Inexpensive Quality Brushes
Aug 8, 2008 Fashion & Beauty
Now that putting on makeup has become a must before I leave the house, I’ve decided that it was time to upgrade my old worn out brushes and invest in some quality ones. I’ve heard and read about all the rave with MAC brushes, especially #239 since I focus primarily (if not only) on the eye when applying makeup. However, it hurts me emotionally (and financially) to think about the fact that each MAC brush is at least $20 and that I’d be needing at least the basic few. If I were to invest, there goes $100 out of my pocket. Not much when my internship is currently paying zilch. :(
So I was looking the house and came to the drawers I brought back from college but never bothered putting away (what’s the point when I’m just going to have to pack again when school starts?). Lo and behold, I find 3 double-ended makeup brushes in there that I bought a while ago from CVS. They felt really nice compared to my old brushes and were made of authentic hairs and fibers, so I thought, heck, why not?
Now it’s been a month since all of that happened, and these brushes have been absolutely amazing. They’re by Essence of Beauty, and you can only buy them at CVS stores. I got the 3 duo-ended brushes in a set for less than $10 I think, and they’ve been so amazing that I went out today and got crease brush duo set ($5) and a duo-ended smoky-wide eye brush ($4). So again, that’s 4 brushes with less than $10. :D
My favorites so far are the blush brush and the brushes I got today. Like I said earlier, I only do eye makeup. I don’t use powder or foundation or anything like that, so I haven’t gotten around to trying many of the other brushes yet. But the blush brush is very soft and picks up my Nars blush quite well and gives my cheeks a nice subtle color. And it feels so soft on my skin! 
As for the crease duo brush and smoky-wide eye duo brush, they are amazing. I tried them out with my MAC pigment samples today, and a little goes a LONG way. The crease brushes pick up the colors extremely well, and I used the smoky-wide eye to blend, which it did beautifully. So I couldn’t help myself but to take a picture of these lovely brushes and blog about them! :P
Tags: essence of beauty, MAC, makeup, makeup tools
August 8th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I love my MAC brushes, especially the 239 and 217 (and 187 for the face). I find that I use my brushes from A Design Brushes a lot too though.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I’m not one for wearing make up, I own some… but I rarely use it. I’m all for saving money though! If this every comes up, I’ll be sure to remember your post about the brushes!
August 9th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
@ Katy: The set from A Design looks really nice. I wish knew about the sale when it happened :(
@ I’m all for saving money too, but a lot of times, you really do get what you pay for. These brushes are an exception though :P