Tools

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set – Unboxing and Review

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This is a legacy post that has been given a facelift. Content has been edited for clarity and readability; additional thoughts are noted in-line. Enjoy!

In late 2013, facing a dearth of brushes and a wedding to pay for, I took advantage of a sale Coastal Scents was running and picked up their Elite Brush set. I’ve been meaning to share since then but lost the unboxing photos I took, so that delayed things.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set

The Details

This 24 piece synthetic brush kit normally retails for $69.95, but I picked it up during something like 50-60% off – all in all I think I spent around $38, shipped. The package, a bubble mailer, came quickly via USPS (shocker, right?). I did notice that the packaging had a peculiar smell, but the contents were unaffected. Inside was this tidy, cute white box that had been protected further by a generous layer of packing paper.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set Unboxing

The Brushroll

Popping open the box to slide out the contents reveals a black brush roll protected further by cellophane…

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set - Brush roll front

There isn’t much to look at, but the front cover of the brush roll has, “Coastal Scents,” inset. Simple isn’t a bad thing, I don’t think. Tools don’t need to be loud.

Coastal Scents Elite Brush Set - Brush Roll Thickness

The thickness of the rolled up, occupied brush roll is about an inch, maybe a little more. Considering its contents, it isn’t too bad for travel if you genuinely need an assortment.

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Sock Bun Maker / Sock Bun Ring

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This legacy post has been given a facelift! Content and opinions are the same; I still use this product!

Ah, the sock bun – the easy, lazy way of pretending you’re a put-together person on days where you roll out of bed twenty minutes late. (Read: Every day of my life.) Or, even when you get up on time and:

  • don’t want your hair in your face
  • don’t want to wear a ponytail
  • can’t do a french twist and…

For being a lazy fix and something that is trendy, I actually think sock buns are cute. Sky, falling, etc. This sock bun ring is similar to the As Seen on TV Product, “Hot Buns,” but I haven’t tried that specific one.

Sock Bun Maker / Sock Bun RingSock Bun Maker

My hair does not naturally come into a nice bun. Layers don’t tend to like that nonsense. Even when my hair is a uniform length, I just can’t create a neat bun on my own. I tried to do a sock bun with an actual sock and failed spectacularly. I sought help, but…not too hard. I can’t for the life of me recall what brand this one is, but I can tell you I picked it up at on a whim TJ Maxx for all of $2. Yeah, not a typo, two dollars. I figured it could either be an excellent $2 investment–or, if not, I paid what a vending machine at work charges for an energy drink!

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Coping with Hard Water

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HotelSpa Hard Water Filter

Have you ever moved to a new home and found that you skin or hair started behaving totally differently from how you understood them to before? I had that happen when I moved from my home state to my current one and for the longest time I couldn’t fathom why.

I ended up completely changing products for my skin and hair since what I was using before just wasn’t cutting it. Eventually, I figured it out what changed:

The Damn Water

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How to: Care for Your Hairdryer

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How to Care for Your Hairdryer

Confessions from a Dusty Apartment: That is my hairdryer’s filter and yes, it is dusty and covered in lint. No wonder it was failing to perform!

We clean our homes. We clean our brushes (or at least pretend we do). Frequently, though, styling tools get neglected. Sure, you might be removing excess hair from your brushes as it accumulates, but are you cleaning your hot tools? What about your hairdryer? Yeah – didn’t think so! Fortunately, it is super easy (inexpensive, and quick!) to care for your hairdryer.

Like many people, I left my hairdryer to face neglect. My dryer isn’t a fancy, performance dryer like a Neuro or Speed Freak. Instead, it is a modest (yet delightfully effective) Conair that my husband gifted me a few years ago. I was sad, earlier this year, when its performance started to wane. One day, I noticed that the dryer itself started to seem a bit hotter than usual although the air it was outputting was not. To top that off, the airflow wasn’t as powerful, either. After first giving it a quick blast with a can of compressed air to dislodge some of the fluff, I noticed an immediate improvement in my dryer’s performance. Shockingly, the picture above is after the compressed air. Oops. Then, I set out to do it, “right.”

The Right Way

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Bi-Weekly WTF :: Vol 8 – MAC 217 Discontinued

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MAC 217

Within the last three months, MAC discontinued the classic construction of their perennially popular 217 brush in favor of a synthetic bristle version, the 217S. The change came not only for the cult favorite 217 but for the entire MAC brush line. The 224, for instance, is now the 224S.

For some, this is extremely exciting; synthetic bristles make the brush accessible to vegans and those with animal cruelty-related concerns.

The Disappointment

For many others, however, the new brush is not achieving the same rave reviews as the original. With 2.5/5 reviews at most retailers who carry MAC, the performance of the new, synthetic version doesn’t quite live up to consumers’ expectations. After all, if you take two brushes that are cut identically but one is natural hair and one is Taklon, the way they pick up and distribute color is going to be vastly different. The way they feel on your skin will differ, too.

The Perplexing

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Worth it? Reusable Makeup Removing Cloths

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I love those Swisspers cotton pads that are a lot like the Shiseido ones. They’re both really nice (although the Shiseido are on the expensive side), but I invested in some reusable makeup removing cloths that have all but replaced them.

Waste Not

In the last year or so I’ve been gradually pursuing the idea of less.

  • Less makeup.
  • Less clothing (now possible since I have a lovely little apartment-sized washer and dryer).
  • Less waste.

I won’t pretend I’m living some virtuous low-waste fantasy. I’m totally not, and I’m not even trying to strive for that. I am, however, trying to make gradual, reasonable cuts to certain single-use items I buy. Fortunately, nice reusable makeup removing cloths don’t feel like a sacrifice or burden.

My Reusable Makeup Removing Cloths

There are so many options out there that it is hard to know where to start. When I first started shopping, I saw Makeup Eraser at Nordstrom and Sephora but $20 for one single cloth was a bit rich for

a) my blood and

b) something that I wasn’t sure of yet. I still haven’t bothered trying them because what I’ve gone with is (comparatively) inexpensive and fantastic!

SephoraSephora Black Magic Reusable Makeup Removing Cloths

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