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

♥

Blushing Hearts Too Faced Dupe || Review & Swatches

I have wanted one (all) the Two Faced heart blushers for a good while now but at £24 each, they're definitely not budget friendly and I already have way too many blushers. So I had to get my hands on at least one of the Make-Up Revolution blushing hearts because MUR are so good at creating amazing dupes and I've never been disappointed by them yet. I decided to just get one just now since I'm meant to be trying to save money and use up some of my ever growing make-up collection. The one I chose was 'Peachy Pink Kisses' because I love peachy coloured blushes especially for Summer.

The blush has three segments like the Too Faced blushers which I like because it means you have four different colour options to use. You can swirl all the shades together and get a shimmery peach shade like I have swatched above or you can use any of the three individually to get different colours. They're all pretty shimmery so could actually double up as a highlighter depending on what shade you like your highlighter to be. I personally think the top two segments of the blusher are like highlight shades and the third segment or a mixture of all three are like blusher shades. 

The packaging of the product is really cute although it's quite bulky and hard to store but I guess it's worth it for the prettiness of it. I definitely would want more of these, they're only £4.99 and for four different blush shades I think thats well priced! I think 'Bursting with Love' is next on my list to try.

Have you tried any of these or the Too Faced version? What do you think of them?

Lots of Love,

♥

Fashion Prescription || Haul

I have been after some American style pretty pjamas for ages but have never been able to find any but then I saw these ones on Fashion Prescription, they screamed Blair Waldorf and I just had to buy them. They come in a pretty pastel pink and a Cinderella powder blue colour, I really wanted both but they do cost £28 each and since I'm meant to be saving I just got one, surprisingly I went for the blue since it was such a pretty shade! 

It's a two piece which you can personalise cause each piece is made for you so you can decide whether you want lace or just lace on the top/bottoms or no lace etc. You also can choose whether you want high waisted shorts and a crop top or just normal which I think is good that you get the choice. The only downside of this is you do have to wait about a month in total before you actually receive what you ordered which is a bit of a pain but it was totally worth it!

I also picked up one of their bra/bralettes because I already have the black one and its one of the comfiest I own. It has no padding or underwiring which makes it feel like you actually aren't wearing a bra but are just naturally supported which I definitely needed because I find bras so uncomfy but no bra is also very uncomfy. It also came with a little name tag with my name and a love heart on it which I thought was a nice touch. They do sizes ranging from really small to really big so theres something for everyone because they're personalised again and they cost £20.

Have you ordered anything from Fashion Prescription before?

Lots of Love,

♥

JFK Nails

I absolutely love getting my nails done, it's one of my favourite things to do because I am terrible at painting my own nails so getting someone to do them for me is a real luxury. I also absolutely love gel nails and acrylics but they're obviously not the best thing for your nails so I'm on a break from them for the foreseeable.

 I was invited to an event at the JFK salon near the meadows in Edinburgh and the lovely nail girl there Katie did my nails for me. I went for a standard nail polish because like I say I'm on a break from gel nails and I was so surprised at how amazing they turned out.

 I wasn't sure what to go for so I let Katie do whatever colour she wanted and she said she was going to make my nails have a lovely cosmic effect. She first put a black essie polish on and then applied this lovely shimmery top coat which I must find out the name of because the two together looked incredible. It gave a lovely duo chrome effect, in some lights it looked purple and in others it looked a stunning electric blue.

 I've had so many compliments on these nails and they looked very much like gel nails even though they aren't. If you live in the Edinburgh area and want your nails done I'd 100% recommend Katie Jane from the JFK salon, the one on Bruntsfield Place, because she's such a lovely, chatty girl and does one of the best jobs I've ever had done on my nails. I get my nails done a lot and there's only two girls in Edinburgh that I've had them done by that I'd recommend! The other being the lovely Suzanne from Bo Chic in Portobello. I will definitely be back to get my nail fix again soon!

Katie Jane's facebook page

Lots of Love,

♥

MAC Playland || Haul

 Hellooo lovelies,

 So I'm a little late on this one but I've been lusting after a few of the MAC Playland lipsticks for a long time now. They've been out of stock pretty much everywhere but I kept seeing them popping up on blogs so I just had to have them. After searching around I found them in stock on Selfridges website so although these will both be featured in my MAC Mondays series at some point in the future I thought I'd share this with you now. The shades in stock on Selfridges website are Head in the clouds which is the red shade, Playland which is the gold shade, Happy go lucky which is the bright pink and red balloon which is the fuschia pink.

 I'm usually not a massive lover of MAC collections because I love their standard classic packaging and I just don't really get sucked in on the whole 'limited edition' considering usually they're very similar shades to colours in the normal range. However, I did really like these colours and they're in MAC's classic packaging so I didn't feel too bad about purchasing them, although I did not appreciate the £5 postage fee Selfridges!! Also can we take a minute to be astounded at MAC putting up their lipstick prices by yet another 50p, yes it may only be 50p MAC but when you put it up by 50p every few months it's very noticeable. They are finally here though and I am still swooning over them!

 Red Balloon is a stunning fuschia pink shade that I cannot wait to wear. In the packaging it looks like an inbetween shade of Girl About Town and Impassioned, both of which I adore.

 The second shade I got was Head in the clouds which a) is a gorgeous name and b) is a gorgeous colour. I got this because it reminded me of Candy Yum Yum which I've been wanting but never bought because I've heard it's quite drying and I'm not the biggest fan of matte lipsticks. This is an amplified so I'm hoping it'll be like a creamier version of Candy Yum Yum!

Have you tried any of the MAC Playland collection? What are your favourites?

Lots of Love,

A x x x 

Massive New Look Haul

 Hellooo loves,

 As promised here is the second part of my massive haul, this one is all stuff from New Look so I thought I'd pop all these things in the one post. I posted on my twitter (@whatabbyloves) last week that I had made a massive New Look order so yupp this is the outcome of that moment of weakness.

 I originally went on New Look to try and find a pair of white strappy heels, I couldn't see any I liked but I did see these which I've been thinking about getting for a while so I couldn't not buy them, could I? I was a little worried that they looked a bit too much like jelly shoes because a) I already have jelly shoes and b) I'm not a massive fan of the heeled jellies but I think they look gorgeous with so many outfits so I'm keeping them! They'll look amazing with a tan and I can already tell they'll be one of my favourite shoes this Summer. I have already worn these and if you want to see a picture of me wearing these I have one on my instagram (@whatabbyloves).

 I got a little carried away in the t-shirt section of New Look but I was feeling like I needed some new tops because I've got bored of a lot of mine recently and you know when you feel like you only want to wear the same few tops? Yupp I had that so it was time I picked up some new ones. For those of you who don't know I have a bit of a mint addiction so after adding numerous mint tops to my basket I managed to reason with myself that I already have enough mint coloured tops and just buy one...for just now anyway! In the end I went for this one which has a crotchet trim which is so flattering, it sits slightly shorter than a normal top but because of the trim it either shows a tiny bit of skin or your jeans/jeggings etc if you're wearing something slightly high waisted. I really like it and if New Look get any more colours of these that I like then you can guarantee I will be snapping them up. Sorry in advance for the dodgy angle's my rooms upside down at the moment so taking pretty pictures is rather difficult!

 I also bought this floral blouse just because I thought it was pretty really. I think this would look nice tucked into denim shorts or over jeans or leggings. It's very Summery because of its pattern and as it's quite loose it'll be good for keeping cool.

 I also got a top similar to the mint one above but in white....can you tell I really love this style? hahaha. It is slightly different in that it has spaghetti straps which I possibly prefer? I do like both but I think sleeveless will keep you cooler in Summer and it could be tucked into high waisted trousers and skirts because you wouldn't see the trim when it was tucked in. Whereas the short sleeved one tucked into a skirt wouldn't look as great. I think both this one and the mint one would be absolutely amazing for a festival, the crochet is very festival-esque!

 I got this bra too because ever since I found out I was wearing a bra three sizes too small for me I haven't really had enough bras and as I'm super lazy with doing my washing so I thought I would encourage my laziness and buy another! This one is an online exclusive to New Look and it's only £9.99, I love it, it's bright neon pink which can be annoying for showing through lighter clothes but it's pretty so I don't care. I really recommend New Look bra's for girls who have bigger boobs because they do bra's that flatter you and aren't just an 'over the shoulder boulder holder' that are all about securing your boobs into place and swallowing your boobs up...  you know what I mean gals.

 I also picked up two playsuits, I wasn't planning on buying a playsuit and I certainly don't need one but I fell in love with these prints. This Summer I've been loving green tropical prints and floral prints and I think there's something really pretty about green on white and with the neon pink through it too- it's beautiful! This one is more of a cotton material so it isn't the most forgiving playsuit but it is a really pretty print. P.S for the record New Look I think you should make a seperate co-ord outfit out of this print, crop top and high waisted shorts? yes please. Again this would look fabulous with a white lace kimono over the top for a festival...can you not just picture that!?

 The second playsuit I chose is more of a blue and white combo again with the pink through it... I'm like a magpie for anything pink! I don't like the print of this one as much as I like my other one but this one is more of a chiffon material, it's not chiffon but it's like chiffon so I'm going with that one hahaha. As it's not cotton this one is a lot more forgiving as it hangs around you and isn't skin tight so you can wear it and eat alot and not worry whereas I'd definitely not be confident wearing the other one and doing that. This one is a teeny bit big on me so if you're border line between sizes I'd possibly go down a size. Again New Look, please do a co-ord of this, even just the shorts!

 The last thing I bought was this sky blue/baby blue short sleeved jersey material top/jumper with cutout flower prints in the sides of the arms and the back. Oh my, this is absolutely stunning, the cut outs are in a really flattering place so no matter what your figure this will flatter you as it's just showing your arm area. I really love the daisy print on it and I sooo wish they did it in more colours, they do it in a rosey red/pink colour but I'm not the biggest fan...black and white would be nice though please New Look! It's really slouchy and comfy and because it's light knit it will be great for the warmer weather too.

 What's your favourite thing that I bought? 

Lots of Love,

A x x x 

Honey Love || MAC Monday's

Hellooo lovelies,

 Honey Love is one of the few matte lipsticks from MAC that I actually do enjoy using. I am very much a cremesheen or amplified kinda girl and I don't like anything too drying on my lips because I hate that feeling when you rub your lips together and it's all dry. So if I can find a lipstick that's matte but still feels nice and creamy on my lips then it's a winner and this is certainly that.

 The colour of this is definitely a brown nude which I never imagined that I would like but it's one of those ones you really need to try it to fall in love with it. It's completely opaque which I love because it gives you a true nude lip colour without your natural lip showing through at all.. if that makes any sense. It's a great colour if you want to go crazy with your eye make-up because it keeps things nice and simple on the lips whilst still being chic. Honey Love is one of my most favourite MAC lipstick names too because it's super cute and it sounds really summery and sweet.

 As always it has the classic black packaging and the standard vanilla scent/taste which I looove.

 Have you tried MAC Honey Love? What matte MAC lipsticks would you recommend?

Lots of Love,

A x x x