Tag Archives: make up

Clinique Brush Cleanser

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It’s one of those boring jobs, which is much less fun than making ourselves up, but it’s one that has to be done to ensure nothing nasty gets on that pretty little face of our’s. Cleaning our make up brushes. BLEURGH!

To be honest, I didn’t really clean my brushes until very recently, when I received my MAC make up brushes for Christmas, which I believe are the holy grail of all make up brushes and I decided to take some good care of them, so they can last forever and ever. I clean mine with tissue everyday, but weekly, I use a brush cleanser (particularly on my foundation brushes - where I pile on the make up!), just to make sure no nasty germs get on my face to cause a spot or worse - lots of spots!

I know loads of people use MAC brush cleanser, but I decided to use something that doesn’t break the bank and ordered Clinique brush cleanser for £12.00 for 236ml from Boots. You get quite a bulk of the stuff in there, and I was quite chuffed at how much you actually get. It will obviously last me quite a while!

The liquid is watery (what did you expect??), colourless, odourless and foams up when you massage it into the fibres, which is as expected. It has a spray top, which I found really easy to use and economical instead of pouring the whole thing into the sink! I followed the instructions, word for word on the bottle, which seemed quite simple instructions.

With brush hairs facing downward, spray with cleanser. Use fingertips to gently work cleanser through bristles. Gently massage and rinse thoroughly under running water. Tissue off excess water. Lie flat and let air dry.

Simples! However, I found that I had to repeat this process about 6 times to get it very nearly spotless, with small fragments of foundation, still clinging onto the bristles. I wasn’t very impressed at all; for one wash, I had used about one sixth of the bottle, which might not seem like much, but to only get six weeks’ worth of washes out of one bottle seems particularly surprising when you get so much in the bottle. Not to mention how time-consuming this whole event was!

There is light at the end of this tunnel though. I watched Charli…’s YouTube the other week, regarding her February favourites, and she has been using rubbing alcohol for her make up brushes and has been really impressed. Make up artist’s tool of the trade apparently! So, when I run out of this terrible cleanser, I’ll be investing in some of that, which is a couple of quid from Amazon - well, I’m not going to waste it whilst I have it, am I?

What do you use to clean your make up brushes?

Glossy Box April Edition

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It feels like I haven’t written a Glossy Box post for a while. Maybe because I completely forgot to write my Harrod’s one. Seriously, I’m going to be better at blogging from now on.

I received my Glossy Box after work sent me home for being poorly. This gave a happy point to my day, when I felt like I just wanted to curl up and sleep for a really really long time. I cracked open the cardboard box, to discover a biodegradable box inside. What could the theme be this time?

On seperating both the lid and the bottom of the box, a card popped out, celebrating that it was spring time and that the box theme this time around was nature. Immediately, aloe vera and coconut oil spring to mind and I was looking forward to claiming some natural products, which will aid and complement my beauty regime.

These were no where to be seen, but rather ‘natural products’ were those made of natural ingredients. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. But here’s what was in my box this month:

1. Caudalie Vinosource SOS Thirst-Quenching Serum

What Glossy Box says about it: This newly-launched ultra-concentrated serum is extremely natural and plant-based, ensuring your skin never lacks moisture.

What Franno says about it: To be honest, I don’t have problems with ‘hydrating my skin’. I have normal skin, not dry or combination skin, so I don’t really understand why I received this product when I answered that I had normal skin in my questionnaire. Nevertheless, when I applied it, it did sink in extremely quickly and my skin felt smoother straight away. It is fragrance free, which is a bonus – I hate overpowering products and, because this is meant to be applied underneath a moisturiser, smelling of coconut, this is a definite plus to not make my face stink of all different fragrances at once!

2. Inika Cosmetics Certified Organic Lip Liner:

What Glossy Box says about it: A blend of cold pressed plant waxes, oils and natural pigments provides outstanding colour performance.

What Franno says about it: I received my lip liner in 03 Sugar Plum, which is a dark brown colour with a slight pinkish shimmer. I have to say, this colour is not for me at all. However, my swatch stayed on my hand for an extremely long time, so although this isn’t my colour, I trust that if I got another colour, the lasting power would be awesome.

3. Monu Professional Skincare Hand & Nail Cream:

What Glossy Box says about it: A rich treatment cream, which leaves hands soft, and nails and cuticles conditioned and healthy.

What Franno says about it: Hey, didn’t I receive this a couple of boxes ago?! Not cool, GB… The product takes a while to sink into the skin, which I suppose is a plus because if you use hand cream (I don’t, by the way…), you’d want it to feel like it was lasting a while. The smell of this reminds me of the anti-wax stuff my beautician uses on my legs after a wax. Not a particularly pleasant smell, but it appears to get better when the product sinks in.

4. Figs & Rouge Lip Balm:

What Glossy Box says about it: 100% Pure, 100% Natural and 100% Organic Multipurpose balm. Excellent for Soothing and Naturally Hydrating dry Lips & Skin!

What Franno says about it: I think this product will be the only one in my box that I’ll get any use out of for this month. I needed some lip balm as it was, and this one smells of gorgeous peppermint and tea tree. It’s a lovely clear balm, which I would apply over any drying lipstick and I would probably wear a massive layer of this over my lips overnight, as a bit more of an intensive lip conditioner.

5. Philip B Styling Gel:

What Glossy Box says about it: Philip B Styling Gel is a multi-purpose, supple, soft-hold gel that adds volume and texture, and gives definition and control to all hair types.

What Franno says about it: I’m still not sure about this product. I think if I had long hair, I would be pretty disappointed with this product however, I don’t, so I think I probably would use it to give my hair a little bit more texture. Again, a fragrance free product so, so far, so good. I don’t know how well it will hold though…

This is my blog and I like to give my honest opinion so that others can benefit and, personally, I feel like I’m getting the rubbish end of the Glossy Box deal. I’m usually quite late in receiving my box every month (although I have been a subscriber for 8 months now) and the products in my box do not fair with products that other subscribers’ boxes. I have been reading other reviews and have found that a few others feel this as well. Perhaps the ’lesser known’ bloggers, like myself, are feeling this too.

This box was really late – it is May next week and what used to be a mid-month treat continues not to deliver on time. I received an email around the time I was meant to receive my box, saying that due to the bank holidays, dispatch will be late. Why? If it was sent on time, with all the holidays, it probably would have been delivered around the same time (if not, earlier) anyway!

I don’t know, I just think I’m getting a little frustrated with Glossy Box. Despite the ‘themes’, I have received near enough the same products every month and it’s not feeling much like an investment or exciting anymore. One more box, I think, and then I’ll probably cancel and subscribe somewhere else for a while.

Did you receive a good Glossy Box? Have you subscribed to another beauty box? Which would you recommend?

Garnier BB Cream – My Sample Review

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I love getting things to try for nothing, particularly to know if I’m actually going to use the product and to not waste money, and this was no exception. ‘Like’ the Garnier Facebook page, get a free sample of their BB Cream. I ‘liked’ and then completely forgot about it for about a month until it arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Hooray, freebies.

What actually is a BB cream? There’s an advert on telly at the moment (I think it’s actually the Garnier one), stating that people are all raving about it and I have read a few blog reviews about them but I don’t actually know what they are. So, for your information (and mine), and straight from Wikipedia to my blog, a BB cream is a ‘blemish balm or base’, which is massive in Asia and initially used to protect the skin after surgery, providing a light coverage but focusing upon soothing and regenerating skin tissue. It has ‘multi-tasking’ properties of moisturizer, primer, foundation, and sunblock. We’ll see about that!

So what’s the difference between a BB cream and a tinted moisturiser? I found this post from Musings of a Muse, explaining that tinted moisturiser is generally thinner, with more shades to choose from, not as pigmented and have a low SPF compared with a BB cream. From this point of view, it seems like both have pros and cons, but from my perspective, the B.B. cream is definitely coming out on top.

20120419-130802.jpgNow down to what I thought of the Garnier one. The packaging of the sample is quite sturdy and mine hadn’t been damaged at all during transit. Upon opening my little packet, there’s information about what a BB cream is (five minutes of my life wasted on research, ha), three satchets of the BB cream in ‘light’, and some notes about what a Garnier BB cream does which is ‘even, cover, illuminate, hydrate and protect with SPF 15‘. Although I’m tanned (did I not mention I’ve been on holiday?!), I’m sure that I still fall into the ‘light’ bracket, so I give it a go. Here’s a swatch:20120419-130811.jpg

Although that picture has been taken in very poor light, I think it matches my skin tone quite well. It’s quite thick in consistency, but turns almost powdery when left to dry for a little while. It smells like all Garnier products smell; I have a body moisturiser which smells remarkably similar. So I decided to pile the remainder of my swatch satchet onto my non-made up face. Here’s how it went:

20120419-130825.jpgHere I am in all my glory, no make up, messy hair. Blurgh! Swimming day. I actually look quite scary here… looney eyes!!

I’m at work (lunching!), taking these photos, hence the weird white board behind me. Look how tanned I am! Anyway! I still had red bits around my nose, on my cheeks and so, in the name of beauty, off I trotted to apply the BB cream in the toilet, using my fingers.

20120419-130832.jpgDo you see any kind of difference? To be fair, although there’s not much in it, I found that this product definitely evened out my skin tone and when you’re someone who worries about the massively open pores on your face, I would say that it definitely made a difference in that regard. I think it’d make a good primer for mineral foundations, if you’re self conscious about your skin not being so even. It was easy to apply and a little definitely goes a long way. It has actually paled me out a bit, so it might be the wrong shade for me (or the right shade if I wasn’t so tanned right now!) and I do stink of the stuff now though, so probably not good if you hate smelling like a chemical factory.

Would I repurchase this? For £9.99 for 50ml, I don’t really see this as a really massively life-changing investment, when there are other primers and moisturisers that do the job for either cheaper or for more quantity per price. Maybe upon using the other two satchets (and investigating the effects under make up) may change my mind, but for now, I’m not really that convinced.

Have you tried any B.B. creams? How did you get on with them? Would you invest?