What I got for christmas

Apologises for not blogging for a little while, I’ve been really busy working and spending time with my family over the Christmas period. I had an amazing Christmas and have been thoroughly spoilt. I am incredibly grateful for the time spent with my family and for all the presents I have received. I thought I would share a few of them with all of you.

A while ago when I went shopping for Christmas presents, I visited the Pandora store in West Quay, Southampton. I’ve never been a massive fan of Pandora but I spotted a silver bracelet from their new collection ‘Essence’, and fell in love with the charms so brought it as a Christmas present for myself.  For Christmas my parents gave me the ‘Loyalty’ charm and my sisters gave me the ‘Respect’ charm.

My parents also gave me a Ted Baker make up bag. I’ve accumulated a lot of make up recently and have been using a box to store all my make up and brushes in so I can finally have a mass sort out and have somewhere practical to store my make up. My main present (also from my parents) is something that was on the top of my Christmas list as soon as it came out. Foreo Luna mini is pretty much a clarisonaic but without all the interchange heads and hefty price tag. It’s simply a compact, silicone, and skincare device to help cleanse your face. I’ve used it twice everyday since Christmas and so far my skin feels amazing. At this stage its pretty hard to measure how much of an improvement it has made, so at the end of the month I’ll write a review and let you all know how I’ve got on with the device.

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Laura x 

Real Techniques brushes review

I’ve never really been a makeup person, I wear it almost everyday but my make up and its application was always pretty simple. That was until about a year ago, I visited a makeup counter and had a mini makeover, when I told the girl at the counter I applied my foundation and concealer with my fingers; she didn’t look too impressed and recommend that I brought a few brushes. I purchased a few basic ones from body shop as they were reasonably priced and up till recently I’ve never really given brushes another thought.

However over the summer I started watching beauty YouTube videos (under my sisters influence) and heard a lot of good things about the real techniques brushes by Samantha chapman.  I talked to my sister about them as she owned the blush brush and she confirmed they were pretty amazing so naturally after catching the beauty bug I had to find out what all the fuss was about.

1. Stippling brush – The stippling brush was the first brush I brought to replace my old foundation brush, I have skin that tends to break out so its great for covering up blemishes as you can use it to build up coverage. It doesn’t make for an amazing foundation brush on its own so I now use it just for building up coverage rather than a base brush.

2. Foundation brush – I purchased this brush shortly after I brought the stippling brush so that I had a smoother finish to my base. It’s a really good foundation brush as the shape makes it easy to get into to any creases, although I was a bit disappointed with the quality of the bristles as I expected it to be a soft brush just like others from the collection. I found that after I washed it the bristles became softer and it applied my foundation better without any streaks.  I tend to use this brush more to apply my concealer now than I do to apply my foundation.

3. Expert face brush – This bush is one of my favourites from my collection and is just amazing. I use it to buff my foundation on rather than simply brushing it on which makes my foundation look flawless. Really nothing negative to say about this brush.

4. Blush brush – I love this brush, it’s so soft and applies powdered products really well. Its peaked shape is really good for brushing powder on in concentrated areas. I’m currently using this brush as a replacement for my powder brush as my blusher brush is still fairly new. The head of the brush is quiet big so I feel it is perfect for setting my powder.

5. Miracle complexion sponge - I brought this sponge as in reviews I’ve watched it has been praised as being just as good as the beauty blender, so I thought I would try it seeing as it not as expensive. I’ve only used this sponge once since having it as I felt the first time I used it was quiet time consuming and isn’t practical time wise when I’m getting ready before work. With that in mind I was really impressed as how flawless it made my foundation look so I’m really looking forward to using it again.