Real Techniques Duo-Fibre Brush Set - ft. a Sigma Dupe!

It is a strong belief of mine that you can never have too many makeup brushes.  And so, naturally I enjoy collecting them - now, I probably do have too many but let's not focus too much on that!  A month or so ago, I purchased the Real Techniques Duo-Fibre brush set. In this post, I thought I'd share with you my thoughts and feelings on the set - enjoy!

Price? £23.99 Where to Buy? Boots This set is apparently Limited Edition (though it has been out for quite a while now with no signs of it discontinuing anytime soon) and it comes with three different brushes.  These are:

 - The Duo-Fiber Face brush: for lightweight application of blush / powder to the face. 

- The Duo-Fiber Contour brush: for controlled contouring and sculpting of the face.

- The Duo-Fiber Eye brush: for finishing touches to the eye and blending. 

My Thoughts:

I have been really enjoying these brushes and they have definitely conveyed me even more into a fan of the duo-fiber brush. This set is made beautifully well and are great quality as Real Techniques are well known for. 

What I love about this set and the brushes themselves most is that they give a really natural and soft flush of colour to the face. This makes them great for building up colour slowly as well as for allowing you to be able to control your coverage a lot more. This is particularly important element in terms of the brushes and their uses. Each brush is for a part of the face that you may not always want a heavy application. These brushes feel well made and soft to the skin and as mentioned before, blend products really well.

My favourite brush of the bunch is probably the contour brush. It's very easy I find to over-contour sometimes by adding too much product, but this brush picks up just enough allowing you to add definition and not sculpt the face too heavily. 

The Face Brush is one I have also enjoyed using as well and I have actually found it to be a pretty spot on dupe for a similar Sigma brush that I have in my collection. 

As you can see in the photo above, the Real Techniques Face Brush is just a little bit bigger than the Sigma F15 but in terms of performance, they're exactly the same and just as good in my opinion. 

The F15 is a whopping £21.50 in comparison to this 3-set collection set being only £23.99 for all 3 brushes. This means you're getting 3 brushes for more or less the price of one if you were to favour the Sigma brush of the Real Techniques one - now considering the brilliant quality of RT brushes, this is an amazing deal!

  

First Impressions: Crown Brushes.

Hey guys! Today I bring you a first impressions post on some makeup brushes that I recently bought. They are from Crown Brush and are brand whose products I've never previously tried. I've always heard quite a lot about them specifically on Youtube and so I thought I'd give their brushes a go. For the price range, I really couldn't resist.

I got 4 brushes in total and I tried to pick brushes with my needs in my mind. So I focused more on blending brushes and brow / eyeliner brushes as that is what my collection was lacking. The first thing I noticed about these brushes was that they have so many! There are variations upon variations of different brushes for different facial areas and I found that really impressive because it can help you to really find the 'perfect' brush for you. With both synthetic and bristle brushes in all shapes and sizes, there's really so much to choose from.

Secondly, they are so soft! Although there are other factors I think you can always get some sort of idea of a brushes quality from it's softness. Real Techniques for example are amazing quality brushes and they are so lovely to the touch and glide across the face. These too feel very similar to me, there's no scratchiness or discomfort when used - which is something I find with cheaper brushes. 

I've used them once so far and they do their job very well, there's no shedding and they evenly and cleanly apply product. Of course, I'll be sure to update you guys as I use the brushes more and come to clean them but so far, so good!

So - the brushes I got were:

SS021 Syntho Blending Fluff Brush

IB119 Deluxe Crease Brush:

C217 Bent Liner Brush:

SS025 Syntho Brow Duo Brush:

So far, I'm really impressed by these brushes and by Crown Brush in general. I really love the brushes I received and they do their job very well. All of their brushes are amazingly priced as well - it's incredibly good value for the quality you are receiving. I think i'll definitely be placing another order with this company soon to get some more makeup tools! If you haven't already, I'd recommend you check out this brand now!

Thank you for reading - have you checked out these brushes, what do you think?

REVIEW: Sigma 12 Brush Essential Kit!

Hi guys! Today I've got a review for you on some makeup tools! I'm going to be talking about the Sigma Essential Brush kit.

You get 12 full size brushes in this kit and their names and uses are as follows:

• F30 - Large Powder Brush: For even powder application.
• F50 - Duo Fibre Brush: Used to create an airbrush effect onto the skin. Can be used with powder, liquid or cream products. 
• F40 - Large Angled Contour Brush: For cheek product application of contour and / or blush. 
• F60 - Foundation Brush: For smooth foundation application of liquid or cream products.
• E60 - Large Shader Brush: Used to uniformly cover the whole lid with product.
• E40 - Tapered Blending Blush: Used for blending shadows in the crease. 
• E70 - Medium Angled Shading Brush: For a soft application of colour. 
• F70 - Concealer Brush: For concealer application in smaller, more precise areas. 
• E55 - Eye Shading Brush: Used for an even application of colour.
• E30 - Pencil Brush: For creating soft, smoked out lines or adding shadow to smaller areas of the eye.
• E05 - Eye Liner Brush: For smooth and even lines, used with gel or liquid liners.
• E65 - Small Angle Brush: Used to create a precise lining.

From the kit, I have a few brushes that I really enjoy using in particular. Firstly is the F30 which I use for it's intended purpose. It's so soft and gentle on the skin but still dense enough to nicely pack on a light coverage of powder onto the areas that I want it.

Secondly, is the F60 brush which I again love for it's intended purpose. It's shape and design make it perfect for contouring the grooves of the face and it's soft enough to lightly blend the product so it's not overly harsh in appearance.

The E40 is also particularly good for blending out. It's not as dense as some blending brushes so it makes for a much softer look - great for finishing up an eyeshadow look.

The F70 is a brush I've recently been really enjoying. I use it for the standard application of concealer - smaller trouble spots like like blemishes and pimples as well as under the eyes. I also use it to clean up my eyebrows after filling them in so I can achieve a sharper, more defined look.

Finally, I love the E65 brush for filling in my eyebrows. The small angled brush makes for precision as well as creating beautiful defined lines and curves. 

One of the main things I like about the brush set in general is not only the quality and performance but how they look. They are simple in design yet you can tell they are quality, the black and silver makes them look very professional and sophisticated, unlike some brushes that can look cheap and tacky. I also really like the holographic writing on the brushes which adds to that feeling of quality. The brushes are all so soft and well made -there is no shedding from these brushes after several washes and they keep their shape well. 

The whole kit retails for just £99.95 which means each brush is less that £10 each in the set. More or less all of these brushes retail individually for at least over £10 so you're getting a smashing deal. Sigma is a popular brand of brushes and they are regularly used by makeup gurus and artists alike. I can definitely see why too and I think they're definitely worth the price. It's always worth investing in some good tools so that you can really get the most out of your makeup.

With this kit, you're pretty much set and have more than enough brushes to do whatever you want with your makeup. Even if you still want more brushes after getting this (I'm kind of a brush collector so I'm always on the look out), these are still a brilliant addition to your collection in my opinion.

You always get a free travel sized version of the E05 too - who doesn't love a freebie?! You can grab this set for yourself from Cocktail Cosmetics.

Have you tried any of the Sigma brushes? What are your personal faves? Let me know!