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

Super Plus Beblish Balm Triple Functions (Hot Pink BB Cream) by SKIN79: Review

As I mentioned in my favourites post, I will be reviewing SKIN79 Super Plus Beblish Balm Triple Functions.
It is a triple functioned BB cream that helps wrinkles, sun protection and whitening (skin tone evening).

Packaging

First of all it comes in a hot pink box and the actual bottle is also hot pink. There's nothing really extravagant
about the packaging other than the bottle is a little unusual compared to other make up bottles that I have seen but all you do is press the top down and you have your BB Cream.

Another thing is that, because this is a Korean brand, the writing on the back is in Korean but there is also some English which explains a bit about it.

The BB Cream

Tone

Unfortunately it only comes in one tone, however there are different versions of this which do other jobs that may come in other tones but I have not tested them to see if they do.

The tone more of a pinky colour than anything (as you will see in the pictures below) but is also quite light so I like to use it as an everyday foundation.

Comparing it to western brands of foundation (Maybelline, No.7 etc.) it is very light and pink. Western brands, compared to this, have a slight of a yellow/orange tone depending on the tone and my skin tone is lighter than most brands lightest colour and this is just a fraction than  darker than my original skin colour.

Texture/Consistency

The texture is very smooth, almost like silk, but because it gives a bit of a dewy look it does feel a bit greasy on your hands and I tend to wash mine after I have finished applying it. When you first put it on it also looks very dewy but it does settle down within a minute to give a natural glow.

The consistency is pretty light but also has a bit of thickness to it and would sit around an 8 on a scale from 0 being thick and 10 being thin but it becomes almost weightless after about 10 mins of wearing it.

I must also say that it can feel a bit greasy on your hands and face and if say you wiped your nose after applying it then some would come off but after a while these factors disappear which is great.

Triple Functioned?

The three functions that it does are wrinkle improvement, sun protection and whitening (evening skin tone) and although I am too young to say if it works for wrinkles, it does do what it says and more.

 It is SPF25 and when I have been out in the sun my arms have sometimes got a little tint of tan (without sun cream) but my face has come out not changing colour. Plus is also takes away the stress of having to not wear make up or take make up off to apply sun cream.

My skin tone as seen in the picture below, is not even everywhere and I also have small dark circles naturally so with a bad nights sleep they can look really bad. Believe it or not my skin tone was really bad and uneven over a year ago and since I have been using this it has gradually improved a bit.

Before I even got this I had read that it could help heal scars (I think it is because Korean actors and actresses will commonly get surgery on their face and it would help the scars to heal quicker). I don't and didn't have any scars of the type but I used to pick my spots a lot which left scars but this helped them to disappear.

Also I think that this has reduced the amount of spots I get, it could just be that my acne has slowed down but when I do get a spot, it is unlikely it will become anything big and if it is big will only be there for about a week. Again this could be my own acne and skin calming down but it also helps to cover spots well too.

Overall Review

Overall the coverage is amazing and the functions work as well as they say so it's more than what I could have hoped for and I really have nothing more to say other than that.

Here are pictures to show how it is on me. (Note: the pictures were taken by a window in daylight)

The other great thing is that on YesStyle.co.uk it is less than £13 and is really worth the money considering it can last up to a year considering on how much and how often you use. There is a link at the top to the webpage on YesStyle.co.uk or you can just copy and past the title (removing 'Review') into Google and there will be links to other sites as well.

- Zin x

Back to School: Being Organised #3

As I said in my previous post, this post is about how to be organised for school and a lot of my tips will be about getting homework, or coursework, done when you get it so it is over and done with.

1. In pretty much every subject, take important notes as the teacher talks about something and look at them often, even if you're the only one it will help you to revise better in the future. When I say often it could be perhaps once every few weeks or so just to help keep the knowledge in your head and then for exams or a test you may not need to revise it because you already know it.

2. Although it is hard, do homework when you get it. A few ways to help you get homework done are:

• If you get homework in the morning, you could do some of it, or read through what it is you need to do at lunchtime. When you get home you will either just need to finish it off or know how to do it.
• When making your journey home, plan what you will do when you get home or if you get a bus or a car, you could also do homework there.
• Doing homework you get that day on the same afternoon after school means that later in the evening you can rest or do whatever you want without thinking about having to do more work. If you have homework or coursework that will take weeks or so, doing some each day as soon as you're assigned it  will slowly release the work load.

3. Before the end of the day on the last day of the weekend, make sure everything is ready for school the following day so you can allow yourself to not have it in the back of your mind and you can think freely for the rest of the day. 

4. If the homework you are given requires not a lot of time then get it over and done with so you can think about the more important or longer work you may have to do or so you can relax. With the work that is longer such as coursework then either make a mental schedule or actually draw a schedule out on when you are going the do that work and for how long. You could also do this for normal homework if you want to.

Hope this is helpful
- Zin x

August 2014 Favourites

1. Super Plus Beblesh Balm Triple Functions by Skin79  (BB Cream)




















My first favourite is Super Plus BB Cream. I have actually been using this for almost a year now but just recently I have properly noticed amazing it really it. Not only is it triple functioned with SPF25, wrinkle improvement and whitening (evening the skin tone), it's coverage is really incredible to me and it also helps my spots to heal as well as covering them. I am going to do a proper review in a few days so keep an eye out!

2. Lip Scrubs and Lip Balm

These two favourites are actually home made from a local shop near where I live but Lush is a shop that does really good lips scrubs and obviously there are many shops with good lip balms too. I especially like these two because they have a really nice smell and taste as well as working really well as lips can become dry in summer heat.

3.How It Works

It feels a bit strange putting this along with the other favourites but I recently bought this issue because I have been feeling kind of empty without learning things because it's the summer holidays but this booklet, which focuses on a different subject each month, is really informative and is really easy to look at because it has small paragraphs and easy facts along with illustrations.

4. Neutrogena Norwegian Formila Concentrated Hand Cream 

I recently went through a phase of having really painful dry skin on my hands and within 2 days my hands were pretty much normal again. Sometimes when they get dry again I put only a very small dab on my hand and it's completely fine again. A warning however is not to put too much on because even a small amount gives a bit of a greasy feeling so too much is really very greasy.

- Zin x

Back to School: Becoming Organised #2

In my second post about returning to school or college I'm going to give some tips on how to become organised ready for school so the last day of your holidays isn't filled with getting ready for school for the next day and so your day can be enjoyed.

1. Make sure you have all the necessary equipment such as a bag and stationary. Even with next week being the last week I still haven't prepared all of my stuff but it is important anyway to go through everything about this time so you can forget about it and don't have to worry. If you want to be even more organised then you could even get your bag as ready as you can for your first day.

2. An incredibly important thing is uniform or clothes by making sure all your uniform is actually ready to be worn, sometimes you can misplace something and the night before your first day back isn't the time you want to look for it. This could be the same for clothes if you know what clothes you want to wear on your first day.

3. If you have old school books that you no longer need or won't need to use, you could get rid of them (recycling is a good option so you're not contributing to land fills). The space made can be ready for new books that you will get.

4. Following on (kind of) from the last one, get a box or something similar to keep all your books together. If you have a desk that has enough room you could also use that.

The next post I make to do with Back to School will be to do with becoming organised once you are at school and tips on how to efficiently do work and will be uploaded in the next week so keep an eye out.

- Zin x