Sunday 16 October 2011

Elf Brushes

**PICTURE HEAVY**


I decided to take full advantage of one of Elf's last 50% off sales and ended up purchasing 8 of their brushes. I have been trying them out for a while and here are my thoughts on each one. As the sale is not going on anymore I have listed all brushes at their full price.


Elf Studio Angled Foundation Brush £3.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

This is probably the smallest foundation brush I own and it's slanted bristles make it perfect for blending in harder to reach areas, such as around the nose. Due to its size I don't think this brush is very suited to applying foundation to the whole face as it's just that little bit too small, instead I like to use this to apply liquid highlighter, such as Benefit's High Beam, to the top of my cheekbones.


Elf Studio Stipple Brush £3.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

The Taklon bristles on this brush are super soft which makes it lovely to use on the face, with no shedding. This brush has dual layered bristles with shorter black bristles which are a similar length to the Elf Studio Powder brush, see here for my review, and longer white bristles. I was slightly disappointed when I received this brush as the head isn't quite as large or as dense as I had hoped for. I thought this brush would become a staple in my brush collection but I haven't reached for it as much as I though I would, I think this is mainly because I can't decide if it's best using this brush for blusher, foundation, highlighter or powder. I have heard that it is very good with cream blushers so I will try it out asap. 


Elf Studio Angled Contour Brush £3.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

This brush has a round tip with slanted bristles, it is densely packed and quite a big brush to use on the eyes. The bristles are very soft and as standard with Elf brushes I haven't experienced any shedding. Due to how big this brush is I find I only use a corner of it at a time, especially in my crease, however the densely packed bristles mean you do get a nice, strong, even distribution of colour.


Elf Studio Small Angled Brush £3.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

This is quite a small angled brush and I find it perfect for applying powder to my lash line, however it's small size makes it unsuitable for applying gel eyeliner onto the lid, I also find if your use a wet or gel product with this brush the bristles separate out quite a bit making application time consuming and tricky. I would prefer it if this brush was more densely packed as the head feels a bit flimsy. I would say this is a perfect brush for applying product to the water line, it's small size means you can be very precise with your application.


Elf Studio Angled Eyeliner Brush £3.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

I mainly bought this brush because I was intrigued about the angled head, it just looks so difficult to use and I had nothing similar in my collection. The angled tip of this brush makes sense when it's in your hand and makes application of liner a lot easier. The brush head is tiny and I wouldn't really ever use this to sweep eyeliner across my whole lid as it's too small. Where this brush shines is when helping to achieve a winged eyeliner flick at the edge of the eyes, the tiny head of this brush means you can be very precise with your application and the angled tip means you can get closer to the eye.


Elf Professional Fan Brush £1.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

This is a bog standard fan tail brush from Elf's regular brush line, I chose not to opt for the studio version as I wanted a fan brush with a white handle (don't ask, I'm really weird!). I have to say this brush looks pretty cheap, but then again it was! The bristles are very light and look a bit misshapen but as a fan brush it does the job. I use this to sweep away any eyeshadow fallout from under my eyes and also to lightly apply powder highlighter to the top of my cheekbones.


Elf Professional Blending Eye Brush £1.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

I actually really like this blending brush, the bristles are nice and soft but not too tightly packed together so it's great for blending. I like the circular tip of the brush which makes it perfect for getting into the crease. Unfortunately the handle of this brush was very loose when it arrived and actually broke a few weeks after I bought it (you get what you pay for) however it's nothing that a bit of glue can't fix and now it's all glued back together I'm using this brush all the time as it's more precise than the no 7 blend and contour brush.


Elf Professional Eyelash and Brow Wand £1.50, eyeslipsface.co.uk

My eyebrows are pretty unruly and this wand this is the perfect thing to tame them. I'm also pretty messy at applying foundation and this brush is great for wiping off any excess foundation which has collected in my brows and giving brows a more polished and groomed look. If you don't want to buy a brush I have previously cleaned up an old mascara wand and it gives exactly the same effect. I use this brush after every single make up application, so for me this is 75p well spent!

1 comment:

  1. i really want to try the stipple brush :D

    www.missmathful.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete