Monday, 1 August 2016

Oval Brush Love: My Makeup Brush Set

Hi, everyone! I don't say it enough on the blog, but truly- I love a good makeup brush. Brushes that blend seamlessly and feel soft on the skin are truly dreamy to use. More and more lately I've been seeing oval-shaped makeup brushes crop up on blogs and social media- circular brushes that resemble some strange, intriguing hybrids of toothbrushes and hairbrushes. They all seemed to blend products amazingly well, but I remained on the fence about whether they were actually functional or merely a passing craze. So when My Makeup Brush Set, a Canadian-based online retailer, offered to send a 10-piece Oval Brush Set my way, I was eager to give these weird, but lovable brushes a go! 


The set came housed in a velvet drawstring pouch. Yes, it attracts hair easily (and, yes, I should have lint rolled it before I took this photo), but aside from this minor annoyance it will be quite handy for travelling with these brushes! 


The Aphrodite Oval Brush Set** contains 10 brushes in a variety of shapes and sizes. The handles are a light silver plastic, which is lightweight and not so luxurious, but sturdy and durable enough. Some of the brush heads are near circular in shape and others are more oblong and narrow. All of the brushes' bristles are quite tightly packed, with the largest brush head head is about the size of a MAC blush and the smallest about the size of and M&M (the best size comparisons I could think of). 



Here are two of the larger face brushes. As you can see, the bristles look super soft and are densely packed. On these brushes, the bristles are about an inch high and get darker near the tips. 



Here are two of the thinner, smaller brushes, which are a bit more wispy with slightly shorter bristles: 


And two of the smaller, rounder brushes, including the very tiniest circle brush that would work for both lips colour as well as an eye shadow crease brush. It almost looks like an electric toothbrush!


And here are some of the brushes in action!

The largest face brush to blend in foundation, and a smaller oval brush for undereye and spot concealing: 



Using a densely-packed mid-size brush for highlighter and one of the small circle brushes in the crease: 



And using one of the ultra-thin brushes to smudge out my liner and the other small, circular brush to apply my lip gloss! 



I used all 10 brushes from the set for my initial test, so I could fully assess whether they could create a full, comprehensive makeup look. I've labelled them below to demonstrate how I used them! 


And here is the completed makeup look I created using the My Makeup Brush Set brushes. The only aspects of the look where I didn't use the brushes was mascara and brows (I had to reach for my handy Anastasia angled brush to finish them, as the brush in this set just wouldn't cut it for my wimpy arches). Aside from brows and lashes, though, the Oval Brush Set** was all I reached for! 




So what was my final verdict on these brushes? I quite liked them! The novelty behind their shape did not sacrifice performance one bit and most were on par with my favourite brushes in my stash. For a touch more detail, here's a full breakdown of the pros and cons of the My Makeup Brush Set Aphrodite 10 Piece Oval Brush Set**:

Pros:
  • The bristles on all of the brushes were incredibly soft and felt extremely comfortable against my sensitive skin
  • The 10-piece set really has a brush for everything (except for brows, in my case)
  • The brushes blend products quite seamlessly, especially foundation and concealer
  • There was no shedding of the brushes whatsoever during use
  • The set is lightweight and travel-friendly
  • The brushes are 100% synthetic and cruelty-free
  • At $39 CAD, this set is quite affordable!
Cons:
  • The brushes (as with most synthetic brushes) did not work quite as well with powder products as they did with liquid/cream textures
  • None of the brushes were stiff/thin/dense enough for filling in my brows

This set will be great for travel in the future due to the comprehensive selection and lightweight packaging. They're fun to use and really do the job! I won't be ditching my conventional brushes anytime soon, but I can happily say that I've jumped on the oval brush fangirl train for the time being :)

If I've tempted you, you can peek at My Makeup Brush Set's Oval Brush Sets, here!

What are your favourite makeup brushes at the moment? Have you been tempted by the oval brush craze?

And don't forget, I have 2 Giveaways running!

Enter my Schaf Radiance + Firming Serum Giveaway, here!


Enter my MAC Lipstick Giveaway, here!

Thanks so much for stopping by! xo

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**These products were sent to me as PR samples for consideration and review. All opinions expressed in this post are 100% authentic and my own

18 comments:

  1. OMG, Jen I LOVE how you broke this down - such helpful pictures. I cant stop gushing about this post!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooh! I have been looking for an affordable Canadian bran selling these brushes! Was shipping time reasonable?
    Angie
    www.chocolateandlipstick.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm really curious about these shaped brushes. I'd love to give one a go but don't want to pay the artis prices! These seem like a great option!

    Tasha // shiwashiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These brush sets have been everywhere online - seems like such an amazing dupe and a great value at $39! I was skeptical at how well the smaller brushes work but it looks like they worked just fine!

    Stephanie | theFantasia.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like a great kit, you could easily just pack that little bag for when you're travelling and you're good to go. I'm really intruiged by these "toothbrush" styled brushes, think I'll have to give them a whirl soon!

    The Makeup Directory

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post! Looking at all these brushes, I wouldn't know what to do with most of them, but you broke it down really well and it's cool to see that there is an affordable dupe out there for some of the more pricey options, like the Artis brushes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Awesome post! I really love this oval brushes that you attached on your blog. I found it more helpful and easy to use. Thanks for sharing this one!

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  8. I keep seeing these pop up in my feed and I'm always curious about them. It sounds like they work great! I think I would find it weird to hold the brushes standing up since I'm so used to the "regular" types of brushes. My latest brush love is Still Spa Essentials from Walmart. Their blush brush (which I use for powder cause it's HUGE) is SO SOFT!

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  9. I've only used one oval-shaped brush and I really like it but it is too big for concealer and too small for foundation! A set like this would be amazing. Great review x

    www.beautyfromkatie.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm keen to try one of these for foundation but I don't know how good I would be at applying eyeshadow using it! xx

    Beautylymin| Abercrombie & Fitch First Instinct Giveaway

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  11. Your makeup looks amazing! I want to use these types of brushes to do my eye makeup.

    ahintofbeauty.blogspot.com/

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  12. I've always wondered about these types of brushes! The small electric toothbrush shaped one looks especially interesting!

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