Start of a new year is a good time to reflect on the previous 12 months. Though I have reflected on personal things I also have had a think about what products I have discovered in 2016. I know I am a little late on the sponge in the shape of an egg bandwagon, I have tried many 'dupes' and never saw the fascination. Well that's because they aren't the real deal. I noticed a difference between the real one and others as soon as I felt it.
The basic principal is a small egg shape sponge (the original was pink but I have the nude colour to avoid looking super dirty with foundation) that is really soft and flexible. For me best results come from wetting the sponge so that it expanse to about a third larger. This stops any liquid/cream products from being absorb into the sponge. Then using a bouncing technique the sponge blends out the makeup to create a flawless look. It's so much quicker than I expected. I use the round bottom for foundation, the tip at the top for under eye concealer and the sides for cream contour or concealer.
It can get a bit messy once you have used the Beauty Blender for a while especially if you are using all the sides so I tend to try and keep mine as clean as possible. There is a Beauty Blender cleanser but currently I am using baby shampoo which works for all my normal brushes.
For someone with dry skin this is my new best friend I can feel my skin lapping up the extra hydration compromising only a slight amount of coverage from my foundation. Because of the additional hydration I have found with products such as Estee Lauder Double Wear don't tend to as perfect as when I use a normal buffing brush so I am getting in the habit of using lasting sprays which have helped.
I have seen people applying powder to help bake under their eyes and I didn't like it for that I felt mixing dry powder, water and liquid was starting to make the sponge feel heavy and could make application harder so now I only use wet,
I filmed a first impression video which will be on my Youtube (ButtonsAndBowX) shortly.
I purchased mine from Selfridges but Beauty Bay also stock individual and sets.
You probably don't need to me to tell you how the Real Techniques brushes have basically claimed world domination on the makeup brush front. I took a while before purchasing any as I know how some things can be massively over hyped so I thought I would bide my time and take a step back.
Real Techniques is a brand created by Samantha Chapman, who is a professional makeup artist and one half of the Pixiwoo sisters over on YouTube. There is also a Real Techniques channel if you want to see how Samantha herself uses these brushes.
I decided to go for the Expert Face Brush out of the whole collection for two main reasons. Firstly, I am really into having a perfect base at the moment so I am loving new foundation brushes (but I didn't want the buffing brush from the core collection). And secondly, because though I wanted to see what people said about the brand, I wanted to try out a brush that I hadn't really seen a lot about as I wanted to form my own opinion without all the hype around the specific product.
To begin with, this is going to shock a lot of people, I didn't really see the massive hype about it. It was soft, dense and applied my foundation nicely, but I didn't get the 'WOW this is amazing' feeling. Before this, I had been using a Coastal Scents Flat Top Kabuki and didn't really see why I would prefer this over that brush. I do however, really like the design, the gold handle and the thicker base for it to stand up independently, really makes them seem unique. The brushes are colour coordinated into groups, gold to get the perfect base, purple for eyes and pink for face brushes.
In terms of the brush itself, it was only after I had washed it that I started seeing what people had been saying. Don't get me wrong I never thought this was a bad brush or anything, I thought I would be getting better results. After washing there was no shedding and it dried very quickly considering how dense the bristles are. I now saw a better finish, it is meant to give a slightly more opaque coverage than what the buffing brush does, just for reference. I really like the finish that I get with the Expert Face Brush, blends beautifully and evenly, I find it works with a stippling motion too for the areas that need slightly more coverage. Though I use mine to apply liquid foundation, it can be used for cream products too. I have cream foundations that I really enjoyed using this with, and I found that unlike some other brushes it doesn't retain that much of the product so you don't waste as much.
I would definitely say if you are looking for a foundation brush you should try and get your hands on this brush. I say try because it took me 4 attempts at various different Boots before managing to nab the last one from the shelf. At £9.99 I wouldn't call this dirt cheap, but I think for the quality, versatility and finish that you can achieve I think this is worth the money.
