Eco Tools Bronzer Brush Review

A Day in the Life of Rachel

I, being new to the world of makeup, have not tried any expensive brushes such as MAC, which happens to be the company I hear most about. In my many google searches I have looked for cheap brushes that get good reviews and then I go look for them cheaper....this is exactly what I did to find this brush.

I first heard of Ecotools while on youtube looking up videos about cheap brushes that are comparable to more expensive brushes.  I found them on ulta.com, and parispresents.com, which I think is the manufacturer. 

Over some time I bought the 6 mini brush set, an eyeshadow brush, the bronzer brush and the powder brush. I LOVE THEM ALL. Anyway, let me get started on the bronzer brush.

This is probably the softest brush EVER. My friends go GAGA over it, it has never shed or anything. I love this brush so much I can't even explain. 

A Day in the Life of Rachel

A Day in the Life of Rachel

A Day in the Life of Rachel

When I finally got this brush in the mail, I was SUPER surprised at the size. This thing is massive. The handle is made of a thick piece of bamboo, and the silver thing (ferrule) is made of recycled aluminum. According to the packaging this brush is 100% cruelty free because of its soft taklon bristles and the storage pouch is reusable.

I know I already said this but the bristles are super soft and the bristles are so tightly packed in this brush that it makes for a very dense brush. This thing takes 24 hours to dry if that tells you anything.

I have no idea why the company calls this a bronzer brush because this is in NO WAY a bronzer brush. If you tried to bronze with this you would bronze up your whole face. I prefer to use this for blending my foundation into my skin and for applying blush though I have heard of some really crazy uses for this on youtube.

I don't wear heavy foundation, because I don't need it, I prefer to 'spot clean' by dabbing where I need it, which tends to be around my nose and eyes, and then blending it into my skin with this brush. If you wear a loose powder foundation you could use this like a kabuki to apply it, if you just wear powder you could use this to buff it into your skin.

If I want to use this to apply blush, I just swipe it across my blush and apply it to my face and it creates such a nice natural look.

A Day in the Life of Rachel

A Day in the Life of Rachel

A Day in the Life of Rachel

A Day in the Life of Rachel

The bristles on this brush are 2 different colors. The top is brown and closer to the handle is like a beige color and Etched or burnt or whatever into the side is the name ecoTOOLS.

A Day in the Life of Rachel

I love this brush so much that I think I might go buy another one. I bought it for $7.49 on LuckyVitamin.com but its at drugstores as well for about $11.99 and up. I highly recommend this brush and I hope this review helps you.

FOLLOW! COMMENT!

Rachel

Adventures in Face Painting: How to select Face Painting Brushes, Face Painting Designs, Cheek Art Designs and Klutz Brothers Face Painting Kit Review

Just so you know, I am in NO WAY a professional face painter. I face paint for my church in the outreach ministry and in children’s programs as a volunteer because it’s something I like to do. I wanted to start doing more face painting, as a business but I am still figuring out how to get started. So, anyway....

When I first began face painting, I started with some acrylic non toxic craft paints from Michael’s and an 8  pack of camel hair craft brushes. Just so you know, you are NOT supposed to use acrylic paints toxic or non toxic on the skin. But if you think you wanna try to get away with it there is nothing I can do, but realize that some kids will react to the paint and some acrylics peel as soon as they dry.

These are the 5 I could scrape together. I think there are 2 other super huge ones and the other I gave away. I use the big ones for applying glitter and stuff like that.

*MAKEUP USE: I also found that you can use these for makeup. I use them to dab on shimmer powder or highlight, even bending even though they aren't that soft.

These brushes I bought aren't face painting quality because the hairs separate when you are trying to paint which makes for messy lines and uneven layers. I have found that brushes bought in packs are never as good as buying single brushes.

A Day in the Life of Rachel

The brushes above are some that I bought single. I just bought some more but I will post about those later. If you are at your craft store and you are looking in the brush section make sure the bush is synthetic and test it against your hand to see if the bristles separate too much.

For face painting I prefer gold taklon, and synthetic.

If you are looking for ideas or designs of things to face paint, or cheek art designs there are several sites you can try. The ones I have found useful are:

*http://www.snazaroo.us/05/5cheek.htm

*http://www.facepaintforum.com/how-d-you-do-that-f7/i-need-some-fast-easy-cheek-art-designs-t2236.htm

*http://www.premierfacepainting.com/facepainting_2.html

*http://www.jax.org.uk/cgi-bin/webgallery/webgallery.cgi?action=view&catid=1

*http://www.funtasticalfaces.com/

When I became more informed about quality Face Paints I decided to invest in a better set of cosmetic grade face paints....except I didn't want to spend $115 bucks on a professional set. So I settled with Klutz Brothers Face Painting Kit. Their kit costs about $24.95 for a book FULL of Ideas, 6 standard colors of face paint and a brush.

As you can see I separated the paints from the book so that the kids could pick something from the book and I could have the paint separate. Later on I developed a catalogue of my own (that I will show in a later post) so that I could categorize and add to my collection.

The brush included in the kit is not one to discard. It is the BEST BRUSH EVER. I wish I knew what type of bristles it has, I think it is synthetic.

The paint included in the kit is amazing as well. It's Wolfe Brothers professional, cosmetic grade face paint and it has all your standard colors. Red, green, blue, yellow, black, white. The paints go on smoothly, they are water based and they remove with anything. Even spit. But you could use baby wipes, vaseline, and baby wipes as well.

The instructions say not to use the Red paint around the eyes, but I haven't, so I don't know what would happen if you did.

Overall, this set is great. If you are a beginner I would TOTALY start with this. If you only want to buy the paints it's on the Klutz bros. website for about $12.95.

Please comment!! Thanks!

*Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I left my camera and I have been waiting to get it back.

AWESOME EYE PRIMER SUB!!

                Ok, so as you know if you have been reading this blog I am relatively new with the makeup thing.  I, having no money, can’t just run to the store and buy an $18.00 eye shadow primer, so over the past couple weeks I have been experimenting with different things that I could potentially use as a primer. I have extremely oily lids so keeping eye shadow on my face it a bit of a challenge.

A couple things I have tried:

·         Lotion – NO

·         Sunscreen  - NO

·         Vaseline – NO

·         Foundation and Lotion mix (from youtube) – Kinda worked for a couple hours but it couldn’t even get me through half a school day.

·         Plain Foundation – Same as above

·         Burts Bees Chapstick – Yes, depending on the weather and your environment -  If you need a good 10 hours then no. I got about 5 hours outa this.

·         Lipgloss- 2 hours MAX

·         Hairspray – NO NO NO NO NO, I don’t even know where I go this crazy idea

·         Cream eyeshadow stick – NO – the cream eyeshadow creases.

I tried a few other things that aren’t even worth mentioning…but I want to tell you about something that really worked and it lasted ALL DAY today, and today was a quite stressfull day, and I didn’t even need to buy anything extra!

What Worked:

        So,  what I did was I took my Burts Bees Chapstick and I put it all over my eyeshadow area. Then I took my Black Opal Foundation stick, you can use your own foundation, probably any foundation or concealer , and I put all over my eye(where the shadow goes). Then I took my Ruby Kisses Pressed Powder and I applied it like I would eyeshadow except with my finger and kinds pressed it into the foundation. And over that I just did my regular makeup and I was done!

Lemme tell you, IT WORKED!!

So try it out lemme know how it works for you!!

<3 Rachel

My new Ecotools Brushes!

Ok, so if you haven't read the post about lucky vitamin that I posted Friday you would not know that I had ordered some brushes from LuckyVitamin.com and was pleased with the price just not with the time it took to get to my house.

If you would like to be filled in with all the information click here to go to the post.

Anyway, I got them yesterday, Saturday the 8th, when I was supposed to get them on the 3rd. At least I got them because I heard Lucky Vitamin used to be kinda sketchy but I think they have upped their service since.

I am soo happy I got them, I feel that they are a safe company to order from,  and I PROMISE that I will do a review on both the Powder brush and the Bronzer brush.

Please comment and follow!

<3 Rachel

Claire's Liquid Eyeliner Review

If you read my last post you know very well that I am not pleased with this product. In fact I'm disgusted. I got a Claire's gift card for my birthday and with it bought this, a nail and manicure set for my mom for her birthday and a super duper cute headband with a bow.

Normally I think Claire's is a good store overall, I am dying to try their glow-in-the-dark nail polish, some of their eyeshadows and hopefully buy another manicure set for myself. But with their liquid eyeliner they definitely messed up. I'm sorry Claire's.

So, about the liner. When I saw it in the store it was boxed next to some silver liquid eyeliner and another one in purple. I hadn't tried liquid eyeliner before this so i decided to give it a try plus $3.99 seemed like a good deal. As soon as my dad and I got back to the car (yes my dad takes me shopping) I opened the liner and tried it on my hand. It made a thin clean black line so I was pretty happy.

*A Day in the Life of Rachel

*A Day in the Life of Rachel

*A Day in the Life of Rachel

*A Day in the Life of Rachel

Later on when I looked at my hand the nice thin black line was gone :0 but I didn't think anything about it then since I didn't know much about liquid liner because this was my first time trying it.
Now that I look back I see where that should have warned me.

Anyway, I tried it on my upper lash line one day and for about an hour it was fine but then I found myself brushing black flakes from my cheeks and when I got home and looking in the mirror there was no liner anywhere. Lids included. So throughout the day all the liner that I had put on that morning had completely flaked off.

I am trying to think of something good to say about this liner but can't seem to think of anything. It's pigmented like it should be but when you put it on it steaks so bad that you need like 3 layers to get a good bold line like what I was trying to do.

If you have anything positive to say about this product please let me know so that I can include it in this article.

Thanks for your support and if you are not yet a follower, FOLLOW!!
Please comment!

Rachel

MY NEW ECOTOOLS BRUSHES

Yay! Guess what! I got my brushes from Lucky Vitamin today! If you haven't read the previous post about  buying these brushes you can click here.

Ok, so like the day after I finished complaining about how long the frickin' shipping was taking with this company I got my order. Yea...

I am SO HAPPY with these brushes I will definitely do a review on both of the brushes and if you have ordered something from lucky vitamin TELL ME ABOUT IT!

Looking Forward to an awesome 3 day weekend,

Rachel

My Saturday Makeup Disaster

Ok, so this morning I had to wake up earlier than my usual Saturday morning time... Maybe about 8:00 am. I was just going to line my eyes with my Claire's Liquid Eyeliner and then soften the look by lining with some black eyeshadow. I am going to do a review on this liquid liner so that you can know just how bad it is. It's absolutely horrid.

Anyway, I did my best with the liquid liner and made it just about right with some black shadow and an angled brush and headed out the door.

About an hour later, I was at choir practice (church choir). I swiped my fingers across my cheek because I thought I felt something and low and behold my liquid liner was flaking. AND THIS WAS AFTER AN HOUR. I went to the bathroom to look in the mirror and the liquid liner had flaked all over my face, eyelids and some of it clumped and stuck to my eyelashes. 

I had no makeup remover so I did the best I could with toilet paper and water. All that did was smear the black eyeshadow I had lined my eyes with all over my face. Great. 

Long story made shorter I ended up using lotion to clean up my face and I am never going to use Claire's Liquid Eyeliner again, which means I need a new liner. Which brand do you think I should try next?

Please comment and subscribe or hurt my feelings. :)

Rachel

Guest Posting and a Homemade Recipe for Organic Eye Makeup Remover

Need:

- Container

- Oil: canola, extra virgin olive, or grape seed

- 1 capsule vitamin e oil *optional

In your container put one of the oils of your choice listed and if you want some extra power add the Vitamin E Oil by poking a hole in the capsule and squeezing the contents out into your container. Grape seed oil is the best of the 3 because its the lightest, smells like nothing and it doesn't leave any kind of glossy sheen (even though you would wash that off anyway). My mom buys Grape Seed Oil at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. 


To remove put some of your mixture on a cosmetic sponge or a cotton ball and dab just a little bit of oil on both lids. Let it sit for about 5 seconds then wipe away make-up with your sponge. If you are using the olive oil (which is what I use) then you are going to want to wash your face after because even though its very good for the skin it leaves it very shiny, so you are going to wash that shine away. Especially if your skin breaks out from being oily.


If you need something that is not oil based because you have extremely acne prone skin, baby wipes and lotions are very good makeup removers as well.

GUEST POSTING!!

If there is something you have written that you think is post worthy you can send it to me and I will post it and say that it was written by you. 

Send it to:

rachellee2go@yahoo.com

Please let me know what you think below along with suggestions of things I should post!

Thanks!

L.A. Colors Color Craze Nail Polish in Fun In The Sun MINI Review

L.A. Colors Polish: Fun in the Sun

Bought at: Dollar Tree

Cost: $1.00

My Thoughts:

Applicator: Love just as well as the one in the Wired L.A. Colors Nail Polish in my last post. I was told that you can take off the dome cap and be left with a smaller cap that is easier to hold on to. It's true! It has ridges in it so you can have a better grip for more exact application...take a look in the next 2 pictures.

Color: It's O.K. For me it is too dull of a color to be called Fun in the Sun. To spice it up a little bit I add this sparkly color purple polish that someone gave me on top. The extra color is by Blush, the colors are in a set and are not labeled so I don't really have any information about it for you. Srry!

It took me about 2 coats to get this in full color plus a coat of that sparkly one, which made it perfect. Stays along time on me but that might be different for you. 

Overall: 3/5 .... 5/5 with the sparkly polish.

Tell me what you think in the comments below, follow and make suggestions!!

Rachel <3