Institut Esthederm Time Technology Crème Review

Good stuff: Time Technology Crème
from Institut Esthederm

This stuff works.  I am an absolute dyed-in-the-wool Crème de la Mer fan, veering occasionally away in a flight of fancy, or due to a recommendation from a friend, or perhaps because a sample size of something-or-other is sent my way.

For about six months, I subscribed to GlossyBox and Carmine, and mostly what I got at the end of the six months was a general feeling of annoyance (more on that some other time), a plethora of (mostly nice) shower gels (I am still using them up) and some interesting moisturisers to try...

Where to buy makeup brushes

Bet she wishes she hadn't offered to model now...

Long overdue post.  Suffice it to say time is a very precious commodity at present; this is both a good and bad thing...

Today I want to talk about makeup brushes.  When I started this out, I knew nothing about brushes, other than a small handful I owned (one Estée Lauder foundation brush, one Clarins blusher brush, one Clarins powder brush).  I also knew nothing about how to use them, in fact I found the notion of brushes quite intimidating.

When I started my venture into makeup several years ago, and needed to purchase kit brushes, I presumed that MAC was were the only brand of makeup brushes available to me.  As I couldn't afford a full set of MAC at the time, and as I had no idea where to start looking, I purchased the set that the makeup school sold me (at a phenomenal premium, I later discovered, much to my extreme annoyance).

In the intervening years, I've discovered some brilliant (and inexpensive) brands, I've bought and used them and here are my thoughts on the good ones...

How-to: Eyeliner flicks

As you know, I did a post lately on my favourite eyeliners... and in this post I mentioned that I really should follow-up with an information piece on how to do eyeliner (cat-eye) flicks.  Here it is.  It's a bit long, wordy and descriptive, but it shows you how to create perfect eyeliner flicks.  I hope it helps!

Gel & Liquid Eyeliners. The good, the bad and the downright awful.

Big in Japan: eyeliner flicks...

I love love love love love love love eyeliner.  Smudged, clean, flicked, double, single, coloured, frosted, matte, liquid, gel, cream, powder, cake... I just love it.  I think it really finished off a look, and draws attention to your eyes, which is never a bad thing.

There are many ways to create the "dreaded" eyeliner flick.  There are many products to create the eyeliner flick.  There are many many people truly afraid of the eyeliner flick.  Back in the day it was the one thing that used to freak me out, but practice makes perfect and I have long mastered it.  There's nothing nicer, in my opinion, than a clean eye, a hint of a cut-crease, a blacker-than-black gel liner flick, and a red lip.  Yum.

Anyhow, gel (or cream) eyeliner is probably the easiest way of creating a flick when you're in a rush, or starting out as an absolute beginner - you can use a standard eyeliner brush or an angled brush with gel/cream, whatever floats your boat.  Obviously, eyeliner cake (a dense powder that you mix with either water or a mixing medium), liquid and pen-type eyeliners are also up for consideration, but we're just looking at gel liners here.  So here are the votes of the Irish jury...

The battle of the brush cleaners

Makeup brushes: how do you clean yours?

I've never actually counted all my makeup brushes;  to do so would add credence to the fact that I quite likely have a problem :-)  Suffice it to say (purely on the basis of a quick mental calculation) I have around two hundred or so class brushes  (ie used in the Bootcamp class); two over-bulging brush belts that must have another forty brushes in each, and my own personal stash (well, let's just say that I have at least one hundred eye brushes alone.  Yep, I have a problem).

As I have so many, I don't mind using one, relegating it to the "used" stash, picking up another, using that...  Every second week or so, I have to face the bloody awful task of cleaning them (of course, my kit/class brushes are cleaned after every event).

I can honestly say that I hate this job.  It's a necessity, but I don't get any pleasure out of spending several hours every week in brush-cleaning activities.  So I've put in the time and money over the years, investigating, and using (and swearing at) different methods and cleansers for cleaning brushes.