E.L.F 11 Piece Brush Set

As most of you know, e.l.f have sales and offers quite frequently - there most recent one was 40% off the entire website! I've been eyeing up the Studio line 11 Piece Brush Set for months now, so I thought that it was the perfect time to go ahead and purchase it. 

The regular price for this set is £38.50, which is already very reasonable for 11 brushes, right? With the discount code, I only paid £26.05 including shipping! I'm so happy with this price, it's practically a steal (and cheaper than one MAC face brush alone).

E.L.F says:

The ultra luxe makeup brush case is ideal for any makeup artist at heart! A Perfect for on-the-go convenience so you can just grab and store without taking up a lot of space. the sleek case is water resistant and holds a full collection of brushes for key protection and quick use. Includes: Case, Eyeshadow "C" Brush, Complexion Brush, Small Angled Brush, Small Smudge Brush, Fan Brush, Powder Brush, Angled Foundation Brush, Concealer Brush, Small Precision Brush, Blush Brush and Contouring Brush.

I like that the brushes come in a zip up pouch - it's not the most attractive thing ever, but it does the job - brushes can get damaged quite easily if you just throw them in your makeup bag (like I often do - eek!).

Now, onto the actual brushes!

• The complexion brush is a great "everything" kind of brush - you can definitely use it to apply powder, bronzer, and even blush. It's not a giant brush like other typical powder brushes, but it definitely covers a large enough area. I like to apply blush/bronzer with this brush.
• The blush brush is a bit small for blush in my opinion, but it's great for a precise contour or highlighting. I've also used it for setting under the eyes.
• I love the powder brush, really soft and dense, so it's great for buffing liquid or powder foundations. I've owned this one before, but the brush fell apart last time. Let's hope that doesn't happen again!

• I don't usually use traditional flat foundation brushes for my foundation, but I have used it for applying my MAC Pro Longwear Concealer under my eyes - the angled shape is great for that!

• The fan brush is nice and soft, good for highlighting, but I just don't tend to use it.

• The Eyeshadow C brush is great for applying shadows, it has become one of my favourites for this purpose. It's also dense enough to blend around the edges of eyeshadows.
• The contour brush is really great, since I haven't seen many others quite like it, it's like a bigger, rounded pencil brush. It's great for putting a deeper colour right in the crease/outer corner.
• The concealer brush is like any other - can also be used for eyeshadow application.

Sorry for the slightly blurry picture, didn't notice til afterwards!

• The Small Smudge brush is great for applying colour around the lashes, but I don't think it's dense enough to really smudge eyeshadow.
• I haven't really used the Small Precision brush, but I think it'd be great for concealing small areas.
• I've owned the Small Angled brush previously (but lost it unfortunately!) and think it's great for eyebrows or eyeliner.

Overall, I think this is a great set for anyone - especially beginners, but it is lacking in one or two important brushes. Everyone needs a good fluffy blending brush, but a lot of brands sell them, so they are not hard to come by. Many people also need a thin eyeliner brush, especially for using gel/cream eyeliners.

All of the brushes are soft, and since they are synthetic, I never notice them shedding. I use these everyday alongside my MAC, Sigma & Real Techniques brushes, so I definitely suggest checking them out if you're looking for some good brushes at a great price!

You can find them here - remember to always check for discount codes!

Thanks for reading.

Bee x

Daily Face!

These are some of the products that I have been using daily for the last few weeks. I definitely tend to change my makeup look everyday, but here are my basics! I haven't included a lip product, because that is always changing.

1. Urban Decay's Naked Skin Foundation in 1.0. I have a review posted on this product, linked here. This has become my everyday foundation, and I love everything about it. It feels light, matches my skin, and covers everything it needs to!

2. MAC's Studio Fix in NC15. Another recent purchase. This is a powder foundation, but I just use a light layer with a Real Techinques brush, and it helps to keep the shine away. If you want more coverage, simply apply a bit more.

3. Illamasqua's Powder Blush in Create. I use this product as a Contour/Blush/Bronzer all in one. In the pan it looks like a very dark terracotta, almost orange shade, but on my skin it just works! Use these blushes with a very light hand, they're incredibly pigmented.

4. MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish in Soft and Gentle. This has been my favourite highlighter for a long time now, I have a hard time using anything else. Looks quite peachy and dark in the pan, but it's a light shimmery champagne shade.

5. Beauty UK's High Brow - All in one brow definition kit, and BDellium Tools 735 brow brush. I recently ran out of my Ash Brown shade in my very well loved HD brows palette. I've heard ThePersianBabe raving about this kit on youtube, so I decided to give it a go instead. For £3.99 it's a great substitute, but I will always love HD Brows! I purchased the brush at IMATS, it is perfect for brows.

6. Maybelline's Eraser Eye Concealer. Love the product, hate the packaging. Covers dark circles and minor redness well, without being thick. The packaging is broken, but thankfully product still comes out.

7. Lorac's Pro Palette. Just posted a review on this product, linked here. The perfect netural palette with matte and shimmers.

8. Lorac's Behind the Scenes Eye Primer. Prevents eye makeup from creasing, due to oily lids!

9. Maybelline's Define a lash Volume Mascara, Waterproof. Not in love with this one, but I'm going to use it up. I always purchase waterproof mascaras, as I find they hold a curl best. If anyone has any recommendations please let me know!

10. Real Techniques Brushes. Super soft brushes, good price, created by one of my favourite youtubers. These 2 aren't the only brushes I use, but I love them all!

Lorac Pro Palette - Must Have!

Since I live in the UK, it's quite frustrating when I see youtubers, or bloggers raving about products that are unavailable to me. (Bring Sephora to the UK!) However, simply through searching google, I came across a site called Rose's Beauty Store and found exactly what I had been looking for!

I already own both Naked palettes, and probably have far more neutral eyeshadows than I should, but the reviews on this are quite amazing, I had to have it. The Lorac Pro palette contains 16 eyeshadows, and it also comes with their Behind the Scenes eye primer.

As you can see, the top row of shadows are all matte, and the bottom row are all shimmery. This palette is absolutely perfect for those of us who thought the Naked palettes were just too shimmery! The packaging is also far better, as it is very sleek, far less bulky than the Naked palettes, but with more shadows!

I find every shadow in the palette to be very pigmented, just as you'd expect for the price. Some of the lighter shades - white, cream, light pink - are slightly chalky, but nothing to worry about. In terms of lasting power, they're just as good as Urban Decay. I find this to be the same with the eye primer, which is very comparable to UD's Primer Potion, though Lorac's is slightly thinner in consistency.

I highly recommend heading over to Rose's Beauty Store if you're interested in this palette. They also stock brand such as Tarte, and Kat Von D!

Urban Decay Naked Skin Liquid Makeup

Today's post is something I am really excited about! As I mentioned previously, I love Urban Decay - always have, always will - and I've been wanting to try this product out since it was released, but have always been put off by the "light coverage" description that it has been given. I have quite a lot of issues in terms of scars, redness, and all that fun stuff, so light coverage is something I tend to stay away from.

Eventually I gave in and purchased their Naked Skin Liquid Makeup. As with all Urban Decay products, the packaging is gorgeous, though quite impractical due to the size and extra plastic. The pump is very nice, controllable and hasn't gotten too messy so far!

The shade I got is 1.0, which is the lightest yellow-toned shade. Shades ending in .0 are yellow toned, and .5 are pink. This shade matches me very well, which is surprising as I am very fair skinned. I would say that this foundation is actually medium coverage, but feels like a light coverage foundation. It covers everything necessary for me, and it feels lovely.

The foundation itself is very thin and watery. It can get messy, but I like this because it makes it very easy to blend a very thin layer over the skin, and therefore does not look cakey at all! I have very oily skin with the occasional dry patch, and this doesn't enhance either of those skin issues. I do have to set it with powder - I use a very light layer of MAC Studio Fix - but it lasts all day on me, which is perfect!

Overall, this foundation has become my new favourite, and I will definitely be taking this on holiday to Tenerife next week!

Available on Debenhams for £27

Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick and Lip Pencil

Ever since I saw Samantha Schuerman mention this particular lipstick, i've been lusting after it! I've always been a massive Urban Decay fan, and I'm loving all of the new products they've been releasing.

First of all, the packaging goes along the same theme as the Naked Skin foundation, in a beautiful gunmetal colour. It's quite sleek and cute, but the only thing that really bothers me is how fingerprints really show up everytime you touch it. It is however, a massive improvement on their old lipstick packagaing, which had a sharp little dagger sticking out from the end.

The colour I purchased is "Bang" - apolgies for the state of this lipstick, I clumsily caught the top of it on the lid while opening it! :( The colour itself is a bright orange red, which I find would suit a lot of skin tones - from fair to very dark.

To go along with this I also purchased the matching lip pencil, which does actually match it perfectly.

Swatched side by side, you can see how pigmented these two truly are, I am so impressed! The lipstick has a slightly thicker formula, but it is not too glossy, as I personally dislike gloss in a pigmented lipstick. On me, this lipstick lasted an extremely long time, even after eating a meal. The colour does fade slightly, but it fades evenly.

I personally love these two formulas together, and I would definitely like to pick up some more shades! Well done, Urban Decay!

Available on the Debenhams website. Lipstick £15, Lip Pencil £13.

Product Rave - Chanel Soleil Tan De Chanel

A few months ago I purchased this product from my local Chanel counter. It is something that I have always wanted to try, but have often been discouraged to do so because of my fair skin.

At first glance, the product has a very strong orange undertone, which can be quite scary for those of you who have ghostly white skin like I do! However, I can happily say that this orange tone is not as clear on the skin - on me atleast; perhaps because I have a yellow undertone? - it actually appears on the skin as a lovely warm bronze, which is not too orange or red, but still clearly bronze.

As you can see from the close up image, the product does contain a slight gold shimmer, which I did not even notice until I took the photos, so don't worry, this product definitely will not give your face a discoball appearance, or highlight any imperfections.

As for the texture, it is described as a "light cream-gel". It definitely applies like any other smooth cream product, but in the packaging it is more firm - it would be difficult to simply scoop it out, for example. I love this texture because it gives a smooth application, but it does not slide around like some cream products do.

The bronzer can be applied underneath, or over foundation - I prefer the latter - and I find that it is best applied with a synthetic brush. The Real Techniques Contour brush works well with this product.

Available for £31 in Boots and Debenhams