This is the view from the other side

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Dress: Chi Chi Heels: Kurt Geiger Bag: Tula (TKMaxx) Nails: Jacava 'Black Forest Gateau'  Lipstick: Chanel 'La Deseree'  

When you look at these outfit photos can you please picture me having a nice, glowy tan instead of being as white as a sheet? I'm planning on wearing this Chi Chi 'Paris' dress to my summer ball which is months away but there's no harm in being prepared- right? I really like the fit of it, it's very flattering and thankfully isn't too long or short which can often happen with this style of dress. I am wearing it with my favourite ever Kurt Geigers, you can't go wrong with a super high black heels with this sort of dress. They're suede so have a slightly softer look to them than if they were a normal leather or a patent.

On my nails is a new Jacava nail polish in the shade 'Black Forest Gateau'. It's such a lovely red berry shade which applies really evenly and opaquely- you could probably get away with only having one coat if you didn't have the time or patience for two coats! Unfortunately though, I have only had it on for one day and already chipped on three of my nails- even with using my favourite Seche Vite top coat and Orly Bonder base coat.

What do you think of my Chi Chi dress? Should I wear it for my Summer Ball?

 

 

*The Chi Chi dress and Jacava nail polish were sent to me to feature in a

blog post. This however does not influence my opinion on these products

and itis 100% honest as always.

   

Pancake Day

Seeing as today is one of the best days of the year- Pancake Day, I thought I would share with you a few photos of the Pancakes I made before they all were eaten! I had a topping combination of banana, cinnamon, Nutella and marshmallows on mine, what did you have on your pancakes? I filmed making them too which will be up on YouTube as a recipe tutorial pretty soon so look out for that!

As it's lent, I guess we're all supposed to give up something until Easter, right? What have you given up for lent?

MAC and Real Techniques brush dupes from eBay

After mentioning I had bought these cheap makeup brushes in my recent haul video, I've had countless people asking me to do a blog post reviewing them and showing you photos. I found these on eBay and bought the set of ten buffing brushes, MAC 217 dupe and MAC 239 dupe. The ten set cost around £15 and the smaller eye brushes were only £1 each. I forgot to photograph the other eye brushes that I got in the set of ten but they are exactly the same shapes as the face versions but much smaller. 

I have been using the face brushes every single day for buffing in my foundation. I have found that in comparison to other brushes I have tried, these ones have the perfect density and bristle length to them. I have the Sigma F25 which is a similar shape to the rounded top one of these but the Sigma one is much too dense in comparison, meaning that the foundation is just pushed around my face instead of it actually blending in. On the other hand, the eBay ones actually blend in the makeup to your skin. The bristles on the eBay ones are slightly longer than the Real Techniques brushes, allowing the product to blend in more effectively as again it isn't just being pushed around your face as I find can sometimes happen with the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush. I'm not a fan of the eyeshadow brushes that came with the eBay set. They're not the right shape or density to be used on the eyes so I generally use them for my concealer instead which I find to be a much better use for them.

Apart from being slightly more scratchy than the MAC 217 brush- the £1 one pictured above is a very good dupe. The length of the bristles are slightly longer than the 217 and the handle is plastic in comparison to the wooden MAC one but apart from this they are very similar. At a tiny fraction of the price, I'd recommend stocking up on these if you're new to makeup, on a budget or are simply too lazy to wash your brushes and like to have backups (like me). I ended up getting three of these but I need to order more so that I never have to use a dirty one when doing my makeup!

I also bought a dupe for the MAC 239 brush. This is a flat shader brush which is perfect for packing on the base lid colour, before blending and adding more colours in the crease which can be done with the 217 brush. Again this was only £1 each so I got a couple as it meant I would have back ups!

Overall I think all of these brushes are excellent value for money- I bought all of them for less than the price of one mac face brush! They wash and dry very well and so far I haven't had any problems with them shedding. All product links are at the top of this post.

Have you tried any eBay brushes before? What do you think of them compared to MAC and Real Techniques?