ZOEVA brushes - 228 Crease, 230 Pencil, 104 Buffer, 330 Contour, 227 Soft Definer Vegan, 225 Eye Blender, 317 Wing Liner.

Hey guys! I recently invested in some brushes from Zoeva. This brand wasn't very well known but rave reviews have helped the brand gain a reputation of being very affordable and of high quality! Plus, there are many bloggers who have compared a number of brushes from Zoeva with other notable brands such as MAC and Sigma. You'll have to take their word for it I'm afraid, since I've never had any high end brushes and hopefully I'll never need to with the existence of Zoeva!

Just a haul and unboxing. I've yet to test out the brushes, but when I do I'll make sure to blog about it!

Picture heavy post coming!

The box arrived well, and was a lot bigger than I thought. Make up brushes aren't exactly big, but when you open the box it's very well wrapped with air packaging on top and bottom which takes up more space.

The brushes are wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with a sticker, which makes it look like a nice present as opposed to an order.  

Very impressed that Zoeva took the time and money to individually wrap every single brush and give each brush its own plastic packet. It must cost them a bomb just in packaging alone! 

Here's the buffer brush - with bigger brushes they secure the head with a tough plastic that takes some strength to pull off the first time, and the bottom of the brush has a plastic wrap.

And smaller brushes are just held in plastic.

8 brushes in all! 

Not much I can say about the actual brushes until I use them - but what I can attest to is that each brush is very soft and all seem to be made to a very nice quality!

                                                                       

More love for Zoeva packaging - the brush packets are sturdy and I've taken the largest one that had the buffer brush in and one of the smaller packets and I've managed to fit ALL of my other make up brushes in both! That includes all my other eye brushes, blusher, even my beauty blender dupe! This will be amazing for when I travel, both packets are relatively slim and I bet will fit very well into a suitcase! Totally saved me buying a make up brush case.

So far, a lot of love for Zoeva, looking forward to experimenting once my exams are over! Reviews will come as soon as possible guys! 

See ya next time! 

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Using art/paint brushes for makeup? My attempt at using Boldmere art brushes.

I recently bought 4 thin art brushes for 99p from the Works, and I wanted to try them out for eye liner. I've got an angled eyeliner brush, but I recently discovered that the eyeliner brush is a fake from a fake set of ecotools brushes I bought off Ebay. Disappointing, but I think I might prefer thin art like brushes rather than the angled brush anyhow. 

The brushes come in 4 different hair lengths, and I chose two for my experiment. 

BRAND: Boldmere

 5/0 Boldmere (The longer haired one)

10/0 Boldmere (The shorter haired one)

Since the brushes were cheap, I expected a few odd sticking out hairs which I cut off.

RESULTS:

Pretty darn good for what they are. Bear in mind that my eyeliner wasn't the newest product, (The Maybelline Eye Studio Lasting Drama Gel Liner) and I think had I warmed up the product everything would have been smoother! These brushes work. I would recommend using the 10/0 Boldmere brush, since it is smaller, but the longer brush is only a tiny bit harder to use with a tiny bit less control.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

If you want a nice cheap eye liner brush, try looking in art shops now and then. These can do the job pretty well. They aren't really comparable to real eye liner brushes in the sense that they are pointed and have an odd hair sticking out, but they definitely do a decent job! (Until you save up for a nicer eye liner brush at least! )  

Sorry for the lack of actual pictures everyone! I stupidly wiped off the eyeliner before realising I should do a blog post! XP

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The risky business of cutting make up brushes (Royal Lip Brush)

I recently heard that having a square ended lip brush brings more precision to applying lipstick. As a lover of straight lines and a person who can't work in a room with wonky paintings, I decided getting a square ended brush would be great. Alas, being a cheap asian person, I decided to DIY my own cheap lip brush into a square ended one.

The Royal Lip Brush (the actual name, not a strange nickname I gifted it lol)

Originally a pointed lip brush that worked well, I've transformed it into this:

I did it purely by eye, around 5am. Not too bad right? I'll have to test it out later, but I'm pretty pleased. The point lip brush worked well, but I think a square ended brush will suit me better. If you do want to do this, I highly recommend wetting the brush first with water then gently fanning out the brush and cutting slowly. Nick off tiny bits at a time, and try to measure the brush against something straight.

*UPDATE*

I recently tried using this brush for lipstick - I got pretty good results!  

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