Make-Up Storage

Hello, happy sunday! 

So before I went away I had a very big parcel come from me which I was super excited about. After lots of research I decided that this nylon make-up trolley would probably be the best storage solution for me! I will mention now that this case was a lot more expensive than your regular metal trolley & it is harder to get hold of in the UK. I managed to find one at a "reasonable" but still expensive price - generally this is a product that you can only get from America (unless you want to pay a lot of money). At the end of the day, you pay for what you get. You could buy a cheap trolley which does the job but it is unlikely to last. My nail trolley cost approx. £60 & the stabiliser came off at one side so for a good quality trolley that will last you are looking in excess of £100+. 

You may notice that I currently have lots of make-up still in it's packaging. This is either to protect my products or because I am keeping it in it's packaging until I have done a blog post on it as I always like to write about the packaging as well as the product itself. 


Size 
As mentioned, it is very big but it's better to get something too big than get something too small & have to buy something else at a later point. I guess it's another excuse to buy more make-up for my kit! 

Top section = 23 x 41 x 31cm

Bottom section = 56 x 41 x 31cm

Travel ease 
As you can see from the photo above, the trolley splits into two halves which is ideal if you don't want/need to carry your whole kit with you or if need to separate it for travel e.g. split it in two to fit it in your car. 

There is an option of adding a padded shoulder strap to either the top section or the bottom although if fully loaded & depending on what you have in your kit this may be very heavy on the shoulders. 

Each section also has a good sturdy handle to enable you to pick up each section with ease. 

The bottom section has 2 sets of wheels with stabilisers at the front. The wheels come in sets of 3 which is really good because given the weight of the trolley when you have all your products in you need something sturdy & heavy duty. It has a pull along handle attached to the bottom section which can be used when the unit is together as a whole with the top section is on or when the bottom section is on its own. 

This trolley is very secure & it boasts many clip fastenings with multiple options on how you want to clip them to make sure the top & bottom stays together & also that everything is secured safely inside. These clips are very stiff & hard to undo at the moment but maybe this is a good thing as once they are closed you know they won't open easily. Maybe as they get more use they will be easier to push in to release?

Compartments, sections etc. 
One of the main reasons I was drawn to this trolley was because of the many compartments! I like to keep everything in specific, easy to find places so I know where to find things quickly! For example, all my foundations in one place, all my lipsticks in another, not a mad jumble of make-up! 

The top section opens out fully with two big trays at either side. They are relatively shallow so it's easy to see things as you can only really stack 2 items on top of each other. 

Currently, this is where I choose to keep my blushers, highlighters, bronzers & general powders as they fit in here nicely! When closed this completely covers over the bottom section.

Below the trays once they have been opened out there is a big compartment. This is ideal for putting bigger items such as your cleaning products, packs of lashes & other big bottles. If you are a hairdresser or nail tech. you could easily fit in big items such as hairdryers & LED nail lamps so it is quite flexible! 

Above in the lid there is a detachable brush holder with space for 13 brushes - there are two of these within the trolley. It is attached to the lid by velcro. This is ideal as you can organise all your brushes where you want them to be & place them on a work surface if you want to. It also has plastic cover with velcro fastenings to ensure that the brushes don't come out & also if for what ever reason you don't have time to clean your brushes before you pack them it does not get make-up on anything in the case - brushes should be cleaned between every client. The only bad thing is for bigger brushes they can press against other brushes, potentially flattening the bristles so it would benefit with being more spaced out. 

The bottom half again has the detachable brush holder when you open the lid. When you open it up the top section is another big compartment. 

This is where I choose to keep my big eyeshadow, blusher & contour palettes as they can easily be stacked on top of each other & they seem to fit perfectly! I currently have 2 Naked palettes, 4 Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kits, 2 MAC pro palettes, 2 MAC pigment sets & a few random Benefit minis in & there is still room for more!

Now this is the best bit for me! The front cover unzips & folds down to reveal 8 drawers! The draws have press in buttons to secure them in place so once they are shut there's no risk of them coming open & your make-up getting damaged. 

I use these to keep my foundations, lipsticks, lip liners, eyeliners, pigments & much much more! I keep each thing in separate drawers e.g. all my foundations in one drawer, lipsticks in another etc. I generally keep them ordered within the drawers but some things I don't order particularly but I always know which draw I can find them! You can fit approx. 8 foundations per draw but smaller products such as pencils, lipsticks etc. you can fit loads in! Here are a few examples of how I currently store my make-up... 

The only problem with these drawers is the bottom two catch on the front cover zip & also on the fabric ridge so you have to make sure you pull the zip out of the way & make sure the drawer doesn't catch against either of these to get them out. They are only plastic so I am very gentle & don't force them when I am pulling them out as I don't want to break them. 

The bottom half has several mesh pockets. Two on the outside with zip fastenings (one on each side) & one on the inside of the fold down front cover. I have yet to find a use for them but I'm sure I will. Maybe I can keep some spare consultation cards in them. 

I think that's just about it! Hopefully, as always, you have found this post useful & has given you a few ideas from how I store make-up! I will be trying to do a new blog post every Sunday however, at the moment I have lots of other commitments that take priority! From June onwards I will be doing a new post every week at least once, I will keep you updated! In the mean time, feel free to comment & ask any questions! 

Emma x

HD Brows Eye & Brow Palette

Hello, happy Sunday!

The HD Brows Eye & Brow palette is one of my "go to" products when it comes to brows. I use the palette on every single client I do because it is absolutely amazing! It is the most popular product that I retail to my clients because it is so versatile! The RRP is £25 for these palettes. They are 100% worth investing in! 

Packaging

In keeping with the rest of the Make-Up by HD Brows capsule collection, the products come in matte black outer packaging with the silver Make-Up by HD Brows logo as apposed to the HD Brows logo despite it being a brow product. As mentioned in my other posts about the HD Brows make-up, I really like the simplistic packaging as it is good quality & looks professional as you'd expect. 

The palette itself, like the rest of the collection is also high gloss black with the Make-Up by HD Brows logo engraved onto the front. This isn't very noticeable but it adds a classy, high-end feel to the product. The old HD Brows palettes were in a handy square shape but didn't include a wax. This fitted nicely into my make up bag whereas, this is slightly bigger but as mentioned it now has a wax so you win some, you lose some! In reality though this is a fault proof product. I personally think it's the best brow product out there. It just does everything! 

It also has a handy mirror inside so you can do your brows on the go. This has been perfectly designed by HD Brows so that you can see both brows at the same time ensuring that you get perfectly symmetrical brows every time! The new stock now has a little HD Brows logo on the mirror which I like but it does slightly distract away from the fact that they want you to be able to see both brows at the same time as this slightly blocks the mirror but this isn't a major issue as it is quite small. 

Shades

The palette comes in 3 shades: 

Vamp for dark hair & skin, Foxy for medium toned hair & skin & finally Bombshell for fair hair & skin. I personally use the Vamp palette & out of the 3 shades I probably sell the most palettes in Vamp or Foxy as the majority of my clients have darker hair but I do get blondes also! All the powders are long-lasting as they are silicon-rich. They are also enhanced with antioxidants, vitamin C & E. This ensures that the powder applies & blend smoothly.  

Bombshell 

Nude (highlighter), light blonde, medium blonde, carbon, wax 

Foxy 

Nude (highlighter), dark blonde, medium brown, carbon, wax

Vamp 

Nude (highlighter), medium brown, dark brown, carbon, wax

So every palette includes a nude (lightest colour on the left of the palette) which is used to highlight underneath the brow & accentuate the arch. 

Every palette also includes a carbon (darkest colour on the right of the palette) which is NOT intended for use on the brows on its own but you can mix it with the other powder colours if the two middle colours aren't quite deep enough. This should only be done if you have very dark brows! I love this colour & I really like to use it on my eyes as a smokey eyeliner. I do this most days in fact as it is so quick & easy to do. 

The middle two colours include 1 warm & 1 cool tone so this caters for different hair colours including auburns! One is slightly darker than the other so again you can mix these colours to create the perfect match colour for your brow colour! It is important to note that there is a slight colour overlap between palettes so if the colour your stylist has used is in two palettes you have the choice of which palette you have so you can pick the palette which potentially you are more likely to use as eyeshadow. Just a little tip for you. This is the bombshell palette & as you can see the left shade is the cooler tone & the right shade is the slightly warmer darker shade. 

This video shows the overlap between palettes & the range of colours. The video starts with Bombshell then Foxy & finally Vamp.

The clear wax (on the right of the palette) can be used to fix the brows into place & can also be mixed with the powders to create a coloured brow wax. I love this as when used with the fine angled brush end of the applicator you can create really nice natural looking hair strokes or you can use this to create really neat & crisp edge. Rumour has it that if you mix the wax with the carbon powder you can create a gel-like eyeliner. I haven't tried this but if you get this palette, give it a go! So again, another thing that this product can do! 

Application

On to the applicator. The applicator has two ends, a fine angled brush & a slightly fluffier thicker angled brow brush. 

The fine angled brush as mentioned is great for creating really nice natural looking hair strokes or to create neat & crisp edges. I like to use this end when mixing the wax & powder. However, you can use this with just the powder. If you have been using the wax, make sure you give your brush a good clean after each use to prevent product building up. So as you can see from the photo, it's nice & thin. 

The angled brow brush is perfect for filling larger areas of the brow as it is thicker so fills the brows quickly & easily. This creates the appearance of a a soft yet fuller looking brow. You can keep building up the powered to create a more dramatic glamorous look. 

However, they have now changed this angled brow brush for a thicker eyeshadow brush. I personally do not like this as much. The aim of changing it is to make it a more versatile product so you can use it more effectively as a eyeshadow palette too. I personally think the old brush is better as at the end of the day it's primary use is a brow palette so why take away from that? I have a separate set of eyeshadow brushes, in fact I have almost all the full sized HD Brows brushes which are amazing I may add. I use these with my palette so the change of brushes for me this is a negative change but some people may like this. This is what the new brush is like...

One of the key things to take away from this is the palette is highly pigmented. You do not need a lot of product. Just a few gentle taps onto the powder is enough. The key is to slowly build the product up if need be otherwise you could end up with some pretty scary brows & more to the point you will be wasting product unnecessarily! I have had my personal palette (old style) for approx. 2 years. I use this everyday on my brows & also for my eye make-up & it still has plenty of life left! So they are 100% value for money as you get your use out of it! 

I hope you have enjoyed my post about the HD Brows palette! I will be trying to do a blog post about treatments or products that I love every week (posted on Sunday usually) so keep your eyes peeled! If you liked this post watch out for future posts on how to use the HD Brows brow products! Please feel free to comment too! 

Emma x