Brush Cleaners

You wouldn't touch your face with filthy hands or fingertips - the same principal should be applied to the makeup brushes that you use on your face. It's recommended to clean the brushes every three to five months (or when you feel like those brushes are getting a little disgusting). I've tried a couple of different brush cleaners - one by smashbox and the other by MAC.

The Smashbox brand cleaner ($15) is a spray on type. Instructions say to spray on a tissue and wipe away. This is intended as a sort of minor cleaner - to use between major shampoo cleaning of the brushes. So the directions are meant to give you a sort of clean. I bought this as a major brush cleaning tool because of the misleading name "Brush Cleaner". Initially followed directions, but this didn't get it as clean as I would expect (it gave a "so-so" clean, like when you wash your hands without soap) so I sprayed on a wet brush, rubbed gently with my fingertips, and washed away with water until the brushes rinsed clean.

The MAC brand cleaner ($10) is more like the shampoo application. This is the major cleaner - it cleans, disinfects, and conditions. You put a little on a wet brush and sort of wipe away the "dirt" gently with your fingers and water until it rinses clean. I've used this more often than the smashbox and prefer the MAC cleaner over the smashbox one. Cleaning with both cleansers can be done the same way as described in the next section.

A more affordable option is using baby shampoo to clean your brushes. The important thing to look for when not using a make-up brand brush cleaner, is that the cleanser is a gentle liquid soap or shampoo. Anything containing alcohol may dry out your brushes. Don't soak the brushes in soap and water, this may cause the brushes to fall apart. Put a drop of the shampoo/soap in the palm of your hand, wet the brush, and stroke the brush in your palm. Repeat this until the brushes rinse clean. Squeeze out the excess water and lay out on a paper towel or clean towel to air-dry.

Brushes for War Paint

If you've ever tried a bunch of different make-up brushes, you've probably noticed differences in the way these brushes feel on your skin. Just like better paint brushes (and talent) will give you better art, better brushes will give you a better application and will probably feel less like sandpaper on your skin. This post is assuming of course, that the user has been performing proper brush maintenance (this is another post)... a few comments on my favorites:

1. MAC brushes have held up remarkably well over the years and feel pretty good on the skin. Used to use it for eye shadows, blush, powder, concealer, and lips. Have pretty much toned down my make up routine and now just use the powder, eye liner, and blush brush regularly. Only downside are the travel sized powder and blush brush bristles tend to fall out a bit after cleaning. 2. Tried the Sephora brand brushes (the eye liner and shadow brushes) and was pretty happy with that brand too. 3. Got a blush brush from The Body Shop - not sure what I was expecting there but it just kind of SUCKED. 4. Anyway, the Sonia Kashuk brushes from Target are decent for the price. Her travel powder brush is affordable and feels good on the skin - the bristles don't fall off.

Break out!

Hey you know that song, that goes "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh BREAK OUT! bum bum bah bah bah" and stuff like that? Well, this entry has nothing to do with that. Ok, so just a warning but don't take the following as bragging, but I've never really broken out and please no I do not want to. I've gotten the occasional pimple here and there which my mom lovingly states how cute it is that I got one. Haha I wonder how many needs to show up on the face to stop being cute. Actually, I never really knew pimples can be cute. But I digress. I've been pretty regularily using Bare Essentials foundation powder and my Perricone sunscreen. One of them is making me produce more pimples than I would think to be "cute". So I am doing a test to not use the Bare Essentials foundation powder for awhile. I have heard comments that it does cause breakouts but I thought, "meh, it's probably just one or two folk with sensitive skin saying this". But alas, pimples have come to me. I've been off of the foundation for about 4 days now, I wanna see if new ones come in...I'll report later... if it is the foundation, blah it sucks because I love how easy it is to apply...
Side note, I am using that Clinique erase product (supposed to even skin tone and fade sun spots) I am on day 4 (results to show in 4-6 weeks) so I try and remember to report on results later...

Men's Issues - Gatsby Face Wash

I'm writing this on behalf of the man in my life who is just not the kind of man to start blogging about the beauty products he uses. I mean really, if he was, he probably wouldn't have married me. So with the intro taken care of, I'll get to the main entry - Gatsby Facial Wash "Perfect Clear" by Mandom, Corp. of Japan. That "Mandom" name should say it all - it's a men's facial wash. Looked up the brand - it's an old company that evolved into a men's skin and hair care company.

Using the words of my husband to give a review of this product - "Man, I can't believe this was only $5!". He pretty much said it's good stuff, really good stuff. He said it was pretty identical to the Shiseido men's face wash (which I've heard other men actually rave about).

Unfortunately, this is another product that you probably will have a hard time finding unless you live near a well stocked Asian or Japanese market.

Yes to Carrots!

Reading decent press on this new brand - "Yes to Carrots" and the skeptical side of me thinks big corporations will say anything for a price... The brand boasts hair, body, and face products with vitamins and minerals from "orange color" produce groups and the Dead Sea ("the largest natural spa in the world"). The website says that it's exclusively at Walgreens.

Just happened to be there and the brand was on sale. They are more than the drugstore brands, but cheaper than the most organic and department store brands. Needed another face mask to renew my face once a week and saw the Yes to Carrots "C the Difference Exfoliating and Soothing Mud Mask" for dry or sensitive skin. You put a thin layer on a clean face for five minutes, then wash off. It promises that after your first use, you'll see the pretty difference.

Tried this last night, and the consistency is perfect for one thin layer. I have combination sensitive skin. The mask has a light pleasant scent (if you've ever used anything with dead sea minerals - it has a similar scent) and after washing this off, it did not over-dry my skin. My skin did feel soft and renewed. Didn't immediately notice anything significant, but maybe it's the placebo effect, a couple of minutes later, my skin looked like it does when I put my makeup on. I am completely sold and want to try their other products. The mask sold at $14.99 and the other products are similarly priced. Not sure what else I need as I am currently happy with the other brands I use, but I'm definitely open to see what else Yes to Carrots can do for me.

Fafi!

I'm a sucker for good marketing and the packaging of the MAC FAFI collection was so cute, I couldn't resist. The pic (Fafi is a French graffiti artist) is from the four limited edition eye shadow set - two color palettes are available. And if you really like the art, they're selling everything - bags, scarves, brushes. The set is color inspiration and from the drawing, you can get the general color palette. Fun & Cute is what they're going for and unless you're a politician, what girl doesn't want fun and cute in their lives?

Squeaky clean!

So a good chunk of my youthful years (I'd still like to consider myself so but you know what I mean right?) I had a awesome hair salon person. Okay, the official title of hair cutting person escapes me...beautician, salonist, not barber...but I digress. She was a korean lady about 40 something years and can always cut my hair so beautifully with tons of body, shine and texture. Whether I was able to truly maintain is another story. She has done long, layers, trims and even a super short boyish haircut with style and flare--all for the cost of--say what what? $20-$30. That's right. When you go to korean ladies for hair this is the lovely cheap price you get to pay. Anyways, as you can tell from my past tense language, she retired from cutting hair and so I had to look for somewhere else to have my hair cut. Next to my work is a ritzy hair salon, so I go and get my hair cut there. I think that was where I learned of shampoo cleanser. Ok, if you already knew about this, than for shame on me for not knowing. But different from a regular shampoo, you use this once in awhile (they say once a week but me whenever I feel icky) to get rid of all the buildup, skin stuff, hair product things, oil buildup in your hair. I had a younger friend who said that when she went to the salon and the salon, beautician, not barber person was like "do you know about shampoo cleanser?" and she was like "what's that?" and he held a handful of her hair and used a special scraper thing (or maybe just a comb) and scraped the hair, and there was all this stuff--and that is the stuff that the shampoo cleanser cleans.

So in conclusion, I am recently using BB sunday shampoo for the once in a while cleansing I need. I used it once so far, and man it really strips the hair clean! Maybe I put too much cuz my hair was really squeaky clean. You can literally hear it I think if I rubbed my hand on the hair.
Okay, so I went all over the post in this one but hope you enjoyed and learned. :)

Shadow

I kind of joke around that, except for my husband, I have commitment issues. I try and try all types of different hair and makeup products, with no real preference for brands, just looking for something that works for me. I find something, get bored, and try to find another one.

Back before I got tired at 10:30 PM, when going out for the night started at 11:00 PM - had so many different colors of eye shadow. MAC had one of the best varieties of color to choose from and was relatively cheap. The color came on vividly and more importantly, did not dry my lids - I'm not really sure why this was a problem for me with some of the drugstore brands. Recently, the last couple of years has brought a comperable drugstore brand - think you can now get the same vivid color palettes now from Loreal's HIP line. Tried some, color was indeed opaque, but nothing too memorable about the wear time or application.

The post is going to end with my current favorite - Shiseido's "the makeup" Silky Eye Shadow Duo. Colors aren't very exciting, but there are some brights. They don't go on as opaque as the HIP or MAC colors - really more subtle. But as the name promises, the application is very smooth. Makes blending with the included applicator, brush, or finger pretty easy. Color hasn't creased on me yet (though to be fair, I'm not overly generous with my shadow any more). This is definitely a recommended shadow for anyone looking for a subtle, clean, eye shadow.

Bare Essentials

I definitely understand the hype on this product! I did get to try it out--I was eating lunch downtown and lo and behold there was a bare essentials store that must have recently opened up. So I go check it out. The service is nice and they are able to come and match your skin tone with the foundation. I believe they have 9 different shades divided into 3 groups (light, tan, dark) so doing the math, 3 shades of light, 3 shades of tan and 3 shades of dark.
The foundation powder comes in I believe a 2.5" pot and has two levels. The bottom level stores all the powder and the top level is separated by a disc thing with holes in it that let the powder come out. So to apply, you shake the pot and let some powder out onto the lid. Then you swirl a face brush for the powder, tap off the excess and then swirl the brush around your face. FYI: I got their medium size face application brush. Not the large one. Medium size is big enough where you don't sit there all day putting on your face but small enough to go around corners.
The first time I had it applied on one side of my face and then I said I'll think about it. I had it on the rest of the day and I could definitely tell the difference between the non made up side of the face and the foundation side. I gotta say, gives a nice smooth look and looks very natural. (cakey face look sucks--boo!) ok enough beauty rant for today. Hope I didn't go too crazy with all the "math" and such. haha

You're making me blush!

Didn't start becoming a blush person until a friend's wedding. The bridesmaid put some on me and guess I underestimated how a little color could brighten up the face. Before that I always had an image of people who used blush as those crazy old ladies with too much mascara on their fake eyelashes, primary color lipstick, and blush looking sort of like it was stuck on their face like adhesive. I know, it's a little unfair, it's all about the application right?
That said, my sister had been colorswatched (not really sure what it's really called) at MAC and they recommended a powder sheertone color "blushbaby". She's a little more tan than I am, but we have the same undertones so I tried and ended up buying and using that color. Like the name suggests, it's not crazy opaque and goes on smooth to give some color, but not so much like you look like a faded hollywood starlet. It runs about $18.00 and unless you're piling that on your face, lasts a while to make the cost worth it.
As a gift, I got a diordazzle compact (it was a limited edition palette that I don't think they sell anymore). It had 4 eyeshadow colors, dior addict ultra gloss (lip color), terra bella (a bronzer/highlighter), and diorblush. These are AWESOME products. The eyeshadows go on smooth, the colors go on with one application and are easy to blend with your fingertips if you don't have a blending brush. But this post is for blush, so I'll elaborate on that. The blush is (I think) in rose - the closest I found for their regular diorblush compact (runs about $38.00) was the english rose color. The blush goes on smoother than the MAC product and goes on sheer as well. You can build on the color with more applications. By itself, diorblush is pretty expensive and comparably, the difference in the application is slight. They're both really good products, it just depends on your makeup budget.