Natural Beauty Goodies + How To Use Oval Brushes

Nov. 12

Written By Thia

This past Tuesday, local beauty businesses Prism Brush Bar and MASQ held a natural beauty panel event to celebrate the re-launch of their new websites. If you know me at all, you know that I have a HUGE thing for natural products of any kind, and beauty/makeup products as well [ READ: What's In My Drawer: Makeup ]. Combine the two, you've got my kryptonite. So of course I immediately RSVP'd to the event days - maybe even a week or so - in advance. So much excitement, right?

TL;DR: I didn't end up going to the event because of a [stupid] misunderstanding on my part... but mostly because I got sick and didn't really want to leave my bed.

It's really too bad, because it seemed to be quite informative, and a great opportunity for networking, snapping Insta-worthy shots, and simply relaxing and having fun (you can check out Shannon's post about it on her blog Lyon & Fifth). I was so bummed I missed out on it, but then the following afternoon, I received several Instagram notifications from these businesses: mentions on stories, mentions on posts, tags, direct messages, the works! Turns out I had won the draw for the gift bag! To my luck, they had pulled my email from the RSVP list randomly.

And I didn't even attend the event. So I felt super guilty. But I did leave my email with the intent on going so... it's all fair game, right?

I went to Uni+Koncept (which is this super chic boutique in Waterloo, between the two universities) to pick up the bag, which included the following:

luscious lavender soap (purely patricia)

prism brush bar

mane-tain (masq)

A set of oval makeup brushes (uni+koncept)

luscious lavender soap:

All-natural and vegan soap handmade by Patricia Huynh, from Waterloo, Ontario. Good for the skin and the environment, each of her soap bars are one-of-a-kind and biodegradable. This particular scent is made with olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, aqua, sodium hydroxide, shea butter, castor seed oil, lavender oil, white clay, and alkanet root powder. Lavender is actually my favourite scent for any beauty or lifestyle products, so I was super happy about the choice of soap for the gift bag.

prism brush bar:

I'll be honest, I forget to wash my makeup brushes... or more so I don't wash them as frequently as I should. I used to use this cleaning spray for the job, but then I discovered soap bars aka the Prism Brush Bars, and I've been hooked! It's exactly like cleaning your paintbrushes. Kinda. Prism Brush Bar (founded by Nina Sijakov in 2015) offers a natural and simple solution to sanitize your brushes. Of course, it is made from a natural and vegan formula, and is cruelty-free and hypo-allergenic. I first came across this product at The Truth Beauty Company, a natural beauty and lifestyle shop in Waterloo and Guelph. The 'old' brush bar was simply the hexagonal soap placed loosely inside a circular tin. With the 'new' and improved version, the soap is molded into the new hexagonal tin, as you can see in the photos above. This new design is definitely a lot more practical, and cleaner.

mane-tain:

A hair mask, or a leave-in treatment, Mane-tain nourishes the scalp and locks, and restores the natural oils to your hair using organic coconut oil, organic sweet almond oil, organic cocoa butter, and bitter almond oil. MASQ currently has three products, the other two being Fresh Lengths (pumpkin seed, castor, coconut, and Japanese peppermint oils) and for the men, Jack - a fresh beard oil. Fun fact: the products stem from traditional Indian beauty remedies. I'm actually using the product right now, as I type. My scalp gets SUPER dry and even flaky during seasonal changes (side note: I've found that applying an apple cider vinegar + water 'mask' before washing my hair, and then using a homemade, natural shampoo of honey + lavender oil + water really helped my skin condition), so I'm really curious and excited to see how this will help!

*UPDATE: I ended up leaving the product in my hair overnight. It was quite easy to wash out of my hair (but that might also be because my hair is on the shorter side), and left my scalp feeling pretty moisturized. Will definitely use it again, as a once-a-week kind of treatment.

Oval makeup brushes:

(Generously donated by Uni+Koncept). Okay, these have been all over the Internet. But it's not wonder they're such a hit in the beauty world, because these brushes allow you to apply your makeup with such ease and precision, and the bristles are like velvet, super soft to the touch. I have yet to try them - they look so perfect, I don't want to dirty them up - but I will definitely provide an update when I do. If you're wondering what each brush does (like I still am learning), keep on reading. Disclaimer: I've taken the names from the luxurious ($$$) Artis brushes, just for the sake of calling them something in my how-to, and for ease of understanding.

*UPDATE: These brushes work wonders for face makeup (i.e. foundation, contour, highlighter, blush, etc.) as well as for blending, but I still prefer using the traditional brushes for the eyes. Fair warning though, these oval brushes pick up a lot of product due to the dense bristles - I accidentally used too much bronzer for contouring, and my face turned out darker than I wanted it to... so I had to spend extra time and effort to lighten it up. It also takes time to get used to which angles to hold the different brushes, in relation to your features. These are great products, but I think I will only use them when the special occasion calls for it, simply because I'm not used to them yet, and because of that, requires more time.

Oval Makeup Brushes w. Names | ebbony&lune

oval brushes how-to's

CIRCLE 1: lips, small areas, highlighter/concealer

CIRCLE 1R: fold/crease, inner corner, other small areas, concealer

LINEAR 1: lash line, brows, lip, clean lines

LINEAR 3: lash line, medium-sized lines

LINEAR 6: lash line, wider lines

OVAL 4: eyelid, highlighter/concealer

OVAL 6: eyelid, contour, blush

OVAL 7: foundation, blush, highlighter, bronzer, skincare, setting powder

OVAL 8: foundation, highlighter, bronzer, setting powder

OVAL 10: setting powder, highlighter/shimmer for body, powder foundation

(Need visuals to help you out? Check out this oval brush demo from beauty YouTuber Chloe Morello.)