Lets Talk: Makeup Brushes

Hey guys! Sorry for going quiet, I've been away with my boyfriend so blogging was put to one side but I'm home now, so back to doing what I love to do the most! On to the second most important things in my life (!?) Lets talk Makeup Brushes.

I credit a lot to makeup brushes for my obsession with makeup, it all started about 4 years ago when my sister got me a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for christmas and I thought "what the heck is this??" having never bothered really with that sort of thing before. The result of that christmas present is a serious expansion of my makeup draw and me writing this blog, so thank you sister. Saying that though, until recently I've been using the same 3 or 4 brushes for every makeup task as I didn't realise just how important your tools are to makeup application, so I thought it was time to expand this area of my beauty cuboard too and I'm so glad I did because I've found some real gems. Here is the low down on my recent finds and trusty favourites -

 BLANK CANVAS

I've been using Real Techniques almost exclusively because they've always been so easily available and often on offer at the drugstore and I've always been impressed by them so why bother mixing it up? That was until I found these bad boys. The face brushes are £10.61 and the eyes are £5.66 (it's a european company so I assume the exchange rates make the numbers a bit weird?) and I got the F03 which is a stippling brush, the F15 which is a small contour/highlight brush and the F20 which is a flat buffer brush. I have to say these brushes are the softest things I've ever felt, the stippling brush is unbelievably flexible and silky soft and I keep running it over my face because it feels so good! The perfect brush for powder and heavier duty highlighting, I love it! The contouring brush is also so lovely and petite which means you can apply things really easily without over doing it too much and is awesome for highlighting. Finally is the buffing brush and oh my gawwwsh it's beautiful. Again I've religiously used the Real Techniques Buffing Brush for my liquid foundations because I didn't think it could get any better but it can! My makeup went on the best it has ever been applied with this brush, it's so springy and soft and I can't say much more, it's just amazing! Oh and the best bit is that with delivery all the brushes came with brush protectors which I've been meaning to get for travelling purposes anyway, so another win. Check out the rest of their range here.

EBAY

I read about this set whilst browsing Bloglovin' and although I wasn't expecting amazing things this set is actually pretty great! When they arrived they were really creased and rubbish so I had to wash them first so their natural shape took form. The set works out at 50p a brush (£4.95 for the 10 set) and there are some good picks amongst them. It claims that the brushes are all pretty different and are designed for different things but really the 4 face brushes (on the left) are basically the same, a bit of taper here and a little slant there. I used one for buffing in a cream highlighter and contour, and will probably use them for different cream products as they're seriously dense. Very useful though! The one in the middle I have no idea what the use is for, it's aiming to be a highlight brush but is far too dense to do anything with but one can't really complain for such a low price tag. The eyeshadow brushes (on the right) again are all pretty similar but I find that when doing my eyeshadow you can never have enough clean fluffy brushes to blend the outside so these are very useful to have around. All in all this set is a handy bit of kit to own but not on their own, yet for under a fiver it's a winner! Get them here and you're welcome in advance. 

REAL TECHNIQUES

And finally, on to the afore mentioned trusty favourites. It seems silly to bother writing another post on how awesome these brushes are as they seem to be the go to brush for beauty bloggers everywhere. They really are worth the hype though, as I said, I've used the buffing brush has been used basically every day ever? The setting brush is wonderful for highlighting and I've also used it for powder contour as it's just small enough to chisel away but big enough to be able to buff it in nicely. The multi task brush is another staple for my bronzer, I find it a bit dense for blusher and powder but it's been well loved in other regards. I've also been using the Miracle Complexion Sponge for under eye concealer and general blending and it's so so lovely, it makes things nice and even and doesn't remove too much product in the doing so. Love it! All in all these brushes are fab fab fab and if you live under a rock and don't know where you can get them, find them here.

So there we go! My favourite picks from my brush collection, I hope you enjoyed reading and that I've maybe inspired you to try some new ones to mix things up a bit

kloveyabye x

How I Overcame My Acne

*This is a post filled with brutal honesty because I need to let you know exactly how I cleared this acne up - there was no miracle and it took a long time.*

I was always so thankful for my complexion when I was younger, I would get one big spot the week before my period once a month every month and that was all I had to deal with. How I long for those days *sniff*

I've been on the contraceptive pill (Microcygnon) since Summer 2012 but came off it last year in May when I went through a break up and didn't see any point in it anymore. I was off it for about 6 months before...*ahem*... my "needs" returned and I went back on it, however it was the "new" Microcygnon called Rigevidon. There were no problems with my skin for the following couple of months until about late February/March time when literally out of the blue 3 or 4 large spots appeared on my jaw line and around my mouth. I didn't think anything of it, I thought it was just a flare up and that it would die down soon, but it never did and it hasn't completely since then. 

Now, I'm not sure if it is anything to do with my change in contraception, and unfortunately I can't see my GP until I move back to Guildford in October to see if there is a change I can make pill-wise. Therefore, my natural instinct when I realised these spots weren't budging was to go out and spend an absolute fortune on some skin care solutions. I tried all sorts, the YesTo Tomatoes Daily Repair Treatment (which did nothing, although I used the whole bottle out of principle), most of the BodyShop's Teatree range such as the overnight lotion and the facemask (I really loved both of these treatments but they helped the areas of my face that wasn't covered in spots way more than my acne), Lush facemasks, Una Brennan facemasks bla bla bla the list goes on and on. If anything my acne was getting worse and my bank balance was getting lower. 

I was feeling so down and self confident about this issue, I never left the house without a tonne of makeup on and as lame as it sounds I was really envious of everyone getting excited about summer makeup when I knew I would still be wearing thick and heavy foundations. "ENOUGH" I internally and externally screamed, "I HAVE to get this sorted" I cried to my mum, and so after several evenings consumed by internet searches of cures, off to Boots and Lloyds Pharmacy I went, and I think/hope I've found a solution. 

The lady in the Boots Pharmacy gave me a tube of Benzoyl Peroxide which cost about £8 and that was as much as she could do. I then went to Lloyds Pharmacy and the lady was so helpful and sympathetic I nearly cried on her. She poo-pood the treatment I'd just been given and said to be really cautious of it as all it will do is dry out the spot and leave scars. She suggested the La Roche Posay Effaclar Duo Plus which aims to dry out the spot but moisturise around it at the same time. 

Of course I was expecting an immediate result (even though she told me there wouldn't be) as it was a fairly pricey product (£15.50) but sadly no such luck. However since using it for nearly a month, over the last week or so I think I've finally started seeing some improvements!

I'm just going to list exactly what I've been doing to and my advice - 

1. Drink an absolute tonne of water. You see this tip everywhere but not only do I think this has helped my acne, in areas not acne covered I can see that it's general appearence is smoother
2. !!MOST IMPORTANT!! Minimise your skin care routine. Just as I was about to get in to the swing of finding and discovering some new skin care items, the acne became too much and nothing was helping, so I went a bit mental-
1. I was using maybe 6 or 7 different products on my face a day and there were no improvements, the spots were not budging! Since cutting out exfoliators, facemasks, fragrant moisturisers and night creams and just sticking to a cleanser (I bought the La Roche Posay Effaclar Foaming Cleanser at the same time) and a simple moisturiser (I use Aveeno) and then the La Roche Posay treatment on top of this I have finally seen some improvements in my complexion. 
2. I then went the complete other end of the spectrum and used so much benzoyl peroxide and combining it with the La Roche Posay treatment (I'm talking 3-4 applications a day) because I got so fed up of nothing working I completely dried out the whole my chin and around my mouth and it looked even worse, spots and flakey skin! So use with caution people, slow and steady wins the race. There WON'T be immediate results but they do come, I promise!
3. Avoid touching your face. I'm probably preaching to the choir with this as it's something so simple that everyone tells you to do but after consciously avoiding picking at, squeezing or just leaning on my problemed areas, I really do think it's helped. 
4. Keep moisturised. Healthy, moisturised skin is going to heal more quickly and behave more kindly. I use quite a heavy moisturiser at night time and was using a mattifying one in the mornings (The Body Shop Seaweed Mattifying Moisturiser) as it has an SPF 15 and seemed to keep everything in shape.

If I'm totally honest, it's hard to say how much I can credit to these products and how much it is to do with hormones and their natural dying down. My internet searching showed me that a lot of girls in their early twenties suffer with hormonal acne breakouts and that it will naturally die down on its own. So as much as it sucks it's just something that my body went through that I will hopefully be able to deal with better if it ever comes again (I pray to all the gods that it doesn't).

Now that the main body of it has cleared up, I'm left with quite a few acne marks and scars which is the next thing I need to address, watch this space! I really hope this was a helpful post and that it's not affecting too many people because it sucks! A lot! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I promise.

kloveyabye x