The Age Old Question : Do I invest in Makeup or in Makeup tools and brushes?

This is a wonderful mooting point to ponder over but nonetheless a concern for the self indulged and aware makeup addict. It's difficult to choose between good quality makeup products or good quality tools to apply that makeup, which is a very real issue as neither are sold in Poundland so finding a compromise can be tricky.

Nonetheless I will do my best to explain my stance on this as best as I can, and as much as I hate to admit it, my answer is not able to be a direct 'Always invest in good quality makeup over brushes' or 'Always invest in good brushes over good makeup' but I'll do my best to not give a wishy washy politicians answer.

So, I'm going to use an analogy now, and the best I can think of is soup. There is method to this I promise. Imagine you are planning to cook a tomato soup. and you have a set budget to make a batch. The money is not enough to allow you to buy the tip top rainbow dazzle organic juicy tomato's and the super duper whizzy stainless steel blender, so some strategy may have to be used, after some thought, the following options you have are:

1. Use the finest tomatoes known to man, but have no money left for a blender, so you resort to having to use a potato masher to make your soup - the result being lumpy, weird thing in a bowl that isn't really soup at all.

2. Use mid range tomatoes, and a budget blender, the motor burns out on the blender, but the soup is just fine, nothing to write home about.

3. Use the super duper whizzy stainless steel blender and tomatoes from the reduced section which have a green fuzz forming over them and an unidentifiable oozing - the result being moldy soup

I think that was rather a long winded way of getting out what I wanted to say. But ultimately it's illustrating that you'd be better off buying less makeup, and less brushes and only middle price/quality versions of both, rather than a spectacular set of brushes with crummy makeup, or splashing out on Lancome eyeshadow quads and then having to use your fingers to apply a smokey eye.
To me, there just is no one without the other, there is no investing in one and neglecting the other. If you need makeup, you need tools to apply it too.

So if someone were to say to me 'should I invest in Makeup or in brushes?' I would say, if you can only have one, save your money and invest in neither!

The best part of this whole thing, is that, we really don't need to choose anymore. We have such a lot of low-mid range choice in both products and brushes.
For super bargain makeup tools I'd recommend looking for shops on Ebay and Amazon, (check the feedback and reviews first)
or Models Own
or Eco Tools
or E.L.F

For super bargain makeup I'd recommend
MUA (The undress me palette and highlighting powder are particularly good
Sleek (Highly pigmented eyeshadows and blushers
Revlon (Top quality foundations and lip products)

Makeup shoppers on a budget (and lets face it, who isn't?) might find it useful to hop back to yesterdays post where I divulge the four, yes, just four essential brushes in every kit. I think most 'normal' makeup users can be pretty much satisfied with just those four, which makes compromising between cosmetics or tools that much easier.

Nail polish floods shopping mall!

 It was my mums birthday yesterday and she got some vouchers so we decided to head to a shopping centre to get some fun bits and pieces for her, but before any of that, we were greeted by this giant acrylic shape in the middle of all the shops. From the ground level it just looks like a futuristic perspex shape, but from above you can clearly see that it's a spilt nail polish bottle oozing with a gooey pink river! It's a Models Own makeup booth, and I initially don't associate them immediately with nail polish as their iconic product, but I guess, perhaps they do!

After all that, we went on the lookout for some fun kitcheny stuff in Lakeland, I just love that shop it has so many cute and innovative products, my mum ended up getting a food processor and some cute ice cream ceramic dishes too, I on the other hand was delighted at this adorable sight.

It's supposed to be the White House made out of white chocolate and using a standard gingerbread cottage mould (the kind you'd use at christmas) I already have the gingerbread cottage mould from last christmas but I never actually used it yet, and I never would have thought to have used it this way, It's of course in honour of the 4th of July and I just thought it was adorable and wanted to share it. If you click the picture to make it larger you can see a little mini Michelle and Barack Obama made out of chocolate!

 Then we went for lunch at Wagamamas which is such a relief as I'd been craving it for weeks. My mum had the Katsu curry but didn't eat all the rice as it is a mini mountain of rice, but it's essentially a chicken curry.
My mum also had the carrot and ginger juice, which made me feel nauseous, it honestly felt like I was drinking pasta sauce, maybe I'm just ignorant I  don't know. I on the other hand had the strawberry, apple and mint juice, it was so delicious, and tasted really fresh and raw.

 For lunch I had Cha Han which I believe is 77 on the menu, and besides it being delicious, I adore that it comes with a side of pickles, which are so incredibly delicious and tangy and crunchy and a miso soup aswell which I always drink last.

 I then went on to get some cards and gifts for birthdays and weddings coming up, and I was blown away at these gorgeous cards, the ones on the right are 3D cards that you make yourself, and behind the 3D dog you can perhaps make out the outline of a pirate ship which is another 3D card, and the pirate ship rocks from side to side!

Finally, just before I left Percy Pig sweets which are really really popular in the UK were celebrating his 21st birthday so they had a whole display stand with loads of variations of the Percy Pig sweets, one of the cute gifts was this piggy back, but I loved the grass on the bottom of it, so cute!

Tomorrow I am excited to be filming a brand new video for you guys to go up at the weekend!