Sunday, November 18, 2012

e.l.f. Essential Brushes Haul&Review!

As you may have seen in my most recent video, I reviewed a few of the e.l.f. Essentials line brushes. If you haven't seen that video, check it out here!:



Here are what the brushes look like:



From left to right: Bronzing Brush, Powder Brush, Smudge Brush, Blending Eye Brush, Eye Crease Brush, Eye Defining Brush, Eye Shadow Brush, Eyeliner Brush (which I forgot to include in the video), and the Eyelash&Brow Wand. As you can see that's all 9 brushes. Now for individual reviews:


1) Bronzing Brush: This brush is just your everyday angled blush brush. It's multi-purpose, and can obviously also be used for bronzer and contour. Very soft! As you can see, it has beautiful red-toned bristles. Their Essentials line face brushes are the only brushes they have with these red bristles, which is weird but I'm not complaining. Like I said in my video, I don't have bronzer (yet) or contour, so personally I just use this for my e.l.f. Studio blushes. It works great! Applies just the right amount of color smoothly and evenly. Definitely recommend this one!


2) Powder Brush: e.l.f. decided to call this their Powder Brush, but THIS is what I would call a small blush brush. I don't know why I got both the Bronzing Brush and this one because I would use them for the same purpose, but I did. I use this for blending out my blush color if I applied too much. Again very soft, good job e.l.f.! Again, with the gorgeous red bristles. I would also recommend this brush as well, especially if you don't want an angled brush like the Bronzing Brush.


3) Smudge Brush: This brush is a shorter version of the Eye Shadow Brush I showed in my video. I don't really find myself reaching for this that much. AGAIN, another very soft brush from e.l.f.! All of e.l.f.'s Essential eye brushes have the oh-beloved brown bristles. I have only seen a few bristles shed from this brush. I only reach for this when applying highlighter, and most of the time not even then. I would recommend this, but only if you're actually going to use it.
4) Blending Eye Brush: AMAZING. Haha, another great brush. Still soft, soft, soft. The teensiest bit of shedding, but great quality for the price. This blends colors so well, it's insane. It blends them together, or blends out your crease color, whatever you wish to blend lovebugs! It's not as fluffy as some blending brushes which I know can be a turn off for people (it was a turn off for me at first), but I would still recommend it. 


5) Eye Crease Brush: Do I need to say it again? Soft as can be! Great for applying color into the crease (obviously, Skylar), and blending it out to create a nice smooth look. I think this can also be used as a pencil brush, and is really good for applying inner-corner highlight. I think I've noticed the slightest bit more shedding than the previous brushes, but still nothing major.
6) Defining Eye Brush: You guessed it! It's SOFT. This brush is an angled eye shadow brush. Perfect for applying your highlight for a more sharpened/defined look, or I personally use it for applying color into the outer-V and blending it in with my lid color for a great smokey eye. I would say no shedding with this one so far!
7) Eye Shadow Brush: This brush is like gift from the affordable-makeup gods! Absolutely, positively, my most favorite brush from e.l.f. so far! Again, very soft, little to no shedding, and is so perfect for packing on color onto the lid, applying highlight, or even just adding a subtle wash of color over the whole eye. If you were to get anything from e.l.f. GET THIS!
8) Flat Eyeliner Brush: This brush is very soft (I'm noticing a pattern here, haha). Mine is dirty in this photo, because I use it daily. You'll probably notice that I don't use this for eyeliner, but instead for filling in my brows with a matte brown eyeshadow. It really works great for that because it's not too stiff, but it's still relatively thin. I think that it's perfect for creating a natural looking brow look. I personally wouldn't use this for eyeliner because it's not an angled brush.

9) Eyelash&Brow Wand: I didn't include this 'brush' in my review really because it's just like your classic mascara spully (however you spell that, my goodness), just without the mascara. Works great for combing out the brows. 


Overall, I would definitely recommend these brushes. Each of them is only $1! And for the quality of each one, you really canNOT go wrong. I reach for most of these brushes everyday. My most used brushes, though, would be the Bronzing Brush, Eye Shadow Brush, Blending Eye Brush, Eyeliner Brush, and the Eyelash&Brow Wand. Probably my least used brushes would be the Smudge Brush, Powder Brush, and Eye Crease Brush, but in no means do I regret my purchase of these brushes. When it comes to shedding, I've experienced a minimal amount. Another important factor is that these brush don't FEEL cheap. They just feel like a nice, high quality brush; not too heavy, not too light. Also for the price, softest brushes I've ever felt! Could you tell? Of course, if your more into higher-end brushes, you MIGHT find a brush that is softer than any of these, which is always possible. But for me, these brushes are so inexpensive and great quality, why would I NEED anything else?

Sunday, November 4, 2012

e.l.f. 100-piece Palette Tutorial #1!

Watch my latest video!:



More photos of the look:





My camera seems to be pretty bad when it comes to picking up color.. I'm really hoping to get a better one for Christmas! But I still thought this was a really nice look, and I hope maybe you decide to try it too!