When it comes to makeup brushes I'm well aware that not everyone wants a 'collection' but rather a small number of brushes that will do the job and be of use.
Though I'm the total opposite with over 40+ makeup brushes on my dressing table at any one time it does mean I'm able to recommend good individual brushes that are not only very affordable but good quality.
Below I have selected five makeup brushes I'd recommend to anyone that for the most part, bar the Spectrum brush, I have been using for years. I hope this can be of help to anyone wanting to pick up a few more brushes or is looking to update their stash!
Okay, I feel I need to apologise for featuring two amazingly priced eBay brush sets in the space of two weeks. No one needs multiple brush sets.... but ya know, when they are this pretty!!
Much like the oh, so magical unicorn makeup brush set I recently reviewed, these are of a similar theme. I don't know what that theme is exactly... but it's god damn pretty none the less!
Over time, I feel I've become more knowledgeable about eBay and can suss out both good and bad listings/products. So I now have a high success rate when buying low-priced items from eBay and I'm generally always pleased with the items I buy.
Today I have another in-depth eBay review for you! I of course love my monthly eBay hauls however some products more detail given and this one of them!
I've had this stunning mixed metal brush set for a while now and really have been loving using them and even looking at them... they look perfect all together in a pot on my desk! If you are thinking these do look familiar then you would be right at they're a dupe for the Real Techniques Bold Metal collection, just not at £12-£22 per brush! This exact 7-piece set can be found on eBay here for £6.99 or without the indents to the handle (exactly like the Bold Metal brushes) here for only £4.98 - also available in all rose gold, silver and gold to the listing.
The brushes you receive + RT Bold Metal comparison
From left to right in bottom two images (above) - Triangle Foundation brush, Flat Contour brush, Powder brush, Blush brush. Angled Liner brush, Pointed Crease brush, Blending brush.
From left to right in bottom two images (above) - Triangle Foundation brush, Flat Contour brush, Powder brush, Blush brush. Angled Liner brush, Pointed Crease brush, Blending brush.
On comparing these ultra cheap brushes to the Real Technique Bold Metal brushes, as I have a few, the notable difference is the weight. This doesn't affect the use of the brush however the RT brushes do have some weight to them and feel high quality for that reason. I should also point out that these brushes are free from any logos or branding! As for the brush fibres and ferrules these all very similar indeed, expect ultra soft bristles and high shine metallic handles. Comparing the contour brush to the £22 Bold Metal version, it is slightly smaller and the bristles aren't as dense, however the brush still definitely works well with contour powders.
Side note - If you are wondering why I went for the slightly indented handles over the actual RT dupe brushes. I already have a similar set so I wanted them to match and I prefer this kind of handle especially for eye brushes as it makes me hold the brush in the correct way for blending.
Quality
For the price, especially for the cheaper £4.98 brushes here, I really am delighted with the overall quality. As you can hopefully see from the images the brush fibres are so soft and each and every brush works and does the job as it should. I also found they were packaged well and had minimal shedding even on their first wash. Really just a stunning brush set!
For the price, especially for the cheaper £4.98 brushes here, I really am delighted with the overall quality. As you can hopefully see from the images the brush fibres are so soft and each and every brush works and does the job as it should. I also found they were packaged well and had minimal shedding even on their first wash. Really just a stunning brush set!
Favourite brushes
Oh, that's a tricky one as I've been using all the brushes to the set and enjoying them. However the powder brush has to be my favourite as it's beautifully soft and perfect for sweeping over the T-zone... I also can't help but think the similar RT Bold Metal version would have set me back £22! In fact the 7 similar brushes from Real Techniques would cost over £100?! But back to my favourite brushes... I also love the triangle-shaped foundation brush as it's good to get in all the creases and contours of the face and again is such perfect quality. But seriously I really do love all of these brushes!
Let me know if you pick up this brush set or the even cheaper version!
You can find my past eBay reviews here.
Fee xo.
Last week I decided with an overflowing and basically very messy makeup table that it was time I invested in some more makeup storage. With two acrylic drawer towers from Muji that are as good as new 4 years on, I was tempted to have a Muji splurge... but then eBay of course came to mind!
Which is how I came across this bad boy for only £8.84 including free UK delivery here! Yes, literally under £9 for the entire thing... and if I dare say, better quality than Muji storage?!
Find my full review below including even cheaper options!
Now I'm pretty sure you can see this is an absolutely lovely piece of makeup storage and a total bargain but I thought it would be helpful to explain it in more detail, including what I will be using it for, comparing it to Muji storage and just how versatile it is.
What you receive + delivery
I went for the 4 Drawer Makeup Case option here. This includes a single large drawer set with 2 small drawers and two large drawers over 3 levels. Plus a separate tiered organiser that fits onto the top of the drawer set or can be used on it's own, that includes a 12 hole lip holder, 3 back compartments and a large open compartment.
As you can see this holds quite a lot of makeup for it's size. With the back compartments being great for brushes and pencil products, the grid being ideal for lipsticks and the drawers for neatly organising more makeup items. I'm personally using to use this to hold my every day makeup along with my current favourite lip products. In the drawers in storing concealers, cheek products, foundations and eyeshadow palettes and singles - literally everything I need and more for my everyday face! Delivery is also UK based and took only 4 days for me!
I went for the 4 Drawer Makeup Case option here. This includes a single large drawer set with 2 small drawers and two large drawers over 3 levels. Plus a separate tiered organiser that fits onto the top of the drawer set or can be used on it's own, that includes a 12 hole lip holder, 3 back compartments and a large open compartment.
As you can see this holds quite a lot of makeup for it's size. With the back compartments being great for brushes and pencil products, the grid being ideal for lipsticks and the drawers for neatly organising more makeup items. I'm personally using to use this to hold my every day makeup along with my current favourite lip products. In the drawers in storing concealers, cheek products, foundations and eyeshadow palettes and singles - literally everything I need and more for my everyday face! Delivery is also UK based and took only 4 days for me!
Quality
The quality of the acrylic really has impressed me, and comparing it to my existing Muji drawers it is actually thicker. I also prefer the little drawer knobs on this unit compared to the Muji cutout semi circle holes as it means you aren't touching the actual storage with makeup fingers and getting it dirty! The drawers are quite shallow but as you can see they fit a single layer of products perfectly. Acrylic storage in general is very long lasting but I really can see this unit lasting years!
The quality of the acrylic really has impressed me, and comparing it to my existing Muji drawers it is actually thicker. I also prefer the little drawer knobs on this unit compared to the Muji cutout semi circle holes as it means you aren't touching the actual storage with makeup fingers and getting it dirty! The drawers are quite shallow but as you can see they fit a single layer of products perfectly. Acrylic storage in general is very long lasting but I really can see this unit lasting years!
Versatility
With the top compartment being a separate unit it means you have the option of keeping it as a stacked tower or using both pieces separately, either for totally different things or next to each other. I will be personally keeping the unit stacked for space but as you can see both units next to each other look great.
Also with non-slip drawer liners being included for all 4 drawers the organiser could be used to store jewellery. And the tiered unit could definitely be used for stationary - so versatile!
Other storage options
In the eBay listing I purchased this item (4 Drawers Makeup Case here). However you can find 2 narrow acrylic drawers here for a mere £5.89.
Overall I've totally in love with this eBay find and can't believe a unit that looks this good and stores so much could cost only £9!
My overflowing makeup table is no more!
Fee xo.
Just the other day I dropped a casual link in a blog post to this exact brush set. Then I thought... exactly why aren't you blogging about it?! So here I am sharing my amazement of this Zoeva dupe brush set from eBay!
As you may already know I recently found an amazing dupe for the 8-piece Zoeva face set on eBay for under £5 (which you can buy here or read my review of here) and then I came across the matching 12-piece eye set (£3.28 eBay UK here or eBay US here) and instantly snapped it up! Now as I'm always honest I will say that there are a few brushes in this set that I basically hate and won't be using but loving 8 brushes out of the 12 for £3.28 really isn't bad at all. So this is basically a fair and honest review... but still snap them up if you want some amazingly pretty rose gold brushes for your collection or just to use as blog props!
I mean they are cheaper than the price of a magazine... or a single eyeshadow brush in Boots (much better comparsion, Fee!).
I mean they are cheaper than the price of a magazine... or a single eyeshadow brush in Boots (much better comparsion, Fee!).
The brushes you receive + Zoeva comparison
Left to right - Eyeshadow/concealer buffer brush, small smudger brush, larger flat brush, angle liner/brow brush, flat round tipped brush, ultra fine wing liner brush, fluffy eye shader brush, two narrow fluffy brushes, two medium narrow fluffy brushes, large flat topped fluffy brush, small pencil brush.
On comparing my Zoeva brushes (around £8.50 each) to my eBay finds (around 27p each haha) there are a few notable differences - the eBay brushes are longer by half an inch, the rose gold is slightly more vivid but with subtle indents to the ferrule, they're also free from all writing and branding and the handles are more of a light dusky pink than the nude toned Zoeva ones. However the overall appearance is very similar with the black and white duo fibre brushes looking the most similar. Some brushes do match up to what you can buy from Zoeva such as the 142 Concealer Buffer from the Rose Golden volume 2 collection and the 226 Smudger brush, but on the whole the eBay set is more inspired by the Zoeva brush set.
Left to right - Eyeshadow/concealer buffer brush, small smudger brush, larger flat brush, angle liner/brow brush, flat round tipped brush, ultra fine wing liner brush, fluffy eye shader brush, two narrow fluffy brushes, two medium narrow fluffy brushes, large flat topped fluffy brush, small pencil brush.
On comparing my Zoeva brushes (around £8.50 each) to my eBay finds (around 27p each haha) there are a few notable differences - the eBay brushes are longer by half an inch, the rose gold is slightly more vivid but with subtle indents to the ferrule, they're also free from all writing and branding and the handles are more of a light dusky pink than the nude toned Zoeva ones. However the overall appearance is very similar with the black and white duo fibre brushes looking the most similar. Some brushes do match up to what you can buy from Zoeva such as the 142 Concealer Buffer from the Rose Golden volume 2 collection and the 226 Smudger brush, but on the whole the eBay set is more inspired by the Zoeva brush set.
My Favourite Brushes
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I don't love all the brushes to the set but 8 out of 12 isn't bad. My favourites have to be the 3 duo fibre brush, just so soft and such amazing quality (the largest brush is amazing for buffing concealer under the eyes), as well as the small angled brush which again is so soft and I've been using with brow powder to fill in my brows. I also surprised myself by loving the very fine liner brush as I've been touching it against the nib of my Lord & Berry liquid liner and achieving a precise winged eye that way! I've also been liking the white fluffy shader brush as it's perfectly soft and works well to pat on lid colour.
Quality + Dislikes For the price the quality is pretty damn amazing and after a week of using them and washing them 3 times I've yet to see any shedding or splaying of the bristles! The handles and rose gold ferrules also seem sturdy and well made.
However I do have two dislikes around this set - My first issue was soon remedied by give them an initial wash, as they arrived with such a strong spray paint smell. It was hard to tell if this was the packaging or the brushes themselves but they really couldn't have been used straight away. A minor issue but one I felt needed mentioning! I also dislike 4 of the white fibre brushes, one is just a little too stiff (small pencil brush) for around the eyes for me, but my problem is the other 3 brushes are just cut and shaped in such a basic way, making them pretty rubbish to use! It really is as if they got bored of coming up with different shapes and styles of brush and just cut these 3 brushes straight across. But as I mentioned it's not a big deal when you love all the other brushes and only spent £3.28 on the entire set!
This 12-piece eye set along with the 8-piece face set really are some of my favourite eBay brush finds to date. You can find my review of the dupe Zoeva face set which contains 8 brushes here or snap up the set below for only £4.84!
US Link - here!
I think you'll agree that this set is amazing value for money and just looks stunning. I'm so pleased I picked these up - in fact I'll be buying another set (in black) to have duplicates of my favourite brushes!
Fee xo.
As you may know by now I love myself a good eBay find and in the past year it's been my personal mission to find some bargain makeup brush sets.
With Spectrum, Artis and Zoeva releasing some gorgeous collections lately but all with fairly large price tags, my aim was to seek out similar styles for a snip of the cost without compromising on quality. And I think I've gone and done it!
With Spectrum, Artis and Zoeva releasing some gorgeous collections lately but all with fairly large price tags, my aim was to seek out similar styles for a snip of the cost without compromising on quality. And I think I've gone and done it!
Yes, amazingly all the brush sets in this post cost under £6 with free p&p! Pretty amazing if you ask me. The only thing I would say it that delivery does take some time, around 2-3 weeks but they are all more than worth the wait.
Zoeva Rose Golden Dupe Set (Save £60)
This is the set I'm most excited to show you as it looks incredibly similar to the stunning Zoeva Rose Golden Brush Set without being a fake and including any branding... you also receive EIGHT brushes here for under £5 - such a bargain! The set comprises of 3 face brushes and 5 eye brushes similar to the Zoeva set, all with sturdy rose gold ferrules and powder pink wooden handles. I've already been using this set a huge amount in the past two weeks and have found the foundation buffing brush to be one of my favourites as it's perfectly soft yet structured, along with the eye smudger brush, crease brush and eyebrow brush, all of which are amazing quality.
As I already own a few Zoeva eye brushes I can compare the quality and say they are very similar indeed, so much so that's it's satisfied my need to buy the rose gold set from Zoeva. These have already had two washes so far and have had minimal shedding which I'm really impressed by. Overall I'm so pleased I came across these brushes and wouldn't hesitate in recommending them!
Beau Belle Rose Gold Dupe Set (Save £30)
On to an equally stunning set that again I can't get enough of and one I'm incredibly glad I picked up as the stock images just don't do the brushes justice. Included in the set at three face brushes and two eyeshadow brushes, one of which could be used for highlighter. What I love most about these brushes other than how aesthetically pleasing they are is the design/shape of the brushes that allows you to hold them in the correct way, which remind me of the Real Techniques Bold Metal brushes. This especially helps if you are often heavy handed when applying makeup or still haven't mastered eyeshadow blending fully. I really can't pick a favourite brush from this set as they're all incredibly soft and well made. As for shedding I've found only the foundation brush to shed which isn't such a big deal. Another amazing set for the price! All brushes can be purchased individually for £1.29 each in the listing as well!
Iconic London Evo Dupe Set (Save £80)
*Side note - I purchased these brushes individually so I don't have the full set*
Last but certainly not least possibly the brush set with the largest saving if you compare them to the very similar rose gold oval Iconic London brushes. With two other amazing brush sets in this post it's hard to say that these may just be my favourites but they certainly are impressive and such amazing quality. Included in the set are three face brushes and two eye brushes however they are all very multi-purpose especially the smaller brushes and can also be used on the lips and face. Other than the stunning professional look to the brushes I love how incredibly soft yet dense they are - the large brush really must contain hundreds of thousands of fibres. This does mean you do need to thoroughly wash each brush however it also means they give such a professional blended finish. As for favourites I love using the smallest brush to apply matte lip creams as it gives such a perfect application and the large blending brush is amazing for finishing foundation off with to give a seamless airbrushed effect.
Yes, oval brushes do require some getting use to but once you get the hang of how to use them in that sweeping motion (YouTube videos help!) they really are amazing and this set really does feel professional. Again all brushes can be purchased individually for £1.14-£2.96 in a separate listing here.
I really do hope I've saved you money if you've been lusting after a more expensive rose gold brush set or I've enabled you to buy more brushes you really don't need mwahaha!
Fee xo.
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