Another Target run, another spur-of-the moment beauty purchase from Sonia Kashuk. Allegedly, I swung by the store for detergent (I’m a Gain girl. How about you?). It’s not my fault I always end up in the beauty section.

Heck, though, since I was already there, I figured I’d look for a full-size bottle of Sonia’s Making Waves Nail Colour, and bring one or two or five home, LOL!

(Remember it, the bright sea green, from her new A Powerful Punch Set? Yep, I like it that much.)

But while I was searching for it, something else got my attention: this bottle of Sonia’s Brush & Sponge Cleanser ($7). It was hidden behind some makeup bags, as if someone had squirreled it away back there for safekeeping (I’m totally guilty of doing this many times).

Now, I’m still happily engaged to Burt’s Bees Mango & Orange Energizing Body Bar as my de facto brush cleanser, but I’m also curious like a cat.

A single word in the directions on the back of the bottle sealed the deal for me.

To use the cleanser, you’re supposed to wet your brushes or sponges by spraying them with some of the product, which you then work into a lather (weird!). Then, rinse until the water runs clean.

Most of the liquid brush cleansers I’ve used before, like the one from MAC, don’t usually work up a lather, which makes this one kind of unusual.

Color me intrigued…

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High up on my list of things to do this week: dreaming big dreams — no matter how silly or far-fetched they might seem.

Because you never know. Casting those crazy ideas out into the ether could be the spark that sets in motion a chain of events that leads to one or more of them coming true.

Of course, a few of my big dreams would have to be related to makeup, right? — like traveling around the world while wearing the colors in the new limited edition Make Up For Ever La Bohème Eye Shadow Palette ($39).

And since we’re talking about BIG dreams, I’d want to wear each of the six baked shadows in this free-spirited palette while exploring a different far-flung corner of the world, and I’d start in Costa Rica with Lagoon Green.

This shimmery teal would be the perfect color to wear out to dinner with my BFF Cindy after a day spent playing in the surf.

From there, we’d zip out across the Pacific to the Garden Isle with mossy Vegetal Green, which I’d love to wear while searching for secret waterfalls on Kauai.

Then, and this one would require passing through quite a few time zones, I’d wear Beige on my lids while hiking the hills around Provence with my favorite wide-angle lens, and silvery violet Parma Purple while El Hub and I ate our way through Rome.

Next, silvery peach Coral and I would tour the Taj Mahal (always wanted to go), and then head back home to hopefully wear shimmery reddish bronze Brown out with you to lunch.

Afterward, maybe we could even do some window shopping, and you could take us to some of your favorite places to play with makeup in your town.

I know, I know. Such a crazy dream, but even if it never happens, at least I can still mimic the same sparkle in my eyes that I get when I’m traveling, since MUFE added high amounts of pearl to these baked shadows (which have a new formula just added to the line) to give skin a luminous, almost metallic finish.

The La Bohème Eye Shadow Palette and Aqua Eyes in Gypsy (also from the La Bohème collection)

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Initially, I brought home this $5 Burt’s Bees Mango & Orange Energizing Body Bar from Target 1) because I can always use a little extra energy, and 2) because I thought it kinda looked like food, ha!

I ended up liking the invigorating citrusy scent so much that I started using it to clean more than mah bod.

When I used up the last little slivers of my bar of Becca Brush Soap, I grabbed Burt’s Mango & Orange bar on a whim, using it to clean a couple of skunk brushes that I’d used with a bright blush and a MAC 239 brush crusted over with concealer.

As luck would have it, Burt’s invigorating body bar worked wonders on the brushes, removing all of the funk from their stinky ferules and the gunk from the handles and brush heads themselves.

I’d like to shake the little hand of the bee who developed this bar and thank him/her for doing such a great job. Not only do I think it’s one heck of an energizing, moisturizing body bar, it’s also one of the better brush cleansers I’ve used in a while.

And fast, too. It cuts through hard-to-remove products like dried foundation just as quickly as Becca’s Brush Soap does and rinses without putting up a fight. After air drying, my brush bristles feel soft, clean and malleable, not crunchy or stiff.

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What do you usually use to apply foundation? Sometimes I get the best results when I use my fingers, but I go through phases. One week I’ll use fingers, the next week a skunk brush, and then maybe even a kabuki brush the week after that.

I guess I’m a bit of a wild child when it comes to tools. It really just depends.

Lately I have been rather enamored with fan brushes, though, like the lovely Trish McEvoy 62 ($36), which I’ve been using to apply MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation.

That’s right — a fan brush to apply a liquid foundation.

Weird, I know, but hear me out. I actually got the idea from MAC Senior Artist Keri Blair, who uses it in this video to apply MAC Mineralize Foundation. Her results just looked so flawless and natural that I figured, heck, why not give it a try?

The first fan brush I thought to try it with was the Shu Uemura 7.5EX, a brush I’ve loved for years (as a side, I think it paints scary pigmented blushes like MAC Frankly Scarlet with aplomb).

With Studio Sculpt, I thought it was just a’ight. I liked the thin, light level of coverage, but I also got some streaks.

Hmm…

Not yet ready to give up on the idea, I tried a few other fan brushes, all of them with mediocre results until I came to Trish’s 62.

It was love!

The 62 was designed to deliver thin layers of powder products for faces and cheeks, but I think it does a bang up job with liquid foundations, too. The dense, wide brush head lays down just the right amount of product to cover what I’m trying to cover without leaving a bunch of annoying streaks behind.

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Hotness!

When I spotted it online, I had a feeling the Sonia Kashuk Luxe Agent Provocateur Train Case ($34.99) would be all that and a bag of chips…

It is! But it’s even more than that.

It takes the bag of chips and adds a dozen cupcakes on the side.

Despite its slim profile, it holds a ton of stuff! We’re talking mountains of makeup and a tidy sum of tools. By changing the arrangement of the interior dividers, you’re able to adjust the size of the different compartments to fit your needs.

There’s also a large pocket and pouch under the lid for brushes and, perhaps, cans of Fancy Feast.

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