My Favourite Eye Brushes

So i thought id make this post, just to share what i consider to be really great eye make up brushes!

I have a lot more than 5 but these are ones i regularly reach for out of my jam jar brush holder...well actually its a Dolmio jar with a ribbon round the top but jam jar sounds cuter :)

From left to right:

BK34 Angle Stippler Blender £3.29, Crown Brushes.

IB110 Min Oval Smudger, £2.67, Crown Brushes.

IB116 Round Tapered Crease, £3.18, Crown Brushes.

Eyeshadow Brush, £8, The Body Shop.

275 Medium Angled Shading Brush, £17.50, MAC.

I highly rate the Crown Brushes, they are so soft and lovely to use, and THE PRICE! you cannot get better! I will be purchasing a lot more brushes from them, i especially love the badger series.

The stippler blender is a great blender brush, i dont have a MAC 217 but i feel i dont need one as this is brilliant for me.

The mini oval smudger is a lovely brush for smudging out eyeliner to make a smoky eye, or also excellent for under eye work, Its so tiny, its half the width of a normal brush hairs, which makes is so fluffy and easy to apply.

The tapered crease is fantastic at crease work, hence its title, and fits right into the eye socket. I use this everyday, love it!

Body shop brush has changed design since i purchased it, its a lot more curved now, but i love mine. I use it to press on pigments or Barry Ms dazzledusts! Its excellent at wet shadow work and because its fairly hard its excellent for eyeliner smudging too!

The MAC one was my first ever make up brush, ever! We've been through many years together and i still love it!! Its brilliant at blending out shadows but also all over colour work. I love this brush and highly recommend it as a first MAC brush purchase!

What are your favourite brushes? Are there any you can recommend??

Florals and Hearts

So just a few updates...I bought some lovely fabric from ebay for around £2! Its a basic floral print but so pretty, i cant wait to use it!



I also have spent an afternoon creating these cute hearts, which i will turn into a pretty garland when i find the right string! I made them from some samples i had requested from various fabric websites! Yep...a homemade garland for free! I think theyre quite cute, and theres hundrds of them so it will look nice hanging over a mirror or something!



I also have two new additions to my Hanging Hearts collection!! A lovely rusty wire one, with pretty flowers created out of the wire. and a lovely wooden bead one. They lovingly hang my bedroom along with the rest, but i want to make them into a heart wall (like a plate wall but with hearts)!

Margots Misadventures...

For mothers day me and my sister clubbed together to buy my mum something she'd wanted for a while, after i introduced her to it!



It was a cat called Margot, but she was not your ordinary cat! I found her on Etsy, where i am a regular browser, and i knew my mum would love her! Shes so gorgeous, her cute bandage and ripped ear, and her own little story to accompany her. My mum loved her and when she came up to visit me for a few days she brought her along. I loved her too!

Margot was made by Lisa of LouLou and Oscar, you can find her blog here http://blog.loulouandoscar.com/. I am in love with her style of work and her Etsy shop is wonderful. I emailed her to say thank you so much for Margot and she very sweetly replied and was as lovely as i thought she might be!!

One day i hope to make lovely items to sell on Etsy, but for now i shall make do with admiring other peoples works!

Bumpy Arms?

For as long as i can remember i've had bumps on my upper arms and on my legs. I always figured this was due to me being at the top of the 'normal' scale for my bmi...im not sure why i thought this! In the past month this condition had got a lot worse and i was contemplating going to the doctors.

(This isnt me - Its a google image!)

I did a bit of research on the internet and found out this isnt just me...its a condition called Keratosis Pilaris or KP. Its often referred to as chicken skin, because it covers your arms, legs, chest, face or stomach or anywhere else in litle red bumps. After researching this, i realised i no way had it as bad as other people. Some people get it so bad they need super strength creams from the doctors, but i dont think mine is that severe! It is a genetic condition, and i recently found out my mum and sister suffer from it quite badly too.

The condition is helped by exfoliation of the areas with gloves, loofas or sugar scrubs. I tried these but none seemed to work for me. I went to boots online to see if it had any products that might help me deal with this and behold, it did!!

I love The Sanctuary products, they smell great and really feel luxurious when using them. The product in question is the Microdermabrasion Body Renewal. On the boots website it said that this is to combat 'Chicken Skin'...i couldnt believe it! A product is out there that specifically helps to fight this condition! So off i toddled to my nearest boots and bought it.
It costs around £9, which some may seem excessive but if you compare it to a Body Shop butter at £12, then i think its quite reasonable!

I have never liked scrubs before as i find their density very poor and their particles either too big or too few. This is amazing in terms of density, its so thick and creamy, you rub it in and it feels smooth, but then after more rubbing (on dry skin) you get a very harsh gritty texture, i would describe the particles as 'micro tiny'...they are so small and you really feel like theyre working!! It smells like lemons and i LOVE citrus fragranced products!

All in all id give this product a 10/10 i really cant fault it!! Ive used it three times now, each time before a shower on dry skin i rub for around 3 mins on each arm and leg, until they are quite red but you can feel it working. Then i get in the shower and rub it off. I can honestly say my arms have never felt smoother, and hopefully my legs will follow suit! Afterwards i cover myself in my favourite moisturiser The Body Shop satsuma lotion! And the two scents leave me SUPER citrusy!!

Does anyone else suffer from this? What do you find helps?

I Heart Ebay

My name is Lil and im an Ebay-a-holic.

There...ive said it!

I love ebay, it is part of my everyday routine, is that sad? I think so... but i dont care! I use it to buy silly things, things which i dont need or wont ever use, but i also use it to buy hidden treasures and great bargains!

I am also a seller, i like to sell clothes and shoes i no longer wear, to get some cash to spend on more things i probably wont use! But its all good fun. People really will buy anything on there. I sold some broken GHDS a year ago, i had the listing up for all of 30 seconds and someone (a guy!) bought them instantly! I think it was for around 30 quid which is good for something that wouldnt even turn on!!

I have been doing some ebaying recently, so i thought id share my purchases with you all!

Ok so first we have a lot of 34 zips...who knows why that number! But i figured, one zip from John Lewis or a craft shop is around £2...i got 34 really good quality zips for £3!! Inluding postage! Now thats a bargain, even if i never use them all!



I also bought a lot of Knitting Stitch books. Separately, on Amazon, these are retailing at around £20 per book...I got all three for £10!! I think that is amazing! I have been looking for a nice project with a variety of stitches, and what better way to learn them! Theyre full of gorgeous stitches which i can wait to try!
Here are some of my favourites...







I also bought this Benefit Dandelion blush. This retails at i think £23 in stores. I got it for around £8...HOWEVER...i think this may be a fake. It doesnt have any scent which i know from my Georgia blusher, Benefit blushers usually have. Also the colour isnt exactly right, if i remember correctly from seeing it in boots. Saying this, i still use it and love it!



Last but not least i got this dress. It is a topshop number, which i actually tried on in store and loved. (I also have this in a floral style, i have blogged about it in a previous post!). This one is a factory second which means there was probably a problem with it and therefor has no tags! But apart from that its fine! I love it! In store this was £45 if i remember rightly, I got it for £30...which ill admit isnt a MASSIVE saving, but for something i'll wear a lot and suits my body shape amazingly, its worth it!




A sneaky FOTD there!

Do you guys use Ebay? What are some of your favourite purchses??