Brushes: Real Techniques

I've always been a massive fan of Crownbrush's products, they have an awesome choice of brushes (and palettes!) with great quality and great prices, but, for Christmas I received the Real Techniques Core Collection set, and I have to say I am in LOVE with these brushes. Well, two of them, the Buffing brush and the Contour brush.

These brushes have incredibly soft bristles, with no shedding thus far and a lovely textured handle.

The buffing brush is now my 'Holy Grail' foundation brush. I have gone through so many foundation brushes and have never been perfectly happy with any of them, they either leave streaks, lose bristles, are too small, too hard, soak up too much product etc etc, ugh I just hated foundation brushes for a long time! But this is perfect, you can buff your foundation in in no time, no streaks or foundation-sucking powers, the bristles stay soft and non clumpy between washes and it's the perfect size to do your whole face in no time at all. LOVE IT.

I find the contour brush perfect to carve out my cheekbones, contour my nose and temples etc. The size is nice and small with an oval shape, so you can be precise with your contouring, and it's dense enough to lightly buff out any harsh lines as well. The bristles have all the great attributes I said above and yeah it's just awesome.

I haven't really used the other two brushes in the set much, not to say that they aren't great but I have other brushes I use more than these. The case they come in I'm sorry to say I really didn't like. The black part of the brush handles have a rubbery texture, because of this it's quite hard to just slip the brushes back in and so the whole 'using it as a brush stand' thing that it's supposed to be, sort of doesn't quite work for me but it was a good idea I suppose, plus I either keep my brushes in my makeup bag or my brush belt (which I got a brand new Inglot one for xmas, thanks bro!) so it was a slightly unneccesary part of kit for me.

Sooooo if you've been on the same horrible search as me for a foundation brush or small contouring brush I highly recommend these brushes, and best of all you can get them from Boots for £21.99, Boots points ahoy! Or if you're not near a Boots, you can buy them internationally here.

*Edited to say that these are completely synthetic brushes so totally cruelty free!!

xxx 

My Must Have Brushes

So these are my MUST HAVE make up brushes, the brushes I use every single day and probably couldn't live without.

So working from left to right, first off is Crown Brush's BK31 Mini Flat Bronzer. I used this for a long time as a bronzer brush, and it is amazing for contouring and buffing colour in, but I've recently started using it to apply my foundation, and I absolutely LOVE it. You can properly buff in your foundation and get a flaw free finish. I am going to look for a synthetic flat topped brush to replace this though, as synthetic bristles are better to use with cream products as they are much easier to clean and don't soak up the product like natural bristles do.

Next up is another Crown Brush- IB126 Chisel Powder/Blush. I use this for powder, blush, bronzer and squished flat for contouring. The bristles are amazingly soft and pick up plenty of product and distribute it nice and evenly. I'm totally in love with their badger brushes I must admit, I've never felt softer bristles!

Now for my eyeshadows I couldn't do without a good fluffy blending brush, my choice being the BK38 Deluxe Crease from (surprise surprise!) Crown Brush. I LOVE this thing. It is perfect for blending and since I have quite high brows, so lots of eyelid space it is the perfect size for doing big washes of colour and blending all those harsh edges. This is a definite must have for anyone's make up bag.

So, everyone needs an angle brush, EVERYONE. I don't know where I got this one from but I go through a lot of these things so that they're always nice and precise. I use these for my brows and for eyeliner, they're awesome for creating precise lines, detail in your brows and lovely winged eyeliner.

Next is a lip liner brush. I use this for concealing tiny imperfections, spots etc, I feel like i can be super precise with this after I've applied my concealer with my finger, just going over any little bits that need that extra bit of coverage.

And finally I use a basic foam tipped applicator. I use this for packing on eyeshadow before blending it out, it can deposit much more colour than a brush can and it can be placed exactly where I want it before blending.

So there you go, every brush I use on a daily basis, I have many more for other uses but these are my faves, and I really can't speak more highly of Crown Brush, incredibly high quality brushes for non extortionate prices! Love them <3

xxx