I'm Baaaaccckkkkk!!! + Elianto Eye Brushes Review

Hey everyone! I'm back! I'd like to thank everyone who offered their kind words of support during the time that I was uber stressed and when I got sick. Yes, February is normally a very busy month for me, but this March, my schedule will be better I'm sure. So let's get on to our regular programming... Back to beauty blogging!

Today I will review some of the Elianto eye brushes that I own. Elianto actually has a lot of brush sets but I don't buy them because I feel that not all of the brushes in each set are good. If only I could mix and match the brushes :( Just some wishful thinking. So I'd rather buy the brushes individually even if they're more expensive, because you get to pick the ones that you want.

The nice thing about Elianto brushes are that they look classy. They have long handles and are brown in color. But do they deliver? Read on to find out.

From left to right:

Big Blender Brush

Flat Liner Brush

Flat Top Brush

Eyeliner Brush

Big Blender Brush (animal hair)

This brush sheds :( It's a little too big to use on the eyes, so I use it for highlighting. However, it does have some flyaways.

Rating: 3/5

Flat Liner Brush (synthetic hair)

This brush is good for making thick lines using a gel liner or powder liner mixed with a sealant. The downside is that people might find this a little too stiff.

Rating: 3.5/5

Flat Top Brush (animal hair)

This is definitely the best among my Elianto brushes. I have no complaints here. It gets the job done of applying eyeshadow on the lids. No shedding. It's a little smaller than the ELF eyeshadow brush, and also almost twice the price.

Rating: 4/5

Eyeliner Brush (animal hair)

Man oh man do I regret buying this brush. Serves me right for buying an animal hair brush for an eyeliner brush :( I didn't know any better during that time. As soon as I washed it, all the hair were all over the place. Good thing it was only P99 so it wasn't really heavy on the pocket. It isn't a total loss though because I can still use to apply eyeshadow on my lower lash line.

Rating: 2.5/5

Major Haul + Swatches

 I'd like to show you pictures of my haul last Sunday. This is seriously the most money I've ever spent on one day. Oh well, at least I'm happy :)

I went to Rustans to check out MAC's holiday collection. I got the Haute High Jinks, a Select Cover Up Concealer in NW20. I've never owned any MAC pigments before, so I bought the ones that I felt I could use the most. Then I went to NARS to buy my first ever NARS product, and what else could it be but my very own NARS Orgasm blush! I love this blush and I'm glad to finally have my own. I won't swatch it already since I'm sure many of you have this and there are many swatches around blogger.

Here's a picture of the pigment set when opened. Their packaging and bag is just lovely!

I also went to SM Megamall and bought some stuff there. A lipgloss from In2It, a lip liner from Elianto, and some stuff from Ellana. Ellana Minerals has some really lovely multipurpose minerals. Scroll down to see swatches.

And now for the swatches:

Taken with flash in artificial light:

MAC Haute High Jinks: Reflects Gold, Jardin Aires, Museum Bronze, Rushmetal, Copperized

Taken in natural light, with flash:

All except Reflects Gold, are pigments. Reflects Gold is actually glitter. I'm not impressed with it because the staying power is poor but all the rest are nice, earth colors that are very useful.

Moving on, I'd like to show you the swatches of the three multipurpose minerals I bought and the Yellow Submarine Super Sparkle Powder I bought. I discovered the multi-purpose minerals when I was in makeup school. I got the light colors to use as highlighters in the eyes as a sort-of substitute to MUFE star powders which are expensive.

For P130 (around $2.50) per jar, how can you go wrong?

For those who want to buy any of these products, I hope these swatches helped. I can't wait to use these!

Helping a newbie with MMU and my brush haul

I have a friend who has watched me put on MMU everyday and always commented on how fresh I look and how come I don't get pimples even when I use it everyday. So now, she finally decided to buy her own MMU. After a couple of weeks of planning, we finally to try the new primer from Bare Naturals and their flat top brush (since this is said to be very similar if not exactly the same as the EDM flat top). She was on a budget; she just wanted to spend a total of 2k. She is going to order the 2 products from BN and then today, we went to the Ellana showroom in West Ave.

I recommended Ellana to her because, first, it's readily available, second, they have a showroom so she can actually sample the products, and third, a little money can go a long way.

We really took our time there, trying so many different products. So after about an hour in there, she finally decided on full sizes of Toffee Mocha intensive coverage foundation, Espresso con Panna finishing powder, smile undereye concealer and a sample blush in harmony. She also couldn't resist getting the makeup remover which she really liked the smell of, and the baby buki, so that she could bring it with her. She actually wanted a retractable brush, because she saw mine. Unfortunately, it was out of stock. *Sad*

Of course, though, she can't use the foundation until she gets the FT from BN. She can't wait though. She wanted to get a little more products, but since she was on a budget, she decided not to.

Here is the pic of her haul:

She also got an extra foundation sample of toffee mocha. Her total wallet damage: around P1,500 (around $30.00). With the other items she ordered from BN, her total wallet damage will be around P2,200 (around $44). Not bad for someone who's on a budget.

Of course, since I was there, I couldn't resist buying some for me, too.

Here's what I got: sample sizes of heaven and happiness blush and a full size of fulfillment blush (I would have gotten a sample size but they were all out). I liked these colors but I only got sample sizes because I wanted to see how long they would last on my oily skin. I also got a sample size of their new high definition powder to see if it has good oil control. I know I'm on a lippie no-buy but I couldn't resist buying a liquid lip color in allure. I also would have bought it in lovely but they didn't have any new stock. LOL. Thank goodness for that, at least I saved P150 (around $3). I also got a lip scrub in strawberry. Hopefully it works out well for me.

The bulk of my purchase, though, was the buffer brush. This brush is big! I'll use this for days when I'm really in a hurry, since this can cover a lot of areas very quickly. The long handle also makes it easy to use. I'm getting this instead of the TBS kabuki brush because of some reports that it sheds. :(

Total wallet damage: P1500 (around $30)

Of course, my haul didn't stop there. After that, I went to the mall and got myself the following brushes:

from left to right: Elianto eyeliner brush, Elianto big blender brush, ELF eyeshadow brush and Bloom Blush Brush.

Because of all the raves and a lot of convincing in Girltalk, I finally bought myself the Bloom Blush Brush. Wow! This brush really IS soft! I can't wait to use this. I also realized that I need more eyeshadow brushes so after reading different blogs, I got myself the ELF eyeshadow brush which is getting a lot of raves, too. I also went to Elianto and thought about which brushes do I need so I ended up getting the eyeliner brush and the big blender brush since I don't have brushes like these yet. Despite the raves for the flat brush, I decided not to get it (at the moment) because it looked very similar to the ELF eyeshadow brush and the ELF is almost half the price.

So there. Yeah, I spent a LOT of money today. I'm done for this year's brush haul. I can now cross some items off my Christmas wishlist.