EcoTools Airbrush Concealer Brush

I bought the EcoTools Airbrush Concealer Brush from Boots for around £5.  I say around £5 as I bought it a couple of months ago and Boots don't seem to have it listed on their website. I believe this is probably due to EcoTools recently revamping their range of brushes. Click here for a link to the EcoTools website.

The handle of the brush is made from bamboo, the ferrule is 100% recycled aluminium and the bristles are made of taklon, a synthetic fibre.

I was in Boots looking for a miniature version of the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush and came across this. Thinking it looked reasonably similar shaped and completely sold by the price, along with the use of the word 'airbrush', I decided to give it a whirl!


The brush does blend out concealer very well without affecting the coverage too much, and credit where credit's due, I am now officially a converted former 'finger-application' fan!

My only qualm with this brush is the bristles feel so scratchy under my eyes. The skin there is very delicate and I would ideally like something a lot softer than this.

Below are some photographs of the brush, me with and without concealer applied, and a video review!

Brush Tip

Head on

Me sans Makeup (note mega eye-bags)

After applying concealer

Again after applying concealer

Concealer with flash (looking a bit ghostly!)

Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

I bought this Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge a couple of weeks ago but wanted to wait until I had the chance to film a 'First Impressions' video before trying it out. I had seen many good reviews of this product and after waiting weeks to try it anticipation was running high.

The pack claimed that the sponge could be used dry or damp. However, in trial it turned out using the sponge dry is a complete waste of time. I would suggest only using this damp, and it works brilliantly. The sponge is incredibly soft and swells in size once plunged into water and squeezed out thoroughly. It has a flat side, round edges, and a tapered end. I found the flat side was best at placing my foundation on the majority of my face, and the tapered end best for getting in the corners of the eyes and around the nostrils. I have also heard if you squish it lengthways it's good for contouring cheekbones with a darker foundation, but I haven't tried this out just yet.

The result of using this was FLAWLESS foundation, and I can't sing its praises enough for giving a natural 'your skin but better' finish. Additionally, I realised later in the day that somehow the application of the foundation on my nose actually helped it to stay in place all day and it didn't seem to rub/wear off as easily as it normally does in this area.

There are a few of cons to this product for me, the first being the hassle of washing the sponge all the time. I wouldn't say I'm the laziest person when it comes to washing my brushes, but I'm certainly not a 'wash every 1-3 uses' kind of gal. That seems pretty excessive... I'll guess I'll just have to see if I can get away with longer! Another thing I found was, although it covers my pores well, it just cant get into them as well as my Real Techniques Expert Face Brush can, especially round my nose and my nose piercing scar. Finally, I did find that because the moisture from the sponge wet my foundation slightly it made it crease on my eyelids a bit, but nothing that a bit of light brushing couldn't handle. From what I've gathered from YouTube a lot of people don't even put foundation on their eyes like me anyway!

To sum up I think this is an excellent product, especially for the wee price of £5.99. I probably wont be using it every day, but I will be using it for special occasions, such as my sister's wedding! (I'm doing her makeup! :O) I bought my one from boots and you can find it here.

The foundation I used was Revlon Colorstay for combination/oily skin in shade 180 Sand Beige and that can be found here. 

Below are some before and after shots and the video I filmed for YouTube.

Before

Before

After

After

After

L'Oreal Preference Sardinia 7.34 Golden Copper Auburn Hair Dye

So after wrecking my hair with bleach, and then trying to repair it with the Aphogee two-step protein treatment (of which I'm happy to report DID work!) I decided I needed to cover my bleach ridden tracks and get a new wash of colour on my locks. For this task I chose a home hair dye kit by L'Oreal in the shade 7.34 from their 'Bohemian Auburns' range. It's refreshing to see a company taking reds seriously, with some beautiful warm and classy shades.

 This is a picture of my ugly 'ombre gone wrong' before the dyeing treatment began. I was quite worried the dye wouldn't take, or hold on, to my porous damaged ends.

 For this range of dyes one is supposed to damped the hair before applying. This is a process which I dislike doing, simply for the faff of it all, but this time I genuinely forgot that part and put it straight on to dry hair. Although it made the dye a little harder to spread evenly (I have tried other colours in this range before and they do spread well on damp hair) I don't think it affected the colour or the efficiency of the dye.

So I put the dye on and left it to cook under a cap for 30 mins in my very fetching dyeing shirt.

And here are the results!

The colour DID take to my ends (whey!) and it produced a gorgeous multi-tonal auburn that made my hair look so much healthier. I love this colour and will certainly be repeat purchasing. This is a delayed post as I dyed my hair roughly a month ago now, but the colour is still beautiful and has only faded a little little bit. Well worth the mere £6.99 I spent. You can find this product here.

Montagne Juenesse Prickly Pear Peel-Off Face Mask

I just wanted to do a quick review on the prickly pear peel off face mask by Montagne Juenesse. I bought this from Wilkinsons a few weeks ago for a girls night in, but didn't end up using it so thought I'd use it now as a little treat. I mostly bought it because it contains mangosteen, and I just really wanted to see what mangosteen smelt like! As with most face masks by Montagne Jeunesse you get a lot of product in the sachet, so there was plenty to go all over my face in a thick layer. It smelt gorgeous and was surprisingly comfortable to wear even after it dried and tightened. It peeled off with ease at it was a thick layer, most of it came off in one big piece but I did put it on my eyebrows (and my hair!) so can't say it ALL came off it one go! It left my skin feeling soft but did not make any drastic improvement to my skin. However, I would be very impressed if I did find a peel-off that did actually improve the condition of my skin, I generally accept that Montagne Jeunesse masks are gimmicky, but they are affordable, and hey, you still get that pampering experience!

Below are pictures of my naked face before and after the mask. Although it seems a little pointless as there is no difference!

before

after

packet

Karrimor X lite Convertible Run Jacket

HI again!

Yesterday I treated myself to a running jacket seeing as the weather is getting colder by the day, and today I went for my first run since.........November! :S Yes, it was horrible, and yes I did get that tight chest and sick feeling one gets when one is SO OUT OF SHAPE. The jacket however was wonderful! It wasn't too hot, I only had to unzip the front a bit near the end of my run (it wasn't even 4k mind).

 This jacket is pretty ugly, but I figure practicality is more important than aesthetics when it comes to running, who really looks good running anyway??!! The jacket also has removable sleeves to turn it into a gilet (there are little zips under the armpits and velcro under the collar to attach the neck part). I think it would be reasonably easy to take these off whilst running, but You'd probably need to stop and take the whole jacket off to put back on. I think this addition will be brilliant come spring. 

It has lots of breathable areas throughout the jacket, and soft material around the cuffs meaning the sleeves don't scratch the skin and they can easily be pulled up for a three quarter sleeve (no need to roll the sleeves as the cuffs will stretch to fit forearm). The jacket also has lots of pockets and I found the breast pocket to be the perfect size and placement to keep my phone. I picked this jacket up from Sports Direct for £24.99, down from £69.99 (click here). I would never pay £69.99 for this jacket but that's not to say it's bad quality, it's just not designer! The only thing I miss in this jacket is a hood, with that it would be 10/10, but as it is I give it 9/10.

Aphogee Two-Step Protein Treatment Review

I recenTwrecked the ends of my hair in an attempt to achieve a light blonde ombre effect. To cut a long story short it didn't go blonde, it went custard yellow. I tried dying over it with a light auburn hair dye (Loreal Preference 7.34 Sardinia)but the colour fell out of my damaged ends very quickly. I wanted a more uniform rich auburn colour so I decided to try using the Aphogee Two-Step Protein Treatment to revive and fill in my bleached ends. I don't think protein fillers are actually sold commercially in the UK so I purchased this off eBay for around £7. It is also currently available on Amazon here.

 Before treatment (not styled, no products)

 In the pictures above you can see the colour and condition of my hair, my roots are quite shiny but my ends are dry and straw like.

Mid-treatment

I applied the first step to my hair. It was custard yellow, the viscosity of milkshake and smelt like rotten eggs mixed with alcohol. So basically stale eggnog!

I dried it with a hairdryer until mostly dry, then let it air dry for a further hour before washing out. The treatment hardens as it dries, so my hair became solid. You are directed not to agitate the hair at this point, I'm imagining it becomes quite fragile and could break easily. Above is a picture I took at the 'crispy' stage.

In the shower I used the second step of the treatment, the balancing moisturiser. I have to admit, this smelt possibly even worse that the first step! The smell is of pine toilet bleach, and it's strong too. The formula was more synthetic than oily, but I am guessing this is actually more of a ph-neutraliser than a conditioner.

after treatment (again not styled and no products)

I let my hair air-dry so I didn't damage the hair, so I only found out the results the next morning. When I awoke I immediately noticed that my hair felt very soft. However, it wasn't the 'good' soft one attributes with healthy hair, it felt 'over bleached and damaged' soft. It had that strange limp and weak texture to it that you get when you get 'chewing gum hair'. As you can see from the pictures My hair was extremely fluffy, and I think it was actually less shiny than before!

I was expecting my hair to be dry, as I have done homemade protein treatments before, but I wasn't expecting it to feel....damaged?? It is the second day after doing the treatment now and my hair feels almost back to the way it did before. I guess the true test (and why I used it in the first place) is whether the dye sticks to my hair now, or whether it just falls out as quickly as before.

All in all I probably would not repurchase this product again (for the moment) but will certainly update this post should I discover my hair now has super dye holding capacities!

Update: I can confirm the aphogee treatment did help dye attach to my ends! After the initial dryness my hair felt much stronger than it had previously and I would certainly reccomend this to anyone with severely chemically damaged hair.

Hi!

This is my first post to blogger! This is going to be a space in which I can share my thoughts on all things beauty related. I will be running this alongside a new YouTube channel called elbelbeauty so please check that out too! At present I do not have a computer with sufficient power to edit HD video, so I have gone a bit crazy and bought an iMac. I am waiting for that to arrive in the post in the next few days but until then I shall be posting on here!