Rose Gold Revolution

Hello and welcome to my first blog post, which is, quite scary?
My name is Abi and I'm from the North East of England, and like many 18 year old girls, I live and breathe for the next amazing beauty product to change my life.
Im no make-up guru, but I love playing around with make-up; creating new looks and seeing what all the 'hype' is about surrounding various products.

I've been a loyal lover of RealTechnique brushes for over 3 years now, and although I still stand by them as a holy grail, their is no denying that any beauty-lover will have eyed up the Zoeva Brushes at some point.

With their variation of handle and metal designs, as well as mixture of synthetic and natural fibres, (adding in numerous youtubers raving about them), hundreds of instagram posts in their signature bag and the fact they had a ROSE GOLD collection meant I just had to have them.



I decided to go for a package deal and get the 8 brushes in one, as I found this was a fool-proof way of getting a sample of face and eye brushes, without dithering over what I wanted. They were advertised as the 'Rose Gold Luxury Set.' and are comprised of 8 brushes, with black handles and rose gold hardware. I know they also come in silver and gold, as well as a Rose Gold eye kit, and a set with pink bamboo handles as part of their vegan friendly collection. It was £56.95 for a set of 8, which i think is an absolute STEAL at £7 a brush, for such luxury professional brushes. *Disclaimer, my brushes were actually bought for me by my wonderful boyfriend, so thank you to Daniel. *Mine were ordered off BeautyBay and arrived within a day, through Herme's delivery. Not only were the brushes individual packaged with their bristles secured, the brushes themseleves were also protected within the bag.

The faux leather bag it comes it is spectctualr. To match the brushes, the metal zip and hardware on the bag is also in rose gold, complemeting the deep brown shade of the bag. Inside of the bag is an interior section (also has rose gold hardware), with their slogan of 'COLOR. LOVE. MAKEUP.' printed on the side. The main part of the bag is really roomy, with the 8 brushes the set comes in only taking up a quarter of the space. It's safe to say I will most likely keep all my brushes in that bag next time I go away.

The brushes themselves are amazing. To look at, they are perfect, however they are actually practical as well. Some may say, practically perfect. The wooden handle has a waxy finish on it, so they are really smooth and comfortable in your hand (I know, I never thought I would say that either), but really, they are! The bristles are super soft and you can tell how durable they are by looking at them. Considering they are similar in price to RealTechnique brushes, the look and finish of the Zoeva hands down, looks more expensive and professional. I love how the bristles are black and fade to a white tip, meaning you can clean them a lot easier and see when they need properly cleaning, as well as having the element of black, to look cleaner and more sophisticated.

All the brushes have their number and name, as well as the Zoeva logo printed on one side of the handle, and their slogan on the other. Did I mention that was in ROSE GOLD too?

FACE

                                         102/ Silk Finish

This is the most perfect foundation brush to date. Its a similar size to the RealTechniques buffing brush, however the bristles are much softer and more dense, meaning less product will be absorbed into the brush and you get the most out of your product. It feels amazing applying this to your face, and it buffs in foundation perfectly. I love the dense-ness of the bristles and it's fairly compact head means you can really add attention to detail when it comes to applying a flawless base.

106/ Powder

The 106 is unlike any brush i've had before. Although i've had many powder brushes, these have either been small kabuki style brushes, or flatter patting powders. This fairly compact powder brush allows for precision when applying, so is perfect for setting under-eye concelar or blending product into the skin. Unlike the TealTechnique's powder brush, it is much more precise, but would still be ideal for dusting light product over the face.

127/Luxe Sheer Cheek

This was one of the brushes I was most excited about using. The fact that it is tapered means it is perfect for applying contour, but also fits perfectly onto the apples of your cheeks to give a flawless blush. This brush is also ideal for dusting highlights onto the high area's of your face to give you a gorgegous glowy finish. I've used this brush for all 3, and have found contouring to be the most effective. That being said, it does work perfectly for blush, as I have found it doesn't absorb the powder, and instead transfers it beautifully from pan to face. It picks up a great deal of product meaning this brush is amazing for sculpting and adding definition to the face. I am temped to buy another of these and have one for contour and one for blush.

110/ Face Shape

Originally inteaded to contour (i think), I much prefer this brush to add detail highlights to my face. I tried this when contouring and found that although it was effective, it was slightly difficult to blend out. If you were going for a serious Kim K contoured look, then this brush would certianly do the job, however for an everyday look, it is slightly intense. This brush is the perfect size for applying highlight to under the brow bone, down the nose and the cupid's bow.

EYES

                                         231/ Luxe Petit Crease

Another brush I was super exited to try out. This brush is your signature pencil brush, and allows you to add deep colour to the crease and under-eye. This brush picks up pigmant amazingly, meaning no colour is lost in transition, and works perfectly with other blending brushes. In terms of adding definition to the crease and outer V, this brush ticks all the boxes.

227/ Luxe Soft Definer

I think I was most excited to receive this brush. This is a perfect dupe for the Sigma E40, and a step up from the RealTechnique Base Shadow. Although its not as fluffy as the E40, it still blends out colour seamlessly, and unlike the Base Shadow, it is more circular rather than flat, meaning it works much better as a blender, rather than a packer. The bristles have a good amount of movement in them and are neither too dense or sparse. Again, barely any pigment is lost through transferring, and it's just such a perfect brush for blending colours and working shades into the crease of the eye.

                                                    142/ Concelear Buffer

Okay, so not tehnically for eyes, but you can see by the shape and design of the brush, it is intended for under-eye concealer. It is a very similar shape to the 110, however rather than the bristles leaning outwards, the 142 remain fairly vertical. Again, the bristles are very dense with not a lot of movement, so I feel this brush would work much better on liquids rather than cream or powder. I found that my BeautyBlender worked more effectively under my eyes with concelear, however teamed with a potted concelar (personal favourite is Benefit Bo-oing), this brush works wonders. It's great for packing and dotting, rather than sweeping the make-up across your face as this means it will give you a fuller coverage and last that little bit longer.

317/ Wing Liner

Does anyone even use wing liner brushes for eyeliner anymore? I know the last 3 tapered brushes i've bought have been intended solely for my brows and never even touched an eyelid. What surprised me most about this brush was the thin-ness of the point. This creates the most perfect singular line i've ever seen, and is even finer than the MAC 266. I hated the RealTechnique Brow Brush to fill in brows, as I found it was too thick and stumpy to do anything. The Zoeva brush is about an eighth of that thickness meaning it is like precision city. The bristles have an incrediabe ammount of movement in them compared to the 266, meaning blending wax's and powder's in the brows becomes a lot more foolproof. I thought the 266 was as fine as an eyeliner brush could go, but this really breaks the boundaries and is so worth it.
In terms of how it actually performs for it's intended purpose (gel eyeliner), I cannot tell you, but this has made filling in my eyebrows exciting!