Bobbi Brown & Chanel Brushes

**Warning! Pic Heavy!**

Decided to treat myself to some new brushes... I've used both Chanel and Bobbi Brown brushes in the past (I do already own a few) and I've found them to be reliable, easy to use and stay in top notch condition after washing time and time again. So they were a natural choice for some new investments!

BB Bronzer Brush

Probably my favourite out of the bunch, this has a super chunky handle and is amazingly soft. It's called a bronzer brush, but would be fine as a powder, blush or just as a general face blender.

Retractable Lip Brush

This isn't actually retractable - instead it comes in 2 parts, so when you're finished using it, you just pop it back in it's cap!

Eyeliner Brush

Bobbi Brown actually do a couple of really nice liner brushes. This is a firm, flat synthetic brush that would be suitable for lining both wet & dry, could probably be used for applying concealer to blemishes and for applying cream eyeshadows.

Eyebrow Brush

Super stiff angled brush for filling eyebrows. Made from goat hair, this would not be suitable for using on the eye area as it would be too scratchy, but it will be great for shaping brows!

Foundation Brush

Chanel Synthetic Concealer Brush

This will be a general brush for creamy eye products for me. It's beautifully soft so will be great for concealing around the eye area.

Mascara Spooly/Brow Comb

Random new pot of gel liner from Clinique!

Brushes

Jealousy is uh-glee, but it brings me pretty things!

You may have read Katy's (from makeupbykaty.com) recent post on some brushes from Sephora. Well the green-eyed monster got the better of me after I got to check out her brushes when she was doing my wedding makeup, so when I was in the states on honeymoon I headed straight to Sephora and bought some!

Who could resist a brush as soft as a baby Koala's tummy fur?? So this is the Professional Mineral Powder brush #45 and it costs $26 (£17). I loved the chunky handle and its bristles are truly the softest ever. It's a fabulous brush and I wish I'd gotten 2...

This is the Sephora 'Natural Foundation #111' brush and it cost about $30. I assume it's supposed to be used to buff in liquid foundation, but I bought it as a dupe for the MAC 116, to apply my Chanel Bronze Universel cream bronzer with. It's not quite the full round brush the 116 is, but it's softly dense and doesn't make streaks of bronzer, so it will do nicely!

Unfortunately Sephora isn't available to buy in the UK and the US site doesn't ship to the UK. Why, I don't know as the stores are fab. Anyhoo, if you want to get your mitts on these babies, you will need to do some travelling! Sorry....

Products I tried and loved in London!

Hello there,

Thought I would do a quick run through some of the stand-out products that I got to try at MUSE a couple of weeks ago...

*please note, these are all products that I tried only. I haven't bought them yet and therefore don't really know best places to buy or best prices. All I know is the products are fab!

MUFE HD Powder

This is a talc-free, uber finely milled finishing powder and it is WOW. It's so fine, it literally smokes when you take the lid off. Leaves skin with a satiny finish and not a horrible dry chalky finish that some loose powders leave you with. As I didn't get the opportunity to get to the store, I didn't buy this, but think I've found a fairly decent dupe-ish product... Illamasqua loose powder; although not talc-free, still has a gorgeous finish and I actually use the Pink Brightening powder - gorgeous!

MAC Patina E/S

Believe the hype. This e/s is gorgeous. enough said.

MAC White F&B

This stuff was a dream product during the course, because we were working on different people each day and it was so so easy to custom blend a foundation shade. You can literally mix this with any liquid or cream foundation to lighten it, without it losing it's pigment. Fab Fab Fab and I will be ordering some of this, through mail order as it is a pro product.

Louise Young Foundation Brush

(3rd one, at the bottom of the page) This little baby has been showcased by Pixiwoo on YT a lot and it's difficult to see why it's anything more special than a traditional flat foundation brush. But, using it, you discover that it is super firm, but as soft as a feather. It doesn't make foundation streak as the bristles are so densely packed. Again, I will be purchasing this as soon as.

Hakuhodo Flat Top Kabuki

Love love love this brush! was amazing for buffing over the skin to create an unbelieveably flawless finish with foundation. Particularly worked well with HD Foundation and Pro Lumiere. Like the LY foundation brush, amazingly soft but super dense. This can be bought online (about $54 dollars I think), but I think I will wait til next years IMATS and keep my fingers crossed that Hakuhodo will be there!!

Hope that's useful!

A xx

Sigma Brushes

About 3 weeks ago Katy (from Makeup by Katy) and I made a joint purchase of the 'Professional Brushes Complete Kit' from Sigma Makeup. The kit included a mix of eye and face brushes, 12 in total.

The maths: we opted not to take the brush roll (an extra $20), so the kit cost $69 + $14 shippping, so in total, this was $83 or approx £55, for 12 brushes, incl postage! We split the kit 6 brushes each, so we paid about £27 each or £4.50 a brush. The shipping was quick - we ordered on a Monday evening and it arrived the following Thursday or Friday - I can't remember which. So about 11 days from the US.

Everything was packaged really well, with the face brushes covered in a thick plastic protector on the heads and each brush being individual wrapped. Having now used the majority of the brushes I kept, I'm so pleased with them. The large powder brush has shed a few hairs, but other than that they have been a delight to use. All of them have a really good weight about them, particularly the larger brushes, so if you like that feeling of heaviness, then these are for you.

Sigma SS150. A very dense powder brush, but super soft. Handle is really chunk and weighty. Perfect for an all over dusting of loose powder. I really love this brush. I've already given it a proper wash and it seems to have maintained it's softness.

Sigma SS 187. This duo fibre brush feels like air on the skin, it's so delicate! I have used it once to apply a sheer cover of liquid foundation, but felt like it didn't achieve enough coverage for this time of year. Have been using it now to apply bronzer, but will probably go back to using it for liquid foundation/tinted moisturiser in the summer. Not one single bristle has shed from this, which I'm amazed at and again, it's been washed and is still just as soft as new.


SS190. Good, solid foundation brush. Bristles are soft, but dense, so a really good application of foundation is achieved without too much work. It's almost identical to the MAC 190 in terms of bristle length, density etc. Given the MAC 190 is probably a HG product for me, I'm delighted I've found one of equal capabilities to use on MAC shampoo day.

From top to bottom:

SS224: Amazingly fluffy blending brush. Natural bristles have a tendency to irritate my eyelid, but this is so soft and didn't feel at all scratchy. Is excellent for softening any E/S edges, or just dusting off the finished product.

SS252: A really nice sized E/S brush. Good for application across the whole lid and really holds onto the shadow, minimising fall-out.

SS275: This is an angled shader. I haven't actually tried it out properly yet, but I don't anticipate any issues, if the experience of the other 5 is anything to go by!

Overall, I genuinely don't have anything bad to say about these. My experience so far of Sigma has been brilliant and for the price, I will definitely be looking to make future purchases. This is a look I created using the above brushes.

My Favourite Brushes Part 2

Eyeliner Brushes
My 'go to' brushes when I want to create a sleek line are Bobbi Brown fineliner brush and Chanel no13.

I got the Bobbi Brown brush when I first purchased Bobbi Brown Long Wear gel liner as I was advised by the SA that it was the brush to use. If it hadn't been for that advice, I probably would never have even looked twice at it due to it's unconvential design but I am glad I have it. The brush is quite difficult to handle; the length of it is massive - I occasionally find it difficult if I am applying without wearing my lenses as I need to be closer to the mirror and this brush gets in the way. The tip is kind of like a caligraphy pen so you can create all different thicknesses just by simply rotating the handle when you are applying. The tip is also quite firm and is almost more like a sponge tip applicator you tend to get in bottles of liquid eyeliner.

The Chanel brush is a much more conventional style and will work brilliantly with both liquid and gel liners. I don't tend to use cake liners, but I suppose this would work with them too. This tends to drag the product a little less as the bristles are more flexible than the BB brush, meaning you are less likely to get a streaky application.

Brush Cleaner
I clean my brushes about once a week (eyeliner brushes get cleaned more often and brushes I use on others are cleaned before and immediately after), using generally whatever gentle detergent I have to hand whether that be silk handwash liquid, baby shampoo etc. However I find the BB Brush Cleaner an excellent product to have handy - especially if you don't have that many brushes. You use this in between proper washes just by spraying a small amount onto a tissue and then wiping the brush onto the tissue. The amount of product that comes off always amazes me!

Finally, I thought I would just say a few words about how much I dislike this brush! I think I got this about 18months ago and unfortunately I was unable to find out what the bristles are made from but from the irritation on my eyelid after using it, I'd suggest a kitchen broom would be more gentle. It is dreadful at picking up and retaining pigment long enough to get the brush from pallette to eyelid and then as soon as it touches your lid, all the remaining pigment discards onto your cheek. This is like trying to put E/S on using a hairbrush. It is absolutely beyond me how a team of experts would have tried this out and decided it was a good idea.

Anyway, hope that's been useful!
Amanda xx

Urban Decay Big Buddha Brush

I have been lusting after this brush for ages and finally snapped one up today for £19. It's massive and the best thing is it's synthetic bristles. No cute lil' bunnies were harmed in the making of this (or any other UD brush or product for that matter).

For more Urban Decay, click here