Sleek Brow Kit Review

I am a big believer that well-groomed eyebrows can transform a face. A lot of girls leave this step out when doing their makeup but I think by just shaping and setting your brows it will frame your face and complete your look. I love using MAC charcoal brown eye shadow to fill in my brows and then setting it with a clear brow gel. I also use the HD brows set (review here) plus have many times thought about adding the Benefit Brow Zing or ELF Eyebrow Kit to my makeup collection. Late last year Sleek released their brow kit and ever since then have read rave reviews. So when I was in Superdrug the other day and it was just sitting their staring at me for only £7.99 I couldn’t resist giving it a go!

The Sleek Brow kit is available in two shades; light and dark. I decided on the light version which suits my colouring perfectly.

What they say “For perfectly shaped, groomed brows look no further than Sleek MakeUp’s brow kit. Complete with all the tools you’ll ever need for brows that flatter and frame your face, choose from two shades in light or dark to compliment your natural colouring. Just a few simple steps are all it takes for preened and polished brows!

The kit comes with a pigmented wax (right), setting powder (left), an angled brush, blending brush and even wee tweezers to pluck out any stray hairs. This all in a nice handbag sized compact complete with in-built mirror so perfect for on the go! Swatched is powder on the left and wax on the right.

I have been really impressed with this brow kit and it’s now part of my daily makeup routine. I start by combing my eyebrows into shape and then apply the wax, which has a lovely smooth texture, along the natural shape of my brow to create a perfect arch. Then I apply the setting powder to keep the wax from slipping off and fill in any sparse areas.
For on the go the little brushes provided in the kit are fine but at home I tend to use this angled brush by EcoTools.

“EcoTools is a leader in eco-conscious beauty products, most notably known for its incredibly soft cosmetic brushes. They take pride in offering a collection of cosmetic accessories and bath products that feature innovative, earth-friendly materials. In a continued effort to give back, 1% of EcoTools annual sales is donated to 1% For The Planet®, an alliance of businesses committed to leveraging their resources to create a healthier planet.” More information on EcoTools and their brushes here.

So have you tried the Sleek Brow Kit? If not, how do you do your brows?
The kit retails for £7.99 and can be purchased from www.sleekmakeup.com and Superdrug.

The Glossy Box Experience

You've probably read so much about the Glossy Box concept already because it's been all over the blogs here in the UK but for you that haven't really heard about it yet, here are my two cents on it all.
What is it? GlossyBox is a monthly subscribtion where you receive a box filled with a surprise mix of five high-end miniature beauty samples. It costs £12.95 per month and will provide you each month with a selection of what's hot in hair, beauty, scent and body care. I was very lucky to receive their September Glossy Box to expience it all for myself.

This what it looks like; I've got to say I was impressed with the girly and luxurious packaging.

The main benefit of the Glossy Box experience is that is you can easily (and from the comfort of your sofa) discover new types of products that you wouldn’t normally pick up and try or hear about.
So let's check out the products I got in the September Box:

♥ Dead Sea Spa Magik (Salt Brushing) Exfoliator
♥ Móa (The Green Balm)
♥ Plum (Eau de Parfum) by Mary Greenwell
♥ Neal and Wolf (GLOW Super Shine Spray)
♥ HD Brows (Eye&Brow Palette)

The main product that caught my eye was the HD brows kit because this has mentioned a lot in the press recently plus I am still on the look out for my holy grail brow shaping/filling set. 

So when I saw the HD brows palette in the box I got super excited. My excitment however subdued quite quickly once I saw that the palette I got was in the colour 'Vamp' which is meant for people with dark hair :( I suppose this is one of the downsizes of Glossy Box, you don't necessarily get products that are right for your colouring/skin type/hair type. On their website they do say that when you subscribe you complete a beauty profile to allow them to match the products as best as possible to your personal beauty and styling requirements, but I have heard some grummblings on the internet that this matching isn't always so accurate..

The palette is created by eyebrow experts HD Brows and contains four matte eyebrow colours, which can also double up as an eye shadow and eyeliner.

Top row: Nude & Carbon
Bottom row: Dark brown & Rich brown

You can apply this to brows, sweep across the lid, or precision apply along the lash line to give a soft but defined eyeliner look. The nude shadow is a great finishing touch for highlighting under brows and enhancing the brow bone.  The only shade that really works for shaping my brows is the dark brown (and this is only when I am aiming for a quite strong/dark and defined brow look) but I have to say I love the texture of these shades. Matte, highly pigmented and extremely long lasting. This palette usually features for £19.95 retail which I think is quite pricey and as much as I am enjoying using this palette I think there are probably cheaper alternatives out there that provide a similiar result, especially because in the end you don't really need 4x shades for your brows right? All you need is that one perfect shade to shape & set your brows, so my search for this holy grail product continues - please tell me what brow shaping product do you use and love??

Overall I think the montly Glossy Box concept is a great idea. I really liked the balm and hair shine spray (even though it's a little too fragranced for my liking) but the perfume and exfoliating salt weren't really up my alley. So would I sign up for this service? Probably not. Just because I have a huge collection of beauty products already and I think I prefer to have some sort of power over what I buy instead of paying a monthly fixed fee for a variety of sample products with the risk I might not like any of them. However I think if you are someone that doesn't own a lot of products and you are keen to experience and try a few new products and brands then this would be a great way to do so. Another bonus is that if you do love one of the products that came in your monthly box, the Glossy Box team provide you with offer codes for each product should you decide to purchase the full size version of it. Have you heard of Glossy Box before - what has been your experience?

For more information on Glossy Box, or to sign up, click here.