Makeup Brushes: Why It's Important to Clean Them Regularly

My love for makeup brushes began about a year ago when I saw an amazing deal on groupon for a full set that came in it's own neat little case for storing them in. Up until then I used the little packs you can buy at any drug store with the spongy ends for my eye shadow and used my hands for my foundation and concealer. I used the brush that came with my Bare Minerals for my powder application as well as for applying my blush, but that was about it. Before I began using my brushes, I knew the importance of cleaning them, but I never really took the time to actually DO it.  My Bare Minerals all over color foundation brush took the most abuse from this behavior and boy do I regret it. I need a new one desperately, but most times I just can't bring myself to spend almost $30 on a single brush! I mean, for the same price I can go buy a high end foundation or a few other goodies.

So why is it so important to clean your brushes regularly? When you wash them (and wash them properly) you are not only washing away old makeup, you are ridding your brushes of dirt, oil, dead skin and bacteria. It's an awful thought, isn't it?

I went on a fun little shopping spree on ELF Cosmetic's website and found this little gem. It costs $4.50 and cleans really well. I was concerned that because of how cheap this cleaner is that it would leave my brushes feeling dry and would ruin the overall quality of my brushes. This is the only brush cleaner I have used, and I couldn't be happier. I don't see the need for spending high dollar amounts on brush shampoo, ever. It's $4.50 and is 4.1 fl oz. It is pretty concentrated and it lasts forever. 

Want to see what it looks like when you don't take care of your brushes?

I don't normally fill up my sink to wash them, but I wanted to show you the transformation of the water from beginning to end. I purposely didn't clean my brushes for quite some time so I could show y'all just how important it is. (My skin didn't care for this demonstration much at all.) 

I started by putting a little bit of the brush shampoo under running water to make a little bubble bath heaven for them. I figured I would let them soak a little while to help to break down the built up residue on some of them, mostly to break down the build up of my gel eyeliner on my angled brush.

Here we go...

After letting them set for about 10 minutes and swishing them around in the water, you can see the water went from crystal clear to this. How gross is that?!

After a few more minutes it went from a bright foundation color to a muddy, murky, smokey brown color. The idea of this was enough to make my skin crawl: this will be a one time only experiment. 

This is the end result of the water, and this is just from SOAKING them! I still haven't scrubbed or anything else. I will show you just how deeply into the brushes your makeup likes to hide.

I pulled back the bristles on my MAC Brush No. 191 square foundation brush and in the center, you can see how much foundation is just caked onto the inside of the brush. From there I just add a little drop of shampoo a little smaller than the size of a pea and massage it into the bristles.

Sometimes I repeat this process a few times or at least until I see the water run clear when I rinse it off. 

On the left side of the photo (or top, rather) I have the set of brushes that were just removed from soaking, lying on a clean and dry towel. I go through the next step of cleaning under running water in the sink, and then reshape the brushes, blot out any excess moisture and then lay flat to dry on another clean, dry towel on the right (or bottom). 

Look at it shine! 

Tada! Squeaky-Clean brushes! I let mine air dry overnight, just to be sure. I don't want to put them away in a dark place while they are still damp: they might grow moldy!

Have any questions? Let me know in the comments below!

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Learning to Contour

          I skipped a few steps in the process (doh!) but I hope you at least mildy enjoy the pictures that follow...

           I have done a lot of research on the proper ways and products to contour your face correctly and have learned in the process that everyone has their own method and tricks that work best for them that are based off of the same rules. With all of the countless videos I have watched, I have seen big and small women contour their face flawlessly, making their faces look thinner and look as though they came straight out of a magazine. I have also seen some pretty horrible (and really funny) fails. I'd like to think I did it right, but I'll let you be the judge of that. 

          I have many brushes that I use and some that I don't, because honestly, some of them I don't even really know what they are for but slowly but surely I am putting them all to good use. I tend to improvise at times on what I think a brush should or could be used for. That is one thing I have learned: if it gets the job done, who says you can only use that particular brush for one particular thing. After all, makeup (if done well) is sort of an art, right? Do and use what works best for you.

Here is an un-contoured face. ^^^^ This picture is a little old, but not by much so it is still relevant in what I am trying to describe. There is zero dimension to my face in this picture. I love this picture still, but knowing what I know now, I would have done a lot of things differently.

The products used for the following pictures:

-Loreal Invisalift Foundation 

(applied with MAC brush #191 flat foundation brush)

- Almay Wake Up Under Eye Concealer 

(applied with bare minerals concealer brush)

-Bare Minerals Original Mineral Powder Foundation

(used very lightly as a setting powder)

-POP Bronzer in Sunkissed

(Used for Contouring)

- NYX Baked Blush in LadyLike

-E.L.F. All Over Color Stick 

(used as a highlight on the very tops of my cheek bones)

-Urban Decay Cream Highlighter in the color SIN 

(Discontinued. I use this stuff sparingly. I LOVE IT! I used it down the length of my nose, right above my top lip and along the bottom line of my chin.)

Goodness! That's a mouth full of products, just for my face! However, the end result is fantastic.

(This picture is a sort of halfway mark during the process. You can always add more. It's hard to take it away once you've started.)

I wish I had gone through the steps of all that I did on this picture but I think I pretty much aced it. Okay, add a little bit of a different sleep schedule and a maybe a few extra lbs, and that's how you get those giant bags under my eyes. Maybe it's genetics, who knows. The difference a little bit of bronzer and highlighter can make is amazing to me! Again, this is my first time so be gentle with me. I will point out that when I went to talk to my boyfriend, after disappearing into the bathroom for a couple of hours he did tell me I had a giant brown line going from my ear to the corner of my mouth that I had missed. Blending is key! Blend, blend, blend and blend some more! Otherwise you're going to end up with all sorts of funky lines on your face.

After applying all foundation, concealer (which I apply in a triangle from under my eyes down to the sides of my nose) and setting powder, I took a clean angled foundation brush applied bronzer along my jaw line (stopping right before the square of my chin). I also applied it to the area right below my cheek bone from the corner of my mouth in a straight line to my ear and then curved around to my temples and brought it up to the sides of my forehead. Before blending, I applied my blush but made sure not to apply it directly to the apples of my cheeks. This is a step that I have been doing wrong for so many years until recently. If you add blush directly to the apples of your cheeks, it will actually make your face look a little bigger; unless of course you already have a really thin face. I have a setting powder that I bought from ELF cosmetics that is translucent in color when applied, but the powder itself is white so I used that to highlight the area between the bronzer under my cheek bone and right above the bronzer line on my jaw. Then I took a clean powder foundation brush and just blended it all together. I tried to keep the lines together, so as not to just spread bronzer all over my face, but you have to blend those lines together in order to get the desired end result.

So there ya have it. A little contouring 101. 

Next up? Eyeshadow!!

July 2014 Ipsy Glam Bag

         

           As promised, here is my review of my Ipsy July Glam Bag. While I love my bag and I am excited about 4 out 5 products, I have to say I am a little tiny bit disappointed. Anyone can go online and see what is going to be a part of the bag, which is half of the fun,  but the true size of the items received aren't really reflected to 100% accuracy. Some of the sizes were as I expected I feel like the Bare Minerals 5-in-1 was super disappointing. I understand that it is a makeup sample subscription and all but I think if I were them, I would have made this one just a teeny tiny bit bigger. 

 Here is a peek into my bag...

Bare Minerals 5-in-1 BB Cream Eyeshadow

I got this in the color Divine Wine. The color is a deep(ish) purple/brown.

Will I use it? Yes. Will I love it? Definitely. Will I buy it? Maybe. The size of the tube is maybe the length of my pinky finger including the applicator, but I have pretty small hands so that doesn't say much. I haven't gotten much out of it besides a hand swatch of the color. Even though the sample size is super small, I am trying to stay optimistic in that I feel like a little goes a long way with this product. I haven't used much besides their original formula mineral powder, but I love the brand overall just based off of that.  So we will see. I am positive I will put a look together and put it here to share with you all

According to the Bare Eccentuals website the 5-in-1 has the following benefits:

              12 Hour Long-wearing color

 super charged primer

 powerful brightening benefits

 Soothes the appearance of fine lines

 and 

 has an SPF of 15

The full product size costs about $18.00

HealthySexyHair Soy Renewal Beach Spray

Honestly, after reading the reviews of this product, I thought that I was going to love it. I spoke with a couple of the girls on the ipsy message boards who also have naturally curly hair and they all said that beach spray has done amazing things for them, so naturally I was hopeful.

WRONG.

I just tried it tonight for the first time and my hair was sort of stiff and frizzy and had zero body to it whatsoever. I have to admit that I didn't let my hair dry 100% and probably should have just given some time, but I just couldn't deal with the situation I saw in the mirror. I had to go re-wet my hair and go through my whole hair routine and fix it; and given the fact that I let my hair air dry, this shaved at least 2 hours off of my sleep time for the evening. I think I might give it one more shot when I have a full day to devote to it, but as it stands now, I hate this stuff.

Full size product size costs about $20.00 and the overall rating on this product online is 4.5 stars 

(Clearly I disagree)

Hang Ten Dark Tanning Oil

A lot of women got a little too bent out of shape about this product on the official Ipsy page. I know, I know, tanning is horrible for your skin and can lead to all sorts of problems later on down the road. With the fact that protecting your skin seems to be the thing these days, I think that this might not have been the best item to include in their item. However, this bag is all about summer time and there are still people out there who choose to tan. Am I going to use this? Yes. Will I use it for tanning? Probably not. I have pretty fair skin and I don't get a whole lot of time in the sun so I would burn almost instantly if I put this on for those purposes. I'll take my sunscreen and enjoy the little bits of sun that get through that just fine.

However, this product is full of all sorts of oils that are good for your skin:

Aleurites Moluccana (ORGANIC Kukui) Seed Oil, Argania Spinosa Kernel (ORGANIC Argan) Oil, Canola Oil, Citrus Aurantifolia (Lime) Oil, Cocos Nucifera (ORGANIC Coconut) Oil, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Euterpe Oleracea (ORGANIC Acai) Fruit Extract, Flavor, Helianthus Annuus (ORGANIC Sunflower) Seed Oil, Isopropyl Myristate, Macadamia Ternifolia (ORGANIC) Seed Oil, Olea Europaea (ORGANIC Olive) Fruit Oil, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Silybum Marianum (ORGANIC Lady’s Thistle) Extract

So while this product might not be the best idea for use in the sun, why not use it on your hands, elbows or knees? Why not use it to add a little extra nourishment to those tricky areas on your body that just don't seem to stay hydrated? Or, if you have long hair that tends to get dry on the ends, why not use it there to try and bring some life back to them without getting a hair cut?

Just an idea...

This item runs about $11.99 for the full size

Pixi Tinted Brilliance Balm

I love this little stick.. A lot. The stick that was included in the bag is about half the size of the full size product, but unless I use it like a madwoman, I think it will last quite some time. The color I received is called Pretty Pink which is a lot lighter than the color in this photo. It sort of reminds me of a Barbie hot pink color, if that makes sense. The crazy thing to me is that two different people could be wearing the same color balm, but have it look a little different on each person. The item descriptions that I read all over the internet say that the color varies based off of the PH level of your lips. So, while you have the idea of the color, it's almost like it customizes to your lips just for you. I like that idea. 

I wore this most of the day today, even though my boyfriend hates pink lipstick for whatever reason. Ha. I absolutely fell in love with this and will wear it regardless. :) 

The full size product costs about $14.00 

And last but not least...

POP Beauty Bronzer

This was my 1 and only full sized product in my bag this month, and I LOVE this. I have never really used bronzer before in fear of over doing it or using the wrong color and making myself look too dark. This is going to last forever and I plan on using to to start learning the contouring process. The color I received is called Sunkissed and it is described perfectly. It's slightly shimmery and just barely gives you that natural glow of a soft tan. 

This item alone in it's full size (which I received) costs $10.00 which is the cost of the monthly subscription. 

The full value of my bag, based off of the full sized product prices and reduced to the sizes that were received (this required a lot of math which I am not very good at on a day to day basis, haha) came to about $34.00 

Not too bad. Even if I only really loved one item out of the 5, this is 100% worth the money. 

Makeup Addiction

          I'm pretty sure I have a full on addiction to makeup. In my previous post, I talked about the blue eyeliner from Cover Girl that I bought and how much I love it, but do you know what I was supposed to be shopping for that day? New clothes. I need new clothes desperately but somehow managed to leave with a $14 dollar shirt and around $40 dollars worth of makeup. Not only that, but later that evening I decided to do a little Amazon browsing and I found a powder foundation that I used religiously a couple of years ago that has been discontinued.  I received it in the mail today and I couldn't be more excited. That will be 2 makeup goodie bags in the mail in one month!

What is this mystery foundation? 

Almay Wake-Up Powder foundation. 

          I love, love, love this stuff and am baffled as to why it has been discontinued. Reading past reviews shed light as to why; People claiming that it's too lightweight of a coverage, doesn't stay put and transfers really well. In my opinion the only issue of those three claims is that it transfers well. Maybe a little too well but, wouldn't your rather have awesome (natural looking) coverage that wears a little than cakey build up that lasts forever? I haven't really noticed any different results from any other foundation that I have used, and trust me, I have used them all.A little primer and a little concealer take this product pretty far.

        This foundation has a cooling effect when you first put it on that almost makes the product feel moist. I think the idea is that of getting the puffiness reducing efect of putting cucumbers on your eyes; it soothes and relieves. I was ecstatic to see it come in the mail today and I think we should all send Almay a message and tell them to BRING IT BACK! They do have a liquid version out right now which I haven't tried but I am not really a fan of liquids.. They make me break out and I just don't like the feeling on my face. They have their purpose, don't get me wrong, but I prefer the lightweight (and just as good coverage) feel of products like  Bare Minerals - Mineral Powder. Aside from Almay Wakeup Powder Foundation, Bare minerals has been my Go To for foundation in the last several years. 

         Unfortunately, I started this entry pretty late in the evening but I will have more of how I use this product (similar if not the same to how I use my bare minerals) tomorrow - including pictures.