Review | The Body Shop Face & Body Brush

One of the gifts I received last Christmas from my brother is The Body Shop Face & Body Brush that had been on my wishlist for a few months after I applied make-up for a friend and she brought this brush along with her. 

I was instantly in love with how soft the synthetic hairs were and the size of the brush intrigued me too. To cut a long story short, I was very pleased to see this brush in my stocking!

The brush looks and feels very sturdy with a silver ferrule and a wide-based black handle on which the company logo and brush name are printed in white capital letters. In fact it is heavier than any of the other brushes that I own but it is still very nice to use.

As I already pointed out, the bristles are synthetic (The Body Shop is a cruelty-free company) and they are arranged in a dome-shape. They are remarkably soft and they never bleed or come lose when I wash the brush. No wonder it is a best-seller! I like that they are the right degree of 'fluffy' as the product is evenly applied.

The size of this brush makes it ideal to apply shimmer powders, bronzer, loose powder, blush or even pressed powder to the face and neck areas and I really like the airbrushed finish each time I use this brush.

The only thing which I don't like about this brush is that it is only supplied with a flimsy plastic sleeve instead of a brush guard or a stronger pocket.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this brush to pretty much anyone and I am convinced it will last a life-time! 

The Body Shop Face & Body Brush retails for €11.00 from The Body Shop outlets across the island.

How I clean my Make-up Brushes

Hey all! So I'm really bored of studying right now so here's a little tutorial on how I clean my make-up brushes *special thanks go to my brother for patiently taking the pictures*. I usually give my brushes a thorough clean every Sunday since I tend not to wear make-up on Sunday to let my skin breathe (unless I have somewhere special to go obviously).  You can read more tips and info on brush cleaning here but in the meantime, here's the step-by-step tutorial!

Dirty brushes + e.l.f. Studio Daily Brush Cleaner & Brush Shampoo

The first thing I do is I spray a little of the Daily Brush Cleaner onto a clean face towel to remove most of the make-up from the brush bristles.  I mainly do this to save on the Brush Shampoo which comes in a 120ml format vs the 250ml of the Daily Brush Cleaner.  I also use the Brush Cleaner to clean my brushes in-between make-up applications.  I like to start with my larger and more dense brushes first as they are the ones that take longer to dry.

Next, I fill a little bowl with lukewarm water and add a few drops of shampoo; enough to make a little lather.  I dip the brushes one by one in the bowl and swirl them around a little. When the water gets really dirty, I change it and add more shampoo.

Washing the foundation brush... you can actually see that the water has turned yellowy!

Subsequently, I squeeze the bristles (always pointing them towards the sink to make sure that no water or soap gets in the ferrule) to remove excess water and then I swirl the brush on my palms to work up a lather and make sure that all product is removed. I also apply some regular hair conditioner to the bristles and leave it to act for around 3 minutes before I finally give the brush a good rinse under warm running water and squeeze the bristles again once last time in a towel to further cut down on drying time.  I like to apply the conditioner to the brushes one by one until I wash the next so that it has time to work and then I rinse it off starting from the first brush I applied it to so that the last one has time to get conditioned as well.

For brushes that I use to apply lipsticks, lip glosses, cream eyeliners and any other cream products, I like to use Baby Oil to cleanse them thoroughly and make sure there are no product residues. I just pour a little oil in the palm of my hands, soak the bristles in and let the oil lift the product. When no more product comes off, I wash these brushes in the same manner as all other brushes.

Can you see the eyeliner coming off effortlessly in the second picture?

Finally, I place my brushes horizontally on a face towel to dry.

Recently, I came across a video on YouTube by KlaredelysArt where she explained how you can make home-made brush guards. I actually tried it and it works! Check out her video here!

So that's it ladies! I hope you found this tutorial useful! How do you clean your brushes? Do you use a different method to mine? I'd love to know, so leave a comment in the box below!