Bourjois 123 Perfect CC cream and CC Eye cream

Bourjois can be quite a hit or miss brand for me, some of their products I love and other are just a bit blah. When I saw their new CC cream range I was unsure whether it would live up to the same standards of their 'Healthy mix' serum foundation. Que...Lisa Eldridge! Well what can I say she was my enabler, for the CC cream at least. The eye cream just seemed to fall into my basket!  These two do however work wonders together. 

I have been using these on and off for a couple of weeks now and its fair to say its love. The website claims that the CC cream itself combines the colour correcting properties of a foundation with the skincare action of a cream. It also has an spf of 15 and claims to have 24 hour hydration. One thing is defiantly true of this CC cream, it evens my skin tone out beautifully. I tend to have some redness in my skin especially around my nose as well as some acne scarring and hyper pigmentation. It creates a really beautiful, natural looking base to apply my makeup too. I do still have to use a concealer with it as it is a very light base, but for those lazy days where I am running errands, it is perfect. Usually I apply a small amount of powder over the top of my more problematic areas, but it still looks natural. I was quite surprised at how well this lasts on my skin. I have worn it to work a few times, which means its typically on around 9 hours and it wears really well. When I first got this I tried lots of ways of applying it. My favourite however is with a MAC 130 as I think it gives a really lovely finish to the skin. 

Did I need another under eye concealer...not really no! However this is a really light, but good covering corrector which doesn't make me feel like I've piled on lots of product to get rid of my dark circles. It is really easily blended and looks beautiful along with the CC cream. The applicator of this concealer is made of silicone and is almost bendy, which I really like because it never feels like its dragging on your under eye area. I usually apply this and then blend it out with  the Real Techniques beauty sponge. You can barely even see its there. 

Have you tried these products? Which Bourjois products are your most loved? I would really love to know!

G xx

Top 5 Everyday Makeup Brushes!

I have come to the conclusion that I have far too many makeup brushes, but they all serve a purpose (in my eyes anyway)! Whittling them down to my top 5 was easier than I thought it would be (quite shocked by that). There are certain ones I usually every day, because they are brilliant and I could eat them up I love them so much!

L to R: M.A.C 219,  217, Real Techniques dome shadow brush, buffing brush and blush brush

Now I know I have only included 2 brands in this post, but I do own lots of other. However these honestly are the ones I use every day, over and over and over again!!

The M.A.C. brushes:

219 Pencil Brush

217 Blending Brush

The M.A.C 219 and 217 are both brilliant brushes! They are super soft, easy to clean and allow you to work really easily with the products you are using. I use the 219 (pencil brush) to put a highlighting eyeshadow shade in my tear duct area. It allows be to put the shadow in the correct place and blend it out, without making a real mess of it. I also use it to take shadow under my eye, or smudge eyeliner (there are a million uses)! The 217 is the classic M.A.C brush, that I am sure everyone has heard of, so I wont harp on about it too much, except to say I LOVE it!!!  It blends product beautifully and allows me to create a variety of looks. I couldn't be without it now and I recently purchased another one so that I always have a clean one! The pencil brush (219) retails at £19 and the blending brush (217) retails at £16. My only advice with these brushes (particuarly the 217) is to make sure your reshape it after cleaning it as the bristles have a tendency to splay ( I use the Brush Guard Makeup brush protectors).

The Real Techniques brushes:

Dome Shadow Brush (part of the Starter set)

Buffing Brush (part of the Core Collection set)

Blush Brush

I would be super dooper lost without these amazing brushes!! I HATE with a passion and scratchy brushes that feel horrible when I use them. These brushes are the softest thing I have ever had the pleasure of owning and I cannot recommend them enough. I own pretty much all the brushes (except the powder brush and brow groomer- they are on my list). These apply makeup beautifully and are brilliantly multi- purpose.  I got given both the 'Starter Set' and the 'Core Collection' by my sister and have found a use for every single brush in them. However the dome shadow brush and buffing brush really stand out for me. I use the dome shadow brush every single day to apply my eyeshadow. It is the perfect size for my eyelid and allows me to pack lots of product on without it being too much. 

The buffing brush is one that I have found a million uses for! I have used it with mineral foundation, liquid foundation, cream to powder foundation, highlighter, bronzer (you name it, I have tried it). If I could buy this brush by itself, I would!! Having 2 of these would be amazing!! Plus it is soooooo easy to clean, which I wasn't expecting!

The Blush brush, again is a good multi- purpose brush. You could use this for powder, bronzer, highlighter or blush! For me it is the perfect size for blusher and I love the way it feels on my face (soooooo soft)! It blends the blush in beautifully and really allows you to build up the colour and blend it into the rest of your face. I haven't even touched my other blush brushes since getting this (which says a lot, considering I usually change my brushes up a lot)!!! 

I got these brushes from love-makeup.co.uk (but you can also get them in boots in the UK). Prices do vary, depending where you buy them, but the cheaper price on love-makeup is put up by the delivery charge. I got my 2 sets for £20.99 each and the blush brush for £9.99!! I cannot recommend these enough and am super excited to try the new brushes, which are coming to the UK soon (you lucky Amercian readers already have them)! Check out the real techniques website for more info on the new brushes and the brilliant tutorials on how to use each brush/ collection!

So what are you most used and favorite brushes?!!! I would love to know!