Who doesn’t love makeup brushes. It was only about 4 years ago that I began to invest in my own makeup brushes and ever since then I have not stopped adding to my collection. I am obsessed. I just can’t get enough of them. However, when it comes to makeup brushes, I am also very critical and look for an awful lot from my brushes. Not all makeup brushes work as well as others and it is hard to find good individual brushes, but even harder to find a good brush set, but this set from Buff and Blend is a real find.
Recently, Irish makeup artist Nicola Costigan, otherwise known as Buff and Blend, released her own brush range. For those of you that haven’t heard of Nicola before, she is an unbelievably talented makeup artist. I have had the pleasure of having my makeup done by Nicola before and she truly is amazing. In my opinion Nicola is 100% in my top 3 makeup artist in Ireland. I just love her style of makeup.
Having seen Nicola in action, I know how through she is with her tools, as she works at such a busy rate, she needs them to be not only hardworking but long lasting too. Each brush must be a multi tanker and do above and beyond what she needs it to do. With this in mind, I was excited to try out her new brush range.
Nicola recently sent me out a set of her new makeup brushes to review, as she knows I will be very honest in my review. Over the past few weeks, I have put all of these makeup brushes to the test and bar one brush, I have absolutely loved them. Honestly, Nicola has done a fantastic job in putting together a real all rounder of a brush set.
The brush set contains 8 brushes, 4 face brushes and 4 eye brushes. As far as starter sets go, this has got you covered. However, considering the good job Nicola has done of this set, I would love to see her add to the collection. I am just being a greedy guts here, but I would love to see what other brushes she could create because if she had more I would 100% buy them.
The handles on all the brushes are a little shorter than regular handles, but not as short as a travel set. This is so that if you stotebyiur brushes in a makeup bag, the hairs wont be damaged. I actually really liked the length of the handles, as I found that the brushes were grand and easy to manage. I also love that they are purple, as it makes them easier to find when you go looking for them. I love the colour that Nicola picked for these brushes.
Large Powder brush -BB01
When it comes to powder brushes, I have always opted for the big fluffy kind to dust my powder over my face. I hadn’t actually used a brush like this one before, as it is a little denser than what I am used to, but I really liked it. I found that the density was perfect for pushing the product into your skin. By applying my powder this way, it made my foundation last much longer.I have used this non stop for applying powder and I am now a convert to this type of powder brush.
Buffing foundation brush – BB03
This foundation brush has really stolen my heart. It’s so so good. The density of this brush is perfect for buffing your foundation into you skin. It isn’t a stiff as I previously liked my brushes, but I find that this actually works really well, as the density of the brush allows for the foundation to be buffed into the skin rather than sweeping the foundation across the face as some brushes can do. To me this is a much better version of the Real Techniques buffing brush. I love this brush.
Angled Powder brush – BB05
This brush has two functions. It can be used for contouring or applying blusher. I find this great for sculpting out the cheek bones as it fits perfectly in the hallows of your cheeks. Or in my case, my imaginary hallows. The density of the brush hairs, allows your powder product to just sweep across the cheeks. I found that this brush was perfect to use with my Make Up For Ever Bronzer, as this bronzer requires a specific type brush to pick up product. This angled brush really does pick up the right amount of product every time.
Mini Buffing brush – BB04
I haven’t actually used a brush like this before and at first I was unsure what I would use it for exactly, but low and behold I found a use and a perfect use it is too. I use this for buffing in my concealer or my Mac Highlighting pen under my eyes. Sometimes I find with brushes that I can lose too much concealer and end up not getting enough coverage under my eyes, but this was the perfect little brush for buffing the concealer in and still getting coverage. You can also use it to buff in your foundation in the corners of the nose and other hard to reach areas.I im didn’t think I needed and brush like this, but now I know I do! !!
Angled liner brush- BB10
The hairs on this brush are absolutly brilliant for applying your liner smoothly. I am not great at using an angled brush for applying liner, so I have actually been using it to apply my Inglot Brow gel. I find that because the hairs on this brush are so smooth and soft and yet packed together, it gives the perfect density for applying this brow gel and helps you to avoid the scouse brow look.
Small Fluffy brush – BB06
This brush was the only brush in the set that I wasn’t gone on. Now before I go into the reasons why, keep in mind that I am a die hard fan of the Mac 217 brush and I compare all my small fluffy brushes to that. However, I found this brush to be a little scratchy on my eye. This is me being hyper critical, but the hairs were just a little bit too rough for my area.I found the shape of the brush was good for applying product to the eye, but overall I haven’t reached for this brush all that much. I don’t find this to be detrimental to the set, as all the other brushes make up for this ten fold.
Petite Pencil brush- BB02
A pencil brush is the one brush I could normally give or take. I’d never used a pencil brush before and gone, ” That’s a great little brush”. To me all pencil brushes were the same. Except this one. The hairs on this are brilliant for buffing out the eyeshadow under your eye and yet they are soft enough that it doesn’t irriate the eye either. Over the past few weeks, this has been the only pencil brush that I have used, as it performs so much better than any other pencil brush I have. As far as pencil brushes go, this is heads and shouldears above the other pencil brushes I own.
Large Blending brush – BB08
When you look at Buff and Blends makeup applications, it is not hard to see why her large blending brush is as good as this one.nicola is the queen of the blended blown out eye look and this brush is so so good for creating that type of look. I really wish that this brush was sold individually as I would 100% buy another 1 or 2 to have so I can use other colours. The is the large blending brush that I have been searching for so long. It is absolutely brilliant.
Overall, I am so impressed with this set. Bar the small fluffy brush, which if I am being fair is just a personal thing, every brush in this set is really so good. Normally when I am trying out new products I will use them for a few days until I get enough of an idea of what they are like to write a review, but these brushes have been my go to brushes for weeks now. To me the real stand outs are the Foundation brush and the large fluffy brush. I have nothing in my collection that is like these brushes.
Only time will tell how long the brushes will last, but I have washed mine twice now and they washed really well and the brushes stayed in shape.
If you’re in the market for a new set, I really think these are great and well worth grtting your hands on. Yes it is a peiple prefer to buy one or two brushes individually to try before thry buy the set, but at €80 this set is a decent price and I really feel that you’re getting good value for money. I really do love the set. This set would make a really great gift for someone, or even a from me to me present! You can pick up the set here and follow Buff and Blend here.