LSY Brushes Haul (Photo heavy)

 I have used the new Lam Sam Yick (LSY) flower shaped kabuki for a while and I have to say, this is the most expensive brush I have ever purchased, and I am totally not regretting it at all.

It come in a chic square box for which it arrived at my residence from Taiwan safely. :-P
It come with a brush bag that is in lovely champagne pink colour, the only down fall is that the opening is bit too small, it just fit tightly, so I was bit concern that when I try to take out the brush, the zip will damage the brush

However, I have no intention to take it out with me, so it isn't really an issue.

Material - wise, it looks like pvc leather, but still, it looks chic enough for me.

Size - wise, compare with a 5p coin, it looks decent in size for my face, I should have take my primark kabuki and compare them. For size, primark one is bigger than LSY, but LSY has a nicer shape and I felt that this flower shape fits better than the traditional kabuki shape.

 Also, one of the reason that I felt it worth the money is that this is made by the traditional method, as how the ancient chinese make the ink brushes. They do not trim the hair, but arrange the hair to the require length by very skillful craftmen. So you can tell from the photo on the left, all the hair align in the position where they need to be, and the tip of each hair is smooth and pointy as they have not been trim or cut at all.

Furthermore, as there was an early purchase offer, I have got a travel size lip brush for me. I rarely use lip brushes, but I have a few at home, e.g. No 7 , R&M, Lancome, this is one of the best brush I have use, as it is dense in hair, but also bouncy, which is not bad when I try to apply lipstick with it.



So what do you think?

x kyanvi x

p.s. this is only of the my favourite brushes atm, as long with kabuki from primark, bronzer brush from model co

p. s. s. just realised that LSY is exactly the mirror imagine of YSL! hahaha... so funny.

Crown Brush - Not impressed, don't even border

Crown brush, I heard of good reviews before, and heard that coastal scents brushes are from crown brush too.. So I have planned to get my hands on them for ages... However, I was put off by the postage, £5 for delivery is a bit too much for me [well same applies to Space NK, which I will only purchase online rarely =[]=] As there's a special discount on the postage, I decided to give it ago. Although the delivery was fast, I was quite disappointed with the quality of the brush.

Although the quality of the fibres for this Large Duo Fibre Face brush are okay, I was so disappointed with the quality of the brush as a whole. You can see from the 2 photos above, the black hair suppose to be shorter than white ones, but for here, obviously they forgot to trim all of them, as I found 3 strpies that are not trim.

The reason that I didn't require a return as I could not be border as I checked online, for returns there's a charge for it [ that's applies if you changed your mind], but there is not any information about if the brushes are   damage during transit or when it come out of the factory.

For £9, I think I will rather purchase one from Sigma, as the 2 duo fibres that I have are much better.

Same applied for the angle fluff brush, one of the fibre is not trimmed properly, it is 2x longer than the rest. By the time I checked the brushes, I was so disappointed that I know I have to write this review before the others that I have in mind, as I totally discourage you to get things from there.

But, otherwise, for £2 this is still okay to me

For the Blush brush from the Basic series, I was shocked that the brush has been pressed so hard in their warehouse, the shape changed. I purchased brushes online from e.l.f., everyday mineral, sigma before, but none of them arrived like this! =.=// Although the shape changed back to what it suppose to look like after I wash it, when I washed it, it was another horror.

I actually ran out from the toliet to take this photo. The foam of the shampoo turned grey and tiny hairs felt out of the brush. I was shocked, as none of my brushes dropped so many as you can still see some on my balm.

For £4, I seriously recommended e.l.f. instead.

Furthermore, these 3 brushes are from the same range, but the Mini Blush brush does not have the name printed, this is rather confusing, but oh well, after all the shocks that I have, this does not really border me... Sigh....

Well, it is not totally wasted of money as at the end of the day, after a wash, the brushes are okay, still useable, but for £18.54 in total, which included p&p, I seriously rather get brushes from e.l.f. studio range or try their new bamboo range.. Sigh... quite regret now.

So, I totally NOT RECOMMENDED to get brushes from Crown brush any more!

x kyanvi x

The Body Shop Limited Edition Eye Palette - Boho Beauty

As I mentioned on Sunday, this week will be my brown eye shadow week! For first, let's start with a recent popular one, as I think everyone has secretly has a crush on the special word ' Limited Edition'

As I have bought the Groupon voucher, so for now, it is cheap enough for me to pick it up. haha The packaging is not bad, as I am a fan of white palette. Also, it is not flimsy, but firm plastic,  which is good, as sometiems I foudn some of the palettes are very flimsy.

Inside, there are 4 eye shadow, one brown kohl pencil and a small eye shadow brush, which looks quite alike to their normal brush range.

The eye shadows are highly pigmented and tightly pressed., as for these swatches, I have just use my fingers and the colour come out easily as I have moist fingers. the texture is quite funny, as although it looks like powder, when I touch it, it is slightly creamy.

The brown kohl pencil is normal, soft and highly pigmented, but the only trouble for me is that I don't like sharp eye liners, so I have to draw at the back of my hands a few time before I can use it on my eyes.

Although the brush looks small, this is much better than those foam sponge applicator, and it is quite dense too!

I don't normally take any photos for the back, but the only problem is that TBS now produce their eye shadow in Thailand instead... @@ [ I still much prefer to have things manufactured in the EU]

So like this?

x Kyanvi x

Brushes from Taiwan

I was keen to get hold of this brand, 林三益(LSY), but wasn't as keen as google and see whether I can find a buy in UK until this flower series!

林三益 is a traditional ink brush maker in Taiwan. As you may know, traditionally, chinese use ink brush since 475BCE, and this brand is one of the famous ink brush maker. If you have done Chinese calligraphy before in school, you will know how important the quality your ink brush is, which is the same as the importance of your make up brush.

With a reasonable price (i.e.£22+/- for a MAC 188 equivalent) . and that they are hand made,  I always keen to get hold of this, but now I am even more keen than ever =[]=

Think you will be more keen if you see the rest of the series:

my 1st fav

my 2nd fav

my 3rd fav

Keen?

I am very =[]=

x kyanvi x

p.s. photos taken from one of the LSY retailer:http://amazing-palace.blogspot.com

2010 Favourites

Although I know it's already February, since I have already took the photos, then I might as well upload the photos [but too lazy to write that up @@] and put this as a record. ;-P

Eyeliners

Gosh Velvet Touch
Prestige Automatic
Prestige Total Intensity
Benefit Eye Bright
Stila Kajal

Brush - Eye

Barry M E/S brush
No 7 e/s blend & contour brush
e.l.f. e/s shading brush
Gosh eyeliner brush
Models own e/s blending brush

I will update the rest tomorrow! Good night!

Kyanvi

Trick in the Bag - Interdental Brushes

I can't remember where I have saw this trick, so sadly, can't give any credit to the clever lady who though of this. Anyway, these interdental brushes aren't just good for your teeth, but also your lashes.

As you probably have experienced before, normal mascara wand are bit big compare with the eye lashes, so corners and lower lashes are quite hard to reach without getting the area dirty. So these are handy for these situations.

Brush your interdental brush on your mascara wand, so that it is cover with mascara and just apply the mascara with this small brush as you use the normal wand. Also, these are much more handy to tidy your lashes if they are entangled.

I bought these from Superdurg for £2 for 2 and they do 2 sizes: 0.45mm and 0.5mm.

Personally prefer the 0.45mm, but I think 0.5mm is more useful to put in the makeup bag as 0.45mm is a bit too small for the upper lashes.

Well, what do you think of these? and have you have any other tricks with the lashes and mascara??

K

My Kabuki brushes

I always want to buy a kabuki brush, but seems there's always a issue that stopping me from buying, e.g. price, quality, etc. But then, I just cannot resist to buy one when I was in Primark last month and received a mini size one  by Bare Minerals when I bought stuff from Debenhams.

When I was taking the photos near the window, I got no ruler with me, so just grab a 10p coin along to comapare. For readers who are not familiar with pound coins, it's roughly the same size as a quarter for US reader, or 1HKD or 0.5SGD for asia readers (as i only familiar with these currencies other than GBP)

So as you can see, Bare Mineral is only around the same size as a 10p coin and Primakr one is much bigger.

Both of the brushes are quite dense in hair which is good, but the hair is more even in length for the Primark one, while Bare Mineral one is spreading out a bit more.

Conclusion

Both of the brushes are very good, but price wise, I think the Bare Mineral will be much much more costly as the Primark one only cost me £1.50. Also, it really depends on the user. I personally much prefer sythenic brushes as they are easy to clean and tend to be soft and the main thing is that they don't have horrible smells like natural hair ones. The Bare Mineral one is made of natural hair which I found it is slightly hard and I always concern that I will mess up the brushes by using incorrect method to clean and store.

Score

70/100 (for Primark)

60/100 (for Bare Mineral)

I heard e.l.f. or Bobbi Brown kabuki are good, so what are you using?

Kyanvi.

Another version of DIY Brush Cover/ Guard by Aiyoh

In my previous post, I have made a small tutorial on how to make your own brush cover (Click here to review the post), and a fellow blogger, Aiyoh from Philippines has improved my idea, and with her permission, I just want to share her idea with you all. (Click here to see her post)

Instead of using random fabric, Aiyoh used a stretchy fabric (which I am not sure of the name as well, it will be great if anyone can help me out) and needle & nylon threat. For anyone who is good at needlework or cannot find any Hemming web tape, this is a much easier option, I suppose. lol

Since the method is roughly the same, I won't rewrite the procedure again, so refer my previous post or Aiyoh's post for more help!

Kyanvi.

DIY Brush Cover/ Guard

I have read lots of reviews relating the advantages of using a brush guard to keep the makeup brushes in shape....But consider the price of the brush guard that is available on the market and the actual use, I was trying to find an alternative way.

So here we are:

You need the following:

Iron

Some clothes (old or new, but make sure they are clean/ washed)

Hemming web tape (can get in any supermarket)

Scissor

Pin (optional)

Fold up the cloth to match the size of the brush, then, cut a piece of the Hemming web tape that is similar to the size of the overlap of the cloth, and pin it the cloth.

(Note that make sure the cloth can go though the whole brush from the bottom, as when you put the cover on, it should go from the bottom to top, so that it smooths the hair of the brush. I actually made a mistake and made the cover too small, as the bottom of The Body Shop brush is too big compare with its head @.@)

Apply the iron on top of the cloth to melt the Hemming web tape and hold around 5-10 secs to make sure it sticks.

Then that's it, it is very easy to do!

And here's the 9 that I did yesterday. I think I got these cloths from a sofa company, think they are samples of their sofa covers, that'y why they are all in different colour, pattern and texture.

So what do you think of this?

Kyanvi.

Sonia Kashuk Brushes

As I mentioned before, the brushes from Space Nk have arrived in my place (in a black box XD). The texture, the finishing of the brushes are in good quality.  I bought the following brushes for £4-6 each (original price is around £2x each:

Contour

Angled Blush

Synthetic Flat Top

Sonia Kashuk is more famous for her eye shadow brushes, but then I need face brushes more... and I heard that animal hair is used in her blush brush.

I compared the brushes with the similar ones I have already (photo above). The texture of the contour & angled brushes are really good. Compare with my everyday mineral brush, they are much smaller in size, but actually fit much better for my face. Now I use the contour for highlight, angled for shading and everyday mineral for touch up.

On the other hand, I was quite disappointed with the flat top brush, but this maybe due to the fact that I am not quite use the exact use of this brush?! Compare with my e.l.f. powder brush, I love the e.l.f. one more. The size of this flat top brush is perfectly, but there's so much synthetic hair, it makes it quite hard and dense, not fluffy at all. (though the quality of the hair is good, its nice and soft) Therefore, I may just keep it and see what can I do with it later on...

Conclusion

For £2x, I definitely not recommended to buy any of them as they don't worth that much, and since the price in the states is much cheaper. BUT, for £4-6, it is perfectly fine, as I bought the everyday mineral for USD$10 (around £6) and e.l.f. for £3.50.

Also, not recommend to shop online @ spacenk.co.uk as delivery is £5, though there were 4 samples included and packed in a black cardboard box (which I like) filled with polystyrene.

Score
Contour 80/100

Angled Blush 70/100 (due to the messiness of the hair when it arrived)

Synthetic Flat Top 45/100 ( I still haven't figure out the usage)

So, since I heard lots of people have bought this, I am looking forward to see other people's review~

K.

p.s. the design of the handle is kind of the selling point for this set of brushes, i think. Although they are much easier to handle, totally no good for travel...

Summary of the products that I like for 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was planning to write my last piece of review right before the end of 2009, but then, i was distracted and was watching Black Bulter (黒執事), so didn't have time to type up @.@ I either stayed at home or went out shopping right after new year, so didn't have time to surf online too.

Here's the top 10 products, both skincare and makeup that I love most

(N.B. not in a particular order)

1. e.l.f. Studio Bronzer - Cool

I always looking for a palette that can do shape and sculpt together at the same time...But there aren't many option available from Boots/ Superdrugs. The most famous one is the M.A.C. Sculpt & Shape Duo like the one below

But then, I found it rather expensive... So I use this as an example and found an other alternative.

For £3.50, this e.l.f. bronzer is really good for this purpose... (which I will type a review if I had the time...sigh~)

2. Everyday Mineral Angled Brush 

For USD$ 8, this is the best brush that I have and it is perfect for mineral makeup. Sadly, this is not available on everyminerals.com... if I know this earlier, I will at least buy 2-3 more...sigh~ so I have to take extra care to keep it well....

3. e.l.f. Shimmering Facial Whip - Spotlight

see more details on my recent post -> Click Here

4. Estee Lauder Double Wear Mascara

I prefer Lancome's  or Primark's mascara more before, and I didn't like Estee Lauder's mascara before as I have a bad experience... But then, after I used this. It is perfect, it lasted and extended my lashes well. Also, one more good point, it is easy to brush on without clotting my eye lashes.

5. e.l.f. Mini Makeup Collection

see more details on my recent post -> Click Here

6. Avon Care Rich Moisture Glycerine Hand Cream

see more details on my recent post ->Click Here

7. Homemade Lavender, Rose Face Cream

see more details on my recent post ->Click Here

8. Olay Total Effects Radiance Enhance Cream Wash

This is my favourite cleanser at the moment, as it is cheap and effective. It removed excess oil and dust gently without giving the skin a hard time. It is good for everyday use.

9.  Garnier Eye Roll On

I have already bought a spare new one even though I haven't finish the old one yet... But there's 1 annoying point though... I just saw online Boots.com, there will be a new caffeine roll on which is used for dark circle.... i cant wait !!!!!!!!

10.  Botanics Organic Rosewater Toner

There's a few more things I want to put in this summary... But then... since I have already chosen a face cream, so I think I should put a toner here instead...

Kyanvi