New year, new brush :)

just thinking: if the whole year is gonna be like the first day of it, I guess I'm gonna get a lots of brushes! :)
Hope so.
Happy new Year to every accidental-readers of me. :)

(here's my new baby, mac 168 se contouring brush, from ebay. It took nearly 3 weeks to arrive, but when I came back to my hometown today from haard-partying in the capital, I found the envelope on my desk :) )

Me, myself & my brushes 2.

Here comes the all about my brushes volume 2. As I'm really into 'nude lips and smokey eyes' makeups, I use a lots of brusehes for my eyes - to be honest, I even use lip brushes on my eyes. :)
So here they come:
1.- the long brush with blue handle on the right: it's a synthetic brush from a handyman-mall (sorry, i don't know it's exact name, it's the place where you can buy paint to paint the walls or anything that is essential for building a house) so it's not a face brush - but it works like wonder! It's soft, yet massive, perfect for eyeshadow primer (my favourite primer is very 'rubbery' -like a thick cream that spent some time on fresh air, and became a bit more thick) or liquid highlighter. Or perfect for mineral concealer.

from up to down:

2.-noname round, flat brush: it's totally found, but flat brush, i use it as a crease brush -it's not as dense as a 'normal' (and my previous (kryolan) crease brush) that I hate so much. A 'normal' crease brush just don't work on my eyes sowehow. Actually, I don't even have a conventional crease, my eyes are too deep-set. :) So it's the not-so-crease-brush crease brush.

3.-Lancome nr. 17 blending brush - also from ebay. It's like mac's no. 224 brush. At first I tought that the bristels ar too harsh, and the brush is too stringy or something, but I learned how to work with that: absolutely forbidden to put color on it before you touch your lids - it's only to blend the colors together! It has a little top (point) so it's perfect for my deep crease.

4. -Coastal scents c200 deluxe crease: my prefered blending brush :) It's similar to mac's no. 225 blender, for a funny price (2$ or somethin') and it's perrrfect! It's super soft, so you can put a little (I said little! But at least you can put color on it, not like the lancome blending brush) color on it, mostly the lighter color. The perfect blender!

5.-Coastal scents pink deluxe oval shadow: it's really deluxe. :) It's so big, it nearly fits my whole lid. That's why 2 sweeps are enough to cover your lids with a lighter color as a base. Or to put on some highlighter to any part of the face, or just onto the browbone.

6.-Coastal scents pink blending fluff brush: this is too big for precise eyeshadow blending, but perfect for fixing the concealer with powder undereyes! Also perfect for detailed contouring - on the sides of the nose for example. And great for powdery highlighters.

7.-'industrial' fan brush: I got is from the same place as the first brush, so it's no a face brush originally :) But great for blending in the under-eye powder on the concealer (pandabear-eyed girls everyday program:color-correcting, concealing, powdering, blending the undereye arrea haha) so that the powder won't sit into the little wrinkles. Also great to put on masks on the whole face.

8.-Coastal scents pink oval taklon lip brush: it's a little round lipbrush that I use on my eyes: great to put concealer or liquid highlighter on the hard-to-reach areas (like under the lower lashline, inside, next to the tear-duct). I used once for lipstick too. :)

9.-Everyday minerals concealer brush: great concealer brush, but mainly for powdery mineral concealer. I also used it with liquid, but it's too thick for that (but the EM's eyeshadow brush, that has pretty much the same shape, but not as thick, is great for liquid concealer) but perfect for minerals.

10.-Coastal scents pink oval synthetic concealer brush: I use it with liquid highlighter, (Il Makiage liquid shimmer in moonglow) to cover my whole lid as a base or anywhere on my face. A bit big for the under-eye area, but the lip brushes are my backup for under-eye. :)

11.-noname lip brush: it's a bit bigger than the CS pink lipbrush, so i couldn't even imagine it as a lipbrush. :) But it's also great for concealer, highlighter, or even gel eyeliner - it's very similar to bobbi brown's 'ultra fine eyeliner'. There's one more expensive thing that I'm not interested in, good news! :)

Volume 2. -
1. - Coastal scents mini contour brush: I knew that the name (including the word 'mini') would mean something, but I didn't extpect that little brush. It's tiny, but fluffy, perfect for putting powdery highlighter into the inner corner of the eye (for a beyoncé-ish look) or onto the waterlines.

2. - Everyday minerals eyeshadow brush: not a good eyeshadow brush, but perfect for liquid concealer.

3. -Kryolan fluffy angeled liner brush: an essenial brush for powdering the kohl-line! Remember the ultimate rule: always fix yout kohl-liner with powder, if you don't want your liner to smudge everywhere.

4. - noname liner brush - it's little and somehow 'sharp', great for liquid eyeliner.

5. - Angled liner brush - for gel eyeliner.

6. - Coastal scents angeled liner brush - not as big as theother liner brush, but more dense.

7. - industrial synthetic brush - to use (green) mineral concealer on pimples :) Or to line the eye with loose powder for a natural, nearly-nothing-there effect.

8. - aplicator - no need to describe. Just a bit: I put some water or mixing medium to use it with pigments for a more intense look.

All of the noname brushes are made of goat or squirrel.

Me, myself & my brushes

I've been very lazy lately. But I have excuses: I've moved from my old condo to a new one (to a bigger one, I have enought space for my shoes, skincare products and makeup, yay!) and since then, ummm...I've been lazy I guess :)
But I was practicing all the time - I trtied to improve my makeup skills. I guess now I'm pretty good at that, I even made some of my friends make ups - and they all loved it. I hope that it's not because they didn't want to hurt me. :)
After some time, I start to feel more and more the tipical makeup artist statement: tools are the most important things for great makeup!
So, I decided to write about my brushes that I use regularly. To be honest, I store them on open shelves, otherwise I forget about them. I'm a bit disorganized. :)

First - for the face:
from left to right:

1. -noname fan brush (darker one): i'ts a loose and relatively little brush, great for bronzer, because it doesn't pick up much power.

2. -Big fan brush from ebay (on the handle: preat a porter peackonfan usa): it has super soft, dense bristles, perfect as an all-over powder brush. Also great as a body-brush, to put some shimmer or bronzer on to the decollete.

3. -Coastal scents pink duo fiber powder stippler: great for all-over powder, blush (specially creme blush) or for the highlighter. My only problem is that when I wash it with shampoo, some color still comes out of it.

4. -noname blush brush: i love how round it is! Almost like a dome brush. :)

5. -Clinique dual ended brush/contour: I received it as a gift in one of the promotions. It's not a very good brush, but I travel a lot between my 'homes', and i can use it as a powder/blush/bronzer brush too, it always comes with me.

6. -noname contour brush: the name tells everything :) but sometimes I use it for the blush, especially when I apply a more brownish-color than the peachy ones.

7. -Silk naturals fiber optic blush brush: I loved this brush, but I love to wash them regurarly, and after some deep-clenansins, the size of thet brush is nearly the half of what was when I received it...:/ But it's perfect for very intense mineral blushes.

8. -Coastal scents italian badger foundation brush: i usually use wedge sponge for liquid foundation, but sometimes I work with this-it's not so big, fits the under-eye area too.

9.-noname big powder brush: i only use it sometimes, but it's ok. :)

Another face stuff - mainly for mineral makeup:

from up to down:
-Pink kabuki brush from Zara: I bought it years ago, when I didn't really know what was it for, I guess I just liked the color and shape :) But it's a great synthetic kabuki, also great for the body due to it's size. It's almost too bog for the face :)
(the other kabuki is from ebay, I bought it before my EM brushes, when I tought my zara brush is too bog, so I have to get something before I make my order on EM)

-Everyday minerals baby kabuki brush: I think everyone who ows EM brushes knows how soft and silky they are :) I use the baby kabuki as a tuch-up brush, or I carry with me and use as a blush brush too.

-Everyday minerals flat top brush: this is one of my favourite brushes! It's super soft yet super dense. Perfect for mineral foundation, and beacouse of its density, picks up more product, and gives more coverage with the foundation. It's also a great bronzer brush due to it's shape, but take care of the amount of the bronzer! You can easily end up like some fake-bronzed-hawaii-barbie. :)

-Everyday minerals long handled kabuki: super-soft, super-handled, super-kabuki. :) Enough said.

-Mac powder puff: i have some other powder puffs, but none of them can race with the softness of this mac puff. It's great for powdering, and I didn't find enything that could be better to put some powder under the eyes before the dark eye makeups. And I also saw an asian (indian I guess) tutorial video, where the MUA put a puff on her ring and little finger while making the model's face. Brilliant! :)

Noname brushes are from a 21-piece kit that I ordered on ebay, from i don't know who. It was about 25-30 usd and it came in a case. They are not the greatest bushes, put I purchased them when I was a total starter, and I still say that ist totally worth it! I still don't fell like i want to splurge on mac or other luxury-brand brushes, but some day I might will.

(sorry for the blurry pics, i made them with my phone, and somehowe i'm not able to rotate the second pic, at least according to the blogspot)

Il Makiage 6-hour long workshop

I had a very busy and heavy day on sunday...full of make up! I've been to a 6-hours long make up workshope at te Il Makiage-makeup centre, in Budapest.

Il Makiage is an american company, started by Ilana Harkavi, in 1972. Ilana was a makeupa artist for long, and many of nowadeys big makeup-moguls learnt from her, like Bobbi Brown (Thank god!), Kevin Aucoin (did You know he suffered from acromegalia?) or Francois Nars.
As they said, somehow they started together with mac, but I didn't find any proof for that. (Maybe one of the MAC-founders were a student of Ilana Harkvai os something) Anyway, the packing is a bit similar, and when I sa their first shop in Kecskemét, in a shopping centre, the interior really reminded me of a MAC-shop.
I took a look at the colors - they were extremely beautiful and of course - extremely expensive :)

I don't know why I entered the shop - maybe I've seen something that had something to do with makeup-school. The makeup artist inside told me that they have many courses, even for becoming a MUA officially or just to learn he base-steps that everyday makeup needs.
Anyway, that was nearly half a year ago, and when I had time (and money :) ) to go to workshop, it just randomely came in my mind.

I went to the makeup studio about 3 weeks ago - they told me anything about the company (to be exact, a lady did that - she was creepy, had very VERY bad sense of humour, but it was ok, I was there for the makeup, and she was just a sales-worker)
Then I got a full makeup, and -holy crap!- that was great. Beautiful. And the MUA was so kind too.

They have several sessions - I choose the 6-hour long with a makeup artist, who shows the base steps, teach you about the colors, the textures, the tools, and everything that can fit into that 6 hours. You can do it alone, or with someone else. I choose a double-session, so I don't just learn things on my face. I even saw the changes more on others face.
I mean, I see how contouring and highligthing made me look great, but on other's face, the lines are more obvious, so I can test mysef, if I'd be a good MUA, or I'm absolutely talentless.
The price was about 240$, but You can spend 140$ on their products from the price. So You technically pay 100$ for the 6-hours. Bargain. :)

So, we started at 11 in the morning, and had 2 short pauses. The makeup artist who held the workshop was Kata Bartha. She started with the base-steps - prepairing the skin for the makeup. Then we moved to the foundation, contouring, correcting, concealing, and soooo on.

We made 3 different eye-looks, with different techniques She teached the correct methode of shading, using satin powder over the shadow, matte eyeshadows, the outer-V technique and so on.

The first look was a simple, lighter and darker shimmering colour, applying to the right dorners of the eye, blending them together perfectly. One eye was done by the MUA, and I had to do copy her. (I have to say that I was quite good at that :) )

The second look was originally a game with white-pink irridescent base, and a matte, dark blue. The blue was so pigmented, I struggeled with it for a while, but the MUA helped me out.
The color choice was so surprising: normally, I'm an autumn girl (think about greens, soft mauve-browns, natural, warm colors) but as I noticed, my neutral undertone mix up everyting. So I picked two surprising colors: soft white with pink iridescents, and a very dark, matte blue (Amerian blue exactly) and. I wanted to try blue on me, that's the only color on my eyes, that I was not able to use correctly on my eyes.
But now I had a chance- the MUA was a bit afraid of the upcoming result, guess how curious I was...

The result was amazing. As my face has strong caracter and deep colors, hars and vivid colors work for me. The cold pink base and the dark, matte blue made my eyes almost black, with a soft, warm, deep look. Almost hypnotizing. We applied a strong strawberry-coloured lipgloss and raspberry-coloured blush, and even the MUA was stunned. Altough it was planned as a day-look, it ended as a more-night-than-day-look, so we added some silk-powder (or highlighting dust) onto the top, and turned it into a full night look.
//Unfortunately I forgot to capture it, but trust me, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! //

The third look was made with the outer-v technique - we call itt outer-c in here. I applied an orange-but sometimes pinkish-goldis-beige-somewhat colour, that I purcased after - I didn't want to buy any eyeshasdows, but I fell in love with this...
/picture is comming soon/

All in all, I learned so much, I know nearly everything about my features and how to handle the brushes. And I got some very great stuff, I swear I'll write about them soon.

Silk Naturals haul

After I was not able to resist and ordered some things from the Silk Naturals and Coastal Scents too, the winner was the SN's pack. I received it nearly 1 week after my order. Super-sonic postal service!
I'm always happy when I receive the pack without any damage in spite of all the bad things that I read about the hungarian postal serices. But to be honest, I've never ever had any problem with my packages from strawberryt.com, sasa.com, everydayminerals or other, I guess i'm just lucky.

So, here are the products that I ordered; mainly samples, and a full size line sealer and the fiber optic blush brush. (I wanted to get a line sealer madly since I saw it on Vanessa's blog)

Products		Base	Final
1 x	Sample Black Cherry Shimmery Cream Liner	$0.50	$0.50
1 x	Sample Envy- golden green shimmer cream liner	$0.50	$0.50
1 x	Sample Amethyst- Deep Purple Shimmer Liner	$0.50	$0.50
1 x	Sample Rich Blush	$1.25	$1.25
1 x	Sample Fresh- Pink Grapefruit Cassis Solid Fragrance	$0.50	$0.50
1 x	Sample Maybe Baby Blush	$1.25	$1.25
1 x	Sample Lovelace Blush	$1.25	$1.25
1 x	Sample Angel Glow	$1.25	$1.25
1 x	Fiber Optic Blush Brush	$5.99	$5.99
1 x	Clear Cream Liner (Liner Sealer / Foiling Medium)	$6.50	$6.50

Lovelace and Maybe baby is a 'color clone' of two famous brand colors: Lovelace is the NARS' Deepthrtoat's, and Maybe baby is the MAC's Blushbaby's clone. I've never used the real versions of them, so I have no idea how similar are they.

Lovelace is a vivid, living colour - it's as peachy pink as it could be with lots of tiny golden shimer. The color reminds me very much of the pinkier side of the ripe apricots - oh my god, how much I love apricots! (my step-mom made apricot jam today, altough I came home after the procedure, the smell of the sweet apricots still filled my old room...)
It's also very pigmented, so I think it would be too harsh for girls with pale skin. It's nearly too dark for my medium skin (with nearly black eyes and dark brown hair) but the color is beautyful: the finish is a summery, living, peachy blush on my face, it would be beautiful with turquoise eyes and a summery-pink lips!
The SN's site offers Climax blush as a lighter altervative, and oh, as I read the desription, it's the clone of the Nars Orgasm blush! I should get one a sample in my next order!

Maybe Baby is a very natural, simple, matte blush - first, it was too brown for my eyes, then a bit too mauve,b ut on my skin it's a bit pinky, but just perfect color. I have neutral undertones, and I've been using pinky-peach blushes so far - this is the first, not so peachy blush that I've tried (except my Clinique True bronze bronzer, that I used as a blush during summer) and -holy sh*t - it's perfect! I've always wondered why makeup artist and beauticans (I've been an exam model of my friends for so long) keep using those brownish colors on me - it always ended up so hars (hey, I'm wearing blush!-type) as those faces were for exams, as special or night-time makeup. (and the other 2 makeup artists who worked on my face made my makeup for shool-photoshoots, and everyday makeup and photo-makeup are two totally different things...)
But now I understaind why they picked those tones. The colors were not pefect - I think they didn't have enough to choose from - but the intention was right.
//Normally, I'd be an 'autumn girl', due to my warm, brown eyes and my naturally brown hair has a red shine in sunshine, but my neutral undertone mixes the things a little bit (and I even have a pigmented, naturally dark-pinkish lipcolor)- so real autumn colors don't fit me (like the brownish and terra-cotta color they kept using on me) but a nearly-neutral-with-just-a-hint-of-brownish-colors just perfect.//

Rich blush is the jolly joker - it's a sheer, pinky-peach color, full of golden sparkles - again, it reminds me of sunkissed apricots! It perfecty fits all complexions - the ones with pale skin can use it as a real blush (it's a very natural, summery, living color) and for medium-dark girls it's a great highlighter, gives a special glow to their face. I use it on the apples of my face, or all over blush, and it also can be a base of a more intensive color.

Angel is a perfect highlighter - enough said. It's PERFECT! Just one thing - hadle with care. Only a tiny amount of angel is needed - if it's more than the ideal, you could easily end up as a strobe light. And needless to say, highlighting requires matte, and perfecly concealed skin.

I ordered the Fiber Optic Blush Brush - it's so little, you can only use it as a highlihter or a blush brush, due to it's size. When I received it, it had a little smell, but after a fast clean and some hours, the smell was gone. It shed a little, but I think is ok for 6 usd. :)
I'm so happy with it - it's so and so soft, and easy to layer the blush on my face - like i was using a baked blush. (I prefer baked blushes to powder or pressed powder ones -you can easily layer them over and over, to achieve the perfect glow. Chanel and Bourjois make them, but MAC's Mineralize line is also made with the same baking technique.) And it has a little handle, and as I tehnically have 3 homes now, it's a perfect sized brush for me to carry.

All in all, I'm happy with the fiber brush, and found some very good blushes - al of the three shades are good for my complexion - not like Everydaymineral's blushes. I will certainly try some more of SN's blushes, starting with the Climax.

I'll write about the liners in the next post.

-b-

Crossroads

It happens only once in a while. You enter somewher, just glance at her*, and it happens...the feeling, like You had met befor.


You're not sure weather it was in Your dreams, or a place like heaven. That would be great. Just nor for You. You have to look for something more common.


Then You're just looking. Looking for the one that completes You. The one You think will cheer You up. Makes You happy. Makes You a whole.

And You always come back to that one.


You begint to think it's some kinda joke. No. That would be scandalous. Outrageous. She* keep looking back to You. And talking. Louder. Louder. Screaming:

buy me, buy me! I'm perfect!



And yes, she's perfect. She's harsh, intense, but decent and a bit edgy.

That's it. I found her. Found my new BFF. My Chanel Pink Fluo lipgloss.

*-obviously it's a girl.

take a look at her here

-b-

Elegant minerals Red Clay & Green Clay

A few days ago I ordered from the Elegant minerals - they had a promotion, -50% from everything...how could an addict resist? So I ordered some mineral samples, mixing jar, spatulas and one sample of the Green Clay and the Red Clay.
They also have a white one, but that' just simple kaolin, that I can get from any pharmacies.


The clays is suggested to be mixed with water: you can mix 1 teaspoon clay with aprox. 1 teaspoon of water, until you get a not-too-liquid-but-just-ok mask.

The Green clay is for oily/combination skin, as they say, it's great for acne, and controls oil. From the site:

• Marvelous for helping to clear problem skin.
  
• Revitalizes the complexion
  
• Good for oily skin
  
• Tightens pores

Red is for normal/dehydrated skin. As they say:

• Very good for all skin types. Especially dry skin.
• Naturally draw toxins from your skin.
• Tightens, tones and purifies.
• It leaves your skin silky smooth, removes impurities and toxins but does not strip oil from your skin.

First, I mixed the clays with water, but after, I created several masks using serums, like a home made b5 gel (like the one from the skinceuticals, but this is by a great beauty-forum-mate ;) ), or any other masks. And the clay totally workes on my skin! I probably get full sizes from both, 2 ounces for 8 USD, bargain! :)

Oh, and I also find my great mineral concealer shade: their sandstone shade works like a spell under my eyes! It's a neutral-toned concealer, great alone when I don't have massive dark circles, but also works well on top of everydayminerals' sunlight or mint. (If You look closer, You see it on the first picture - I've written the names on the lids :) )

-b-