Crown Brushes

I recently started following Kandee the make up artist blog and YouTube channels. She featured a segment right before Christmas about Crown make up brushes. She absolutely raved about how wonderful they were. She had a special deal going on with them that if you entered her code you can get an entire set of brushes for $29.99 shipped. Well, hot damn that's a steal. I'm in!

I ordered the brushes, patiently awaited their arrival. Shipping was actually pretty fast, especially since they were shut down for the holiday season. I think I ordered mine on a Friday and they came in the following Wednesday.

I ripped open the package, seriously excited and examined them. My first real set of make up brushes that a real make up artist recommended. They looked good, they felt good, let's go wash them and get them ready for first use.

I did a pretty thorough cleaning of them. I have enough skin issues, I need nothing else adding to it. I noticed when I was washing them that my water was tinted. Nothing too major. Then I got to the powder brush. The thickest of them all. The water was almost black. ???? Is that suppose to happen? I've only owned a few fairly expensive brushes and I never noticed them doing that. I know for a fact my Sigma brush didnt do it. I made sure to wash it again and make sure the water ran clean before I let it dry.

The next day I got up, eager to put my make up on with my new professional brushes. I used my Sigma F80 for my foundation, picked up the Crown powder brush to apply my powder. Um, it sheds as bad as my damn cat. WTF?!? They are suppose to be a very reputable company. They supposedly make brushes for other well known brand companies. Who!?? ELF!?!?

I'm disappointed in it. The face brushes just don't seem to be all that. The eye brushes are pretty good though. I've really had no complaints about them. Actually the eyeliner brush is wonderful! I've never had such a smooth line with my gel liner.

This is the kit I got.

I honestly don't think I would recommend this to anyone. Maybe if you stayed away from the face brushes and stuck strictly to the eye brushes you'd be fine....Maybe?

Again, you usually only get what you pay for.

Sigma Make Up Brushes

For a while now I've been addicted to watching beauty/make up related videos on YouTube. 98% of the people out there doing the videos are obsessed with MAC cosmetics. I can not and honestly will not pay that much for make up. There are a lot of companies with dupes for most of their products.

Then I started seeing more and more people talking about Sigma brushes. I went to their website and the prices were so low, I honestly figured they would be just like other "cheap" products, not so soft and itchy. My skin is uber sensitive so I have to be careful what I use on it.

I kept seeing more and more reviews and people talking about the Sigma brushes. With a prices like that I thought, What the hell? I'll try it. I ordered the F80. I needed a good foundation brush. I dont like the normal brushes people use as foundation brushes. This one claims to give you a flawless finish.

I got my brush in and instantly was in love. It is so soft, it doesn't irritate my skin, and it is so well made. I instantly washed it and laid it out to dry, anxious for the next day so I could try it out.

I am very impressed with it. No streaks, no irritation. I am in love with this brush.

So, I became an affiliate. :) I've tried so many other brushes and nothing compares to this one.

You can check them out here via this link or you can click on the side banner.

~Sam

CoverGirl ShadowBlast & ShineBlast

CoverGirl on Facebook was doing a giveaway. They were offering a free full size sample of the ShadowBlast and ShineBlast. I'm all about some free stuff so of course I jumped on it. Took me almost 10 minutes of hitting refresh to actually get accepted to it.

Totally forgot about it until I get a FedEx shipment. By the way, does anyone actually use UPS anymore? So anyway, I open the box and I'm kinda all excited. Only really because it was free. That makes me happy.

So I hold out until the next day to try it out. I didn't want to put make up on just to try a free sample. The ShineBlast is awesome. I'm so scared to try a different lip gloss because most are so damn sticky. This however was not the case. Not only is it not sticky, it has an awesome melon smell. I was a little worried about the color though. The tube looks way too orange for me. Me being a red head I have to watch out for certain colors.They just don't work on me. Once I actually put it on, it was a perfect match. My lips are already pretty red without having lipstick/gloss on. So usually when I put my make up on, I have to put foundation/powder over my lips to cover them so the lip gloss/stick doesn't drastically change color. This, what I thought was too orange, was actually perfect. It was almost like my own natural lip color.
I totally give the ShineBlast a 9 out of 10.

The ShadowBlast is a whole other story. I received the white/charcoal stick. I'm not a real big fan of cream shadows. I think it depends on the creaminess. This just...sucks. It's so creamy that I can't just put it on and not try to blend it a little. Problem is, when I try to blend it a little, it just rubs off in spots. This was the white. The charcoal side of it, well, for a lack of better words, sucked just as bad. You are suppose to be able to create a smokey look with it. How? I'm not too sure. It might take some actual playing with to get it down and I was on my way out the door and didn't have time.
I have, however, been using the white side of the stick as a brightener/highlighter. It works very well for that. Up until this last time I used it. When I pulled the top off of it, the white fell out. No I didnt have it rolled up too high. I wasn't using too much pressure to apply. It just broke off.
I honestly give this a 3 out of 10. Two of those points are for the idea of it. It's a good idea. I'm just not a fan of the product.

*imgages curtesy of covergirl.com