Spectrum Collections Sassy Sirens Make Up Brushes

If you're a sucker for a pretty make up brush then join the club!

I absolutely cannot resist any new make up brush, I love the classic monochrome, marble, metallic accents (who doesn't love a bit of rose gold nowadays??) but the unicorn trend has brought out some corkers too. Spectrum Collections have been the obvious choice here - their range is BEAUTIFUL and I did struggle looking at the website choosing what to get.

The Glam Clam is a personal favourite and I almost chose that, but the Siren brushes caught my eye for being totally different again!

Twitter Giveaway! Spectrum Collection You Look Marbleous Brush Set!

Hi all!

Over the last few months we've received loads of support on various platforms and wanted to celebrate. We've been blogging for almost 6 years now and there are a few thousand of you who follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Bloglovin. We're not the biggest and we juggle a lot of things amongst work, travel etc to get the photos and the content completed but we love what we do and appreciate all of the support, so thank you!

We haven't done many giveaways at all over the time we've been blogging, but now we're both in full time employment we decided we want to start giving back.

Spectrum Brushes Must Have Minis

Hey all

At the end of May we headed to a Spectrum event in Cardiff (you can see that post here. We couldn't wait to go as it was not only a brand with the prettiest brushes but it's a brand that's Welsh. We love supporting local!

Spectrum was founded by two sisters and it was great to hear their story! They also reminded us of how we are together so it made us love them more.

Spectrum Collections Event

Morning all!

If you're a follower of our Instagram and Twitter accounts (@thecsigirls) you will have seen we were invited to the Spectrum Collection event in Cardiff last week,

It was my first time at the Tramshed so it was great to visit it and see the type of rooms it has to offer, we were in Tramshed Tech which was a gorgeous room. We were both instantly wowed on arrival and were suitably impressed all evening!

Wish List: September 2016

Hello there! 

I've been writing a wishlist for weeks now and for some reason just haven't got around to getting it posted...in this time it has obviously grown but at least the items on it have a bit of variety.

The last year of house owning has ruined most shopping trips, planned or otherwise so writing a wishlist has been quite therapeutic. If I still want it after 6 months I obviously really want it...right??

Take a look and see if they match your wishlist items too! 

I keep seeing these beautiful gym leggings everywhere. As I'm tall I can struggle to find leggings that are long enough and also sit on my waist properly, but I'm still on the endless search for a long black pair with some sexy mesh panels in - just because I'm sweating doesn't mean I don't want to look good! 

I've seen some from Active in Style, the top ones are from Zanna Van Dijk's range and cost £85, the second are the Inda leggings from Daquini and cost £110.

Travel:

Image from Lonely Planet website

Forever dreaming of a paradise island getaway my latest focus has been pinning pictures from the beautiful island of Bali. Those white sands, turquoise waterfalls and 'once in a lifetime' sunsets are on my dream list. Keeping all my fingers toes and everything else crossed that one day I can actually go on holiday!

Palettes:

I mean it was extremely difficult to choose one palette from Sleek owing to their absolute corker of a collection right now (rivalled by another fave - Make Up Revolution, see below) but this highlighter palette is just all of the Pinterest/blogger/makeup goals right now.Amazing casing, flattering colour choices and apparently awesome blend-ability. 

All of this for £9.99?? Get me on the delivery list pronto!

Lipstick:

Image from UD website

Long have I lusted after the Urban Decay lipsticks but after their recent revamp and 120 shade uber collection I perve on them all the time.

I am still looking for the perfect red, this time a classic blue toned red. I either seem to repurchase orangey ones, or the super dark vampy ones but I always get it wrong!

F-Bomb looks the perfect shade, and is 100% on my wishlist

Browse them all by selecting this link, each comes in at a perfectly reasonable £15.

Chanel Chance:

Another dream - owning a Chanel perfume!

Chance is my favourite and I had another whiff of it recently, I still love it. At £68 for 50ml however I definitely need to save or wait for a rich man.

One day!

MakeUp Revolution: 

Last but certainly not least is Make Up Revolution. 

There are so many things I want....NEED to pick up from this brand and knowing they are affordable means I actually can. I'm waiting for some free time to go in store and browse myself as that's always the best part, but these rose gold brushes are high on the priority list

Five brushes for £34.95 sounds pretty reasonable to me and they are beautiful! So instagrammable!

What's on your wishlist at the moment??

Hopefully I can get some of these soon but it's always nice to dream!

L xxx

Make Up Brushes.co.uk

Hey All

A few weeks back we were asked if we wanted to try out some new make up brushes from makeupbrushes.co.uk, as I'm sure most beauty lovers will agree you can never have enough brushes. We both decided to try a multi tasking brush but from different brands as they both looks similar to the Real Techniques buffing brush that we love!

A great selling point of Make up Brushes.co.uk is that they have free first class delivery on all orders. I always slightly begrudge paying for delivery and it's great to know that it's not only shipped free but first class so that it will arrive quickly. They also offer same day dispatch if ordered before 2pm. I personally do the majority of my shopping online now as I just find it so much more convenient to just order things during work breaks and know they'll be at my house within a few minutes. Make up brushes.co.uk stock various brands including So Eco, Real Techniques and Japoneqsue.

The Brush Works Multi-Tasking Brush was one that I couldn't resist trying and seeing how it compared to that of a Real Techniques brush.

They are made using Taklon bristles and hand cut to create the perfect shape. They are also vegan and allergy free so that's always a bonus!







The brush is very similar to the Real Techniques Buffing Brush, but is slightly smaller in width and bristle height.
I've been using it with my current foundations (Vichy Dermablend and DiorSkin Forever) and I really like it. The effect is similar to the buffing brush so gives a flawless finish, but I found it a lot easier to control because of the slightly smaller size, it was especially easier around the nose and eye area for blending foundation and concealer.



I am suitably impressed with this brush and would certainly purchase more, on pay day I will be browsing to see what others are available from Brush Works.

The Brush Works Multi Tasking Brush (link here) costs £6.99 which is an absolute bargain when the RT buffing brush can only be purchased in a set for £20.99.




I chose the So Eco multi tasking brush. So Eco isn't a brand I've heard of but after recently deciding to only purchase cruelty free brands it was great to see that So Eco is cruelty free. As it wasn't a brand I'd tried before I couldn't wait to see how it felt. Nothing beats a soft brush and this didn't disappoint. Definitely on a par with Real Techniques.





As you can see from the packaging above So Eco brushes are also made from recycled and sustainable materials and think about things such as the packaging their products come in which is compostable. 



The multi tasking brush is a great all rounder which is a reason I went for it as at least a few times a week I do my make up for work on the bus so something like this is great for those days I inevitably forget a brush. It's full of densely packed bristles and reminds me of a mixture of the Real Techniques buffing brush and expert face brush. It buffs foundation into the skin flawlessly and easily. I've also used it for blush which I love as it's so dense I find it always me to control where blush goes as I've been leaning towards smaller brushes for blush lately.



The biggest test for me for a brush is how it washes. No one wants to spend money on a brush for it to shed or not be good once washed. This washes really well and I haven't had any shedding from it. It retails for £7.50 here which I think is a great price!

We also got the So Eco 5 brush eye kit to try. I love how travel friendly this is in the pouch and it's really thing. The brushes also feel nice in the hand as they are lightweight. I do think the colours and the packaging fit the brand theme. 





 Though if I'm honest I have mixed feelings about the brush selection. I love the mascara spoolie, the angled eyeliner brush and the fine point brush. All of these are amazing and great at what they're used for (I do use the angled brush for brows rather than eyeliner though and the mascara spoolie to brush my brows with). But for me the eyebrow comb isn't necessary in the set as well as the spoolie and I think it would have benefited from a fluffy blending brush. I do find the shading brush to big for the eyes but do love it to apply concealer.

It does retail for £12.50 here which I do think is a good price for the brushes you get especially as a set for eyebrows! 

Have you tried So Eco or Brush Works?

Love L and M

xxx

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Ebay Make Up Brushes

Hey All

After seeing a post on Make Up Savvy's blog I've been debating trying eBay brushes for a while. I'm always after new make up brushes as you can never have enough right! When I saw this set for around £6 delivered I decided to give them ago.

The set comes with 5 face and 5 eye brushes and with different colour options if you search. I thought black on black looked the best. It was also a UK seller so arrived really quickly with free postage.

left to right are the Round Kabuki, Flat Kabuki, Tapered Kabuki, Flat Angled Kabuki and Angled kabuki.

The first thing I noticed when they arrived was how soft they were! I really didn't expect them to feel so nice but they are pretty much as soft as real techniques brushes and as densely packed! There are 5 different shapes and all of them are great. I've mainly only used them for foundation at the moment but the shape of some of them will make them perfect for contouring and blush too. They work great with liquid and powder products I've tried and don't shed. They give the same flawless finish as my RT buffing and expert face brush!

They are all synthetic hair but do have different textures depending on what they are best used for and the shape of the brush.

For each of the face brushes there is a corresponding shaped eye brush. These are as soft as the face brushes but I've found my self using them for other things. The size and fluffiness of them has made them great for blending in concealer. Some work as crease brushes and I find them good for final blending but they don't seem to pick up eyeshadows great for application. I do still reach for them on a daily basis and would order more.

Due to the price the only quality lacking in them is the finish as you can see here on this brush there are stray hairs. This was present in a few brushes but hasn't affected how they work. In some brushes I've pulled them out and some I've left them.

Overall I'm really impressed in my first lot of eBay brushes and will definitely be ordering more.

Have you tried cheap brushes and been impressed? At 60p a brush you really can't complain at these!

Love M

xxx

Smashbox Full Exposure Palette

Hey all,

It's been a busy few weeks for me and I am currently on a hen weekend - at this point it is likely I am in a haze of bronzer and hairspray to make sure I'm looking as glamorous as everyone else there!

I've had this palette for a few weeks now and I've been dabbling around with it for work and weekends, I am of course talking about the Smashbox Full Exposure palette:

This palette contains 14 neutral shades, 7 shimmer and 7 matte, from nudes to blacks. It also includes a double ended eyeshadow brush and a mini mascara, and a booklet to tell you how to apply eyeshadow for different eye shapes.

The packaging is alright, I always have a bit of a dislike for cardboard/paper packaging like this. The Naked palette is the same but at least UD learned their lesson and brought out metal casings for the rest. I think most other brands would do well to do the same as however pretty the packaging is it's rubbish if it only lasts a few weeks after purchase! Mine of this has already got a good few dents and the corners are rounding off.

It also disappoints me that the shades aren't named, some people may think it's a petty thing to pick up on but why on earth are Urban Decay so good at what they do? Naming these eyeshadows S or M for shimmer or matte and then assigning them a number seems like a really half assed attempt, why bother at all naming them something so uninspiring!

That said, the colours themselves do make up for it:

I love the layout of the palette, it's lovely and symmetrical for an OCD person like myself. I LOVE that there are seven shades and a matte and shimmer version of both of them, it makes creating eyeshadow looks extremely easy.

There are both warm and cool toned neutrals to balance out the shade range giving you way more options than other palettes.

You can see the warmer toned eyeshadows above, the shimmers are unbelievably shimmery and I mostly can't stop looking at them. The golds will be perfect for the summer nights with a golden tan to match, I can imagine getting a lot of wear from these for some subtle shimmer for nights out.

The cool toned eyeshadows are something that I've been wearing a lot more, both matte and shimmer. The cool mattes are the ones that I've been leaning towards for work and the cool shimmers are great for Saturday nights out. The darkest shimmer that matches the matte black is the sparkliest shadow I think I own, it's beautiful!

As for the brush I can't make up my mind about it. I do like it, it does blend well and the double ends allow you to apply different finishes from either end of the cool/warm spectrum and not worry too much about the colours mixing together. However I do feel sometimes that the eyeshadow doesn't pick up very well from the pan and it just falls off the brush, which normally means that it ends up all over my cheeks instead of my eyelids - not a good look!

I'm afraid my photos of swatches seem to have gone walkabout - courtesy of my laptop getting the blue screen of death and I am currently unable to get hold of anything that's on there eek!

So instead I will direct you to this link, where Fleur de Force of course has some fabulous swatches to show the shades, finishes and colour pay off very easily.

I do have some photos of the look that I normally create from this palette - this is using the cool toned matte shadows:

I then also just apply some of the shimmer shades on top so that I can go straight from day to night with minimal effort. Just add some lighter shimmer to the inner corner of your eye, a medium shimmer to the centre and the darker shimmer to the outer corners and you're good to go!


The Smashbox Full Exposure palette is a worthy contender to the Urban Decay Naked family. It costs similar at £37, comes with a double ended brush, mirror and a freebie (mini mascara compared to UD's mini Primer Potion).
I love the balance of the cool and warm tones, and the shimmer and matte finishes. For me, the cool toned mattes are the best of the bunch and I've been wearing them a lot. All of the shimmers are beautiful, so the only shades that may not get used as much are the warmer toned mattes - I just never seem to reach for them.

I'd say this palette is a great starter kit for those that don't have any other palettes as it gives you the best variety of tones and finishes in one place with mirror and brush for ease.
I do feel that they could have done a bit more with their packaging and shade names though.....

What do you think of the Smashbox Full Exposure palette? Do you have it in your collection?

Will you be snapping it up for summer holidays? What's your thoughts on naming the eyeshadows or leaving them numbered?

L xxx

Christmas Wish List

Hey there!

I believe that everyone should write lists. I'm a big believer in wishlists in particular as it gives you something to aim for in life.....right?!

A girl can dream, especially of products, ans especially of these products. Take a look at my Christmas wishlist, if  i get any one of these I'll be one happy girl!

Nars

It doesn't take much to guess what this beautiful palette is; the Virtual Domination palette has been blogged and tweeted countless times already and although my hand has hovered over the purchase button on Space NK many times I just haven't had the funds to buy it. not even my credit card was available after it was hacked and I unfortunately have had to wait for a few weeks for a replacement! Probably for the best! This contains 4 blushes, 2 limited edition and a beasty sized Laguna bronzer.

This blush and bronzer palette costs £45 but is worth £117 - need!

The Digital World Lip Coffre was another that caught my attention, the lighter coral and orange colours are exactly the colours I love and wear on a daily basis. So pretty, and so wearable!

This costs £32.

Charlotte Tilbury

I don't own a single thing from Charlotte Tilbury, probably as the prices are a little out of my league. However this is a wish list so money is no object right?!

This beautiful palette, mascara and liner will set you back a few pounds, £75 to be exact but look at those beautiful colours! They certainly have extensive pigmentation and have many fans. But still, £75 :|

These lipsticks are also from Charlotte Tilbury and will set you back £42. £21 isn't too bad for a lipstick and these colours are perfect for the spring summer time. I wear these kinds of colours all the time and they suit my colouring and seem to brighten my skin tone up. I'd love them!

Last but not least is this gorgeous rose gold brush set. I'd love to have these in my collection but this one really is a dream.
£240 would get you this set and in my current financial state I'd need a loan!

Hourglass

The Ambient Blush Palette contains three of the famous Infusion blushes from Hourglass that look so pretty with their marble effect. The patterns that are created are all individual which is a lovely touch and this would make a lovely gift also. It will set you back £56 but for three blushes it will suit many people and be a lovely item to travel with too.

Urban Decay

As if I could make it through without mentioning UD. The TEN 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencil Set contains one full size Perversion liner with nine other never before created coloured liners with a range of finishes along with the infamous Grindhouse sharpener all for a pretty price of £35. That means they cost £3.50 each plus the sharpener for free, great value for great products.

What do you think of my wish list? What would you add to yours?

Send me links to them as I love reading about new releases and coveted products!

L xxx