My Illamasqua prize came today! 3 brushes and a postcard complete with a little message from Alex (presumably from the Illamasqua blog, not Alex Box but there is no surname on the signature, so i can't be sure). I've never ordered from Illamasquas website as i live in London so i can visit their counter in selfridges, but after recieving the lovely box this morning i stupidly want to just so i can have more of the gorgeous Illamasqua tissue paper (gold with the logo printed) and the address label had a beautiful sticker i shall take a photo of.
Now the thing is (i know this probably sounds a bit ungrateful, but i don't mean it to be in the slightest! I am so so thrilled to have won anything in a competition, let alone an absolutely amazing prize from my favourite makeup brand worth over £60!) the three brushes i recieved were not ones i would ever have chosen myself. I recieved the highlighter brush, blender brush number 2 and blusher brush number 2. I'm just not sure what to do with them, i have copies of each of the shapes and uses in my ELF brushes, and while i'm sure the Illamasqua ones will be a higher quality, i don't even use the ELF ones that often. Reasons being 1 the blending brush seems too big for eyeshadow (i checked on the illamasqua website and it says its suitable for any cream, powder or liquid product, but they sell a smaller blending brush designed specifically for shadow) but presumable is great for blush, foundation etc, but really my needs for those are met. The blusher brush is angled, which i can imagine being really useful, but i generally apply blush in little dolly-ish rounds to the apples of my cheeks and the highlighter brush seems very similar to the blending one and i just don't know how often i'd use any of them.
So the thing is, i could sell them and then spend the money to buy 3 brushes or other products of my choice. But then again these brushes might be the most amazing things i've ever tried and change my life and i'll never know if i don't at least test them, but if i do i wont be able to sell them (or at least not for the same price as them unused) and it just seems in a way wrong for me to sell my prize, i'm so proud of winning and it just seems like i should hold onto them to keep as a sort of trophy :P
At the moment i would be leaning towards keeping them, because really there are only a couple of Illamasqua brushes i wouldn't already have matches for, but then £60 is a huge amount of money for me, over a quarter of what i make a month. And i could buy about 5 of my favourite Illamasqua lipglosses or something. But then that makes me feel like an awful, ungrateful brat and i really don't mean it like that!
So i really don't know what to do. Any suggestions would be great!
I also recieved a prize from one of my favourite bloggers, Grey, today. It was a lovely christmas card with a rainbow selection of mineral makeup samples. I can't wait to try them all, thank you so much Grey if you're reading this :)
Oh and while i'm asking for your advice, i have a thought which is meant to be a good thing, but some people may see it as cheap, so i thought i'd ask. Soon i'm going to do a post-christmas giveaway of some Lush products (i bought specially for it), however for christmas i recieved a huge box of lush goodies from a friend. She hadn't bought them, but hates bath products and kept getting them for gifts for many years. There are way too many for me to ever use up so i thought i'd offer them as runner up prizes in the giveaway. Does this seem cheap or rubbish in any way? Also as these are re-gifted from her the products are not fresh but all entirely useable and retain their lovely smells and qualities. It's all bath bombs, bubble bars, massage bars etc so none of the 'fresh' facemasks or anything i can imagine going 'off' but still i'd like to know what you think :)
last night i had a dream that was mainly about me going to Lush to take part in the 'gifts a plenty when you spend £20' offer. Now that is sad! I haven't taken part in the offer and assume now all the free goodies are gone or at least whittled down extremely and apparently my subconcious is very sad about this!
I would hold on to the brushes a while until the excitment of winning wears off and then decide.
ReplyDeleteAnd no it isn't cheap to give extras as a prize!
((hugs)) and stop being so hard on yourself, you are a sweet, kind and loving person and we all know that! :)
I don't think it's cheap, I'm sure she wanted the stuff to go to good use, which is why she gave it to you in the first place. :)
ReplyDeleteEvil Anbgel:
ReplyDeletethats a sensible idea. Thank you, you're so sweet <3
Heather: thank you. I meant more that people here might not like the idea of getting them because they're not brand spanking new and it might seem cheap of me to just be regifting as a giveaway.
You're welcome! I was beginning to worry they got lost in the post!
ReplyDeleteHi Lillian - I'm so sorry to hear that you aren't happy with the bruses (absolutely no offence taken either;-))... The highlighter brush is actually my favourite for buffing in foundation. Unfortunately I didn't get a say in the brushes you were sent or I would have asked you which ones you wanted. Maybe you could email Alex and see if she would be willing to let you swap them?
ReplyDeleteHi Lilian, I thought your look was fantastic! I know what you mean about the brushes. The smaller ones, would be my pick too, you can't have too many smaller brushes lol! But when I looked at what they might be, I had a feeling they would be the bigger ones because of the value quoted for the prize! I certainly only entered for the fun of having ago and pushing myself to see what I could do. I was a complete wreck when I saw I was a finalist and it wasn't a patch on your look. Whatever you do with the brushes, it doesn't take away from the acheivement of coming second!
ReplyDeleteGrey:
ReplyDeletethank you again! :)
Mizzworthy:
thank you for replying. I really felt so ungrateful making the post. I actually decided to keep them and have been trying them out. While i wouldn't have chosen them myself i'm actually really happy i got them! Especially the blusher and blending brush, they work beautifully.
Sparklz and shine:
Thank you so much!
Smaller brushes are always great!
having said that i'm really happy with my prize now, i've been trying them out and they work brilliantly.