Lauren Luke Brushes & Comparisons

I have been using the Lauren Luke collection of Makeup Brushes for a number of months now, and I thought I'd blog some information on them.  For those of you who don't know, Lauren Luke is a wonderful and talented lady, based in the UK, who has YouTube channel Panacea81, with video tutorials since 2007.

These are genuinely brilliant brushes.  I have to say that I love these brushes, and have started to reach for some of them in particular, before I look for their MAC "equivalents".  Lauren Luke doesn't make any claims that these are dupes for other companies' brushes, these comparisons are mine alone to show you some similar/more familiar brushes, and discuss how the Lauren Luke ones stack up.

Under-eye Concealers, Correctors, Brighteners

There's a lot of confusion around with regard to concealers and correctors.  This post deals solely with under-eye concealing.  I will do another blog on general concealers at a future date.

There are a few different ways to correctly conceal the under-eye area.  For younger skin, and for skin with no darkness, no puffiness, no dark circles or redness, no pigmentation issues, then a standard liquid-formula concealer will probably work just fine.

For more mature skin (and by this I mean from mid-30s onwards, if not sooner), or skin that does have pigmentation, or puffiness, or redness, or more noticeable dark circles, you may need to use a corrector first, then a concealer over the corrector.

Read on if you want to know what a corrector is, and how to choose one for your specific under-eye problems...

MAC Concealers

I'm frequently asked about concealers.  Everyone wants to know how to conceal correctly.  This question, along with "what foundation shade should I use", is the biggest concern everyone has.  How to hide dark circles.  How to counteract redness.  How to disguise moles or blemishes.  How to make your eyes look awake and alert...

I'm going to do a second blog with more information on concealers, correctors and highlighters, and more in-depth information on colour theory, or knowing what shade and tone concealer to pick for your skin [Edit: see here for information on under-eye concealing].

This blog is essentially just to discuss MAC concealers specifically, what they are, what they look like, what they do, and which ones to use.  It's going to be a short blog, mainly bullet-pointed so you can compare and contrast faster...

Brushes I Use for Foundation

There are many types of foundation, and many types of foundation brush.  Depending on whether you are using a powder, mineral, compact, liquid or cream foundation, you may want to use a paddle brush, a buffing brush, a stippling brush, a pointed/round/flat-top brush... Even liquid foundations can vary in terms of consistency; thinner, thicker, creamier, water-based, silicon-based... and a particular type of brush that might work well for a creamier liquid foundation might not work as well for a thinner formulation.  It's a question of trial-and-error!  I've listed my top brushes and what I use them for.

Crème de la Mer Products

Crème de la Mer - The Moisturizing Cream

I have been using Crème de la Mer (hereinafter referred to as CDLM for brevity!) products for about the last ten years now; starting out with just the Crème (back when there was just THE CRÈME, or THE MOISTURIZING CREAM as it became known later) and then gradually moving on to more or less a full range of CDLM products up to this point.  I have recommended this range to friends and family of mine who were cynical, but who are now also converts.  I started using it in my early twenties, but I would say that I probably didn't need to start quite so early.

While writing a post on a recent Lancôme Visionnaire trial, I spent some time on the "back story", or the products that I've been using up until now, which included a lot of CDLM products.  This information didn't make the cut on the other article as it was a irrelevant there, but rather than throw the information out, I decided to write a quick post here about these products and give a whistlestop impression of each.