Sunday 3 April 2011

34 piece Makeup Brush Set from Ebay

Hello again, Guys and Dolls!

Today I am going to review a 34 piece makeup brush set I purchased from Ebay.  When I first looked into purchasing them I tried to google other reviews on this set with very little luck.  I found a few written reviews and a few videos on youtube but nothing that really was very helpful.  I purchased these anyways and I obviously wasn't expecting much but I just wanted to have a better selection of different sized and shaped brushes as my actual brush collection is pretty damn small and rather limited.  I paid $20.90 including shipping and I personally think this was a pretty good deal because even if I wasn't fond of any of the brushes, I'd still have the 34 slot faux leather brush roll.

Section 1 ( Large Fan & Face Brushes)
Section 2 (Contouring and Eyeshadow Brushes)

Section 3 (A few more Eyeshadow Brushes, Concealer Brushes and Lip Brushes)

Section 4 (more Lip Brushes)

Section 5 (Last of the Lip Brushes, Eyeliner Brushes, Eyebrow Brush, Mascara wand, Lash & Brow Comb and Fan Brush)
It took 18 days to receive the package and upon arrival I was rather astounded at the actual weight of the package. Inside was the brush roll which came in standard plastic packaging.  The first thing I was VERY aware of when I opened the plastic packaging and slid out the brush roll was an almost overwhelming chemically type smell of the faux leather. I sat down on my couch and unrolled the brushes and was actually kind of shocked at how long the brush roll really was when fully open.  It's like 3 feet long! Even though they're not high quality brushes, I was quite overcome with excitement at seeing allllll those brushes lined up so cute in their designated slots.  I started to take out each one, one after another and touch them all and have a good look over each.  I was really glad to see that the large brushes (Large Fan, Small Fan and Powder Brushes) all came with brush guards.  I was also glad to see, or rather smell, that they were indeed primarily goat and pony hair, not synthetic as one girl had insinuated in her review.  The posting on ebay said they were all natural (aside from the obvious lip and and concealer brush which are taklon and the brow and lash comb and mascara wand) and so I would have been pretty annoyed if they all had been synthetic.

After going over all of them and inspecting everything, I decided to take them into my work area (*coughbathroomcough*) and deodorize and clean both the brushes and the roll.  The chemically smell had obviously permeated the brushes, leaving them smelling like chemical covered farm animals.  I used EnKore's method for deodorizing new brushes (Check it out, it works like a hot damn!) and after that, as he instructs, you want to do a good deep clean on them.  I was going to do this anyways as I always wash brand new brushes.  I had expected shedding and so wasn't too annoyed when washing the brushes and there were hairs in the palm of my hand as I washed them.  I wouldn't say the shedding was really too extreme.  I only experienced shedding with the powder brushes and large fan brush.  I had no shedding at all from any of the eyeshadow brushes or any of the others.  I did however experience the most extreme color bleeding from the large fan brush.  When I say extreme, I do mean it.  Even after washing and rinsing it for at least 20 minutes straight, it still was bleeding out a bit.  Albeit a whole lot less so, the water coming from the brush was still lightly discolored.  Aside from the large fan brush, I didn't experience any other bleeding really.  When deodorizing the powder brushes, the deodorizing solution left in the glass after taking out the brushes was a little ruddy colored, but only a little.  When all the brushes were washed and laying out on a towel to dry, I took some alcohol on some cotton pads and swabbed down the entire brush rolls in hopes of culling that terribly noxious chemical smell.   I let that dry and then placed a few laundry sheets in in and let it sit out over night and air out.

Upon waking up this morning, I found the roll to be ALMOST completely free of the chemical smell.  The brushes all dried just fine and there was no color bleed on the towel either.  The only brush I had an issue with was the small fan brush.  After I had finished washing it the night before, it seems all the nice soft straight hairs had gone kinky!  Almost every single hair had gone kinky and I was hoping that when it dried it would have sorted itself out.  Nope.  No such luck.  My only idea for this was to take my hair straightener to it.  Since it's Goat hair, it's safe to use heat on it.  I gave it a couple going overs with my iron and then slid it back into the brush guard whilst the hairs were still warm.  20 minutes later I went in to check on the brush and lo and behold, it was almost completely back to normal.  There are still a few random stray hairs on the brush that are a bit kinky but for the most part, it's completely back to normal.


I must say that overall, I'm pretty darn pleased.  Being a broke student, I think this set was a really great deal and I know I will get loads of use out of it.  I have a few more pricey brushes that have shed just the same amount as these did initially and so that doesn't really bother me.  They are quite soft and quite densely packed which are the 2 things I'm most concerned about normally.  I am really loving all the eyeshadow brushes as they really do pick up product well and disperse it very evenly also.  There are a few random brushes I'm favoring a fair bit, mainly being the Angle Contouring Brush (remarkably soft considering!) and the Small Fan Brush too, as it's reallllly soft and picks up just the right amount of bronzer for my pasty face.  There's this awesome little Round Lip Brush that I just love as I have very full lips and alot of space to cover and most lip brushes I find rather small.  This particular lip brush is also great for lining your lips as it's quite stiff and dense.  I think the more I use taklon brushes, the more I actually like them.

Contouring Brush I'm actually LOVING.

The Small Fan Brush that went kinky is now perfect again!

Truly the standout of the lot!  Really wonderful value for money.

I think this set is a really good deal.  It's definitely handy to have if you're looking to get a larger selection of brushes to broaden your collection without spending a lot of money.  The set came with 2 sponge applicator type brushes that I threw out as soon as I got the set, but aside from that, I'm pretty darn pleased.  As I said already, I will most certainly be using these daily personally and it's nice as there are some dupes of the brushes in there (like 2 of the exact same eyeshadow brushes and 2 of the same lip brushes and so on...) that I was able to give to my mom as she likes to play with makeup too.  This set will also be helpful for when my friends come over and just want me to play around and do their makeup as most of my friends seem to have very small eyes and mouths (I found this strange the first few times I did my friends makeup as I've spent year doing my own and I have both large eyes and mouth).  I think if you're on a budget, you'll appreciate these brushes as much I do.  I am a tough girl and I've always grown up with the sorts of things you "make do" with and thus I can deal with a bit of shedding or bleeding.  They're all quite soft and dense and thus, my criteria has been met.  I am really glad I decided to purchase this set despite the lack of information on the web about them. 

Lots of Love

3 comments:

  1. I consider you made a good purchase!! Enjoy the brush set!!
    Love,
    Catanya

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you :) It really is good value for money and the more I use them, the more I really am liking them! Not bad for $20!

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  3. I know this is an old post, and you probably don't have this information still. But do you have the sellers name?

    ReplyDelete