I am finally ready for a full review. (I actually did a video review on this, but my camera cranked up, and I couldn't get the last part filmed before it stopped. =( Wonder what's wrong because I transferred the files and emptied my camera, but it still says I've got no memory to film. T___T )
Alright, take a cup of tea and sit back because there are 8 brushes, and this will be long. Here it goes!
Lauren Luke Set of Eight Essential Brushes
(From left to right) Angled Liner Brush, Pencil Brush, Flat Eyeshadow Brush, Tapered Blending Brush, Blending Eyeshadow Brush, Foundation Brush, Flat Contour Brush, Large Powder Brush. In case you're wondering, the black on the brushes are stains. I washed my brushes.
Available: Lauren Luke Shop, 33.75 pounds ~ SGD 67.94
Volume: 8 brushes
Star Properties: Generally longer handles. By Lauren Luke a.k.a panacea81 on Youtube.
I will start of with the largest one, and go through this review by size.
Large Powder Brush
An all round great brush for foundation, bronzing, blush and highlighting powders. You can pat on or sweep your make up to create a subtle effect on the face and cheeks. 185mm in length
Goat Hair (Cpara Hircus)
This brush is huge. That is my handphone, and that is how wide the brush is.
Compare brush size to my handphone.
I don't really use this brush because I find it too large for my face. In addition, I also do not use powder foundation, and I don't have the habit of bronzing and highlighting.
By rights, this brush should be used more for foundation and bronzing because people traditionally put bronzer on their chest area, so they require a huge brush. But nowadays, it seems that few people do that unless they are going on TV or special events.
That said, it means that if you do still love powder foundation (I see a lot less love for powder, now that a lot of HD products are cream and liquid based), and you bronze and highlight large parts of your face and body, this would potentially be an excellent brush.
Lauren Luke says that this is great for highlighting and blush too. But I very personally prefer to use fine precision brushes for highlights especially, and blush. I find that this is because I love to pull and swirl my blush, so I need smaller blush brush.
Lauren uses this brush for blush in almost every one of her video tutorials. And her method is to simply pat and tap on blush. Not pull and swirl like I do. Large brushes are great for tapping on blusher, because a Shisedo SA actually touched up my face using a foundation brush. Tapping is great for touchups because it will almost never overdo your face.
This is the side view of the powder brush. Really big and fluffy and fat. haha.
Basically, I pick up this brush when I want to do touch up or to set my makeup. I would tap it lightly in my loose powder and roughly sweep it across my face to take off extra shine. This is great if you're doing whole-face, large area jobs.
Also, when I first got the brush, I had few other brushes to compare with, so I thought this is quite soft. I still think this is soft enough, because it is definitely far, far better than no-brand brushes that you can get off ebay (because I have a set of no-brand brushes).
But I kind of found out yesterday that the e.l.f complexion brush is softer than this, which is surprising, considering the price. So for those who cannot stand scratchy bristles and you're used to high-end brushes, I think you would find this not to your liking. Since e.l.f and this are in the same price range (after counting shipping costs), I would recommend e.l.f complexion brush if you really intend to buy brushes online (like I did).
Alright, I think this brush deserves a 4/5.
There is nothing not good about this except that there are cheaper and softer big powder brushes, like e.l.f complexion brush. This is more a matter of whether it suits your personal makeup habits. It is great for tapping/dusting methods, and may not be so suitable if you prefer swirling, and sweeping (because it can be slightly rough).
Flat Contour Brush
For sharp or subtle blending effects when using powder products on the cheeks, nose and jaw line.
I've said before that I like this in a previous post, and I still do. Like it so much I made a video on it. haha. And if you missed that, here it is again. It is a review-torial, so it includes how I use it to put on blush and also contour.
I like the flat top, I like the shape of its cross-sectional area (meaning top view of the bristles), I like the size, the length of the handle, the sturdiness of the handle.
Yes, the bristles are not the softest ever, ever but bear in mind these brushes are not even $10 each, so it wouldn't be quite fair to say the Dior or Shu Uemura is better.
Also, I've seen people compare this with M.A.C, saying M.A.C is denser, and firmer, but I feel Lauren Luke's pricing is really not close to M.A.C at all. And if M.A.C were of poorer quality, then one did have to complain to M.A.C. I have the famous M.A.C 129 blush brush, and while I think 129 is good, I also think Lauren Luke has its merits. They just can't be compared this way.
For one thing, I do prefer to use a less dense brush because I very personally have the tendency to go way overboard with blushes by using a lot of strength and pulling hard at the blush or pressing in firmly. LOL, very naughty me. I am conscious of it, and I do make effort to tone down. My point is, a less dense and smaller brush helps me to control how products I use, so that I can monitor and buildup, instead of dump a pile of blush on my face and regret (in the past, I do that all the time, big mistake).
For another thing, I definitely prefer this long handle to M.A.C's slightly shorter one. This is, if you want to compare.
Based on the brush's own merits, I give it a 5/5!
This is a great buy from Lauren Luke. If you want to forgo the full set and get the brushes individually, I would say, try this one.
Foundation Brush
The domed shape helps achieve a flawless finish and enables you to get right in to all those awkward areas of the face. It's also an ideal brush for applying cream based products because the hairs are synthetic. 185mm in length PBT hair (Synthetic)
I personally don't touch this much because I use my fingers for BB Cream, and I don't use foundation. I only tried this with powder and cream blushes. From my little experience with it, I would still say this is an excellent brush.
I have watched a number of reviews just to get an idea of what I am missing out. And all those reviews I've got gave this a big thumbs up (in case you are wondering, the reviews generally dislike the eye brushes, and you will go on to find out why in my review below).
In fact, on first impression, this brush already gave me the feeling that it is the most expensive and the best on of the 8. I think Lauren Luke is spot on with this brush because she recognizes that most people use liquid or cream foundation these days, and she chose to make her foundation brush a synthetic one to suit the needs of modern makeup-junkies.
You will find that many traditional brush sets lack synthetic brushes (unless you buy mineral brushes which tend to be fully synthetic or new age brands like Sigma). This essentially means that if you're a liquid foundation user, you will need to search for your own foundation brush. Lauren Luke takes care of this!
I am giving it 5/5, because I find nothing wrong with it.
Really, I do believe this is the best of the lot. Very high quality fibre.
Tapered Blending Brush
Slightly longer than the blending shadow brush to allow for a more subtle blending effect of eye shadow, highlighting and contour powder. 185mm in length Goat Hair (Cpara Hircus)
This is basically a soft fluffy brush. I don't really use it because it flayed the first time I washed it. I was very generously and kindly sent replacement by the Lauren Luke team. But still, I find it so hard to maintain. I have keep the brush guard on, and use the tube that comes with it to clamp the brush guard down. And I only remove the brush guard when I want to use it, even though it has long dried.
Left: EcoTools Blending Brush. Right: Lauren Luke tapered blending brush.
This brush is a lot less precise after flaying, and I find that the stray hairs kind of take my eyeshadows to places I don't want it to go, instead of simply blending.
All the eye brushes are really soft and nice though. I had a really good first impression of them.
Just for reference, I normally use the EcoTools brush for blending. It is my holy grail blending brush, but it is more expensive.
Basically, I dislike this: 2.5/5
I guess it can still be used. But if you have better ones, than I think this would slowly fade out of favor, and stay at the bottom of the drawer.
Blending Eyeshadow Brush
For all over eye shadow application and blending. 165mm in length Goat Hair (Cpara Hircus)
This is a soft blending brush that is flat on one side and thinner and domed on the other, so that you get a sharp edge where you can push into your crease for blending.
Side view, can see it's kind of pointed at the top so you can push it into the crease.
I used quite a lot of this until I washed it, and it flayed. Then I got M.A.C 217, and I stopped using it. I must admit that 217 is better, and really almost unbeatable. Very hard to find a dupe for it. So if you want a blending brush that is precise, you might want to set aside budget for it.
Left: M.A.C 217. Right: Lauren Luke Blending Eyeshadow Brush.
The 217 is definitely easier to maintain and does not flay as much. But it does flays still. I still need to brush guard it for 2-3 days to keep setting the shape back.
Basically, I would say that the Blending Eyeshadow Brush is something you can skip too.
Not too useful. 2.5/5
For those who are thinking of getting this because it is a good 1/4 the price of M.A.C 217, I really don't recommend at all. Better to save for 217. But if you already own it, or still want to try, I think this will at best be a backup brush when all other brushes are dirty and waiting to be washed. Sorry Lauren, I love your videos, but there are some misses with the brushes.
Flat Eyeshadow Brush
Great for applying all over eye shadow and also for highlighting under the brow. 160mm in length Goat Hair (Cpara Hircus)
This is one of my favorite brushes in my stash and I use it for every look, even though I have many other brush sets.
I like that it is thin (side ways), because then it would go nicely into my crease. So far, my other flat eyeshadow brushes are all thick on the side, like Sonia Kashuk, M.A.C and e.l.f. My flat ones are synthetic. And I prefer using natural hair brushes for eye because it picks up so much more pigments than synthetic ones. Synthetic ones are almost no use when it comes to packing eyeshadow, in my personal opinion.
Side view.
Just for reference, I have my M.A.C 213 side by side. The 213 was recommended to me by a M.A.C sales assistant. She said that it is an all-rounder brush and would take care of packing, blending, going into the crease, drawing outer-V, and what not. She is right. Just that the saying goes, "jack of all trades, master of none".
I never used to use brushes. I lived on sponge tip applicators for 3-4 years, and M.A.C 213 was my only brush companion. It's good. But when you have more brushes to do various jobs more precisely, you would find that 213 is not as good for any particular job. And that includes packing eyeshadows.
So yeah, I do think Lauren Luke flat eyeshadow brush is better for packing eyeshadow all over the lid, and going into crease, because it is firmer.
Left: M.A.C 213. Right: Lauren Luke Flat eyeshadow brush.
It's always good to find a less expensive tool that could do the same job and better.
Great find. 4/5
It still flays, so I spend more time to upkeep, hence the marks deduction.
Pencil Brush
Ideal for adding eye shadow to the lower lash line as well as creating a trendy cut crease effect on the eye lid and delicate blending on the outer corners. 160mm in length Goat Hair (Cpara Hircus)
This is my first pencil brush ever. I still think using a stiff narrow but thick flat eyeshadow brush is better for contouring the eye and drawing outer-Vs even though most Youtube girls use pencil brushes for the whole outer 1/3 of the eye.
But yeah, pencil brushes are good for highlighting inner corners and adding just a teeny bit of blackness into the outer-V. That's what I use it for.
I do reach for this every now and then. But currently, I am preferring Bdellium Tools pencil brush.
This has changed shape quite a lot after first wash. =( I still do use it.
So, 3/5.
Usable. I will use it when my other pencil brushes are dirty.
Angled Liner Brush
For precise application of eye liner on both upper and lower eye lids. It's also great for filling in the brows too.
As reviewed before, I really love this brush. It is great for filling in eyebrows, push lining between lashes, drawing straight lines, drawing winged-tips.
If you've missed my video, here it is:
The only con is that this is a wider brush. There are uses for narrower angled liner brush. Especially if you have more curved eyes, which I do, you'll find that the Lauren Luke angled liner brush can be just that bit too wide to allow you to manipulate when it comes to the curve on the lower lash line. I mentioned in my video, that I need to keep flipping the brush. This is the reason why.
Side view.
The main reason I love this brush, really is that the brush is soooo thin, as you can see in the side profile. It will allow you to draw precise lines. Many angled liner brush I have are not this thin.
Love it, love it! 5/5.
Alright, phew! What a really long post. I will just total the scores and take an average for the Set of Eight Essential.
31/40
Not bad at all!
Overall, I think that you can skip the Set of Eight, and get the Foundation Brush, the Flat Contour Brush and the Angled Liner Brush, because they are not easily replaceable by other brands.
If you really want to try, then include the Large Powder Brush and Flat Eyeshadow Brush.
But really, because they are all so inexpensive, I think ultimately, one would still simply go for all 8. haha. Especially if you are not in UK, and you have to wait 10 days for these to arrive, you might as well import more. LOL!
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