Brush Up | Face

I'm finally getting around to writing my reviews on the Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman makeup brushes! A few months ago I picked up a quite a few of her brushes and today I'll be featuring the Core Collection. These have gotten sooo much hype and rightly so! They are really great and I had high expectations for them - after all, they were created by a very talented makeup-artist who obviously knows what she's doing!

The set contains four brushes and a case. The case is actually quite nice and a good, practical addition to my collection as I don't have anything like it. It has elastic slots to put the brushes in (and extras on the other side). The case itself is quite hardy and durable. You can also flip it in half (horizintally) and secure it with the toggle to create a brush stand. All of her brushes have colour-coded handles, orange being for the face/base makeup. The handles are aluminium with a rubberized base and feel nice and lightweight. They feature the brush name on the handle which is always handy.

The brush I was definitely most excited about from this set was the Buffing brush which is so popular. The set also contains the Contour brush, the pointed foundation brush and the detailer brush. The brushes are made with synthetic taklon bristles which are uber soft and great to use with any texture - cream, powder and liquid. I'll start out with my two favourites!

I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to love the Buffing brush. I don't believe there is a single person who has tried it who hasn't loved it. No matter how high the expectations, I knew it would surpass them, and it did. It is a round, slightly domed top brush densely packed with bristles. This guy is perfect for buffing in foundation whether it be liquid, cream or powder. There's no denying it can also be used for a plethora of other things like bronzer and blush. That is precisely what I love about these brushes; that you can use them for so many different things! Having previously only used the traditional paintbrush style foundation brush, this has completely reinvented my application of foundation! It leaves a beautiful, flawless finish with no streaks or uneven patches. It buffs the product right into the skin. It's quick, easy and pretty much fool-proof!

The contour brush is another great multi-tasker. It is a rather small, fluffy, tapered brush perfect for contouring. It fits almost exactly right under the cheekbone to give the effect that we all desire - higher cheekbones! It creates a well blended line that looks very natural and defined. On the other end of contouring, it's great for applying highlighter precisely on the tops of the cheekbones, without getting shimmer everywhere else! It can also be used to apply blush, blend in concealer and apply powder to small areas - for me, that's underneath the eyes.

The Pointed foundation brush is definitely my least used brush. It's much too small to apply foundation all over the face - it would take way too long to do so! It's quite flat and flimsy and therefore not very good at a streak-less application. I thought I might get use out of it to apply concealer under the eyes but honestly it's too much of a bother. Not a fan for sure!

The Detailer brush is a nice one to have but not amazing. It is a tiny little flat brush mainly used for applying lip product or concealer. For me (similar to the Pointed foundation brush) it's too bothersome to apply concealer. As I previously did not own a lip brush, this has filled that hole and has been getting some use! It's quite precise and applies lipsticks, etc well.

So those are my thoughts on the Core Collection! This review is probably redundant to a lot of you who already own the set or have read/seen just about a hundred reviews on these brushes - but I hope it helped someone out! I think these are AMAZING quality for the price and definitely recommend anyone and everyone to buy any of the Real Techniques brushes. My reviews for the other sets and things I bought will be up soon-ish. You can buy the set at Priceline or IHerb which I do recommend over Priceline as it sells the brushes at US RRP (less than half the price of AUS!). I also have a discount code located in the sidebar.