MontyC's Monthly Favourites: August 2014

MontyC's August 2014 Favourties

Hi folks and welcome to a new planned monthly post featuring my favourites from the previous month (these may or may not be products I've blogged about during that month).  The products may not always be new but they'll still be winners by my reckoning!  As this is something I've really just cooked up, my August post is a little late, but the plan is that once a month, likely at the start of each month, I'll write a blog post on  my favourites the previous month in the Mondays with MontyC slot.

Clarins Ladylike Collection: Look of the day

Rather than just doing a review of some of the Clarins Ladylike Collection pieces I've been trialling, I thought I'd do a quick Look of the Day post instead.  Bear with me... I've never done one of these before!

Note that mostly Clarins products were used for this tutorial, however some other products of course were also used.
Warning: picture-heavy post.

Six Super Skinny Eyeliner Brushes

My favourite standard and skinny eyeliner brushes

It has been a while since I've done a brush post.  I had recently purchased the Louise Young LY24A & LY24B to join my crop of LY24s (when I like a brush, I generally buy a bunch of 'em, some for my kit, some for me, and I always build-in backups and redundancies ;-)).

Anyhow, my previous go-to skinnny/fine eyeliner brushes, the LY24 and the Hakuhodo Tentsuke (you can read more about 'em, and a bunch of other eyeliner brushes, on this post here) need to move over, there are two even skinnier eyeliners on the prowl...

Warning link- and image- heavy post.

January Guest Posts

Two blogs for the price of one yesterday!

My guest post on Nina's Bargain Beauty blog is a review of the Mane 'n Tail Hair Strengthener - please look here!

And Nina's guest post, a review of the Blank Canvas Cosmetics F25 Powder/Bronzer Brush on Make Up For Dolls is here.

Xx thanks to all for reading xX

2013: The Year in Review

I started out this post thinking I'd do a recap of the products that I discovered this year and loved, then realised, nope, Make Up For Dolls has come a long way in the last year, and I wanted to do a recap, not in a boasty way, but just as a reminder of some of the highlights - things I got up to, things I posted about, stuff that was fun and different and interesting!

Of course the absolute crowning moment for me this year was the creation of my very own red lipstick, following on from a lot of researching and back-and-forth on the subject with the fabulous folks at Cosmetics a la Carte in London.  Read all about it here.  Go on.  I'm not remotely excited about this one, still, a year on :-)

As for the rest?  Well... read on!
 

Wayne Goss Brushes 03 05 06 - review

Wayne Goss Brushes T -> B: 03, 05, 06

When I heard that MUA and beauty blogger Wayne Goss was working on his own set of brushes, I was definitely "watching this space".  He shares my absolute obsession for brushes and I've agreed with most of his brush recommendations to-date.  So when they launch-date arrived, saddo that I am, I had an alarm set on my phone to remind me to purchase as soon as they were released!  These are not LE brushes, but they are handmade, and only a small number of them was available in the launch, as Mr Goss was completely funding their production and sale out of his own pocket (yep, that's right - this is really his "own" brush set, funded by himself, researched by himself - it's not his name to another brand).

I think it paid off for him;  the first round (product launch sales) was a complete sell-out.  Sold through the ever fantastic love-makeup.co.uk, I decided to purchase three of the brushes to try out.

Suqqu Cheek Brush - review

so much fuss over such a little thing...

Imagine some barely contained, inside-voice squealing, to accompany this post.  And some general sighing.  And another squeal or two for good measure...

How I... Store & transport my loose powders

This one is more about how I store and transport my powders around in my kit bag...

MAC 159 Duo Fibre Face Brush review

MAC 159 Duo Fibre Face Brush

Another collection, another new brush from MAC.  On the other hand, it looks like this one is going to be permanent line, rather than limited edition, so that makes a nice change!

Released as part of the Tropical Taboo collection at the start of the month (July), this one, the 159, is gorgeous, and to be honest, the only thing I was bothered with from this collection.  Don't get me wrong, there were some beautiful Mineralised Skinfinishes (all LE) released but as I've got more shiny sparkly highlightery things than you can shake a very long stick at, I demurred.  New brushes, however, that's always  where my interest lies.

Absolute basics: My five favourite powder brushes

OK so there are seven items here, but bear with me :-)

More glorious brushes :-)  This time the turn of the brushes I use for powder - by this I mean finishing powder, blotting powder, mattifying powder... although I will mention mineralised powder foundation a little bit lower down...

My seven favourite blusher brushes

My seven favourite blusher (and bronzer) brushes

I have probably a silly amount of brushes.

No, I most certainly won't admit that out loud to my OH, who doesn't really read my posts anymore, so I'm more or less safe to admit it here.

How I ... do my makeup

This one is more of a "where I" than a "how I" :-) but without getting hung up on a choice of interrogative pronoun, and in continuation of my "how I..." series, this one is a quick peek at my personal makeup station and features a mini-review of the Make Up For Ever desktop rolling makeup case.

How I... store my brushes

Another (mainly) picture post - this time how I store my brushes (and a sneak peek at the brushes I use!)

Drugstore Challenge: full makeup kit and brushes for €160?

An entire kit and all brushes...

This is a long enough post but one I've been meaning to publish for ages as I'm continuously being asked to recommend "inexpensive" makeup that people can get in their local pharmacy or online.  Read on if you want to find out how to have an entire makeup kit for €160.  Before you choke - this as an entire set of everything, including brushes and products!  When you consider that you could easily drop this at a high-end cosmetics counter for two or three items, it's worth a read!

Illamasqua Blusher Brush v MAC 109

Illamasqua Blusher Brush #1  v  MAC 109

Another of my recent Illamasqua purchases, I mainly got this one to see if it was as good as the other Illamasqua brushes I have thus far (angled brow and liner brushes, new blush-up brush, three eyeshadow/blending brushes, all brilliant by the way).

essence trend edition for summer 2013: guerilla gardening

Guerilla Gardening is essence's summer trend-based makeup collection release, featuring botanical shades of both bright and dark green, earthy browns, bright pinks and intensive reds.
 

Recapitulation...

It's been a funny old week.  I have had a hectic time and although I'm genuinely inundated with releases for which to produce content, I am also genuinely lacking in the time to do it!  At the weekend I plan to spend some proper time with this machine of mine and get cranking...

For now, I wanted to recap on some of my older posts, in case some newer readers haven't seen 'em yet!

KIKO Cosmetics Review

While in Venice recently, I chanced upon a cosmetics store called KIKO, selling their eponymous brand of makeup.  It's a reasonably new venture, founded in 1997 in Milan and now has stores all over the world, including an online shopping branch in the UK as I've recently discovered while doing some further research at home.

Vying with Inglot for volume of shades and formulations of both makeup- and skincare- products, and looking a lot like a candy store, I was hooked.

Givaways! Prizes! Free Makeup!

Giveaway time!  Freebies galore!!  Prizes!!!  Competitions!!!!
If you're not in, you can't win!!!!!
And other annoying overly-effusive declarations, spoken in the most irritating accent imaginable, punctuated by multiple exclamation points!  Whohoo, yeah, baby!

So, I've been doing some reviewing (hey that kinda rhymes!) and even though it's been a quiet (on the blog front) few months, due in no small part to mania (on the home/work/fun front), I can confirm that my stats are looking good and I'm happy.  While I appreciate some of the figures below may be considered small fry to some, I'm happy with then and to say thank you to everyone who follows me and reads the stuff I write... and so I wanted to have some giveaways.  Not just one or two, but five, five freebie prize giveaways for absolutely nothing - just so say thanks!

MAC 205 Fan Brush v Hakuhodo Fan Lash Brush

Teeny tiny fan lash brushes
T -> B : Hakuhodo J4006L, MAC 205

Fancy some fluttery eyelashes minus the clumps?  These are the brushes for you...