Real Techniques Eyelining Set (Collector's Edition)

Hi, hello!!

It's been a long time, I know!!  But I picked up these brushes the other day and felt like I should blog about them today! :)

I was helping a friend pick out some foundation at Sephora over the weekend when I realized she didn't own any foundation brushes (not that you *need* a foundation brush, but you guys know me and my brushes--can't ever have enough of those!) and thus began our conversation about makeup sponges.  She wanted to be able to get a bag of sponges from the dollar store or something I told her that that just wouldn't do!  Hah.  So we walked into a London Drugs and I found a two pack of the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponges and I figured that'd be perfect--I got one for her to try and a second for myself!   Everyone wins!  Low and behold, though, beside the sponges was this new Eyelining Set that I just couldn't refuse!

Did I *need* more eyeliner brushes?  No.  But I had to get them!  For science!  ;)

I think they cost me about $23, and for 4 brushes I figured that wasn't too bad of a deal.  The little pouch they come with is something I likely won't use, but it seems functional enough.  I could see myself using it when traveling, maybe.  

The brushes came protected in a little slotted plastic thing that kept the brushes in place.  It worked well and there was no annoying glue holding them in--which is nice!

I hadn't realized until I started getting my other RT brushes out for comparison that these eyelining brushes from the "collector's edition" are a shinier purple metal, whereas if you have other RT brushes that are purple--they're more of a brushed metal.  I'm not sure what I prefer, but I couldn't help feeling like the new brushes felt even lighter and thus a bit cheaper than my existing RT lining brushes.  Only time will tell!

The below two pictures make me laugh for a couple of reasons.  When RT first had a liner brush in their "Starter" set, it came with the "pixel-pointed liner brush",  This brush, as you can see, is pretty darn large for a liner brush!  Soon it was replaced by the "Fine Liner" brush and even that one isn't very thin.  The new Precision Liner brush is definitely the thinnest of them all.  The second image makes me laugh because I have two Fine Liner brushes are are pretty drastically different--my oldest is much more blunt at the point/end whereas my newer one comes to a much finer point at the end.  I guess it's good that RT is in the practice of improving their brushes--but I think maybe they shouldn't pump out quite so many and should instead focus on perfecting each shape instead of releasing multiple versions of it?  Just a thought!

(Top to bottom: Pixel-Pointed Liner brush, Fine Liner brush, Precision Liner brush)

(Here are two versions I own of the "Fine Liner" brush (top and middle) with the new Precision Liner brush)

Here's how the very tips of my 'older' Pixel-pointed brush compares to the newer Precision Linger brush.  You can really see how bluntly cut the Pixel-pointed brush is compared to the newer brush.  How could anyone ever do liner with the original Pixel-pointed brush?!  I just don't know!  Unless you like thick liner, in which case it probably would have floated your boat!

The new "Smudge Brush" is nice.  It's dense and short bristled.  It's also soft.  I like it!  I wanted to compare it to the older Accent brush as well as to the Shading brush.  It's different enough from both of my existing brushes and I think I'll get a lot of use out of this one--especially for smudging/smoking out the lower lash line.

(Top to bottom: Shading brush, Smudger brush and Accent brush)

The "Pointed Liner Brush" is one that I see myself using as a lip brush and likely not as a liner brush.  Or maybe I'd use it to highlight the inner tear duct and/or apply/smudge out colour on the lower lash line.  It's a good small size and the bristles are soft. 

Here is is next to the Accent brush just for comparison's sake.

Lastly is the "Eyeliner Brush" and out of the box I'd say this one was the most disappointing.  I was hoping it might be a pretty thin liner brush, but it's quite thick.  I guess I will use it for my brows more than anything, or maybe for applying colour to the lower lash line.

Here it is next to the original Brow brush.  I always found the original brow brush a lot too big anyways--although I do like using it for powder products.  My hopes are that I'll be able to use the new Eyeliner brush for my brow pomade!  But even for that I like the brush to be a bit more thin in case I want to draw in more individual "hairs".

Here is the Eyeliner brush with one of my favorite angled liner brushes by Inglot (31T).  The Inglot brush is thin enough that I like using it for actual eyeliner and I like to use it for my brows, too!  Go 31T!  

Overall I think I'll get a lot of use out of the brushes in this set, but I think I was hoping they'd be a bit more "different" than they are.  That's okay by me though, I've almost never met a brush I didn't like!  :)

Oh!  And!  I also dipped all four brushes into my Inglot gel linger in 77 to see what kind of lines I would get.  The first line is one pass with the Precision Liner brush.  The second liner is one I applied with the Precision Liner brush and then smudged out with the Smudge brush.  The third line is one pass with the "thin" side of the Pointed Liner brush and then the fourth line is using that same brush but using the wide side of the brush.  The last two liners were made with the Eyeliner brush.

Thus concludes my research for "science"!!  Do you have a favorite RT brush?  What is it? I want to know!  Now that I might be back into the swing of blogging, what would you like to see from me next?!  :)

Thanks as always for dropping by!

New brushes and new mail.

I super duper like to get new brushes. It may be one of my favorite things. Do I need new brushes? No, not exactly!! However, that doesn't stop me. My second most latest purchase (my most recent purchase probably won't make its way to my house for a couple more weeks) was unplanned--and thus I don't feel as guilty about it as I should. Also--the trip the to art supplies store was for another purpose entirely...and that makes it all okay (somehow). AND. Artist brushes are MUCH cheaper than brushes you'll get that are actually "make-up" brushes. So in the end, I WIN.

So. While going to the art store to pick up acrylic paints (my husband and I want to try messing around with them), I found a neato package of brushes that will totally be awesome for liner. And a fan brush--which is so small that it isn't really useful. But 5 out of 6 ain't bad (I think the pack cost $11.99)! The flat topped ones and the angled one are especially exciting to me because their ends are SO very thin. To the left of the pack is a single 000 sized teeny tiny brush (I think it cost...$2 something). I had been doing my eyeliner with a size 00 up to now. The 000 one is awwwwesome though.


I used the 000 to achieve the liner in this look (featuring Madd Style Cosmetics pigments, of course!):

(See how thin the liner is?!! Gah! Awesome. MSC colours used: Blister in the Sun on 2/3rds of the lid. Kick Ass in the outer 1/3rd and then blended into BitS to make that orange colour. The Up in Smoke matte Black was used as my liner. And I used a dab of Rocky (from the Rocky Horror Picture inspired collection) in my duct. Lastly, Xray Spex lightly dusted on as my brow highlight.)

So far I haven't had a chance to play with the brushes from the 6-pack. Hopefully I'll break at least one of them in on Sunday!!

Then, when arriving back home from the art store, I had mail too!! My package from The All Natural Face had arrived! I ordered their primers when I was anxiously awaiting my primer from SoBe--and after a friend recommended the ANF primer, I just had to find out what they were all about. The package contained:

(Liquid Eyeliner, Eyelid primer in "Buff" and in "Black," a business card and two samples)

The samples look neat.

(The one on the left is a "Face Food Fruit Facial Wash--Strawberries and Cream" made of strawberries and coconut milk. The one on the right is a "Softening Mud Mask." I rarely do much "fancy" stuff with my facial cleaning routine, but I'll try these out and see what I think!)

The primers were what I expected. The texture on them is nice enough, but I definitely experienced creasing after not too long when using them.

The pigmentation on the black one is especially nice. I used it as a base to this look:

(This is MSC in Jive Talk on the lid. Blended out with some Star Gazer and UiS White as the brow highlight. I also used some UiS Black in my water line overtop of UD 24/7 Glide Pencil in Zero. Putting the loose pigment over the pencil REALLY makes it stick. I mean, really really stick.)

For the picture taking and for about an hour, the lids looked good--but then the creasing set in and I was one sad vegan Canadian make-up obsessed girl.

So all in all, I am not too impressed with the primers I received from The All Natural Face. I am going to try using less and see what happens. Likewise, I was not very happy with the eyeliner. I tried to take a swatch picture:

(The lower smudged liner was just me testing out the staying power. The top line (right under the scar my sister gave me with a mechanical pencil back when we were younger and hated each other) is the product after two swipes. This colour is called "Black Pearl" but I don't find it to be nearly as pigmented as I want it to be/thought it would be. At least it didn't cost too much $.)

Thus concludes my new brushes and mail show-and-tell! I am hoping to work on my next pictutorial on Sunday--so if you're dying to see me try out a specific colour combo--let me know!! :)