Beau Belle Brushes | Bronze Brushes & Pot set

Hi my Loves,

I just wanted to drop by quickly and share some pictures of the Beau Belle brushes I was sent in the post a few weeks back. I have had my eye on their beautiful brushes for a while now, so when I received some in the post I honestly nearly died! You know those type of brushes that you see on Instagram & Pintrest  - those brushes that you see people posting and you're like "WHERE ARE YOU FROM??" These are those type of brushes!

The set I was sent was the Bronze brush set - and it comes with a really handy pot for storage and travel too. In each pot set you get a good combination of face brushes & eye brushes; I'll list them below for you all so you know what you are getting:

A1 - Lip Brush, B4 - Powder Brush, B5 - Stippling Brush, B6 - Angled Contour Brush, B7 - Foundation Brush, C1 - Angled Brow Brush, C3 - Angled Shading Brush,  C4 - Blending Brush,   C5 - Detail Brush, C6 - Shader Brush, C7 - Lash Brush, C8 - Tapered Blending Brush

The eye brushes

The face brushes

The price of these brushes is £44.95 + your shipping, which I think is fantastic for 12 brushes (That works out at about £3.75 a brush and that's not taking into account you get a brush pot too).

So obviously these brushes are gorgeous, that's an obvious fact.. But do they do the job, are the good?

The answer to that is yes.

 I want to start out by saying these are beyond soft, so soft in fact that my little brother wanted me to just brush the fluffy face brushes (with no makeup on them obviously!) on his face, so that's telling you how soft they are - he was willing to over looked the fact they makeup brushes he was having touching his face! The Powder brush is my favourite out of the face brushes as it distributes the product nice and evenly.

By now I've used all the brushes and the quality is completely comparable with both my Morphe and Zoeva brushes - especially the eye brushes and the blending brush and the smaller detailing brushes are my favourite.

I'll leave the direct link to these brushes HERE if you're interested. They do loads of other set and colour-ways and even single brushes. A set like mine above would make a great Christmas present too in my opinion!

With Love from,

Rebekah x

Beauty Blender VS Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Hello my loves,

Today I'm going to do a little comparison post between the Beauty Blender and the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge (that is a MOUTHFUL!). Before I begin, for those who do not know both these products are sponges you use to apply makeup to your face. A sponge is my favourite way to blend the foundation into my skin. I will apply my makeup roughly with a brush to place where I want it and then I will use my sponge to blend it out over my skin. This ensures there are no brush stroke marks and the finish is totally even. The sponges also help to absorb any excess makeup from your face so you avoid the dreaded cakey face.

(For the purpose of the post I will be referring to the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion as the Real Techniques sponge.)

Real Techniques Sponge

The Real Techniques sponge is the Orange sponge and that is the only colour you can buy it in. You can pick one of these up from most Boots and Superdrug Chemists and online. I actually have seen this particular sponge in most chemists & pharmacies I have been in. It retails for roughly €7.99.

The shape of this sponge is basically egg shaped, with a piece removed - what I'm trying to say is that the base of the sponge has a flat edge also.

Beauty Blender

This is the pink sponge. You can actually buy this in a variety of shades - red, nude, black etc. and you can get these from Boots.co.uk (I haven't seen this in any in-store Boots or chemists), Beauty Bay, Cult Beauty, Sephora and the Beauty Blender website. They retail from roughly €20.
This is sponge is just totally egg shaped, it has no edges.

Similarities

• Both sponges need to be used damp. Never use either dry - they will totally absorb all your product (bye to your expensive foundation!). Run both of these under the tap until they swell & fill with water and then squeeze out all the water to give yourself a damp sponge.
• Both need to be used in a patting motion when applying your makeup. you don't drag these across your skin, you bounce them over your skin to blend your makeup in seamlessly.
• Both can be used to blend other products such as contour, blush etc into your skin.

Differences

• Once dampened, the Real Techniques sponge swells considerably bigger than the Beauty Blender - this can be good in the sense you cover more space when blending, but it can make it hard getting into awkward areas like around your eyes.
• The Real Techniques sponge tends to absorb more product than the Beauty Blender - you can tell that this is the case right from when you are dampening them, it is harder to get the water completely out. You will also notice when you are cleaning your sponges, it is very hard to remove all the products stains from the Real Techniques sponge.
• While they both look like they are made out of the same material(?), there is actually a difference in texture between them. My current Real Techniques sponge is not as bouncy and solid as my Beauty Blender. This is very hard to explain without showing it physically but when you squeeze your Real Techniques sponge hard while it is damp you will see you can leave finger print indentations but this won't happen with your Beauty Blender. I notice that this particular material doesn't allow for as seamless a blend on your makeup in comparison to the Beauty Blender.
• The flat side of the Real Techniques sponge is actually a very handy addition to the sponge - it makes it easier to blend contour under your cheekbones or your nose contour. The flat side of this sponge is very handy for applying the 'baking' technique under your eyes or under your contour.

Conclusion

So out of the sponges which would I choose? 

If I had a choice, money no object, I would pick and recommend the Beauty Blender based on the points above. I feel like the overall application and finish it gives to your makeup is second to none. HOWEVER, considering the price of the Beauty Blender; I would expect it to do all this indefinitely. 

For the price that it is, I feel the Real Techniques sponge is very good competition. Yes, I do find it can take longer to get the same effect as the Beauty Blender, but it is possible to achieve a very similar result - considering it is even less than 1/2 the price of the Beauty Blender I think it is a very good addition to anybodies makeup bag - it beats out any other of the cheaper brand sponges I have used by a mile!

I hope you all found this helpful!

Any questions, leave them below <3

With Love from,

Rebekah x 

My favourite Mac brushes ♡

Hello my loves,

I want to do a talk through on my favourite Mac Brushes today. You all loved when I did a list of the Mac products that I think are worth spending those hard earned dollar bills on, so this is a similar concept! I'm a big believer on the fact that your tools really have an affect on the look and application of your makeup.

I believe that you are better to invest in a few amazing brushes than piles of mediocre ones that aren't doing you justice. The thing about Mac brushes is that they are expensive in comparison to other brands yes, and I agree you don't need every Mac brush, BUT there are some that are worth every penny. Here are my favourites, that I would recommend:

Mac #217

(eyeshadow blending brush)

This specific brush has cult status it's that good and that popular.

This is a blending brush for ensuring that your eyeshadow is seamlessly blended with no harsh lines.

It makes blending super easy even for beginners. It's not as soft as other blending brushes due to it's densely packed fibre and this is the reason I feel that it's so good - it allows there to still be control over your blending. Very soft brushes blending brushes can be messy and unprecise.

 Buy here or here

Mac #263

(small angled brush)

The one of the best brushes for both eyeliner AND brows - so it's a great multi-tasker brush.

I personally use this as my eyeliner brush, I find it helps me get the sharpest, most precise wing. It also helps me to keep my wing from getting big and out of control (we've ALL been there!)

Buy here or here

Mac #130

(short duo fibre brush)

This is brush that will give you a fantastic airbrush finish. Duo fibre brushes are amazing in general for giving a Photoshop finish and this one particularly because it's small enough to work around all your little areas on your face (edge of nose, under the eyes). The small size allows you more controlled blending & allows you to hang on to your coverage rather than blending it all away.

I also find this brush great for blending out my cheek contour as it is small enough to keep the product excatly where I placed it (which is what you always want when blending contour!).

Buy here or here

Mac #170

(rounded slant brush)

The perfect contour brush for your entire face - especially if you use thick cream/concealer like products for your contour (like Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kit etc.)

It buffs the product into your skin without moving it around too drastically. The angle shape of this brush works well with the angles of your own face so this makes it so simple to use, you will literally pop it under your cheek or jawbone and watch it just hug and sweep the curves of your face.

Buy here or here

I hope this was helpful - I know Mac has so many brushes and going in looking for them is honestly the most confusing thing in the world no matter what your makeup level!

As always, any request that you have for posts, leave them in the comments :)

With love from,

Rebekah x♡