Valentine's Day Date Night Looks

Following on with the theme of Valentine's Day essentials for those of you who are struggling for ideas - here's two night looks to impress your sweetheart or to dance away your worries of finding a significant other.

Perfect for a girl's night out - or 'Galentine's Day' as Polyvore liked to phrase it. All the details can be found on my Polyvore.

Planning on stealing someone's heart? This look is perfect for a sexy and sultry style, guaranteed to make anyone's eyes fall on you. The details for this outfit are also on my Polyvore. 

- Zin 

Banila Co Clean it Zero Cleanser Review

Recently I decided to buy Banila Co's Clean it Zero cleanser after I had heard good reviews about both the product and the company. Plus I find it really hard to find good cleansers and I had been using my previous one for over a year so I wanted a change.

Firstly, I love the simple and minimalist-inspired design and presentation on the packaging. It's not trying to promote itself on it's own packaging like a lot of products do nowadays and the instructions on the side (both in Korean and English) are simple and straight to the point. It has the purpose, how to use, ingredients and cautions on the side which, if you ask me, is all you need. (I'm saying this because many brands try to sell you other products on the packaging).

Inside the box is the tub that's around 8cm long/wide and inside that is the cleanser, a little plastic covering and a small spatula.

The cleanser itself is described as a 'solid balm' and I would say that is the best way to describe it although it has a more soft and silky texture than a balm. Once you start massaging it turns into an oil but it is thicker than a typical oil yet it still holds that soft and silky texture.

After massaging the oil all over your face you rinse it off or use a tissue to wipe it off. At first it felt like I wasn't getting all my make-up off when I just used a tissue and I should rinse it off but a tissue is all you need - it is that simple!

As you can see, I put bb cream, eye shadow and eye liner on my hand and within a minute it was all gone. Clean it Zero is especially good if you are too lazy or busy in the evening to take off your make-up because it is really so quick to do.

The only problem with this product is that it does sometimes feel like you haven't got all your make-up off only because it is done so quickly and your don't use water so I only really use this when I have minimal make-up on.

Nevertheless, afterwards my face feels clean and really soft so I would recommend trying this product, which you can buy here and they also do one for sensitive skin that you can buy here.

I hope this review has been helpful!
- Zin x

Cleaning Make-Up Brushes: What When Where Why How

One thing people tend to miss out in a make-up routine is cleaning the brushes, it doesn't have to be done every time they are used but should be done often.

What?

Every brush should be washed at some point however an example of one that you could leave for a while without washing is an eye shadow brush if you usually use the same shades of colour it as you won't accidentally be mixing a range of different colours all the time plus eye shadow brushes only contact your eye lid and shouldn't pick up too much dirt.

If you use any other brush similarly to an eye shadow brush then you also do not need to clean it often.

When?

It will depend on how often you use a brush and what it is that is going on it, like I said, an eye shadow brush will not need to be cleaned frequently but a foundation brush (or sponge) should be cleaned weakly.

I have an eye liner brush which I also use for subtle eye shadow everyday. I apply my eye liner, clean it then apply eye shadow then leave it for the next day.

Where?

The best place to clean anything is with water (...this is me trying to be funny... I'm sorry). Depending on how much make-up is on the brushes or how big, you may want to get a small basin to soak the brushes in for a while.

You can dry them by keeping them on a towel or flannel.

Why?

It may seem a bit obvious why we should keep make-up brushes clean, so we can get the old make-up off. There is also much more to that. Not only do we not want old make-up staying on our brushes, we also don't want it going on our faces.

Germs can also build up on brushes and can bring more germs to them by keeping them in a bag or something similar and putting germs onto your face is what creates more spots.

How?

The best way I have found to clean them is to use a small amount of hand soap and rub it into the palm of your hand using the brush, that way you can see it all come off  and know when it has all come off. Alternatively, you could let it soak in soapy water in a small basin for a while as I said earlier.

Make sure you give it a good rinse as any left over soap could come through when you apply your make-up next.

Dry it using a towel or flannel. Either let it dry on it's own or you could be very gentle and dry it with the towel yourself. (You'll want to be gentle so you don't damage any bristles or pull any out accidentally)

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I hope you've found this useful
- Zin x

Boots Beauty Shopping Haul

I recently went shopping in Boots and bought a few beauty products which I am going to share with you.

1. Revlon ColorStay ShadowLinks 

Revlon have these small eye shadow colour pallets in a large range of colours, I bought candy, petal and taupe. They have little slides on the sides of them so you can create your own actual pallet of colours which you want as you can often find that there will be a colour in an eye shadow pallet that you don't really want or end up not using, so these are great so you can chose exactly what you want.

2. Maybelline Color Tattoo Cream Gell Eyeshadow

Even though this is an eye shadow, I have used it as eye liner and works the same as gel eye liner too. This is in timeless black, which is black with a look of a sparkle in it but when it's on your eye the sparkle isn't very noticeable. It is also good as both a sharp block colour as well createing a smokey look.

3. No.7 Precision Eyeliner Brush

I think that these thin eyeliner brushes are best to use as they are thin so you can have your eyeliner thin and subtle or you can build it up bit by bit to make it thicker. I bought No. 7, even though it wasn't cheap,  because they are a good quality brand and I am most likely to get my money's worth out of it.

4. Maybelline Colour Show Nail Varnish

You can get block colours, such as this 'cool blue', or there are also glitter and neon nail varnishes too in this collection. There was a particular nail design I had wanted to try out (which I may do a tutorial or something similar for in the future) which is why I bought this colour, but I also really like the pastely type colour as is a great colour for summer.

- Zin x
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