Revolution Ultra Professional collection 2016

In the collection you get three different brushes, two eye brushes and a face brush. The first one you get is the E101, which is a small firm eye brush which works really well in the application of eye shadow. The second eye bush you get is the E103 which is slightly bigger than the 101 and its bristles are much softer so work better for blending. The third brush that you get is the F104, this is a medium powder brush, and its really soft bristle mean it works really well with powders. I also really like the design of the brushes, the rose gold metallic binding on the brush gives it a nice finishing touch.

The Redemption eye shadow palette is another thing that you get in this collection. It contains 12 different shades, ranging from neutral Browns to pinks, purples, blues and greens. The variety of colours that they give you, gives you a countless number of different looks that you can create. Also the pigmentation of its formula make it really easy to work with and blend out. 

Redemption eye shadow palette

Eye primer

The eye primer that comes with these collection is also fairly decent. Its thin consistency means that it is easy to apply in the eyelids and covers all the areas. Upon application it
 appears on more of a fair skin colour, so in my case it helps to brighten up the dull natural shading if my eyes. It does somewhat help to intensify the colour of any eye shadow but not as well as others, still decent for the cost of it.

Eye liner

Another feature of this collection of the revolution liquid eye liner. Although I'm not really one for using eye liners, I do quite like this one. The small too brush that it comes with makes for an easy smooth application. Also the formula of the eye liner means that it dries fairly rapidly. 

Contour Kit

You are also given a contour kit of highlighter, bronzer and blusher. The package that this comes in is rather cool, it has a small thin strip mirror across the top of the inside lid, also each powder has printed into it what it is. Similar to the contour kit you are given a radiant illuminate which is a more subtle way of highlighting the skins natural curves and shape to shine through the makeup, rather then attempting to alter the shape which is what is achieved with contouring. The shimmer to formula gives it a natural finish, so it highlights all the natural areas of the face. 

Amazing lipstick

The final things you get are two lipstick and two lip glosses. With both of these one of them is a neutral kind of colour, were the others is more of a brighter colour. With the lip glosses you get a pink, which is rather bright, as well as more of tinted nude colour, so rather than colouring the lips it adds more of a shine to them. Similarly with the lipsticks you get a brighter colour, which in this case is red, as well as a nude brown.  

Intense lip gloss

I picked this complete collection up from Superdrug for about £16 which was fairly cheap, cheaper than the cost of buying them all separately. Although Revolution is a make up brand that is cheap in price without being cheap in quality, so I would defiantly recommend giving it a try if you haven't, or are simply looking for something new.

If you have tried Revolution makeup before what`s your opinion on it? What are some of your favourite products? 

Glitter calming bottle

Having spent a lot of time lately with my younger sister (she's 7) I've started to realise that a lot of the tactics that people tell you to use when they have a temper tantrum don't actually work. My parents have recently been using the idea of time outs for my sister, but they don't seem to work, she just gets more frustrated and angry. 

So I decided it was time to do some research and came across the concept of a time out bottle, these have been around for a long time and there are some pretty amazing ones out there; so I decided to test this out with a basic one that I made. 

Things you'll need: 

• A plastic bottle with a lid 
• Glitter ( I used pink and gold) 
• Water 

You can also add in other things to make it a bit more creative like food colouring. 

1. Add the glitter into the bottle (it's important that you put this in first because if you don't it's just going to float. 

2. Add the water, I put in enough to fill the bottle, leaving very little room for anything else. 

3. Add the food colouring the food colouring if using, then tightly put the lid back on the bottle and shake it up. (I put some glue on the lid so my sister couldn't open it) 

So what happens? 

After doing a bit of research I found that it offer a lot of benefits:

It helps the child to refocus all of their energy- during tantrums children somewhat lose control, messing around with the bottle and watching the glitter move around helps the body to gain the sensory input needed to organise thoughts and focus attention.

As designed to it helps the child to relax, gives them time to just sit and calm down. Also the bottle gives them something to take their anger out on, so rather than throwing punches they at things that are to squeeze and shake the bottle instead and channel their emotions into it. 


Having tried this out with my sister I found that is quiet effective if it`s brought in at the beginning, it really does help calm her down quicker then what it normally would.

So the concept of calming bottle has been around for a while, there are so many different design ideas out there, this I simple straight forward thing that I created on a whim just to see if it would help and it did. Have you ever tried calming bottles? Have they worked for you?

Reindeer Christmas Cake

Having never really been a fan of the the traditional Christmas fruit cake, this year I tried to do do some more decorative and festive.

For the cake:

250 g of caster sugar
350 g of plain flour
100 g of cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
170 g of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
230 ml of milk
240 ml of boiling water

For the icing:
300 g of butter
400 g of icing sugar
4 table spoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the reindeer decoration:
Your butter cream icing
Red fondant icing
2 white chocolate buttons
2 skewers
300 g of milk chocolate 

Antler Template 
Piping bag and small star nozzle 
Greaseproof paper

Preheat oven to 180 c

1. In a bowl sift together the caster sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt 

2. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and water. 

3. Slowly mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until full combined 

4. Add the vanilla extract and the oil. 

5 Separate the mixture in to two greased cake tins. Should take about 15-30 minutes to cook. 
6. Once the cakes are cook set to one side to cool completely before attempting to decorate.

While the cakes cook it is probably the best time to start creating the decorations so that they have enough time fully set. 

7. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave for a minute (keep checking it). place the antler template underneath some grease proof paper, the fill this out with the melted chocolate. attach a stick to each antler before securing it with more chocolate then leave to harden 
(Be sure to leave half of the stick hanging off the bottom of the antler to secure it into the cake)
you will want to create quite a thick layering of chocolate to strengthen it a little more
8. Place a small dab of the chocolate icing in the centre of the chocolate buttons to form the pupils of the eyes.
9. Roll out a reasonable size ball if the red fondant to later form the nose.

10. While the cakes cool, in a bowl sift together the icing sugar and the cocoa powder, before mixing in the butter to create the icing, once this is all combine add the vanilla extract 

If the mixture feels to stiff try adding a couple of teaspoons of milk

11. Once the cakes are completely cooled spread a small amount of the icing on top of one of the cakes then stack the other on top.
12. Spread a thin layer of icing all around the cake, don`t worry about it being neat the main purpose of this layer is to lock in any stray crumbs. 
13. Place the rest if the icing in a piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle, and ice little stars all the way around the cake until it is completely covered, leave this to set (30-60 minutes to allow the icing to stiffen)
14. Insert the two antlers to the top of the cake pushing them in as far as they will go, firmly push on the eyes and the nose. 
as the nose may be quite weighted, try using a cocktail stick to secure it in place.  

Christmas Cookies

It`s the most wonderful time of the year.... so what better to do then create some Christmas sugar cookies. This is a straightforward simple recipe that helps to create a light cookie that can be decorated up in any way; so it`s not a fixed Christmas thing they can be used for anything.











Things you will need:
380 g of plain flour 

227 g of softened butter 

200 g of granulated sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 

2 teaspoons of baking powder 

1 egg 

1. Preheat the 175 c

2. In a bowl cream together the butter and the sugar 

3. Mix in the egg and the vanilla extract 

4. Sift in the flour and baking powder, to form a firm dough. (Then leave to cool in the fridge for about 10-20 minutes, so it can firm, this is especially important if you're cutting out shapes) 

5. Empty the dough out on to a floured worktop, then knead the dough with your hands before rolling out. 

6. Cut out the cookies then place them on a greased baking tray, should take about 6-8 minutes to cook. 

7. Leave the cookies to cool before icing. 

8. Enjoy 

Cleaning Make-up Sponge

Make-up sponges are something that I prefer to use when applying make-up, particularly if I`m using a liquid foundation simply because its easier to apply it this way; and I don`t like using brushes with liquid because the bristles of the brush just clump together. y make-up sponge of choice is the real techniques collection and I am really loving them at the moment. Because I use it quite a lot I aim to clean it every day, so this is my quick 4 step process to getting the job done without making a big fuss about it. 

1. I tend to leave mine soak for a little while in make-up remover to help bring out any make-up it may have absorbed 

2. I then squeeze out the make-up remover and absorbed make-up, then run it under a running tap (lukewarm water) 

3. I use a small dot of soap to help get out any make-up that's clinging to it (I only use a little bit because too much and the soap just gets absorbed and becomes a pain to get out) 

4.  I then just rinse all the soap out of the sponge and leave it to dry out. 

I prefer to wash the sponge out at night that way it's still damp in the morning when I need to use it again 

Real Techniques

I decided it was time to go out and buy some new makeup brushes, my friend has been raving at me about the Real Techniques collection, although I already use some of their brushes such as the E301 eye brush. I decided that I was impressed with this brush and had enough of my friend nagging me that it was time to try some of their other brushes. 

So I went out and picked up the real techniques core collection set which has 4 brush and a nice little Panoramic carrier case for them which can be turned into a stand to hold the brushes while you work and helps keep it more organise. At first glance they seem like really good brushes and are nice and soft. 

 

The first brush you get is the pointed foundation brush, which according to the packaging is good to use with liquid foundation to build up custom coverage. Personally, I prefer to use it to work in my concealer rather than any of the liquid foundations; as I find that the flat brush shape makes it perfect for getting the awkward areas like under the eyes.

 

The second brush you get is their buffering brush, which according to the package is ideal for the full application of powder and mineral foundation. Which I found did work really well with most powders, it was really good powder foundations as well as things like bronzers and blushes, as it helped to build up the powders to whatever intensity you want.



 

The third brush you get is the detailer brush, which according to the packaging is precision cut to effortlessly conceal problem areas; or use with lipstick for long lasting shape and definition. Although the fact that it`s tiny means that it is good for sharpening up the finish to lips; it also means that I very quickly can become overpowered by lipstick and clumps together.

The final brush that you get is the contour brush, which delicately applies highlighter to contour or create sheer, soft focus finish. I do like to use this brush for what it suggests as its shape means that it doesn't pick up a lot of powder, so I can gradually build up my look.










Overall, I'm just really loving this Real Techniques collection, they are by far some of the most amazing makeup brushes that I have used, I also like to use the Real Technique makeup sponge for liquid foundations I just find that it works better then brushes. I managed to pick these up for like £14 so they are reasonably cheap for some good quality brushes, I would definitely recommend getting some if you have the chance, and they are available at a lot of different stores including Superdrug and boots.