When was the last time you cleaned your brushes?: A PSA and How-To

Recently, I was complaining to a couple of friends about how I had to clean my makeup brushes. It really is a chore. Important, but a chore. Their response was “You can clean your makeup brushes?”

…   😦

Yes, yes you can. And you should! These are brushes that are in contact with your face often and they should be cleaned!

I’m sure many of you know this already, but there’s probably plenty of people that just don’t really think about cleaning your brushes – especially if you’re new to makeup. So, I took a lot of pictures today of the process I use to clean my brushes. Everyone is a little bit different, but this is the way that works for me.

So let’s get cleaning! (While grumbling, because I always grumble about having to do it.)

Hand Creams

I absolutely love hand creams! I’m such a sucker for them, really. My hands get really, really dry from my job and if I don’t take care of my hands, they’ll get red and flaky and painful. So it’s worth it to me to find a great hand cream! I’ve tried quite a few now and will do a quick review of them for you:

• Victoria’s Secret Pink Hand & Body Cream in Hot Crush: The scent is described as jasmine and warm caramel and is a very warm, pleasant scent. However, it is a very greasy formula. Every time I put it on, I immediately want to wipe my hands. Usually on my pants, but sometimes on a towel. Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
• Bath & Body Works Nourishing Hand Cream in Vanilla Buttercream: This scent is heavenly – it does actually smell like vanilla buttercream frosting! While it is not as greasy as the VS hand cream, it is still a bit greasy. It moisturises well enough, but not as great as I would like. It’s still a fairly decent hand cream, but there are better ones out there. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
• Vaseline Healthy Hand & Nail Conditioning Lotion: The scent on this one is vague and not really noticeable. This would be a good choice for anyone who is sensitive to scents or works in an environment where anything with a strong scent is discouraged. This moisturises well without being greasy at all. Absorbs quickly and provides lasting moisture. One of my go-tos. Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
• Cocoa Pink Coco Mango Body Butter & Voluptuous Body Butter: I didn’t notice a huge difference in the formulas for these two body butters, but I did only receive them as samples, so that may be why. You can get these in a variety of scents that smell absolutely delicious. I received samples with my Cocoa Pink orders. I got Witch’s Delight (which smells like cookies) and Caramel Chai (which is heavenly, really). The samples are small enough to throw in my purse and close securely enough that I don’t worry about them. They moisturise well enough, but they can leave your hands feeling a bit greasy if you use too much (which never seems like very much). I’ve also noticed these getting greasier over time. They do leave my hands feeling incredibly soft, though. Probably works better as an actual body butter rather than a hand cream. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
• Crabtree & Evelyn Ultra Moisturising Hand Cream in Citron Honey & Coriander: This is a very light, very pleasant scent. It absorbs quickly and isn’t greasy. Still moisturises well, though! This is one of my favourite hand creams. A little on the pricey side, but such good quality! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
• Burt’s Bees Shea Butter Hand Cream: This is heavy duty stuff. This is the stuff you use if you’ve been neglecting your hands for a while and need something heavy. It’s so thick that it takes a bit more effort to get out of the bottle than most hand creams. It also feels very greasy at first, as it takes some time to absorb. It definitely moisturises though! The scent is a bit astringent and not very pleasant, so be aware of that. This is definitely not something I use every day, but only when my hands are extra dry and need something a bit more. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
• Sixteen92 Hand & Body Lotion: This is hands down my favourite hand cream! It is not greasy and absorbs quickly. It still moisturises really well, too! This is the most quickly absorbed hand cream I own, which I appreciate, since I can put some on and then go right back to work without worrying about getting hand cream on everything. It also smells delightful! I have it in Lolita (which is reminiscent of VS Love Spell), Frosted Gingerbread (holy crap amazing), and Toasted Marshmallow (delicious). There are quite a few other scent options and I’m sure they’re all wonderful. It also comes in larger tubs and smaller ones. The smaller ones fit perfectly in purses or desks. Like I said, this is my favourite hand cream. Absolutely wonderful. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The whole crew! (I’m so bad at photography.)

I know I’ve been talking about this post for a long time now, so I hope it lives up to expectations! I also hope that it helps anyone looking for a good hand cream. 🙂

Saturday Night Party

I would apologise again for not posting regularly, but, well….I think we all realise now that I’m not going to post regularly. I’m just not good at that. Sorry for that!

Anyway, I went to a work party on Saturday night and remembered to grab a couple of pics of my look for the party! It was a fun look! I forgot to get a pic of my outfit, though. I was trying to channel my inner Taylor Swift, but I toned down the red lipstick to almost nothing since I knew I was going to be eating a lot. I have a terrible tendency to use a napkin to wipe my lips when I’m eating – which always seems to wipe off all my lipstick! 😛 I’ve been trying to blot my mouth instead, but….well, it’s a work in progress!

On my face:

• Clinique Blended Face Powder
• Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Ivory (as concealer)
• Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint in Opal
• Blackbird Cosmetics Magic Trick Super Powder in Violet

On my Eyes:

• Wet n Wild Fergie Primer
• e.l.f. Glitter Glue
• Shiro Cosmetics Baker’s Boy
• Maybelline Line Stiletto in Blackest Black
• Tarte lights, camera, lashes 4-in-1 mascara

On my Lips:

• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil in Ozone
• Clinique High Impact Lipstick in Red-y to Wear

I had a great time at the party and, as usual, rubbed my lipstick off as soon as I ate something haha. One day I’ll get the hang of it! 😛 I hope everyone is doing well!

Off Work Early Today

And it’s a beautiful day out! So I put on an old (but fun) tank I have and suddenly, I’m playing with makeup again! It’s fun to play with bright colours that I don’t get to wear to work! This is also my first look where I’ve successfully incorporated blue eyeshadow. (Blue eyeshadow is a bit intimidating, to be honest.) I sent a selfie to my lovely friend Jessica and she immediately suggested a style post! Not a bad idea, especially since I’ve been so terrible at posting.

In other news, work is slowly becoming less crazy for me, so I’m hoping that means I’ll be able to post more. Hopefully. I have a lot of ideas for posts, but never seem to make the time to write them up. I really should work on that. 😛

Anyway, on to my style!

The whole outfit. (Excuse the house slippers!)

Hopefully a good look at the colours.

My aesthetic: sultry-eyed silly goose.

Outfit:

• Skull tank: Penney’s (Primark)
• Leggings: Victoria’s Secret Pink

Products Used:

Face:

• Clinique Blended Face Powder
• Revlon ColorStay Foundation in Ivory (as concealer)

Eyes:

• Wet n Wild Fergie Primer
• e.l.f. Glitter Glue
• Shiro Cosmetics in Triforce (lid), Little Bird (inner corners and lower lashline – not visible in pictures, unfortunately)
• Ten Three Labs in It’s Your Funeral (outer corners)
• Clinique High Impace Mascara

Hope you guys enjoyed this! I know I had fun! 🙂

Perfume Primer

So perfume is kinda my thing. I absolutely adore perfume and have for a very long time. If you’re looking to get into perfume or you’ve failed in the past with perfume, maybe check this out. It’s going to be very text-heavy and filled with a lot of information, so if you don’t read it, I’m not going to be offended. 😛

I’ll be covering the following things in this post:

• Quick Info
• General tips about perfume
• Tips for mainstream perfumes
• Tips for indie perfumes
• A few questions answered

This or That Tag

The lovely Dorkchops posted this and tagged everyone reading it. It looked like fun, so I thought I would do it too! 🙂

I’ll put it under a Read More, just in case you aren’t interested (which is totally fine, btw).

I Play With Makeup on my Days Off

I have the day off today and, as I usually do on my days off, I decided to play with makeup. Today I did a bolder winged liner than I usually do and tried out a couple of lip colours. I did a red lip and a grey-blue lip (not something I’m ready to wear in public yet, but I do like it!)

This lighting showed off the colour best!

Also showing off how nice my hair looks today!

Here’s the list of products used:

Face

• Neutrogena shine control primer (on nose and forehead)
• Clinique Acne Solutions liquid makeup in fresh alabaster
• Clinique Blended Face Powder

Eyes

• Maybelline Line Stiletto in Blackest Black
• Sumita Beauty Contrast Eye Pencil in Black (Suman)
• Tarte’s Lights, Camera, Lashes
• Covergirl Lashblast Length in Very Black

Lips

• Clinique High Impact Lipstick in Red-y to Wear layered over Little Sparrow Lip Jelly in Fairest (currently unavailable)
• TenThreeLab’s Smudge Stick sample in Morgue Water

Do you guys also play with makeup on your days off? I’m more likely to try new things with my makeup when I’m not going anywhere!

Shopping Your Collection

I’m currently on a very low-buy for everything. I’m trying to save money, but I don’t want to completely deprive myself. My biggest downfall is indie perfumes and makeup. Mostly perfumes, because I have had a lifelong obsession with good-smelling things (especially perfume) that isn’t going anywhere. And indie perfumes, with their affordable samples, make it so very hard to not buy everything.

A trick I learned from the internet (thank you, reddit!) is to “shop your collection.” Basically, pull all the things that you have that aren’t in regular rotation and start wearing/using those. There’s a reason you bought them and haven’t gotten rid of them. So start using them! It will also feel a bit new to you, just like getting new goodies in the post!

So today, when the urge to buy new perfume was incredibly strong, I pulled out all my perfume samples. I sniffed all of them. I may try out a few again. I also have pulled out some empty rollerballs and will be putting a select few perfumes into them. I’ll do a post about that whole process on a different day (once it’s done, of course). So not only am I shopping my collection, I’m doing so for a purpose.

Here’s all the samples I own. This does not include full sizes!

As you can see, I have quite a bit to work with! It also gives me a chance to go through them all again and decide which ones need to go!

I like to do the same thing with lip products and eyeshadow, but the urge today is for perfume, not those things, so it’s perfume today.

This distracts me from the urge to buy. Although, if we’re being totally honest, I’m going to cave soon anyway. It is known.

If you have any recommendations that will keep me from buying things, please let me know! I need all the help I can get.

Cheers!

P.S. I do have plans to review the perfumes in the future. I haven’t done so yet, though. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to know about, please ask!