There are so many ways to deep cleanse dirty makeup brushes. I’ve tried various types of washing methods, cleanser, scrubbing medium i.e. rubber mat, brush egg and so on. However a few months ago I stumbled upon a video from a well-known YouTuber in the UK on how she wash her makeup brushes. There is one particular tip I picked up from her and I’ve been practising since then. Alongside with that, I tweaked a little bit of the way I wash all makeup brushes and it gets the job done in a much faster rate. Here are my 3 makeup brush deep cleansing steps you should do to get rid of dirts and grimes easily. Do take note that these steps are not rocket science. It’s just something that some of us tend to avoid doing for various reasons

1. Wet the brush bristles completely, from outside to inside

I don’t know about you but previously I was skeptical in wetting the bristles all the way in. Like completely getting it wet. I was scared that too much water in the brush will means more water will sneak into the ferrule and thus damaging the glue. So I tend to simply wet the brush outer and wash. Let’s just say washing with less wetter bristles can be a pain

2. Wash throughly, deeply with cleanser

Have you notice that no matter how many times you wash the brush, the inside are still dirty? Similar to #1, I tend to cleanse my brushes lightly, swirling the brush head on my palm slowly and oh-so gently. The reason was also because I fear that the cleanser would sneak into the ferrule damaging the glue inside. That method will work on smaller brush but not bigger, fluffier brushes. One day I couldn’t be bothered anymore (thanks to backache from standing at the sink for too long) and I just smashed the brush onto my palm, working the cleanser deep into the inside of the brush. No more dirt and grimes inside the bristles

3. Squeeze the foams out

This is the tip I picked up from famous UK YouTuber Anna Saccone. This tip changed my brush washing game completely. I was really skeptical at first because squeezing all the foams out hard like that will damage the brush IMHO. Anna said this trick gets all the dirt and grimes out so easily. I tried it the next day and wow. Just wow. All the dirt came off, rinsing is so easily and I didn’t even need to wash for the second time to get rid of all the foundation stuck on the inside. However I have to warn you to be extra careful with the squeezing though. You wouldn’t want to pull out some bristles accidentally  . The trick here is to do it facing downwards before rinsing with running water and repeat under running water. Photo shows that I’m doing it upward because I needed to show you how to do it. You will notice that the foams are all brownish. Therapeutic!

Voilà! Big, fluffy kabuki brush cleaned within a minute (or less)

Here’s an extra tip. If you like to use a bar of soap as your brush cleanser and you find it hard to clean bigger brush, just ditch it and use Daiso Detergent for Puff and Sponge. Not only it gets all the makeup product residue out from the brush in a jiffy, it also get rid of the brown stain from the white bristles. Or if you still prefer a bar of soap or any other cleanser as your brush cleanser, just use a little bit of this to get rid of the brown stain. It still works in that way

Like I said, the above are not rocket science. It’s just some steps that some of us avoid doing to protect our beloved makeup brushes. Hope you enjoyed this tip especially tip #3. Try it and let me know if it works for you!

The post 3 Makeup Brush Deep Cleansing Steps That You Should Do appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

Oh yes, my favourite topic to talk about – Products That Didn’t Work. Following my first edition of “Sorry” Products aka Beauty Products That Didn’t Work, this would be the second installment of the topic. Actually I’ve totally forgotten about this otherwise I’d have quite a number of products to talk about. I’ve threw away some products and I can only find these at the moment. Rest assured. There bound to be a 3rd installment

Let’s see what do we have here. Not much though, just four products that just doesn’t work for me. As I always said, take what you’re reading here with a pinch of salt. You might find it to work on you beautifully

Sponge Brush (RM6.90)

Okay I admit. I bought this sponge brush thingymajig from Mr. DIY because it looks cute and the price is not too expensive for me to experiment with. I’ve seen this tool around especially from Ecotools and that is slightly more expensive (USD5.99). There is two different sponge type available – one with pointy top and another one with flat top. I find the sponge to be a bit too hard and dense for me to bounce it on my face. The product doesn’t absorb into the sponge for a flawless application so I ended up with blotchy finishing. Because it is so hard, I torn the sponge on the sponge a bit during application and further damage is done during washing. In conclusion, don’t waste your money on this. You can get a pretty decent sponge applicator that is soft and works well for the same price.

NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream (RM26)

This has got to be one of the highly raved product from NYX, which is why I too jumped onto the ‘SMLC’ bandwagon. If you recall my review at this link, I totally regretted getting two of these. I still am! Just recently I took it out again to use, thinking it might be better this time since my lips are well-moisturized lately. I guess I was being naive. I have no issue with it going on oh so buttery smooth but it’s the finishing that I don’t like. It dries down completely matte, light weight as I don’t feel anything on my lips but once I take a look on the mirror, I looked like I have a 80 years old grandma lips. It dries down matte AND at the same time tighten my lips all together giving it a very wrinkly look. It’s surprising to me how much this lippie changed the overall texture and look of my original lips. And it still cracks on me. After I slap on some lip gloss, I felt soooo much better. Oh well, I don’t buy a matte lipstick just to apply a gloss over it. I might as well use a gloss! It’s a fail for me.

Daiso Makeup Brush Cleanser (RM5)

This is a rare product that I encounter at a very small Daiso The Mines Shopping outlet. I’ve been to the same outlet so many times and I’ve never seen this. Plus they only left this one bottle. I bought it knowing that Daiso does produce fairly good product for the RM5 price tag. If this is good, I might not need to purchase my favourite MAC Brush Cleanser! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work a bit. The instruction on the back stated to pour the cleanser into a container and dip the brush in the solution thoroughly then circle the brush on the palm to remove dirt before rinsing with water. Nope. Brush still dirty. I’ve even tried pouring onto kitchen towel and run the brush on it and it still fails to get rid of the dirt from the brush. This is basically like a miceller cleansing water. It doesn’t foams up or whatsoever, which I don’t mind providing I can clean the brush for next day use. I still think MAC Brush Cleanser is the best spot cleaning solution and it’s not that expensive.

Hair Scissors (RM3.90)

I probably shouldn’t complain about this because afterall it only cost RM3.90 eh? But nah, I would want you to know so that you don’t make the same mistake lol. Last week I wanted to cut my own fringe/bangs. I’m used to cutting my own fringe with normal hair scissors but I don’t know why I wanted a rigged scissors that is commonly used to thin hair volume for the ends of my fringe. I went to Mr. DIY because it’s cheaper than Daiso. This doesn’t work because nothing was ‘cut’ and I can’t even pull it out from my hair. Usually you can snip + pull with the expensive scissors but this one, nope. You can’t. The most important is… there was probably a few strands of hair that the scissors managed to cut through? lol. It’s really hilarious.

This is what happen when you have too much time on hand and feeling adventurous at the same time . I’ve no regrets for purchasing the abovementioned products except for NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream because I have high hopes on it. The rest doesn’t cost a lot of money except for causing unnecessary inconvenience.

Is there any recent purchase that didn’t work for you? I certainly hope you are more lucky than me but if you are someone who like to try and test new products, this bound to happen right?

The post “Sorry” Products aka Beauty Products That Didn’t Work – Part 2 appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

We’ve come to the 2nd instalment of favourites of the month didn’t we? . Just as I’ve explained in the previous August 2014 Favourites, all the items listed here has yet to made its way to the blog. I might or might not do an individual review after this. Some product yes, some don’t need to!

In this September 2014 Favourites, I have a good mix of beauty, beauty tools and also decor. I’m kinda into decorating mood at the moment. No surprise here since you’ve seen the amount of trips and time spent at home essential stores lately from my Instagram.

I thought of doing 10 favourites product every month but for this month’s favourites I am keeping it short as I’m having migraine for the past few days. When the migraine hit, all I want to do is to just sleep and whine. Nonetheless I’m going to present eight of my favourites to you. So let’s start with the beauty, shall we?

Favourite Beauty Products

Revlon Parfumerie™ Scented Nail Enamel
When I found out that Alliance Cosmetics is having its yearly warehouse sales, I planned to just get two nail polishes. Somehow I ended up with five. I couldn’t stop because the colors is very attractive and it’s only RM10 per bottle. I was told in advance that these nail polishes are very watery and a few coats is needed to get an opaque finishing. So far I’ve only tried Apricot Nectar (orange), Surf Spray (blue) and Wintermint (green). I love Apricot Nectar and Wintermint but Surf Spray is so ridiculously watery. Wintermint on the other hand is a gorgeous mint green with shimmer bits in it BUT the bottle that I had was a used one. Sigh. The very main reason why I put this as my favourite is that the brush is super duper small and it fits nicely on my uber small toe nails. What’s not to love!

Maybelline Pure.Concealer Mineral Healthy Natural Concealer #01
I’ve been wanting this concealer for the longest time but I refuse to pay retail price of RM19.90 when I know OnlyBeauty will do a warehouse sales once in a few months. I’ve been to two sales but none of them carry this concealer, until the recent sales held at IOI Boulevard Puchong. I went straight to Maybelline section and search for the concealer. There was three left and luck was on my side when one of the three is the shade 01, which is exactly what I wanted. I’ve been using this concealer only since then for the under eye and on acne marks. It’s one of the best concealer I’ve ever tried. Covers well and only settles into the fine lines on my under eye just a tiny bit. I’m already 1/4 down the tube so far

Covo Fearless Waterproof Auto Brow Pencil #Cocoa Brown
As you know, I stock up brow pencil as I go through these pencils like no tomorrow. I’m also quite into doing my brows lately so I’m in the midst of sweeping all sorts of brow related products lol. It’s absolutely madness. Covo has been doing various 5-days promo lately and the most recent one is two of their eyebrow pencil for RM15. I opted for this Fearless Waterproof Auto Brow Pencil as it’s so much convenient and easy to use. To my surprise, these pencil is so slim that it makes it the perfect pencil to use to do small strokes mimicking brow hair and to create a fine tail at the end. There is only two shades to choose from. I bought all four that the counter had and one of it is for my friend. I should have gone to other branch for more.

ZA Perfect Solution Youth Whitening Serum
I’ve been slacking a little bit with skin care lately and this serum is exactly what I need. I love it for the fact that it’s a 2-in-1 serum, combining whitening with anti-aging at one go. I couldn’t find anything like this before last time and boy was I happy to see one being launched here. In fact this serum is just launched in September 2014. I also find that this serum is not sticky at all even if I use two full pumps. One of the best texture serum I’ve tried so far.

Favourite Beauty Tools

Daiso Clear Pierced Earrings
I got this from Daiso almost a year ago and it has been hidden in my drawer until I took it out recently. I always need to poke my earring holes whenever I needed to put on something fancy when I’m out. So to prevent that, I put this on. This is just like the stick thingamajig that kids or even you put on during the younger days. I never had those because I had my earrings on since I was 8 years old. The one I have comes in heart shape and there’s a stopper on the back as well, just like real earrings.

Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Tweezer & Scissors
I bought a Hello Kitty X Guardian 40th Anniversary Manicure Set for RM14.90 last month and my favourite has got to be the tweezer, scissors and the nail clipper. How often do you see Hello Kitty prints on these tools right? Tell you something funny. I was happily plucking my brow hair with the Hello Kitty tweezer when my mum asked “will you get prettier using Hello Kitty tweezer to do your brow?”. I blank out for a while trying to figure out what to answer. In the end I replied yes, much prettier than using normal tweezer

Favourite Decor

Ikea Photo Frame
This stone phone frame is antique I tell ya. I got this nearly 10 years ago from my friend for my birthday but I have no idea what it was and what to do with it back then so it was under my bed for the past 10 years LOL. I wanted to throw it away recently when I reshuffled my room’s furniture but it still look so new eventhough it was covered in dust for the past 10 years (I clean it once in a while) so I took out some polaroid photos I have and voila! These people in the photos meant a lot to me. One is from Talika Photo-Beauty Therapy media event and one is from Street Love X StriVectin A Purplish Affair event.

Backlight LED Table Mirror
Last but not least, a mirror that have gotten majority of you to purchase after I posted on Instagram and Facebook. It is the backlight LED table mirror that I bought from Groupon for RM55. I had in mind what mirror I want for my vanity table and I googled for it. Through googling, I found this mirror on sale in Groupon so I made a purchase right away. It was scheduled to arrive in 10 days but I gotten mine within four days. Talking about efficiency eh? I did hesitated a bit before purchasing as the mirror size is only 11cm. However there’s no other place selling this type of LED mirror so I bought it. It wasn’t as bright as I thought it would be but good enough for close-up. No regret. It’s beautifully done and looks better than the Ikea one

There you go! My most favourite products / items for the whole month of September. I think I have more but I’m going to save it for October because I’m going to use them throughout October so it makes more sense to talk about it next month. What is your favourite products for September? Any new discovery that I can check it out too?

The post September 2014 Favourites: Beauty, beauty tools and decor appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

So the story is, I was very much into trying out different Daiso Eye Brow Pencil and this particular eye brow pencil caught my eye due to the catchy packaging and it is the one eye brow pencil that doesn’t look as cheapo as the rest. I bought it, used it the next morning, love it so much that I wanted to tell you about it. I even went back to get a spare. Two weeks later right before penning down my review, I went to Daiso to double check if it’s still available. You know, just in case it was taken out of shelf then it wouldn’t be nice to talk about something that was out of stock. Turns out my sixth sense was right after all. It was out of stock everywhere (the few Daiso I went to).

To be frank, I never stop searching for this eye brow pencil. It has been a year and I still have hope that one day it will reappear on the shelf again. Just last week I went to Daiso to repurchase some Anna Sui inspired brush holder, so I casually walked over to the eye brow pencil section and I couldn’t believe what I just saw. The long out of stock eye brow pencil is now well-stocked up on shelf!

Since I wasn’t willing to spend near to RM40 for an Empro from Watsons, this Daiso one would be the perfect alternative . I am not particular about eye brow pencil brand, price or whatsoever because I go through eye brow pencil like no body’s business. So I’m constantly on the lookout for interesting eye brow pencil to try. Oh gawd, this reminds me to get Shu Uemura H9.

First thing first, most Daiso products doesn’t have a name. Everything is straight to the point and everything is stamped with Daiso Japan logo and printed “Produced for Daiso Japan” on the back. I’m naming this Daiso Eye Brow Pencil and there could be a dozen more eye brow pencil from Daiso with the same name. Just recognise the product by it’s packaging, aight?

This particular Daiso Eye Brow Pencil comes in two shades – Light Brown that comes with pink packaging and Dark Brown that comes with purple packaging like the below. Usually dark grey would suits my black-ish hair color but since they don’t have it, I’ll have to settle with Dark Brown instead. One of the reason why I like this one is because it come packaged in such way that I’m able to see what I’m purchasing. The two caps is placed separately on each end so that buyer is able to tell those were caps for the ends, a transparent cap on the eye brow pencil end and spoolie displayed on the other end.

No doubt there’s dozens of eye brow pencil being sold in Daiso but most of them are pencil (the type where you need to sharpen) or rounded lead automatic pencil. I was drawn to this also mainly because of the triangular lead shape. If you’ve used a triangular eye brow pencil before you will be reluctant to switch back to others. That is why I had a hard time when this is out of stock.

The spoolie is big, fat and dense LOL. It’s better to have a spoolie on one end than nothing at all

Oh and let me warn you the pencil design is the simplest you’ve ever seen. Just the way I like it. Even though so, you need not to open the cap randomly to find for the pencil end because the one with spoolie is labeled with a word “Brush” with an arrow pointing to it. How thoughtful

A triangular eye brow pencil is useful for me because I can get three different types of line I want. A fine line for the eye brow tip, a medium line using the wider side for areas where I want to intensify and using the flat surface to fill in color on larger area either lightly or hard handed.

P/S: Sorry, in real it’s not so red. It’s more like a dark grey shade than the brown below. It’s my camera setting

What I like about this Daiso Eye Brow pencil is the waxy texture. As you all know I have oily skin. Crayon or pencil type of eye brow pencil usually melts and sit on my skin. And if I accidentally rubbed it off, I am left with no eye brow. This eye brow pencil stays put until I remove it with eye makeup remover. I also like it for it’s shade. It went on less red / brown on me, almost like a dark grey with a hint of brown.

I think the formula has changed too. I notice that if I twist the lead too long, it will break easily. The waxy texture is also more intense because I find it a tad bit hard to apply on. I’m not too sure yet if it’s the texture or if it’s because I swipe on powder foundation underneath. The powder could be too thick for the eye brow pencil to go on effortlessly. It took me some time to get the color on, no thanks to the powder foundation. If it’s a loose powder or normal powder then there will not be any issue at all. Anyhow I love this pencil to bits!

Remember, eye brow is suppose to be sisters not twins. It’s okay if you can’t get both shape identical. They’re not suppose to be identical

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored review. I bought the product on my own.

The post Daiso Eye Brow Pencil: It was out of stock a year ago and recently back on shelf! appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona