How I clean my makeup brushes.

I see a lot of bloggers who end up buying expensive makeup brush cleaners, and most of them barely do the job!

Well my friend I have a cheap homemade remedy which revives, whitens and thoroughly cleans you're brushes like nothing else!

Also, since purchasing new makeup which I talked about here I really didn't want to start using my new stuff with filthy brushes.

My brushes after a few hard uses!

 




Above is my only brush set.
(yes, I don't feel the need to have 10 foundation brushes!)
I have 3 brushes from the Body Shop

• Slanted brush for eyeliner application
• Blending brush for intense eye shadow application and I also use it to apply concealer, obviously cleaning it in-between
• And last but not least the line softener

And then my Real Techniques brushes

• My fave the Stippling brush which I use as a foundation brush
• Contour brush which I use for...well contouring and also use as a blush brush
• The foundation brush which I mostly use to blend in concealer
• Lipstick brush which I never use
• And the buffer brush which I use to blend in foundation and also pat powder over my face.

All the brushes above do exactly what I need to and I find a lot of girls find it a chore to clean their brushes.
Not meaning to sound biased, but cleaning my brushes is the most easiest thing ever!

I've made a habit of cleaning them once to twice a month as bacteria build up is not very nice!
Here's my quick method:



 

 

Ingredients:

• Olive oil - to remove the foundation residue etc.
• Bi Carb soda or Baking soda - to whiten and dissolve bacteria
• two tablespoons of water - help to mix the ingredients into a paste
• a bowl
• a tablespoon

Mix the olive oil and baking soda together in the bowl and add in the water to form a paste.

Get all you're brushes together, or one at a time, and stir into the mixture.

 

You can see by the two pictures that the mixture is already lifting the makeup and dirt of the brush.
And in the second pic the brush has been rinsed of with water and then cleaned a little more with normal shampoo and conditioner.

And that's it!
My brushes look as good as new, are soft and there is no olive oil residue left after cleanings done.

Just one quick tip also, I give my brush carrier a quick clean with a makeup remover wipe so my brushes and carrier are all equally cared for :-)

The end result is soft, clean brushes and no bacteria added to you're face!
It takes no more than 5mins as well, such a quick fix how can you go wrong, and all products are things that use on a daily basis :-)

Hope this was a good insight, let me know of any good remedies you recommend!
You'll hear from me soon :-)

XOXOX

Benefit Makeup Haul

This week I finally had the pleasure of visiting the Benefit counter at Smith and Caughey's in Auckland City with a complete makeup makeover in mind.
And makeover I did!

In previous posts I've been using M.A.C products and with all the changes I've been going through lately, especially with my skin, M.A.C unfortunately hasn't been bringing out the best in my skins natural glow and matching against my complexion.
The Pro Longwear Foundation which I swore by for 'easy absorption' and light weight 'un-cakey' consistency has been far from it since my second trimester hit!
Although M.A.C's eye shadows, blush and lipsticks are still amazing, I just simply don't my skin agrees to their 'industrial grade' foundation anymore, a realisation I'm glad I came to!

A few weeks ago my friend Samara and I stopped by the Benefit counter, asked plenty of questions and tried a few products that we wanted; mine especially was the "Hello Flawless" Collection and was recommended the "How To Look The Best at Everything' makeup kit which includes:

• POREfessional primer
• Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow in Light
• Boi-ing Concealer in 01 and 02
• Hello Flawless powder in 'Me Vain' champagne
• Powder brush included which I must say is as soft as a baby's bottom!

I liked the idea of the kit as transitioning into a new makeup brand I really didn't want to jump the gun and purchase the larger products in case it didn't end up working for me.
The cost of this was quite affordable at NZD$57, well at least I thought it was quite well price as I don't wear makeup very often :P

Such a pretty box layout! You can even remove the packaging and keep the box as a keep sake :-)

The makeup girl applied all of the above products on me before I made my purchase and I was quite amazed at how light weight and natural it looked!!!
The foundation, however, she applied firstly was a shade lighter as the kit only comes in two shades and the one I brought was the lightest (obviously the next shade up would be too dark).
So I took my chances with purchasing the kit, I will be back for the lighter shade for sure!

Mirror included in the box set along with 'tips & tricks'

In the mean time I'm gonna leave my post here until I've really tried and tested this product thoroughly for myself and with my application techniques :-)

Wish me luck!

Love this box set! It's absolutely gorge!!!

XOXOX