Zoeva Rose Gold Brush Set || Volume 1

I've made a really exciting purchase and yes it is volume 1 of the Zoeva rose gold brush set collection. I have wanted these for absolutely ages but put off buying them because I know they're ridiculously expensive for makeup brushes but I've been working so hard that I decided I deserved a little treat! Although they are expensive, just look how beautiful they are, as soon as they arrived I forgot alllllll about how much they cost. 

All of the brushes have stunning matte black handles, with rose ferrules at the top and really soft bristles, which are I believe a mixture of natural pony hair, natural goat bristles and Vegan Tacklon bristles depending on which brush. They are genuinely the softest things I have ever felt and probably the prettiest things I've ever felt too hahaha. They also come with a gorgeous, chocolate brown make up bag/clutch bag. It has a pocket on the inside and is really big so I'm definitely going to be adorning this on nights out.

I decided to go for volume one because I was torn between the full rose gold eye set and the rose gold face brushes set and this set seemed to be the perfect in-between as it incorporated a bit of both. Volume 1 comes with six face brushes and nine eye brushes and although there's a few in the set that I'm not sure I'll entirely get much use out of, I know the others will make up for that.

Firstly the face brushes which are the 106 Powder Brush, the 103 Defined Buffer, the 129 Luxe Fan, the 127 Luxe Sheer Cheek, the 112 Face Curve and the 109 Luxe Face Paint brush. All of the face brushes have a large proportion of the brush in the rose gold metal which you can see really makes them stand out especially in a pretty jar on your dressing table.

♥ 106 Powder Brush - 

The powder brush is a big fluffy, soft brush with a thick sturdy handle that makes blending and dusting powder over your forehead really easy. This brush is so soft, well to be honest they're all extremely soft but especially because this one is so big it's really pleasing to use on your skin. I have been using this to dust a little powder over my forehead and to blend out any extra bronzer or blusher for an airbrushed finish.

♥ 103 Defined Buffer

This brush is really dense and is slanted, I think it would be amazing to contour with if you were using a cream bronzer because of its slanted shape and it's ability to buff in a product with it's densely packed bristles. I've also been using this to buff in my foundation as it isn't worlds apart from the Real Techniques buffing brush (my favourite foundation brush), it's just like a slanted version of it but it still works just as well!

♥ 129 Luxe Fan

I've never owned a fan brush before, I've just never really had or seen a need to go out and specifically purchase one but it was a big influence in picking the Volume 1 set because I wanted the fan brush in the rose gold. Despite having got through 21 years of life without one, I absolutely adore using this and think I'd struggle without it now. It's amazing for sweeping away any fall out from glittery eyeshadows (Urban Decay I'm looking at you!!) and also for dusting a nice delicate amount of highlighter on your cheekbones. It's a definite winner from me.  

♥ 127 Luxe Sheer Cheek

Another brush that heavily influenced my purchase of this set is this beauty because I had misplaced my Real Techniques blusher brush and no brush I owned was coming close to doing as good a job. I didn't want to repurchase the RT one though because a) it'll probably turn up and b) I knew that I'd end up buying this set and not having a need for it anymore anyway! It is the perfect blusher brush or bronzer if you're bronzing up your face rather than contouring, it applies the perfect amount of product and blends beautifully. 

♥ 112 Face Curve

I wasn't so sure on the Face Curve brush because it reminds me of those old school foundation brushes where people used to paint their foundation onto their face (admit it, we've all been there!!) but I was pleasantly surprised. I decided to give it a go this morning because in my excitement I wanted to try as many of the brushes as possible and I used it to apply the foundation from the back of my hand to my face. It did blend in the foundation really nicely, much better than I expected it too and I think this is because it's slightly thicker and longer in length than most of the 'paintbrush' foundation offenders. I did however go over my face with the Defined Buffer lightly just to make sure my foundation was completely buffed into my skin, nobody likes a patchy face! 

♥ 109 Luxe Face Paint

Another massive influencer for me in buying this specific set was this beauty here, does it or does it CLEARLY look like a very good dupe for the Nars Ita brush which ladies and gentleman is £43 for just the one brush!!! This screamed like the perfect contour brush to me for either cream product or powder and I think this is a brush that would be Kim K worthy. It is literally the perfect shape for defining your cheekbones without leaving you with a muddy thick stripe down your cheeks and it's really easy to blend out with too. It's fab for contouring the nose and forehead too with it's shape so this brush has me massively impressed!! I'd definitely go to say it's one of my favourites in the set, if not my favourite. 

Now the eye brushes, the eye brushes in this set are the 142 concealer buffer, the 317 wing liner, the , the 322 brow line, the 310 spot liner, the 226 smudger, 227 luxe soft definer, 228 luxe crease, 230 luxe pencil and the 234 luxe smoky shader.

♥ 142 Concealer Buffer

This is a double for the Real Techniques concealer buffer which I'm glad about because I absolutely love that and now have one for my handbag (the RT one, these babies are far too precious to be carried about!) and one for my house! It buffs out concealer quickly and beautifully no matter how thick the product is and it clogs the actual brush much less than the RT one which is a massive bonus because less cleaning to do always wins! It's very dense but still very soft and flexible. 

♥ 317 Wing Liner

I'm not sure how much use I will get out of this one because I don't tend to do wing liner looks very often and if I do then I would use my liquid liner. However, if I do ever want to venture out into gel liner or even a cream/gel eyebrow product then this would be fab for that.

♥ 322 Brow Line

This is your standard short, angled brow brush however it is slightly shorter than most others I've tried. This makes it so much easier and more precise when drawing on lines but I found that once I had drawn the outline of my brows I preferred my Revlon eyebrow brush to fill them in because it just made it much quicker to do. Whereas with this one you could really create a 'on fleek' brow if you had the time and the patience to spend a little longer filling it in neatly (which clearly I have neither...)

♥ 310 Spot Liner

This is again one I'm not entirely sure how much I will use because I never have a lot of time for lining my eyes that close to the lash line with eyeshadow (or eyeliner) but that is what this brush is for. It is quite possibly the smallest brush I have ever seen, I may even have had to double check when I got it that there was in fact hairs actually on the end of it. As it's so delicate and tiny though it will be fabulous for applying black eyeshadow or liner to really thicken your lash line and give that invisible liner look. 

♥ 226 Smudger

This small, short and dense brush is a smoky eye essential. It will be fabulous for smoking out the crease or for smoking out a shadow along the eyeline or even for applying black shadow to the lash line and smoking that out. I think I will also use this for my lower lash line to smoke out some eyeshadow under the eye for more dramatic looks.

♥ 227 Luxe Soft Definer

The main reason I wanted more eye brushes was because I never wash my eyeshadow brushes regularly enough, I have all my Urban Decay ones and my Real Techniques ones but I wear eyeshadow most days and never the same shades everyday. Often I use 3 brushes on my eyes in one day so it was only taking me a few days before I needed to wash my eyeshadow brushes again and having clean blending brushes around is always handy. This is super fluffy and probably a really good  dupe for the much loved Mac 217 brush. It blends out eyeshadow really nicely without scratching your eyelids which is of course a massive bonus.

♥ 228 Luxe Crease

Another soft fluffy blending brush which is ideal for blending and shading into the crease or the outer corner of the eyes. There is not a massive difference between the luxe crease and the luxe soft definer, both essentially do the same task of blending out either loose pigment shadows or pressed powder ones. The 228 is slightly taller and thinner but it really doesn't make a massive difference to the performance of the brush but if I could only have had one I probably would have picked the 228! 

♥ 230 Luxe Pencil

This is a very precise small tapered brush which would be really good for any accurate shading and blending that's needed with your eye makeup. As it is shaped like a pencil it would be able to apply eyeliner smoothly and precisely, if you like wearing black eyeshadow as liner. 

♥ 234 Luxe Smoky Shader

The standard eyeshadow application brush, the brush is rounded and smooth to give good application. It's very dense so is perfect for packing on the colour and if you spray the brush with a bit of Mac fix plus first it will work well to apply loose pigments too.

I think make-up brushes have to be viewed as an investment because they will last you a long time (or should) and if you wash them and look after them properly then it should end up being well worth the money. So although this set was £110 and I fully understand that for some people this amount to spend on brushes seems ridiculous however I do think they are worth it given the quality professional brushes you get and the amount you get in the set. They're definitely worth saving up for or putting on your birthday list!

I bought mine from Beauty Bay for £110 and because you're spending so much money you get to pick a sample (albeit a tiny one!) and get next day free priority delivery. So if you order now you could have your very own set by tomorrow evening... apologies in advance for being an enabler but least you now have somebody to blame ;-).

Beauty Bay Zoeva Rose Gold Volume 1

Have you tried Zoeva brushes? 

Lots of Love,

A

♥

Uncommon Goods || Home Inspo

Since I don't have my own house yet and still live at home, I love nothing more than pinning home inspiration pins on pintrest and looking at home-y things online for when I finally have my own place.

One website that I've been lusting after things on recently is Uncommon Goods as they have lots of quirky homeware that's right up my street. The first thing that I've seen on their site that I'm after is this cinema lightbox that comes with a combination of letters so that you can write whatever you want on the box. I don't really have a justification for buying this but I can't help but want it, I think it would be amazing for birthdays, parties, weddings and as a blogger for backgrounds of photographs. I'm quite tempted to buy it just now for my room and just have my name or my blog name on it, is that too far?! hahaha.

It's no secret that I love my two dogs more than I love most people (and I'm not ashamed to admit that hehe) so I squealed with delight when I saw that you can actually get a picture of your pet made into a cushion!! I think this would be so cute on an armchair or even to keep in your pooch's bed (if your pets are as spoilt as mine). One of the key things I think with house inspiration is personalising it to actually make it a home and what better way to personalise it than by having a cushion of your most loved four legged family members. You can get your own pet picture put on a cushion here or there's also really nice polaroid camera cushions which are perfect for any fellow bloggers!

I'm also a massive book lover so one thing I know for sure that will be on display in my home is books especially the books that I own with pretty covers. With having books on display, it can start to look a bit like a library and take away from that modern chic feel so I think it's important to have stylish bookends and pretty objects on the shelf to break it up. Uncommon goods have these stunning mother and baby giraffe book ends which I think would look amazing on a book shelf with some pretty books in the middle. You can find this and others similar here.

The Luna light is something that grabbed my attention right away (maybe it's the blogger in me that's obsessed with lighting), it's a little white ring that you can control the colour of by tapping it and you can set it to be one colour or switch between all the different colours. I think this would be fab for date nights or even when you're having a relaxing bath, being able to change the lightning can really affect your mood. The top part of the Luna light also spins round so that you can direct the light in whichever direction you please. Another thing I thought this would be good for is in a child or baby's bedroom to help them get to sleep.

Lastly, I am a quote lover and I'm all about positive prints and quotes to help me stay motivated and to keep a positive outlook. I absolutely love this print from Uncommon Goods, it's got gorgeous lemon prints on it with 'when life gives you lemons'. I think the colour combination is really nice and this would look lovely on a kitchen wall. Uncommon Goods also have other really nice prints if this one isn't quite your style which you can see here.

They also have really nice home and garden furniture which would be perfect for people wanting to add a quirky touch to their home which you can find here.

What sort of things would you put in your home?

Lots of Love,

A 

♥

* This post is a sponsored advertorial but as always all items are selected by me and opinions are my own.

Ted & Muffy Fairytale Fit || Winter Boots 15

Ted & Muffy are a luxury boutique that sells gorgeous shoes and has expert fitters to make for an excellent shoe/boot shopping experience. The brand used to be called Duo but they have rebranded everything from their name, to the packaging, to the actual store inside. Ted & Muffy pride themselves on designing what they love, using top quality materials and they have three boutique stores in London, Bath and Edinburgh. If you don't live nearby though, fear not because they do also have a website that you can order from!

Recently I got invited along to the Ted & Muffy event and got a chance to look around their beautiful new store and eye up all the gorgeous shoes, I'm such a shoe girl so I really was in my element! I was then lucky enough to be asked to choose a pair of boots to get fitted on and sent out to me. I think the hardest part for me was definitely choosing which pair I wanted! I was torn between a sensible riding boot or a gorgeous over the knee suede pair. In the end I narrowed it down to an over the knee suede pair because who needs to be sensible?! (eye rolls) but then I had the choice of Acantha which is a stunning dove grey pair or Empress, a jet black suede pair. I decided I would at least be half sensible and go for black because I reckon I could pull these off in more 'every-day' situations than the grey pair.

I got to try on all of them with my lovely fitter who was so helpful, she measured my leg and literally all the boots fitted on perfectly. I think Ted & Muffy would be perfect for those who have either really skinny legs and find boots fit quite wide on them or those who have wider calves and struggle to get boots to get up over them.

One of my favourite things about the Ted & Muffy rebranding is the fairytale feel of the experience, it all feels very luxurious, from the stores interior to the feel of the fit on. The advert that the store used included real live wolves, I did insert the advert into this post but it didn't work but definitely Youtube it, it's worth the watch! The photo shoot they have done for their boots as well is simply stunning with the use of clocks, shattered mirrors, dark feathers, owls and snow.

I loved that they had a little tree with tags on that had our blog names on them and attached to each tag was a rustic key...very fairy tale like again.

Their prices are expensive, the boots that I chose are £400 but they do have slightly cheaper ones and I think when it comes to shoes and boots it's worth spending a little bit more money on them because they last forever and who doesn't want their Cinderella fit?! With the price you've also got the fitting experience included and I do believe they quite often have 20/25% off offers online!

I have worn my pair loads, they're really comfy and instantly make a simple outfit look really dressy. I've loved wearing them with black tights and dresses or if you wear a shorter dress they look lovely with bare legs for a night out. They also look stunning with jeans and a nice top for going round the shops or for day to day. I haven't worn them in the rain yet because I'm too scared that it would ruin them but I think they would be okay if you used a suede protector on them regularly. I have already included these in my Winter Boots post but I thought I should give them a post of their own since I've worn them so much this Winter!

What are your opinions on over the knee boots?

Lots of Love,

♥