How to: clean your make up brushes

Hi there!

Most of you will know that you need to clean your make up brushes. It's more hygienic to clean them after every use. Otherwise, make up, germs and dead skin cells will pile up on your brushes.
To be honest, I didn't clean my make up brushes, I just wiped them off, which caused me to use a make up brush for almost 5 years without ever really cleaning it (don't get me wrong, I only used it once in a while... but it doesn't take away that it's just a bad thing to do...)

But I started to clean my make up brushes. First I looked up how I should do it, but I figured, I don't have any of those special cleaning-tools. Another website told me to use baby shampoo and tea tree oil, but we don't have any of that at home either. So I just started to use products I have at home... Heres what I use and do:

A cup of warm water
2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner (a mild shampoo or a babyshampoo will also do the trick)
Olive oil

Fill the cup halfway (or how much you want, depending on how many brushes you want to clean and how dirty they are) with warm water. Add a bit of shampoo (about a teaspoon, I just squeeze my bottle a bit until I'm satisfied) and a few drops of olive oil (also about a teaspoon, I usually just guess and hope I don't use too much or little)
The shampoo will clean them (and the conditioning part of the shampoo will keep the brushes soft) and the olive oil will keep your brushes nice and soft

Put the brushes in the water and stir until your water starts to foam a bit and the olive oil gets mixed in the water.

One by one, wash the brushes, use your fingers to get them all clean. I scratch a little bit in between the bristles to look if they're clean. You can see the dirt under your fingernails if they're not ^^. Do this for at least 30 seconds, but depending on how dirty they are you can do this longer.

Rinse your brushes off with warm water to get all of the shampoo out (remember the pain it causes when you get shampoo in your eyes?). I use my fingers to spread the bristles here as well and hold them one by one under the running water.

Wipe the brushes of with a clean towel en leave them to dry. Your make up brushes are as good as new ^^ Don't be like I was! Clean your make up brushes!!


Hope you'll have a nice day!
Love~

Happy back to school

Hi there!

It's september and people are going to school. Usually, when I go to school, I don't do anything dramatic, I keep it natural but try to add a little colour, because colours make me happy :). I think school or work make up should be appropriate, quick and easy.

Now, on makeupbee.com, there's a competition going on. I entered my back to school look. I would love for you to vote for my look here:

 I hope you'll like the make up and maybe try it out sometime ^^

The products I've used are mentioned on my page as well!

Have a nice day!

Cruelty free make up: where to find it???

Because I myself seem to have difficulties to find cruelty free make up in Belgium, I thought I would make a new post of this. I'm not a big fan of buying online, even though I never actually had problems with it. I will post only the make up brands I have found until now in Belgium, the Netherlands and in London also.

Belgium
Gosh - Kruidvat
Catrice - Kruidvat
Essence - Kruidvat
Tony Moly - Hype Store (Antwerp)
Lush (emotional brilliance) - Lush (Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège)
H&M - H&M
The Body Shop (although this is actually owned by L'oreal, but The Body Shop itself doesn't test on animals. I find this in the grey area as L'oreal profits from an ethical brand)

Netherlands
In the Netherlands you can also find Kruidvat and Lush stores, but here are a couple of brands that I haven't found in Belgium yet.
Too Faced - Sephora (Breda, Rotterdam, The Hague, ... Check here for your nearest Sephora.)
Urban Decay - Sephora (Untill now I haven't seen it in Breda, but there should be some in the bigger Sephoras)

London
Illamasqua - Selfridges, Illamasqua (I went to Beak Streat in Soho, but I'm sure there are others as well)
Sleek - Superdrug (found one in Camden)
Barry M - Superdrug
Stargazer - Darkside (in Camden)
And apparantly Topshop doesn't test on animals either

If you are concerned about Urban Decay and Too Faced selling to china and therefore testing on animals: they decided not to and stay cruelty free. So bravo for them! <3

I hope I will be able to find more cruelty free make up brands so I can update this list!
For more cruelty free brands and where you can find them, you can go to my page cruelty free cosmetic brands
I will update this page whenever I find a new brand :)

Have a nice day ^^
Love~
Kristien

Lush: Emoitional Brilliance

Hi there!

Since july 21 Lush has lanced the emotional brilliance make up line.

I went to Lush Antwerp recently and tried out some of their colours and I must say that they look really beautiful!
I got a few swatches on my hand and I kinda fell in love with the orange lipstick (I think it's vibrance) which could also look amazing as an eyeshadow!
There is a price tag though. They were nearly 18 euros for one colour. The mascara was about 14-15 euros I think.But you do get some nice quality make up, it's not tested on animals and they're as little preservatives as possible and as much natural products as possible ^^
Also you can colour your mood! Do try to take a spin on https://www.lush.co.uk/emotionalbrilliance/
It sure is a lot of fun to do and you'll get to know more about yourself (at least if you do believe in it of course :p )

Have a nice day!
Love~

London Haul (Illamasqua, Sleek & Star Gazer)

Hello friends!
As promised, Here's a haul of what make up I got in London. I was so happy to find Illamasqua and Sleek there. I also found some Barry M, but it was time to stop buying make up (at least, that's what my mother thought, sadly).

So here's my collection of new make up!

Illamasqua: Medium Pencil in Errant

This medium pencil is a dark blackened teal. It goes on smoothly and I use it often with the next 2 products (liquid metal in Stoic and pure pigment in Conquer)

Illamasqua: Liquid Metal in Stoic

The liquid metal is very creamy. I love the colour, it's very pigmented, the downside is that because it's so creamy it creases a lot. I always set it with the pure pigment in conquer, this helps a little.
I love to use it as an eye liner only, this way it doesn't crease either ^^
But it makes beautiful smokey eyes and using pigments over it can create some awesome effects!

Illamasqua: Pure Pigment in Conquer

This one, I always ude to set the liquid metal in Stoic! The colour is gorgeous, and I love the packaging (there's a small hole where you can get the pigments out). This way I don't spill too much. It does cause a lot of fallout, so I make sure to use my bb cream and/or concealer afterwards.

Illamasqua: Fundamental Palette

This was actually the first thing I got, in Selfridges. I was looking for a yellow eye shadow and when I tried it out, purple would look amazing with it. So I was planning to buy those two eye shadows, when the guy there told me that if I got this palette, it would cost as much as those 2 colours. So of course I got this palette instead. I love the purple and yellow eye shadows and I'm sure I'm going to like the liquid metal in surge (upper right corner) as well. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to use the cream pigment in bedaub (the one in the lower left corner) but I'm sure I'll find a way to use it ^^

Illamasqua Sealing Gel

This is the last thing I got from Illamasqua. This sealing gel can make any eye shadow into a waterproof eye liner. I haven't tried it out yet but the girl at the shop showed it to me and it looked absolutely amazing! One bottle should go a long time and you buy them per pair.

Sleek: ultra mattes VI BRIGHTS palette

This palette looks amazing. When I first saw it at the show I was a little bit disappointed because I thought the palette would be bigger. This was the first time I saw sleek palettes. But actually they're not that small, you get plenty of eyeshadow and they're very pigmented. I only tried out 2 colours now but I think this palette is a very good addition to my collection. Now I can finally experiment with a lot of bright colours ^^
The packaging isn't really my favourite, because I find it rather hard to open XD
I found this one at a drug store in Camden.

Star Gazer nail polish 138 (Dark Green)

When I went toCamden Market, we found a cute shop and bought some clothes there. When we were going to pay, there were some nail polishes and lipsticks. my mother asked me if I wanted some, but I told her I probably couldn't get it because I don't know the brand and I don't know if it's tested on animal. The lasy at the shop told me that it wasn't. Her friend (also at that shop) was vegan and she only uses vegan products. I trusted her.
Until now I only found little information, but on their own website they indeed say that they do not test on animals. Also, an other website I found that they should be safe to use. ^^
I haven't tried this one out yet (because I'm trying to grow my nails again before using nail polish) but I liked the colour. I love greens XD


So there's still a lot for me to try out, although I have tried a couple of looks with my illamasqua products already. I don't have pictures of those but in the future I will show you a couple of make up looks ^^

Hope you'll have a great summer!
Love~
Kristien

Back from London

Hello all!

I recently went to London... SHOPPING!!!! I love this city and can't stop going there. I think it's been nearly 10 times now that I've been there, a bit less XD
My next blogpost will be a haul from London ^^ I'm not sure yet if I'll just keep it to make up or do some clothes and shoes as well XD I might do 2, who knows...

I didn't expect to buy any make up there because I was with my mom and I barely ever go buy make up with her, she thinks I already have more than enough (is that even possible?!) but I got lots of stuff from brands I can't find in Belgium and I'm so excited, I can't wait to try them all out and make some gorgeous looks!

Also, another update, I won one of the prizes from a contest by Make up and me
http://magicalmake-up.blogspot.be/2012/05/prijzen-make-up-wedstrijd-fairytale.html
I won the Lipgloss: 12 Shiny Papaya and Nail art: 0 Night in Vegas (the winner Laura chose herself)
So thanks a lot Laura!! I'll be posting my look (and other try-outs) as well soon.

I'll try to keep up more with this blog, make more time for it ^^

Love~

Beautyfood: Water!

Your body is made up of about 2/3 of water! That makes it so important to drink enough water. Not only does it keep you healthy (reducing headaches from dehydration, it actually cleans your body by flushing down the toxins in your body, ...) but it has a lot of beauty benefits!

Skin
It's very important to stay hydrated from the inside. Your skin constantly loses water so it's important to stay hydrated. Also when your lips are dry and chapped, it could be a symptom of dehydration. Drinking plenty of water should help you to get a soft and smooth skin

Hair
Drinking enough water can also help to keep your hair moistured. If your body is losing a lot of water and you don't drink enough to keep the hydration level up, how is your body supposed to do its job? It will take care of what's most important to stay alive first, and you don't need hair to survive ;).

Losing weight
Of course we don't all have to be as thin as Keira Knightley, but I'm pretty sure there are a lot of girls who'd want to lose some weight. Therefore it's extremely important to drink lots of water. It tends to reduce hunger, raises your metabolism and it flushes down toxins and by-products of fat breakdown.

Reducing hunger
Sometimes your body can't tell whether you're hungry or thirsty. You might think you're hungry but in fact you really just need to hydrate yourself. Especially if you're craving for something salty, you might need to hydrate your body, as salt holds onto water in your body. Try drinking a glass of water instead.
Also, if you drink a glass of water before every meal, you will probably eat less because you'll feel full a lot quicker. Eating an apple before your meal also helps a lot as it gives you a fuller feeling.

Raising the metabolism
Drinking water raises your metabolism because it helps in digestion. Fibers are also very important in this part!

Flushing down toxins
When consuming food, we usually also consume lots of saturated fats, which are actually rather bad for our bodies. When burning fat, we also need to get rid of the toxins of it, that's what water can be good for.
Also, when we're trying to lose weight, most of the weight we actually lose it body fluids. The scales can be a bit tricky in this. It's very important to stay well hydrated when you're trying to lose weight. The numbers on the scale aren't most important, it's what happens within your body.

Water alone?
Of course, taking hot showers, drying out your hair by straightening it, tanning, ... Water alone might not be enough for you to keep your hair and skin well hydrated, but it's a good start to stay hydrated from the inside out.

It's best to drink just water, but what if you really hate drinking it? Try to add some flavour in your water, a few drops of lemon juice or grenadine. Drink juices (with no added sugars is best, as fruits already contain lots of sugars). Also foods that contain a lot of water like some kinds of fruits or soup could be good for you. Try to stay away from coffee or soda.

Also don't drink too much as that could also be dangerous. About 2 litres should be enough for an avarage person.

Take care of your body!