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Showing posts with label Brushes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brushes. Show all posts
Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman Core Brush Set, $15.99 at Ulta

I've been a longtime follower of the Pixiwoo sisters on youtube, so when Samantha announced her line of brushes called Real Techniques, I was excited to get my hands on them.  The brushes are color-coded for face, eyes etc. The set that I picked up is for the face.

When I first saw the packaging and long metal ferrules, I have to say I was disappointed. In my opinion, they looked kinda cheap. On the other hand, they are priced to be sold at a drugstore, so the packaging does fit a lower price point.
The "core" set that I have contains 4 face brushes: A foundation brush, buffer brush, contouring brush and detailer brush. It also comes with a black brush holder/stand all for $15.99. I believe these brushes are only available at Ulta and Ulta.com, the good thing though is Ulta always has weekly coupons which can be used on these brushes.

The brushes themselves are very soft, with densely packed synthetic fibers (think ecotools). The handles are neither long nor short, but fall somewhere in between. However, the heads of the brushes are rather small. I've included some comparison pics with other brushes I own to give you an idea of the sizing.

Foundation Brush: I feel like the Real Tech foundation brush is so small, that it would take forever to apply and blend liquid foundation, but I've used it for under eye and around the nose concealer and its worked great for those smaler areas. The tip is also very pointed so it gets into creases well. On the downside, it did poke the skin under my eyes a bit.

Detailer Brush: The detailer brush is also very, very small. It seems like this brush should have been included with a set of eye brushes, not face ones. I've used this to apply shadow to the inner corner and can't imagine what else it'd be good for. Unless you need pin-point precision to apply concealer to very tiny blemishes.

Buffer Brush: Compared to some other buffing brushes I have, the Real Tech buffer brush is also on the small side. Its super soft and dense. I've used it for liquid foundation and it was quick and efficient and didn't leave any streaks or stray fibers. Another plus was that I used less foundation and the brush really spread it around my face well. Its has a slightly rounded head as opposed to the typical flat-top buffer brushes that I own, and it gave all the foundations I tried it with a more matte finish, even though some of them always look dewy on me. I'm not sure how that would work for someone with drier skin.

Contouring Brush: I don't own any brush quite like the Real Tech contouring brush, so I don't have a photo comparing it to anything else. This brush reminds me of a much larger version of a fluffy eyeshadow crease brush (think a MAC 224 on lots of steroids, lol). Its unique, domed shape makes it perfect for depositing color directly into the hollows of your cheeks for almost foolproof contouring. On the downside, it picks up a LOT of color, so if you want light contouring, you'll have to be careful with this brush. Its also great for applying a highlight color directly onto the tops of the cheeks and I think this may be my favorite brush out of the set.

Overall, these brushes are good quality for a good price. I've washed the entire set once and haven't experienced any shedding or loss of softness. I'm happy to see Pixiwoo translating Youtube success into a global business. I plan to pick up the Real Tech eye set and kabuki brushes on my next trip to Ulta!
During the $2 UD sale, I also managed to add these 3 brushes to my cart in the 10 seconds it took for them to sell out, lol.

When I was looking at these online, I was most excited about the blush brush since I needed something with a shorter handle that would fit in my purse. Now that I see it in person, I'm a little disappointed. The brush is kinda floppy and fibers seem like they should have be cut shorter. The long   hairs make it harder to control placing and blending blush.  This thing also takes for EVER to dry, which is a huge inconvience.

I was pleasantly surprised by both the Brow and Eyeshadow brushes. From other reviews I'd read, I thought the brow brush would be too soft and flimsy to really get in between brow hairs and deposit color. Those reviews were so wrong! This brush is soft, but its also stiff at the same time. It fills my brows in perfectly with very little effort on my part. The thin, tapered edge is also great for precisely getting in between those sparse little hairs at the end of my brows.
In the 3 days I've had it, this little thing has fast become my holy grail brow brush! I'm currently scouring the internet looking for a backup since I can't imagine being without this brush ever!

The eyeshadow brush, while not as life-changing as the brow brush is also really good. Its not like a typical shadow brush in that theres nothing fluffy or full about it. Its so flat it reminds me more of a concealer type of brush, which is great for packing loose pigments on with precision and minimal fallout. Its most definitely not for blending, but thats okay because I have a million of those $1 fluffly E.L.F brushes to do that.
I don't about anyone else, but I hate washing my makeup brushes. I usually wait about a week until they're all dirty before I set out cleaning them. With that in mind, I was excited to try this daily brush cleaner from ELF in the hopes I could just spray my brushes down after I use them and they'd be clean.

To my disappointment it didn't work out that way. I tested the cleaner on 2 of my brushes, gave them a few spritz each and vigorously rubbed them against a cotton wash cloth. I have to admit that it didn't take them nearly as long to dry as they do with soap and water. I think thats because the ELF cleaner is something like 90% alcohol ( I also wonder if this will negatively affect the fibers of my brushes with extended use).

After the brushes were dry, they looked only slightly less caked with product than they did when I first started.

On the upside, the bottle of cleaner was much larger than I expected it to be, and so will probably last a long time. I read a bunch of reviews that complained about the smell of this product, but to me it wasn't that big of a deal and didn't offend my nose at all.

Since this is a "Daily" brush cleaner, I'm going to give it another try with brushes that only have one days worth of makeup on them as opposed to about 7 and see if that makes a diff in the way this stuff performs. Like most of ELF's products, this is super cheap. Its in the studio line and costs $3.00.

The best way I can describe this color is a cool-toned gold. There are no strong yellow and green undertones, just pure gold. It looks lovely in person and very, very classy. I tend to not like most golds on my nails because I feel it can look garish and harsh.

Aside from the color, I also really love both the formula and applicator brush. This stuff dries super fast. I did 2 coats and before I could even think of messing up a nail, it was completely dry.

The brush applicator is completely unique (in my experience anyway). Instead of a normal round brush, this one is flat and comes to a point in the middle. Perfect for getting a precise application.


Just got these brushes in the mail today. These are fairly new on ELF's site and even though I don't really need new makeup brushes, I couldn't resist. I already own brushes from the ELF Studio line and the regular line that I love, so I was fairly confident the quality of these would be up to par.

According to ELF, these brushes are anti-bacterial with synthetic taklon fibers, bamboo handles and aluminum ferrules. They're recommended for mineral makeup and can be used with wet or dry products.

From first impressions I think these are going to be great; they have the same super soft, dense hairs like the studio line brushes except these are more densely packed. I haven't used them on my face yet since they are still wet from their first washing and will probably need a second washing to get rid of the chemical smell all ELF brushes are famous for (is that why they're so cheap?). Even without using them, I can already tell I'll be getting backups of the allover eyeshadow brush, the blending eyeshadow brush and the contoured blush brush since I can tell I'll be getting a lot of use out of them.

These are normally $5.00 each, but when I brought them there was a %50 off coupon available, so I only paid $2.50 a piece!

Will post a more detailed review and close up pics soon.