No7 Eyeshadow Blend and Contour Brush

I picked up two of these last time the £5 vouchers of temptation were about after hearing the likes of Pixiwoo raving about them. These usually cost £6.50 so with the vouchers were only £1.50. Frankly it would have been rude not too! Allegedly these are a dupe for the MAC 217.

I can’t find out if these are natural bristles or synthetic. They feel natural to me. They are soft though. The handles are fairly short but not to the point of being awkward to hold. They are high quality too. After a lot of use and many washes I’ve only noticed one of them shedding one hair. I remember it so clearly because it ended up in my eye... ouch. I can forgive it one hair though. 

Here’s the thing though, they aren’t the same. One is slightly less dense than the other. I don’t know if this means I got a dud but I don’t mind. It just means I use them a bit differently. The stiffer, denser brush gets used for depositing colour and blending out stubborn edges whereas the softer one is only used for blending. Now one was in the old packaging and one in the new which could explain the difference but unfortunately I can’t remember which was which. Sorry!

Would I buy more of the no7 brushes? Yes but only with the £5 off vouchers. Not because they aren’t good quality, they are and even full priced are relatively cheap, but with the vouchers popping up every couple of months you’d be mad to pay full price. Next on my list to try is the blush brush. Anyone tried it? X

*I bought these myself*

MAC 168 Large Angled Contour Brush

I’ve had this brush for forever but for some reason have never talked about it on here. It’s one of my favourite blush brushes for one reason, it picks up a lot of product. It is fluffy but densely packed making it ideal to pick up sheer products and blends them out seamlessly.

I think this is natural hair although it doesn’t specify on the website. Either way is feels extremely soft and I haven’t lost a single hair through shedding. I have found that the shape has splayed somewhat over time so it would probably benefit from a brush guard (which I don’t own). The angled shape makes it perfect for contouring too.

At £26 it’s more that I would like. It’s a great brush don’t get me wrong but I have other great brushes that cost a lot less. As I’ve said I tend to use this with more sheer products, it just applies too much of pigmented products. If I were to get one more MAC brush it would be the 109 but which ones do you recommend? Or if not MAC, what brush brands do you really rate? X

*Bought by me*

Sigma F82

Before I even start I will say I bought this brush myself from a blog sale. Just thought that would be important as Sigma do tend to work a lot with bloggers (which isn’t a problem in my eyes, just wanted to be clear). I’ve wanted to try Sigma brushes for ages especially the face brushes. This is a more rounded version of the famous F80. This costs £13.99 from Love-makeup.co.uk.

It’s synthetic but works equally well with liquid and powder foundation. It is so supremely soft and certainly the most dense brush I’ve ever come across. It doesn’t seem to matter what product I use this with it gives a flawlessly blended finish. The brush itself feels well made and sturdy and I haven’t experienced any shedding at all.

The only problem is that I find it very difficult to get 100% clean. You can see in the picture below that even after a good wash there is still some colour left in the centre. It also takes a couple of days to dry fully. Both of these issues are probably the trade off for having such a dense synthetic brush.

I would like to try some more Sigma brushes as I’ve been very impressed with the quality of this one. I know there is a three pack of this, the F80 and another similar face brush out there that will be going on my wish list. Do you recommend Sigma brushes? What are your favourites? X

*Bought by me* 

Bare Minerals Quick Change Brush Cleaner

I’ve given up my hunt for a cheaper better brush cleaner and I will soon be crawling back to MAC with my tail between my legs. Why did I buy this? Even if it were great (it’s not) It’s £10 for a mere 110ml. To compare the MAC one is £8.50 for 233ml. Unimpressed.

Yes the bottle comes with a spray pump which I appreciate. In fact I may even keep it to put my MAC cleanser in. You just spray the cleanser onto a tissue and swirl your brush on it until it is clean. The first thing I notice it the smell of alcohol (not in a yummy way). The next thing I notice is that no matter how hard I try this doesn’t actually get rid of the colour on my brushes. All of my white bristled brushes end up looking grey and murky. It just doesn’t do that great a job of cleaning them.

So it’s poor value for money and doesn’t work for me. Fail.

*Bought by me*

How do you line yours?

Eyeliner is one of the most varied products on the makeup market. You can use pencil, liquid, gel, cake, kajal etc. You can use angled brushes, tapered brushes, thin brushes, thick brushes. There is no right or wrong answer, it’s just a case of finding what works for you.
My personal preference is gel/ cream liners. I love how easy they are to control and they are more forgiving than liquid liners. And my favourite brush to apply these? The MAC 210:

I love this brush. It is so thin yet firm so you can do a really precise line very easily. It’s perfect for creating a precise wing too. The bristles are nice and sturdy so they don’t splay and I haven’t experienced any shedding. The only little niggle I have is that the handle is super thin too so if you’re like me and have a touch of the old Carpal Tunnel it can be a little hard to grip.

At £13.50 it’s one of MACs cheaper brushes but I have seen similar styles at places like Crown Brushes for less. I haven’t tried them though so I couldn’t tell you how they compare so if you have tried them please let me know what you thought of them because cleaning this one every day is a pain in the bum!
*I bought this myself. My reviews are always my open and honest opinions. The disclosure policy is on the left for more info*

Video - No7 Brush Overview

Rather than doing individual reviews on the No7 brushes I own I thought I'd lump it all into one rambly video.



Foundation Brush £12.50
Blush Brush £11.50
Eye Blend & Contour Brush £6.75
Concealer Brush £7.75

Revlon Foundation Brush

I loved the eye brushes from Revlon but I’m not quite sure why I picked this one up. I don’t generally like these style foundation brushes, I think they leave me with a streaky finish. Of course it could just be me being incompetent. That said for mixing too dark foundation with sunscreen, something I’m doing often these days, these style brushes do work well. And this one is my favourite of the 3 I have.

The bristles are synthetic and super soft. I find that they drink less foundation than the ELF Studio version and are easier to clean as a result. Like the eye brushes the handle is super long. Some people like this, some hate it. Personally I’m indifferent. I still get a bit of a streaky finish but I just buff over the top with a kabuki and all is well.

I forget exactly how much I paid but I know it was less than £10 at Superdrug. I’m really loving their brushes! Tell me, what brush brands (other than MAC) do you like? xxx

*I bought the above product with my own money. I always give my honest opinion of a product. For further info see my disclaimer in the menu on the left*

Ecotools 5 Piece Bamboo Brush Set

I’ve been curious about these brushes for the longest time and had no idea that they were readily available in the UK at Boots. When I saw them on the stand I may have audibly squeaked. This set costs £19.99 and you get a mineral powder brush, concealer brush, eye shading brush, baby kabuki , angled eye brush and a lash/ brow spoolie with a little storage bag. Yes I know that’s 6, but the 5 brush set looks identical to the one I bought and there isn’t another one that looks the same on the Boots site (and I know I paid £19.99).

The bristles are synthetic (taklon) and incredibly soft. The handles are made from bamboo and the metal ferrule is recycled aluminium. So they are cruelty free and eco friendly. They have all been washed several times and not a single hair has been shed. For me the starts of the show are the fluffy blending eye brush and the powder brush. They just work so well and are so incredibly soft!

For me the only down sides are the short handles (it’s just a personal preference) and the baby kabuki. I just can’t figure out what to do with it. Its tiny handle makes it a bit unwieldy so I just never seem to use it. I do plan on buying more in future x

*Bought by me*

ELF Studio Brush Set

I do love me a bit of the ELF Studio line. A while ago hubby surprised me with this brush set and having tested it out thoroughly (read daily use for 1.5 months) I am pleased to report that it is worth every penny of the £39 he spent on it. You get 11 brushes all packaged up in a black travel case.


The case itself does feel a little cheap but it is perfectly functional and has survived several trips with me already. The brushes themselves are all synthetic (Taklon) so are vegan friendly. The black bristles and handles give them a sleek look which I rather like and the bristles are very soft. Unlike the normal brush line they remain soft despite repeated washing, I had to throw my normal ELF brushes out recently as they had become too scratchy to use! I haven’t had any issues with shedding either though when I first got them a couple of stray hairs needed trimming on the powder brush.

The blush brush it a tapered, smallish fluffy brush. It’s not the most dense blush brush I’ve ever seen but it picks up product well and blends out easily too. It’s small enough to concentrate colour in specific areas too.

The complexion brush is larger and fluffier. I like using this to apply my MAC Studio Fix powder foundation. Again I find the synthetic bristles do pick up powder product really well. Not so much for cream products though.

The foundation brush is very flat and the tapered shape lends itself well to getting in the crevices round your nose and eyes. I personally find that I prefer my Revlon foundation brush though. It blends better and is easier to clean. I find that some foundations cling to the ELF brushes fibres making it a pain in the bum to clean properly.

The powder brush is my favourite brush FULL STOP let alone my favourite ELF brush. It is a flat top buffer brush. Ironically for powder it’s useless as it picks up too much and looks cakey. I love it for liquid foundation and you can really work it into the skin to get a fantastically well blended finish. I’m going to be getting a couple of backups when I next put and ELF order in.

The fan brush is a funny one. It is designed to sweep away fallout from under the eyes or to apply a really light sweep of powder. It isn’t really dense enough though and the bristles are too floppy to effectively move product. I love how it looks in the holder but I wouldn’t bother purchasing it separately.

The concealer brush is one I get a lot of use out of. Its small size is perfect for placing product under the eyes or on problem areas. It is rather thin though so I find it easier to blend with my fingers rather than using this.

The ‘C’ brush is perhaps one of the most well known ELF studio brushes. It is a short, dense eyeshadow brush which is perfect for packing colour all over the lid. It’s wonderful with powder eyeshadows but I don’t personally like it for pigments or cream shadows.

The contour brush is a dense, domed brush. It’s nice and small so if you’re like me and have a really small lid space it’s small enough to get in there and create a crease without depositing product all the way from the lash line to the eyebrow (not that a brush ever did that to me... MAC) It is more stiff than it is fluffy so I like to use it to deposit colour in the crease the use the Revlon Contour brush to blend it out.

The small angled brush it perfect for applying a thicker liner of gel eyeliner or setting liner with powder shadow. For a more precise line I’d use a smaller brush though.

The small precision brush and the small smudge brush are basically the same but the small precision brush is slightly more pointed. Both are good for highlighting the inner corners or for smudging out liner. If you were buying the brushes individually you only really need one of these but I find it useful to have the two in the set so I can use each one for those two tasks without having to spot clean mid application.


Still with me? You can buy all of these individually for £3.50 each. I would personally just buy the whole lot. At £39 it’s cheaper than some MAC brushes are individually and the brushes are good quality. If you were to buy them individually though I would skip the Fan brush and the Liner brush and pick up the Studio Kabuki with the pennies saved.

Do you own any of these brushes? What do you think of them? xx

ELF Studio Daily Brush Cleaner

Although I wash my brushes once a week I like to give them a quick clean after every single use. I just squirt some brush cleaner onto some tissue, swirl the brush around in it and voila, clean and sanitised brushes that are almost instantly ready to be used again. I’ve gone through 3 bottles of MAC brush cleaner but it’s £8.50 for 233ml which adds up. The ELF offering is £3.50 for 250ml so if it worked then I’d stock up. But it didn't, so I won't.

The black square spray bottle certainly looks nice and sleek and I love that I don’t have to decant it into a spray bottle like I do with the MAC cleanser. The first thing I noticed is the over powering smell of alcohol. This is unsurprising as it appears second on the very short ingredients list. The high alcohol content means that my brushes dry extremely quickly after using this which is always handy. 

But does it work?

No. I have no doubt that the high alcohol content is killing any nasties but it doesn’t do anything to actually remove product from my brushes. Any white bristled brushes end up horribly stained and stinking of vodka. The MAC brush cleaner has a kind of foamy quality, if you shake it you get bubbles in the bottle whereas the ELF one doesn’t foam at all. Given that I definitely won’t use this up in its usual state and you know how I hate to see products I paid for being wasted I decided to get creative. I decanted some into a small spray bottle, added a squeeze of baby shampoo, a little more water and a splash of Lancome Cleansing Water, gave it a shake and voila. A perfectly functioning brush cleanser. 

This got me thinking (a rare event). Wouldn’t I achieve the same thing with surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol if you’re in the US), baby shampoo and water? I could get a big bottle of surgical spirit for a couple of pounds at a pharmacy, baby shampoo for pennies and have the makings of a years’ worth of daily brush cleaner right there. I’ll let you know how I get on!

  X

*Bought by me*

MAC In The Groove Haul

I had the most fantastic time last night. I was lucky enough to have a ticket to a MAC Technique evening. Basically we turned up, got a foundation sample and a glass of bubbly (ta very much!) and watched an hour long demo by some wonderful makeup artists. After that we had an hour with a whole load of brushes, products and very helpful MUA’s to just sit and play. The ticket price went towards any purchases thankfully so I didn’t do too much damage to my bank account.

I didn’t think the new collection was out until today but the stand was up! Here is what I treated myself to from In The Groove:

Togetherness Mineralize Eyeshadow Trio


By Candle Light Mineralize Skin Finish



Comfort Mineralize Skin Finish



Petticoat Mineralize Skin Finish

Stereo Rose Mineralize Skin Finish


I may yet go back and get a couple more eyeshadows. I wasn’t blown away by the lip products and I was already planning on buying a lipglass from the permanent line so I abstained.

Whilst I was there I also picked up Viva Glam Cyndi as every other time I’ve been there it’s been out of stock. I was tempted to get Gaga too simply because it’s for charity but I know I’d never wear the colour. I’ll just buy another Viva Glam lippie another time (I have V which I love).


I also got a lustreglass in Love Nectar simply because I tried it on during the ‘play time’ and loved how it looked.



Finally I picked up a 239 brush as one of the MUA used hers to apply basically EVERYTHING with great results.

Swatches and reviews will follow. If there is anything you’d like to hear about first let me know! xx

ELF Studio Kabuki

You know when cats rub their face against things and purr? Yup. That’s a pretty accurate representation of what I do with this. And (shh don’t tell him I told you) what hubby-to-be does too when he doesn’t think I’m looking.

I have a fair few brushes and this is by far my favourite. It is £5 from ELF with synthetic bristles. Barginous and animal friendly! What I love about it is that no matter what powder I use it never, ever gives a chalky finish. I have a lot of finishing powders. Some of them are quite cheap and potentially cakey but this smoothes everything out to give a smooth matte finish. I use it daily with powder to set my foundation.

The only thing I would change is the density of the fibres. Though relatively dense it isn’t *quite* dense enough to successfully do things like blend out blush if I’ve over applied. That said maybe if it were more dense it wouldn’t give such a lovely powder finish. With that in mind I am on the hunt for a soft but denser kabuki style brush. Any recommendations are gratefully received!!

I love this brush and am going to be putting in an order soon for backups of this kabuki and the Studio Powder brush. In fact I’m considering filming a Youtube video on the Studio brush collection. Anyone interested in seeing that? xxx

MAC 219 Pencil Brush

My brush collection isn’t huge so what I do have I like to get a lot of use out of. This is one of those brushes that has a few functions. I use it to add small amounts of dark shadow to deepen the outer corner, to smudge colour along the bottom lash line and to smudge out liner for smokey looks. For £18 it’s a well made, hard working brush. 

I *think* this is natural hair and when I first bought it it seemed more than a little scratchy. It took a few washes with a conditioning shampoo to soften it up but I haven’t had any problems with it since. It’s never shed on me and it’s held it’s shape well. I think it was money well spent! X

*Bought by me*

MAC 188 Brush

Aw look. A baby brush! This is of course the baby brother of the MAC 187 (which I don’t have because it is silly money). This was a present from the wonderful hubby-to-be (1 month to go!!!!!!) Isn’t he a sweetie?


The 188 can be used for pretty much everything. Liquid foundation, powders, blush. Personally I think if you want to use it for your whole face, e.g. foundation, you would be better off getting big bro as this is a little dinky. However I love the size. It makes it perfect for the use I have put it too.

See! It’s a perfect fit for my beloved Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush. The white synthetic fibres pick up just the right amount of product and the smaller size makes it perfect for a more precise application. I have found that sometimes these particular blushes can blend out to nothing if you aren’t careful. Not so when applied with this! I get a much more pigmented finish. The brush is very soft and I haven’t experienced any shedding. Is it worth £25? Erm... yes I suppose. I certainly don’t have anything like it and it applies cream blush like nothing else. I don’t think I’ll bother saving for the 188 though. I tried this with foundation and it just doesn’t give enough coverage for me.

In case you’re a neat freak like me and you’re worried about the lovely white bristles getting stained by cream blush don’t worry. I was given a bottle of the MAC brush cleaner with it and the stuff gets all of the colour off the bristles even in a spot clean. It really is lovely stuff and I think worth £8. But MAC, if you’re reading this (I can dream right?) PLEASE put a bloody spray on that bottle. The opening that comes with it is messier than a toddler with a can of paint. I resent paying £8 for a product then having to go and spend my time and more money tracking down an empty spray bottle just to make it useable. Just saying...