Fab Brows

Doing my eyebrows is one of my least favourite makeup chores, but it's SO needed. I have really light, thin eyebrows that look half invisible if I don't use something on them to help define my look a little. Plus having turquoise hair at the moment means doing my brows is extra tricky.

I've had trouble in the past finding a cool/ashy toned brown powder I can use (warmer tones look awful on me), and even if I find one I'm happy with I'm not the best at shaping them to be honest.

Malinki HD Brows

Hello my lovelies! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, and you're all ready for the week ahead bright eyed and bushy tailed. Speaking of bushes (don't..), I'm so excited to share my recent eyebrow adventures with you all! Yes, eyebrow adventures, that's right.
You know those girls who have just perfect eyebrows, beautifully arched, natural looking & just pretty splendid? Well I've honestly lusted after girls like this for the longest time, seriously. I mean, with eyebrows like that, they obviously have their whole life put together don't they? They're the type of girls who always look stylish, who are beautiful without makeup, who never spill anything, and who understand taxes and other grown up things. Those be boss bitches, and I want a piece of that. Sadly, as soon as I looked in the mirror and studied my own eyebrows, I was always left a little disheartened. For someone who is naturally brown haired; I have super light brows, and really thin. Non existent is a better description to be honest. If I ever took my makeup completely off, it looked like I literally had none. So I've always been hunting for the best pencils, powders, kits to help me look a little more normal. And every morning I'd try my best to fill them in without reaching the level of 'Scouse brow' - eek. This was the only part of my beauty routine I really hated. I thoroughly enjoy applying my makeup and transforming my face, it's such a great way to feel powerful and pretty if I need it. But my brows? Ughh, I'll happily pay someone to do them for me.
Enter Malinki.

Malinki is situated on Rodney Street in Liverpool, and is just a little bit swanky; without making you feel out of place. Maybe it's just me and my bright green hair/awkward personality that feels like this in many beauty places, but I always worry about going somewhere new like this. I worry that I'll feel like I shouldn't be there (god knows why) and that I'll be judged. Because let's face it, some place ARE like that, and it doesn't help my social anxiety. Anyway, we (I brought a friend for support!) got buzzed into the building and made our way up to the top floor and introduced to Frances; the absolute sweetheart who was to take care of my brows. I immediately felt more comfortable than I expected, as we were in a small room getting them done. Much better than a huge open place where everyone is getting different things done, and all listening into each others gossip as you do.

I sat down, got comfortable, and then had a chat with Frances about what I was hoping for. I warned her I didn't have much for her to work with, and when she cleaned off my brow powder she got a good look at what I meant. I explained I didn't expect miracles since they were so thin and light, but anything that made them a little more defined would be brilliant. She explained everything she was doing, asked about the exact shade I wanted and offered brilliant advice which I really appreciated. Honestly, I was clueless and she was beyond lovely. The only job I had to do then was sit back, and let her work her magic. She proceeded to wax away strays (did not hurt one bit!), create a better brow shape for me, and tint them to a much better suited shade for my face. It's at this point she would use your hair colour as a good factor in deciding the shade for your brows, but since my hair is green; that didn't really come into it. The best part of this was that she kept wiping away the tint so I could see what shade they were at, and we could decide if we wanted to go darker or not. So it was a gradual process with regular checks, which meant I knew exactly how they were turning out - Not a Scouse Brow in sight!
When I was all done, I finally got to see the finished result. So here we go, the before & after photo we've all been waiting for...

I'm sure you can all see now what I mean about having Casper-like eyebrows. But yay for getting this fixed! Apologies for the crappy photographs, but I've had a few camera issues this week. Hopefully you can see the massive difference this session has made to me already. I plan on just leaving my eyebrows completely alone, letting them grow however I can, and visiting Fran again in a few weeks time. I will happily pay for this every few weeks just to make myself feel a little more groomed and special. Even now, when I'm sat here writing this at night with not a scrap of makeup on; I feel so much prettier. I have an arch and shape to my eyebrows, and they are clearly visible without any brow powder in sight. I couldn't be happier! I feel less naked, if that makes sense?

I know some of you are blessed with naturally beautiful brows, but if you are someone who would like them a little more defined, or shaped a little better; then I definitely recommend you go to Malinki (if you're in the North West!). I'm not the type of girl who usually indulges in various beauty treatments, but I really wanted to share this experience with you guys because I was SO happy with the result. I also wanted to feel a little better about myself for those days going makeup free. Confidence should come from within, but sometimes a little treat like this helps massively. And for only £25? Bargain!

If you're interested in giving your brows a little extra love, then you can get in touch with Frances on Twitter, Facebook or the Malinki website. Also in case some of you are wondering, I've not been paid or sponsored at all to write this post, I just genuinely had a wonderful experience and wanted to thank Frances for helping me look and feel a little bit better! It's hard to find such lovely beauticians who really listen to you, and make you feel good.

*Image courtesy of Malinki

You can find more photos of me being a little poser, all confident with my new brows here and here ;) Have a great day everyone!

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My Least Used Beauty Product

We've all bought beauty products that we feel we really need at the time, or lust after beyond reason. Sometimes we think if we just buy that one certain product, it will fix everything. For me, there is no better example of that than the Too Faced Brow Envy Kit I got around five or six months ago. I was filled with instant happiness at my new purchase, and was sure this was the product finally going to fix my brows. We were going to be besties. In fact, the photograph taken above is the very first photo I took of it months ago, all shiny and new. I kept it as I just knew I'd end up doing a review of it after a few uses, and reporting back my findings.
Little did I expect though, we didn't end up being BFF's. In fact we were more like those friends you run into occasionally while you're busy doing other things. You always promise to try make time for each other and you really mean it, but it just never quite happens. I tried out the Too Faced Brow Envy kit expecting it to transform my brows from barely there to showstopping power brows. You know the ones. I regularly feel envious of Sarah's brows over at 'And Beauty Or Something'. She has those babies. Unfortunately the kit and I just never quite bonded that way. 
Let me start on a good note. I was instantly in love with the packaging of this kit. It's such a handy all in one product, perfect for popping in any bag to take around with you. All the essential tools you need to take care of your brows at any time. No muss, no fuss; Lovely. The tweezers provided work fine and grab even the peskiest of strays, and the highlighter provided a subtle lightening where I needed it. 
That's about all the good I can say for this kit. The brow powders provided just weren't right for me. There is a blonde and a brunette option, and neither is close to the shade I need. Too Faced also advise that you can mix these shades to create your own custom one if needed, but that wouldn't have worked for me as I found the brunette powder to have a slight reddish undertone to it. I needed it a little cooler, and ever so slightly darker now that my hair is a very dark brown, almost black. And as for the setting wax? Well I can't say anything bad about it, it was okay. It did seem to keep my powder in place throughout the day, but I didn't like the feeling of it if I'm honest. It felt a little gloopy, and stiff. I have found better success with other products promising the same result, so I don't think I'll be missing this much.
Overall I'm left kind of disappointed. I really feel like this kit just missed the mark off becoming brilliant, it didn't quite get there. If these powder shades are perfect for someone else though, I could understand how they would see this product in a much more favorable light than me. The convenience of this product could be amazing.
So for the past few months this product has sat at the very back of my makeup storage, just waiting for someone to be friends with it.
.. I promise to keep in touch, really. We'll talk.