Zoeva Brushes

Lately Noodles has been getting into makeup and watching YouTube beauty vloggers, which is how I came to be sitting watching Tanya Burr, even though I am definitely way outside her demographic. In a tutorial she used and raved about the Zoeva Luxe Face Paint brush, and since I have nothing like that, and was also looking to splurge on something smallish before my massive pay cut kicked in and I became a povo, I decided to buy one and check it out. I'd heard about Zoeva because Siobhan of Letzmakeup uses them all the time and loves them, but I'd never paid much attention because I have more than enough brushes.

The downside is that shipping is kind of high, which was not enough to turn me off buying, but instead made me think I should buy several brushes (any excuse, really) to justify the cost. When the package arrived I realised why the shipping was expensive. To be honest, I think this is a bit of overkill.

The six brushes were packed in this ginormous box, each one in its own little plastic pencil case sleeve, and then surrounded by those plastic floaties things full of air. Although it's nice that they are well protected and arrive without damage, I do think it would be possible to safely ship brushes with a lot less palaver and therefore less cost. However, minor quibble - on to the brushes themselves!

109 Face Paint (12.80 Euro/$18.30AUD)
This is the one that got me to the site in the first place after seeing it on Tanya Burr's video. She used it for highlighter, but I use it mostly for contouring. It's a flat square brush that is sturdy but very soft. One thing I discovered is that it picks up a lot of product - hello brown stripe down the face - so you need a light hand if you're working with highly pigmented products. The price has gone up - I paid 10.50 Euro - but for less than $20 this brush is amazing.

322 Brow Line (6.80 Euro/$9.71AUD)
This one is my favourite - the bristles are very short and quite stiff so you can get really precise and sharp with your brows. It has replaced my previous holy grail brush, the Illamasqua Eye Brow brush, which is good because I have still not forgiven them for their bullshit non-apology over their racism debacle and I hate using the few things left of theirs that I own. The Brow Line brush works beautifully with both cream products and powder.  I LOVES IT.

226 Smudger (7.80 Euro/$11.15AUD)
When I decided to buy more brushes to make the postage sting a little less, I tried to go for the ones I didn't already have a version of. For some reason I did not previously have a smudge brush. I think I had a cheap Coastal Scents one years ago that fell apart, but since then nowt. This is the one I use the least, but that's not because it's not good, more because I just don't smudge a hell of a lot. I rarely use eyeshadow or liner under my eyes but when I do, this one does a lovely job of - well - smudging. It has short, sturdy but very soft bristles.  

318 Soft Paint Liner (6.80 Euro/$9.71AUD)
I've used this brush for a few different things - it works well with gel liner, and it's also good for smudging shadow, softening powder on brows and I've even used it for applying highlighter to my cupid's bow and inner corners of my eyes. The bristles are a little longer than the Brow Line and not quite as stiff.

221 Soft Crease (7.80 Euro/$11.15AUD) and 227 Soft Definer (7.80 Euro/$11.15AUD)
One can always use more blending/crease brushes, right? I couldn't decide which of these I wanted so I just got both. The Soft Crease is more narrow than the Soft Definer, with slightly longer bristles. The bristles are softer on the Soft Crease than the Soft Definer also, so the Soft Crease is better for diffusing colour, while the Soft Definer is good for small area blending.

So. As I said, shipping is a bit high - I paid 15.00 Euro ($21.50AUD), so if you're buying from Zoeva it's worth stocking up on a few things at once rather than just one or two items, because shipping is a flat rate. The site currently lists shipping for Australia as $16US, so you might end up paying a bit less than I did.

The brush quality is fantastic. I have used and washed each of these quite a few times and I've not experienced any shedding at all. They are still soft and pliable, and the handles and ferrules feel firm and sturdy. What I really love is that the handles are also a little shorter than many other brands, so you can get up close to the mirror!

I found the prices really reasonable, especially considering the quality. They are a little cheaper in most cases than Sigma, for example, and they absolutely shit all over them. It's no secret that I am not a fan of Sigma - I've had several of their brushes fall apart on me, and I have several more that I never use because they shed like mofos. The Zoeva brushes are streets ahead of Sigma, in my opinion.

Zoeva is based in Germany but ships worldwide. They have makeup as well as brushes, but I've not tried any of that. There are also some Zoeva products available on the Luxola site (which I've never used so I don't know if it's any good), but they don't have the full range and they seem to be sold out of most of it.

All in all, I give Zoeva two massive thumbs up, and if it were not for the fact that I am now officially povo and also have pretty much every makeup brush I could possibly need, I'd be back buying one of everything.

Random eBay Brush vs Everyday Minerals

While I was trawling eBay for cheap crap a while ago and happened across the Real Techniques dupe brush, I also found a flat top kabuki brush that looked a hell of a lot like an Everyday Minerals brush. Once again, these are available from a bunch of different sellers, and I chose this one for no particular reason. The cost was $2.59AU with free postage - well under my $5 'nothing to lose' budget.

When I received it, I was surprised to see that it actually is an Everyday Minerals brush - right down to the stamp. I have a fair few EDM brushes, and I've talked before about how much I like them, especially the face brushes. I don't know whether it's overstock or maybe a second, but it's definitely an EDM brush.

I can't do an exact comparison because my original EDM flat top died a year ago, and I never bothered replacing it (until now!) because I had a Crown brush that was pretty much the same thing.

Everyday Minerals round top kabuki, eBay flat top kabuki

eBay flat top kabuki, Crown flat top kabuki

I decided to compare in action with the Crown brush, as I would be using these two for the same thing.

Differences: 

• The eBay brush is soft, but not quite as soft as the Crown brush. 

Washing: 

• I have had the Crown brush for at least a couple of years and washed it many times with never any shedding. 
• I washed the eBay brush before and after using. There was no shedding, though there were one or two unevenly sized hairs that came loose when I tugged at them. 
• Both brushes cleaned more easily when used with powder than when used with foundation - the foundation gets down into the bristles and you need an oil-based cleanser of some type to get it out. 

Application: 

• The eBay brush was slightly stiffer than the Crown brush, which I felt made for easier application of both foundation and powder. 

Conclusion: 

• This is litereally an Everyday Minerals brush - there doesn't seem to have been any attempt to fake it, as there was no mention of EDM in the description, and they are not really a brand that would attract fakes. I guess as I said above it's either overstock or a second, though there wasn't anything wrong with it, and it felt and looked like every other EDM brush I have. 
• As for whether I would recommend it, if you're looking for a flat top brush and you're willing to risk a couple of dollars on something that might be a second and therefore inconsistent in quality, then yes - I would absolutely recommend it.

Random eBay Brush vs Real Techniques

The other day I was trawling around eBay, as I am wont to do, and I happened across some makeup brushes that looked very familiar. I was interested to see if they were much different, so I bought one. It was $3.18AU with free postage and I got mine from this seller, but there are multiple sellers who have them.

None of the brushes I could find on eBay were exactly the same as any of the Real Techniques ones, but I wanted to do a reasonable comparison so I got one that was as close as possible to one of the RT ones I already had. In this case, the comparison is with the Real Techniques Buffing Brush.

Differences:

• The eBay brush is slightly lighter, it feels cheaper. 
• The eBay brush looks slightly less dense than the Real Techniques one (note: may not actually be). 
• They both have the flat bottom so the brush can stand upright, the eBay one is slightly wider at the bottom. 

Washing: 

• I washed both a couple of days ago before testing them. I washed them both again after testing them with liquid foundation. There was no shedding with either of them and they took about the same amount of time to dry. 

Application: 

• I applied a liquid foundation (Rimmel Wake Me Up), using the eBay brush on one half of my face and the Real Techniques brush on the other. 
• I found the eBay brush actually applied the product more quickly, more smoothly, and felt more dense with less floppiness than the Real Techniques brush. 
• The Real Techniques brush applied the product well also, but seemed to have more 'give' and less density. 

Conclusion: 

• Although the eBay brush looks and feels slightly flimsier than the Real Techniques brush (though not a great deal), I found it performed slightly better. 
• Am I recommending you rush out and buy up all the brushes on eBay? No. But I do recommend that if you're a fan of the Real Technique brushes and you're not fussed about throwing a couple of dollars at something you may or may not like, buy one and see for yourself. 
• I'm not giving a cast iron recommendation of the brush itself - it performed well for me, but for all I know it might fall apart in a month. 
• Speaking for myself, though I'm not in the market for more face brushes right now - and I couldn't find any dupes of the RT eye brushes on eBay - if I were I'd look there first. For a small price I got a brush that I personally find comparable to - if not better than - a similar Real Techniques brush.