Review and Comparison: ELF Essential, Studio and Mineral line brushes.

Regarding ELF brushes, they sheds very little except on rare cases (ELF Studio Smudge Brush). They're also easy to clean and doesn't need conditioning, even for my ELF brushes made with natural hair.Well, ELF known not too have good/no quality control, so some of my brushes ferrule are not well crimped. ELF Essential brushes seems to differ in different batches. While Studio brushes pretty much the same in different batches. Read my review on ELF Studio and Mineral brush set here and here.

Top-Left to right, Bottom- bottom to top: ELF Essential Eye Shadow Brush, ELF Studio Eyeshadow "C" brush, ELF Mineral All-Over Eyeshadow Brush.

All three brushes picks up product well. Works great for packing color and for all over lid application.

• Essential: Softest, smallest and least dense of all 3 brushes. Made of natural hair.
  
• Studio: Biggest and most dense. Made of taklon.
• Mineral: My favourite, the size is just perfect me. Made of taklon. This one in particular picks up product very well. Too bad it stains easily.
  

Left to right: ELF Mineral Complexion Brush, ELF Studio Complexion Brush.

One of the most versatile brushes I ever had. This works great for pressed and loose powder products. I used this brushes to apply mineral foundation, face powder, blusher, bronzer and highlighter.

• Mineral: Softest, shorter and denser. This brush more rounded.
• Studio: Soft. Medium density. This brush is slightly tapered on the tip. It's longer and slightly bigger compared to Mineral brush.
  

Top-Left to right, Bottom- bottom to top: ELF Essential Blending Eye Brush, ELF Studio Contour Brush

Okay, I'm well aware that Studio Contour brush is more comparable to the Essential Eye Crease Brush. But I haven't got that brush yet, so I just compare it to my Essential Blending Eye Brush batch #00618. Both brushes works for applying eyeshadow on the crease.

• Essential: Longer and softer. Flexible enough to be used for blending color. Well, it's a blending brush. LOL
• Studio: much smaller and more precise. It's stiff, so can't really be used to blend two color.
  

Top-Left to right, Bottom- bottom to top: ELF Mineral Concealer Brush, ELF Studio Concealer Brush.

Both brushes made of taklon and stiff, which is good for concealer brush. Both works well with cream or powder concealer.

• Mineral line concealer brush is longer, larger, denser and stiffer than Studio brush.
  
• Studio brush on other is softer and more tapered.

Top-Left to right, Bottom- bottom to top: ELF Studio Small Angled Brush, ELF Mineral Eyeliner Brush

These two brushes works just the same even tho Mineral version bristles are longer. This brushes make eye-lining easier.

Review: ELF Mineral 5 Piece Bamboo Brush Set

After meh experience with EcoTools brush set, I become very skeptic of this brush. It's a huge relief when I find this brush set is way better than that. This set looks very similar to EcoTools brushes with bamboo handle and light colour bristles. The similarity ends there. Contrary to EcoTools brushes, ELF Mineral brushes picks up product very well. I saw no clouds of foundation when I used ELF Mineral brush. Clouds of foundation happens a lot with EcoTools brushes. The handles are sturdy, the ferrule well crimped, and the brushes are softer than Studio counterparts. The brushes in this set sheds very little during wash.

The con of this brushes is the light colour bristles. It shows up every color of the product it pick up. My brushes looks dirty, my eyeliner brush had become grey even after wash. Well, at least I wash my brushes more often after this.

This set includes

• Complexion Brush - I used this with mineral foundation, face powder, highlighter, bronzer and blusher. Works very well. The bristles is lil shorter than the Studio counterparts which makes it denser.
  
• Eyeliner Brush - The best eyeliner brush I ever had! Lining my eyes never been easier.
  
• Concealer Brush - Similar length to EcoTools concealer brush, a lil stiffer.
  
• All-Over Eyeshadow Brush - Love. The perfect size for me, picks up products very well. Great for packing up color.
  
• Lash & Brow Comb - Whoah! I didn't thought it would be so large. Other than that, it's a pretty average brush.
  
• Brush Bag - Looks a lot like EcoTools brush bag, except less silly since it could actually fit all the brushes in the set without weird diagonal position. I find EcoTools bag softer compare to this one.
  

Would I repurchase? Not sure, I have more than enough brushes right now.
Would I recommend? If you disappointed with EcoTools, try this one.

Review: ELF Studio 11 Piece Brush Collections

Since June this year, I've been contemplating whether to get this brush set or not. Few Studio brushes later, I finally placed my order last month. Well, I need back ups for my favourite brushes you know. Good makeup brushes are investment. It's even better when the investment only cost me what usually a single MAC brush cost. Cool huh?!
This baby/babies is/are sleek! Great functional casing, matte black handle with good length, super soft bristles that hardly sheds. Even tho the brushes bristles are made from taklon, it picks up product really well, be it pressed powder, cream, liquid or mineral makeup. The large brushes comes with plastic brush guard.


This set includes

• Water-Resistant Case - OK, the main reason I bought this set is for the case. I wish ELF sell it separately since it's a very well made stuff. Sleek, easy to clean, and it could fit it a lot of brushes.
  
• Eyeshadow "C" Brush - Too big! I won't be using this baby since I have small eyes. I have other brush for highlight my brow bone. So, I would probably put this brush up for sale.
• Complexion Brush - I love this brush! It's very versatile, I used it for face powder, blusher, setting powder. It could also be used for contouring.
  
• Small Angled Brush - When I first see this brush, I thought, the bristles is too long and a little too thick. However, it works great! Up for sale soon.
  
• Small Smudge Brush - I used this for eyeliner, It works great if you need precision. When I first got this, it sheds like crazy, so I crimped the ferrule close to the bristle using pliers, problem solved!
  
• Fan Brush - Something I would not used. Too soft for its purpose. Up for sale soon.
• Powder Brush - The best foundation brush! Works for both liquid and powder (mineral) foundation.
  
• Angled Foundation Brush - I used this with my BB cream, but I rarely used it right now. I have the same brush, so the one I got with set would be up for sale soon.
• Concealer Brush - Cute brush. Thinner and softer than most of the concealer brush that I have.
  
• Small Precision Brush - Again, I have other brush that is very similar to this one. Up for sale soon.
• Blush Brush - I didn't used this brush for blusher. Instead, I used it highlighter and bronzer. Good brush for that purpose. I have the same brush, so the one I got with set would be up for sale soon.
• Contouring Brush - In love. It's great as crease brush!
  

The best thing about this brushes is that, it is very easy to take care. I abused my brushes during wash, I squished and squeeze em, dry them with the bristles bent on the towel and when it dried, the bristles hardly disfigured. Since it's made from taklon, there are no need to condition the brushes.

Would I repurchase? If I need more good inexpensive brushes. Yes.
Would I recommend? If you're not a makeup snob. Hell yeah! Go get it now.

Review: EcoTools Bamboo 5 Piece Brush Set

I got to agree, the name is a bit confusing. Normally , '5 piece brush set' mean there are five brushes in the set. But in this case, it's four brushes and a small bag to store the brushes. This set comes with a reusable storage pouch (the plastic bag), a cotton+hemp cosmetic bag, a baby kabuki (cute), a mineral powder brush, an eye shading brush and a concealer brush.

I just received the brushes yesterday. My first impression, the bamboo handle is pretty, it's soft like a kitten, the size is just nice for a travel kit and the bag is small.

I'm not kidding when I say the bag is small. Eventho it could fit all the brushes, however it's kinda tight in there. Personally I prefer brush roll.

I washed the brushes last night and I noticed no shedding occured. It cleaned up easily. Since it's small, it dries up pretty fast too. Three of the picture above shows the brushes right after 'shower'. You can see that the baby kabuki is not that dense. The other brush however is dense enough for its purpose.

I used the brushes this morning, and I gotta say, I'm not that impressed. I think the brushes is just okay. Oh ya, the baby kabuki sheds 1 bristle this morning.

• Baby Kabuki brush - not good for applying mineral base/foundation, it won't buff the foundation nicely, however it work great for applying blusher.
• Mineral Powder Brush - works okay to apply mineral foundation, it is tapered, so it would reach eye and nose area. I think it would work for contouring too.
• Concealer brush - good one, just a lil too stiff to my liking.
• Eye shading brush - Not good for detailed application, but it works fine if you want to apply only one color. It works well for blending eyeshadow too.

One problem I noticed about the big brushes is that, it does not pick up powder nicely. So I need more product to get coverage.

Would I recommend? No, I would suggest E.L.F. Studio brushes instead.
Would I repurchase? Don't think so.

p/s: I might update this review if I found anything about this brushes that worth mentioning.

NARS Christmas Giveaway!

Ends 20th December
http://www.secretbeautyblog.com/?p=1282


Boxed Up Beauty Giveaway
Ends 24th Dec
http://boxedupbeauty.blogspot.com/2010/11/very-boxedup-beautified-g-i-v-e-w-y.html


Wonderful Winter Giveaway
Ends 1st Jan
http://sweetcheeksramblings.blogspot.com/2010/12/wonderful-winter-giveaway.html

Difference between different batches of E.L.F. Essential Blending Eye Brush and All Made Up, Beauty Ambition and Princesa Addiction Giveaway

In this post I'm gonna show the difference of the three E.L.F. Essential Blending Eye Brush that I got from 3 separate sprees.

From left to right, older to newer batch. Batch #00128, #00407 and #00618.

From left to right: Batch #00128, #00407 and #00618.
Batch #00128 have shorter handle compare to later batches. Batch #00618 is a tad shorter than batch #00407. The ferrule is about the same length.

From left to right: Batch #00128, #00407 and #00618.
#00618 bristles is shorter and more rounded than both batch #00128 and #00407.
#00128 have the fluffiest bristles while #00407 bristles are the longest.

From left to right: Batch #00128, #00407 and #00618.
#00618 is also less dense than both batch #00128 and #00407.

Even though the latest batch that I got is a little shorter and less dense, however it is still fluffy enough for blending. The changes makes this brush suits smaller eyes better. Yay!

All three brushes sheds few strands and stop after two washes. If you haven't got this brush, go get it! If you already have one, get some more!

[EDIT] Few days after I'd done this post and scheduled for posting, I found out that E.L.F. introduced a new eye crease brush in the Essential and it look very similar to my #00618 blending brush (the handle indicate that it's a blending). E.L.F. is known not to have stringent quality control (did they actually have it?). My new blending brush could actually be an eye crease brush, I could only confirm once I got the new brush to compare.

See the new eye crease brush here (click)

All Made Up Giveaway

I love giveaway, I think everyone do. Join this awesome giveaway here.

Beauty Ambition Giveaway

Join Beauty Ambition 600 Followers Giveaway here

Princesa Addiction Giveaway

Another giveaway you can join by Princesa Addiction here

p/s: I only join giveaway only if I find the blog interesting.

EcoTools and E.L.F Mineral Brush Set - Did I see double?

I'm waiting for my e.l.f. Mineral 5 Piece Bamboo Brush Set to arrive end of this month and just ordered EcoTools BAMBOO 5 Piece Brush Set. I noticed that,

e.l.f. Mineral 5 Piece Bamboo Brush Set I bought is very similar to EcoTools BAMBOO 6 Piece Brush Set

and

EcoTools BAMBOO 5 Piece Brush Set I bought is very similar to e.l.f. Mineral 4 Piece Bamboo Brush Set

I just noticed that moments ago, how slow is that?! =.=
Anyway, does that count as dupes? I think so.

I didn't own any EcoTools brushes right now, however from reviews, I could tell that both E.L.F. and EcoTools brushes are very similar in term of build, softness and function. Well, both made to be eco-friendly and for used with mineral makeup. I'm not much of a mineral makeup user, however I'm a sucker for soft brushes.

Images taken from http://www.eyeslipsface.com/ and http://www.parispresents.com/

How To Hang Your Brush Upside Down and Painting Makeup Brush End

Here, I shamelessly reusing material from my YouTube channel XD

How To Hang Your Brush Upside Down

This is a modification of MissTiffanyMA brush hanger. It's pretty much the same except for the addition of separators and the use of paper clip. Below is the video by MissTiffanyMA explaining how to make the brush hanger.

And here is my response video showing the modification for the brush hanger

Painting Makeup Brush End

I learn how to paint the end of makeup brush using nail polish from AllThatGlitters21, watch video here

The steps are pretty much the same accept for that I noticed nail polish with glitters chip off less easily than nail polish with solid colour. Another thing to keep in mind is that, if you have a lot of brushes, find discounted nail polish or the one you don't really like. Because when I painted my brush, I finished up about half bottle of nail polish for about 20 brushes. Luckily the Elianto nail polish I'm using is only RM1.