it wasn't the best for my skin type - waste not, want not - I shall use this product until its finished to get a proper feel for the product. 

Have you tried this product? What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments below.

Hope you all had a great week!

Jade

xo

Mini-Haul - Superdrugs

Hey guys! :)

Happy 1st of December. I'm definitely not feeling in the festive mood yet, maybe that will change as we approach Christmas.
Today I thought I'd share with you, what I brought this week. It's been such a stressful week I actually can't wait to see the back of 2013, so I treated myself to some goodies.

 (Sleek eyeshadow palette 'i-Divine', Miss eyelure lashlets, Nivea lip butter 'Raspberry rose',  Loreal Super Liner Blackbuster, MUA Matte perfect primer, Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow in Rich Espresso.)

Reviews on these products shall hopefully be coming in the future couple of weeks (Most likely not the Nivea lip butter, since its everywhere on the blogosphere, but fyi I am loving this product!)
, to give myself enough time to actually use and get a feel for these products.

What do you think about my 'Holy Grail' posts, I'm very dramatic and excitable so everything is pretty much a holy grail product. Is the Holy Grail post something you would like to see more of, let me know in the comments below.

I hope everyone had a better week than I had, and I hope you have an even more amazing week this week.

Until next time.

Jade

xo

HolyGrail#1: Softhood by Hairflair

Lately I've been on a hair journey, and have been trying to grow my relaxed hair (chemically straightened) longer. I've tried and tested many products along my journey, (which if you want to know more about then let me know in the comments) and also have been such a fail whale with maintaining a routine.
I am literally so bad with a routine, I do it for like 2 weeks and get bored and move on to something different. But maybe the trick isn't to treat it like a routine, but as something fun? (Eh, reverse psychology'd myself!)

One of the major steps on a hair journey is reducing the amount of heat you put on your hair. On my journey I came across this product, which I think it is safe to say is one of my holy grail products since being on my hair journey, and it is the 'Softhood' by Hairflair.

I purchased this product from Amazon and it cost £14.95 plus p+p, but lucky enough I had a £20 gift voucher, so it didn't cost me anything. The delivery was quick, as like most Amazon orders - and the product was not harmed in any way. 

When you open the box it comes in a zip pouch and when you 

take it out, it looks like this. It has a chin strap, a draw string to tighten and secure it to your head, and when I first tried this on I felt like I was gearing up for war or at least winter. 

The long nozzle/hose attaches to the hair dryer, set it to the lowest setting and voila! You have your own mini hair salon in your bed room, or in my case the kitchen (because for some reason I always do it in the kitchen).

I use this for EVERYTHING! 

-To roller set or curl my hair: Using rollers or pins and product

-To dry (of course) 

-To steam my hair: by putting a product in my hair, usually a deep conditioner and then putting a shower cap on my head and sitting under it for like 15 mins... 

and most of the time to keep warm, cos its super warm underneath

 This is what it looks like on, sort of.

Disadvantages:

- Its loud. Well of course it is, its covering your ears but I don't mind this as I usually use it when I have free time to leisurely relax around the house, and if I was still a student I'd probably do it whilst writing and researching for some essays. Multi-tasking at its finest ;). But maybe thats just my hair dryer?

-Its hot. I thought it being on the lowest setting would be really cold. I was terribly and utterly wrong. It works just as well! But its not too hot on the head, my complaint is about the little holes on the nozzle/hose that runs up the softhood that lets the air out and heats up my neck and shoulders or just anywhere it touches really. Which is why I wear my dressing gown - but this is most certainly not a deal breaker!

-You really have to secure this bad boy on your head, otherwise it will fly off and not in the fun Mary Poppins way either, in the wtf? sort of way, know what I mean?

I love this Softhood, because I can be handsfree, anything to make my life easier is something I'd throw cash at. I haven't had it for too long, so I don't know about longevity, but if it did break, I would definitely re-purchase!

So if you would like to purchase one and have an alien head like me for a while, then click here!

I promise you won't be disappointed! :D

Jade

xo

#LiquidFoundationProblems

I didn't used to be a liquid foundation wearer, just give me my Mac Studio fix powder and I was good to go. I then dabbled into the liquid section of foundation and found myself beginning to wear it more often.

I first started off with Mac's Studio Fix fluid in NC45 which is pretty standard for everyone, after a while I thought to myself I need to start looking after my skin better so let me try a mineralized foundation and that worked really well for me for a while until I decided I wanted to graduate away from Mac foundations entirely - don't get me wrong Mac foundations are amazing as well as affordable, but I'm sure there are other amazing foundations out there too!





















My problem with Mac foundations and other foundations I have used is that for my skin colour it is far too orange, which was another reason I wanted to look for another foundation. So I had an 'ahhhh' moment (imagine floating angels and instrumental music in the background and maybe throw in a American black choir in there too) when I came across the Benefit stand in Debenhams, they had just come out with their new foundation 'Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow' in Hazelnut.

I don't know what it is about the concession stands or just make up shops in general, the lighting, the professional hand of the make up artist, I don't know! But all I know is when they applied the foundation on my skin it looked FANTASTIC - I was completely sold - when I got home on the other hand and tried to re-apply it myself it was still frickin' orange!!!

So I went on the hunt again, and there was my holy grail, a little to the right of Benefit and directly in front of Mac. Urban Decay. Luckily this time, instead of being the impulsive shopper I usually am I waited till I got home to see:

a. The longevity of the product
b. To see if anyone noticed my nice flawless skin

Before purchasing the product especially considering the price of the foundation £27. This became my go to foundation for every occasion, it has great coverage, it was weightless, did not have to reapply as often and I always got compliments, another positive point is lasts a while which is great for my purse as it is quite pricey.

Then I went on holiday and got darker, and now it doesn't match my skin anymore :\ *cries*

Alas, I'm on the hunt again!

Any recommendations will be great in the comments below, although I went into Inglot the other day and their foundation was an exact match to my complexion so I may have to venture down to Westfield and bagsy myself one. Who knows!

What's your favourite foundation?

Jade 

xo