Stroke Me The Right Way

I hate buying makeup brushes. I hate walking into M.A.C. and looking at their horridly overpriced brushes. I hate knowing that I will buy them, even when I know Michael's Craft store has basically the same thing in the painting section for 1/5th of the price. It's garbage. So, out of poverty and need, I usually end up buying brushes from the drug store, which inevitably turn out to be absolute crap; bristles are rough, fall out, don't distibute product evenly, or seem to suck up product like a sponge.

This is an issue no more!

EcoTools makes a wonderful line of quality drug store brushes that I would say are comparable to expensive brands. I picked up their Blush brush for around $8, and was quite resigned to picking brush bits from my cheeks and having to throw the p.o.s. out within the month because it was falling apart. EcoTools has proven me wrong. This brush is incredibly soft taklon, and makes me want to sit and apply blush all morning long, just to have it strooooke up and down my cheek. It's gorgeous. And, you may be interested to know that these brushes are made with recycled or sustainable materials, and the bristles are made of cruelty free hair. It's just a small way to help, if that's your thing.

I haven't tried any of EcoTool's products besides the Blush brush, but the foundation brush looks halfway decent, and the angled liner brush looks serviceable too. I would say the Blush brush is equal to M.A.C.'s 116 Blush Brush, which retails for $38.50. That's a savings of over $30, guys. Go give EcoTools a try, and use the money you saved to buy yourself somethin' reeeaaaal niiice.

Listening to: Electric Feel - MGMT

I Said WASH Like A Hippy, Not SMELL Like One!

Every beauty blog out there has been raving about Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. Dr. Bronner's is this hippy soap company, using fair trade ingredients for major components, organic oils from all over the world, and no foaming agents, like Sodium Lauryl Sulphate. They claim 18 uses for this wonder soap, and by all accounts this stuff can do everything under the sun, including dishes, laundry,and body washing. I'm not sure I'll be using it for the 'douche', 'deodorant', or 'toothpaste' applications any time soon, but to each their own... I did use it as shampoo, and my hair turned out like felt. Please, please God, save yourself the split ends and don't even try this. My boyfriend tasted it to see if it would work as toothpaste, and didn't seem impressed. Actually, I think his exact words were "It burns!!!!!". Maybe you should just take him at his word.

I picked up the Almond Liquid soap for about $10 at Save-On-Foods in the hippy-organic cosmetics section. It smells like delicious, delicious marzipan, but doesn't scent my skin for long after my bath. The Peppermint is supposed to be wonderfully cooling and tingly, especially on hot days, so I think once my monster bottle of Almond is gone, I'll get some minty freshness for summer. They make quite a few different scents, so I'll bet there's one that catches your fancy. Just don't try to read the ravings on the label; you'll only give yourself a headache.

Listening to: Boondock Saints Theme - Dropkick Murphys