make up brush reviews

This is a bit of a mixed bag in relation to the brushes, there are two E.L.F brushes, some No.7 ones and two Superdrug own brand ones.

The E.L.F brushes are the 'total face brush' and the 'concealer brush'. Hopefully the pic will appear, sorry about the flash kind of messing it up but this is the best I could get.

total face brush and concealer brush

Again, sorry if you cannot see the concealer brush for some reason my camera is playing up with the flash and seems to have whited out the actual brush. The brush is quite small, I did think too small at first but after using it with a concealer I found it worked very well under my eye and around my nose and on small spots or freckles I wanted to hide. It feels soft and picks up a good amount of product which it applies evenly from what I could see and was able to blend well, probably due to its size. All in all a good concealer brush and for £1.50 it is definatly worth it!

However, the total face brush (also from E.L.F £1.50) was a disappointment. The packaging claims a soft brush but I found it quite harsh against my skin. And I do not have sensitive skin either. I used it first on a pressed powder compact and it broke down far too much product and a lot was wasted from either tapping off excess or just falling off the side of the compact so I would not use this brush for pressed powders. I then used the brush on a loose powder compact and it seemed a lot better, it picked up a bit more product than I wanted it too but as I could kind of control the amount of product which comes out anyway it wasn't as much of an issue as the pressed powder. (The loose powder used is natural collection and I control the amount which comes out by tipping the product into the lid before using my brush.) I would not really reccommend this brush as even though it is cheap, it felt harsh on my skin and seemed to waste product.

The next brushes are a set I got as a christmas present and are No.7, yay for 3-4-2!

No.& brush set...again flash!!

These brushes are amazing and so so soft. I think that even though this is a set you can probably buy the brushes seperatly form the No.7 counter in Boots. Left to right the brushes are; lip brush, eye shadow brush, eyebrow brush and comb, blusher brush and powder brush.

The lip brush is quite large so make sure your lips are well lined before you use this if you have smaller lips like me. It is very good for coverage and can be controlled easily due to the large handle.

The eye shadow brush is very soft and so I use this more for blending shadows rather than applying them as I feel it does a better job when used for blending. It is a C shaped brush so maybe not the traditional blending brush but it gets in the crease of your eye very eaily and blends the shadows beautifully.

The eyebrow brush and comb does what it says really...nothing to add except it brushes and combs your eyebrows to tame them...or mess them up if your really bored and feel like scaring people.

Moving to the blusher brush which is amazing! The bristles are super soft and are shaped in a way that kind of tapers down on all sides so it blends the product in as you apply making it a lot easier to see where needs more product or where needs a bit more blending. Definatly would recommend this brush but sadly I can't check the price as the boots website is down for maintenance.....of course it is when I need it, tsk.

But, my favorite brush of them all is the powder brush. It has been a favorite since I got the set but after my disappointment with the E.L.F total face brush it has had a new lease of life. Again super, super soft and blends as it applies which makes my skin look lovely and porcelain and puts a decent amount of product on without it looking too powdery and so my skin doesnt look really oily quickly. I have oily skin making powder a nightmare, too powdery or too oily usually but not with this brush! :) If you want, give it a clean and use it as a bronzer brush or a large blusher brush but I would say this is a must have!

My final brushes are two eyeshadow brushes. An applicating one and a blending one.

applicator and blending brush

These are from superdrug and are own brand...I think. At least they are not a brand I can remember and are not branded, so superdrug own it shall be. They were about £2 each and are very good.

The applicator brush looks flat at first but has a slight curve to it with quite a thick amount of bristles making product application very easy. Pressing on eyeshadows is made a lot easier with this, especially things like barry m 'dazzle dust' which can have a lot of fall out.

Used with the blending brush eyeshadow is highly pigmented and blended wonderfully making them a perfect team (haha cheesy). It is useful to have more than one blending brush incase you decide to add a new colour and only have a dirty brush left, but grab the clean one and away you go. Cheap and cheerful, definatly worth a go.

I will be amazed if you make it down here...my first 'beauty' post. I will try to scale down the next one, I promise :) please follow me and comment on how to make this a better more readable blog.

Thanks!