Best Brush Cleaner Ever!!!

"There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness." ~Maria Mitchell

So for all of you makeup artist out there or aspiring makeup artist you know that the most important thing that we all own, besides our cosmetics, is our tools. Our tools help us achieve the looks we want with little to no effort and hassle at all. Now like any other thing we own, our brushes need to be properly cared for. By this I mean daily cleaning and monthly deep cleaning. This may seem to some like a big hassle, but when you love what you do and want your brushes to last a lot longer it doesn't seem like a big deal anymore.

So while watching some videos on YouTube I came across a video by dulcecandy87. For those of you who do not know her, click here to see her YouTube channel. So she has a video where she is doing a review on the Sigma Dry n' Shape and she mentioned Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. I was amazed at how big the bottle was but most of all how little amount of product it took to clean 12 brushes. Needless to say I went to my local Target and found Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap in different scents and two different sizes.

Now lets talk a little bit about the scents and the sizes they have. There are 8 different scents to choose from. Pretty much a scent for everyone out there. The scents are Peppermint, Eucalyptus, Almond, Rose, Baby Mild, Citrus, Lavender, and Tea Tree Liquid Soap. I personally didn't care much for the others so I got the lavender. Also lavender is known to help you relax. So what better way to help be relaxed and stay relaxed then getting whiffs of lavender when doing your makeup. The product comes in two different sizes, 16oz and 32oz. The price may very depending on where you purchase the item and what size. I believe I paid about $8 for my 16oz bottle and it seriously still look brand new and I have had it for over 4 months.

Now onto the product itself. Lately I have been trying to get into more organic products for my face. I feel that organic products are better for our skin since we are avoiding any harsh chemicals and ingredients. With that said, yes, Dr. Bronner's Liquid Soap is organic! Win much?! It is made with no synthetic foaming agents, thickeners or preservatives. This is great to know because some foaming agents (like those found in many shampoos) are too harsh and can cause damage to the bristles (and if its a shampoo, your hair!). It is completely Biodegradable and vegetable-based, its made with Certified Fair Trade and Organic Oils, and it is multi-purpose! You can actually refill this bottle at your local Co-Op! Many many Co-Ops carry Dr. Bronner's and have refill stations for you to use. Not only is it cost effective but you are also technically recycling. What better thing than to have organic soap and save the planet at the same time!

The quality of this product is beyond amazing! You only need 2 to 3 little drops of this product into a container (any small Tupperware will do), fill it up with water (less than half way), and this is just enough to clean 12 brushes or more depending on how dirty your brushes are. The scent is not overpowering but not too subtle. You can definitely smell the lavender in the brush bristles. On top of that, the soap leaves my brushes squeaky clean and, if they are white bristles, it leaves them white and not stained. By stained I mean that sometimes we use that bright pink blush and the white bristles are stained pink, even after deep cleaning them. This soap cleans it all off and leaves the bristles like they were before using it, white.  

I really do love this product and I think it is by far my favorite deep cleaning brush cleaner. Before this  I use to use Sephora Brush Shampoo and although it had no harsh scent (or scent at all) it did take a ton of product to get a large powder brush clean and didn't completely take care of any stains left on the brushes from makeup. This product I just find to be very cost effective and it being multi purpose makes it even better. It being organic is like the cherry on top. This whole item is overall a win for me!

Thanks for reading my blog and I hope this is informative for you! I will soon do a tutorial on how I use this product to deep clean my brushes and how often you should clean your brushes to help keep them around longer. :)

RATING:

Packaging: 5/5

Product: 5/5

Quality: 5/5

Price: $8-$16 (Target. If you buy from the Co-Op I'm sure it may be more inexpensive.)

Would I buy again?: Most Defiantly

Overall: 5/5

**If you would like to read more about the ingrediants of Dr. Bronners Magic Soaps click here.**

Ulta Cosmetics Review

A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power. ~ George Meredith

So I recently did an online purchase on the Ulta website. I had gotten an email on a deal they had at the moment. If you have an Ulta membership card and get/read their emails you probably remember this deal. The deal was to purchase $17.50 in Ulta brand makeup and you received a free makeup bag of your choice with 17 pieces of Ulta cosmetics. I have never tried on the Ulta brand makeup since we recently got an Ulta in our town so this to me seemed like a great deal and opportunity. An opportunity to try more than one Ulta brand cosmetic. 

For this being my first online purchase from Ulta I was very impressed. Not only with the cosmetics but with the shipping time. Whenever I purchase anything from Sephora online it take over a week to get here since I live close to Montana. However with the Ulta purchase it was here in a little less than a week. I was really impressed with that. Now onto what I purchased and my free items.

Like I had mentioned before, in order to get the free makeup bag I had to purchase $17.50 in Ulta brand cosmetics so I decided that I really wanted to try out their blushes. Most of the blushes I own have some shimmer to them and I was really wanting to get some that were matte. I was also wanting to get a lipstick in a bright color. Below are the 3 blushes I purchased and the bigger one is one of the free products that came in my makeup bag. On the top left there is Girlie and right besides it is Sweet Cheeks. The bottom left is the free blush or Cheek Color in Afternoon Delight and right besides it Afterglow. 

Now just looking at the blushes in the picture you can tell that some have shimmer in them. Mind you I was in search of matte blushes. Well to my discovery when my order arrived only one blush was matte, Girlie. I decided to keep them anyways because the colors were really nice. I must say that the online pictures do not do them justice.

The picture above is a little swatch of the blushes. From left to right we have the free blush Afternoon Delight, Girlie, Afterglow, and Sweet Cheeks. Now onto my review and lets start with the free blush I got. Afternoon Delight is a very creamy and shimmery peach color. This I found perfect to use as a highlight for the cheeks or to put in the inner corner of your eye to give it a nice pop of color. It is a very pigmented color so I usually apply it with my finger. 

Girlie is a nice matte pink tone. This particular blush is not extremely pigmented but it still gives that nice summer glow. I do get a slight smell and it smells very powdery but it is not powdery at all. 

Afterglow is one of my favorite blushes from the four that I have been using this almost every single day. Once again it is a pink tone but it is darker and has shimmer. This is more pigmented than Girlie and the shimmer is subtle  This is a very good color that would look good on any skin tone. 

Sweet Cheeks is a shimmer dark pink blush. This one I like to use whenever I want to get a natural glow. It is summer time and I did get really really dark so this is the closest to a summer glow color that I could find. 

Overall the colors are amazing but do not let the online color fool you. Online it lacks the description so you are not sure if what you are purchasing is a matte or shimmery blush. I would recommend to go into the store and look at them first. I still like these colors regardless of the matte or shimmer finish.

Now onto the lipsticks. I purchased on and the other one was a free lipstick that came in the makeup bag. 

The lipstick on the left was the free one in Iced Cappuccino. The one on the right is the lipstick I purchased in Fuchsia Fever. I did swatches on the white paper but here are the swatches on my skin.

Starting with Fuchsia Fever. This color is a bight deep pinkish red color. It is so smooth and glides on so easily. It also has a subtle smell of fruit in my opinion. Although it glides on so easy it rubs off as easy too. I don't really mind that because it is so smooth when you apply it. Now the Iced Cappuccino is also a color that glides on easily and looks great on any skin tone just like the Fuchsia Fever. The Iced Cappuccino does have a subtle smell that is not pleasant. I cannot describe the smell but I don't like it at all. Other than that I cant complain much because it was a free lipstick and no one can argue with free, right? 

The free makeup bag came in three different colors that you could pick from. There was True Blue, Natural Wonder, and Wild Side. Once again if you got in on this deal you will probably recognize the lip stick to come from the True Blue collection.  

I think the makeup bag can double as a clutch too but its all up to you.

Now onto the eyeshadows. The free 17 piece bag comes with 2 quads. Depending on what bag you choose you get a certain color of eyeshadows. 

This is one of the quads that came with the bag. Starting once again with the top two from left to right its Polished & Black Ink. Right underneath them from left to right is Truffle and Smoke. Now one thing that I noticed from both quads is that the names on the back of them are switched around. I actually had to go online to find out which name went to which color. 

As you can tell from the swatch these colors are all shimmer colors and very very well pigmented. I did find one small problem with it they are just slightly hard to blend. It took me twice as long to blend the colors but they look great on. This quad is perfect for a smokey eye. It consists of manly browns with the one black shimmer color. 

The second quad I received is also a great quad for a blue smokey eye. 

From the top row left to right there is Moonbeam & Sapphire. Underneath them from left to right there is Silk & Peacock. Both quads come with the sponge tip applicators brush and a really small mirror. 

These set of colors are extremely pigmented and creamy. They are shimmery as well and combined make a perfect night time smokey eye. I have nothing bad to say about their eyeshadows and I am looking forward to trying more out and maybe matte eyeshadows from them. 

Also for free a dual ended eye liner with Black on one side and Indigo on the other. 

These are extremely smooth and glide on easily however I do not feel like they are quite as pigmented and don't have quite as much staying power as my other eyeliners but these do work okay.

Along with the dual ended eye liner it came with another dual ended lip & eye liner in the color Mink and Deep Brown.

Mink is a nice red brown color and dark brown is well dark brown. They also glide on easily and are pigmented.

In the picture above from left to right we have black, indigo, mink, and dark brown.

There was a dual ended lip gloss in Lovely and Princess.

Princess is the color on the left and it is a sheer pink color. The one on the right is Lovely which is a nice brown color. I found these lip glosses to work well and not be sticky at all. These can be worn alone or on top of lip stick to give it a nice shimmer and pop. Personally I love to wear both of the colors alone.

Also included in the makeup bag was a small fingernail polish. Its in the color Diva.

This color is very very sheer and has a subtle subtle hint of glitter. Looking at the bottle it is a pink color with tons of glitter, but like I said before, once you apply it you can see it is very very sheer. You do get a subtle hint of pink and glitter when the light hits it just right. I found this perfect if you want to do a french manicure and have the all over nail color be glittery. I used this on my goddaughter and she absolutely loved it! 

I also received a a free mascara and 3 free brushes. The mascara is in Jet Black and its their Lash Blow Out. I have not yet used the mascara so I can not give a full on review of it yet.

 The three piece brush set is an angled blush brush, a sponge tip applicator brush, and an eyeshadow brush.

These brushes are okay. The angled blush brush does shed a bit and its not the best out there but once again for free I can not complain. I do use it a lot for applying my blush. The sponge tip applicator I have not used at all. The only use I have for them is to pack on color. The eyeshadow brush is not bad. I have mostly used this to apply  loose pigments and glitter since I noticed it does not do so well with eyeshadows. 

Over all I am content with my purchase and would recommend almost everything to my friends and family.I am looking forward to purchasing more Ulta brand cosmetics and writing more reviews on them since I noticed that when I myself was looking for Ulta brand cosmetic reviews I only found a few. Hope this is helpful to all of you. More reviews to come soon :)

Price List:

*Ulta Cheek Color (Afterglow, Girlie, Sweet Cheeks) $7.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Lipstick (Fuchsia Fever): $8.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Eyeshadows-(These are not sold in quads but individual full size) $7.00 (Ulta)

*Ulta Lash Blow Out Mascara: $10.00 (Ulta)

*Lip liner & eye liner sold individually and full sized: $8.00 each (Ulta)

Borghese Professional Select Brush Review

Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see.  ~George W. Russell

So I recently went to my local Costco in search of a Mothers Day gift. While on my search for her perfect gift I found a brush set. Now I was amazed with the price and the amazing quality appearance of the brush set ( it was wrapped and so I couldnt really touch the brushes to verify that they were really good quality and well didnt just look like it.).



The picture above is all but one of the brushes that come in the kit. I have to say that the appearance of the brushes are acutally very good quality and after I opened the box the brushes felt very good and well are very good quality brushes for a very reasonable price!

Getting more into the kit itself, the kit comes with 10 brushes total. 6 of these brushes are Premium-Grade Natural Bristles and 4 are Premium-Grade Synthetic Bristles. The Borghese set also come with a nice faux leather brush bag. All this for the very affordable price of $23.99!!!

Now I want to start with the brush case. It is a faux leather case in a gorgeous dark brown color. The case is designed to fit 9 of the 10 brushes. It has a 2 magnets on both ends of the case so you can close it and open it with ease. I must say I really love the look and feel of the case.

(names listed below in order of display in the picture above)

These 3 brushes are the face brushes. There is #101 Angeled Contour Brush (natural bristles), #104 Round Foundation Brush (synthetic bristles), and  #102 Duo-Fiber Blending Brush (synthetic bristles). Like I said before all the brushes are soft to the touch and feel amazing on the skin. Brush #102 is my favorite brush for foundation. #104 foundation brush is really small and I honestly prefer to use it to contour. Finally # 101 brush I use for blush. It helps me apply blush easily and of course if needed to contour as well.

(names listed below in order of display in the picture above)

These next 3 brushes are #200 Eye Powder Fluff Brush (natural bristles), #203 Domed Smudge Brush (natural bristles), and #202 Angled Eye Contour Brush (natural brisles). Starting with #200 this brush makes blending easy to do. It is very fluffy and stiff enough to get the job done. I will say it is larger then most of my blending brushes but it does seem to cut down my blending time. I would so recommend this for blending very bright colors versus blending lighter and softer colors. I would  be afraid of over blending and then making my eyeshadow looking like one big huge mess. Now #203 is a great dense and well packed smudge brush. I will be honest and say I havent really used the brush at all. It is small and dense enough to get the job done. I will have to try it out and let you guys know how well it worked. I just decided to do an initial reaction review for this one. Fianlly #200 a thick fluffy contour brush. This angled brush is much larger then my other contouring angled brushes. It makes it easier and quicker to apply products to the eye crease and kind of blends it in at the same time.

(Following review for the 3 brushes on the right, my camera wouldnt upload the picture at all)

(names listed below in order of display in the picture above)

Next three brushes are #204 Angled Eye/Brow Brush (synthetic bristles), #201 Eyeshadow Brush (natural bristles), and #105 Concealer Brush (synthetic bristles). Starting with #204 this brush is a great multi use brush. You can use it for eyeliner, filling in your eyebrows, and even lining your waterline with powder and gel liner ( more info on this trick to come). It is soft yet stiff enough to get the job done and not hurt you at all. #201 is a large fluffy eyeshadow brush. This brush is great for larger eyes to apply or even pack on eyeshadow. Like I said it is a large brush so I wouldnt recommend this for people with smaller eyes that want to do some detailed work. #105 brush to me doenst really seem like a concealer brush. I use it more to pack on pure pigment eyeshadow. For that use it does an amazing job.

Finally brush #100 Powder Kabuki Brush (natural bristles). This brush is my all time favorite! This brush is not only soft but it is very fluffy and stiff. When I refer to stiff to this brush I dont mean its overly hard. Its hard enough to pick up the product and apply setting powder or any type of powder just amazingly. The other kabuki brush that I have is super soft too but it spreads out when I try to get product on it and the handle is super small (its a tokidoki kabuki) although I love this brush it is sometimes super difficult, specially when I am in a hurry, so brush #100 is my new favorite.

All these brushes provided in the kit are absolutely amazing and I highly recomnmend it. They are available at Costco and if you dont have a membership its ok! You can order them online for a little bit more money. Hope this review helps!