Rae Morris Brushes- An Update...

Remember the The Bitter Brush Debacle of 2012? Well, I have an update.

While I was at IMATS, Rae was there, she was at her stand, selling books and brushes, I decided I would have a quiet word with her about the dye, not the PETA stuff, not the glue in the brushes, just the dye, I had the picture on my phone and I thought, you know what? She deserves to know.

So while Emma ran for cover (OK, stood on the other side of the stall picking out brushes), completely convinced Rae was going to punch me, I waited until everyone had walked off and Rae was on her own, I didn't want to make a fuss, I just wanted to show her, I started by telling her how big a fan I was, how I had all the books and so on...then I told her about my dyed brush and showed her the picture. 

She was horrified, showed the picture to her assistants and asked if she could e-mail the it to herself so she could chase it up, grabbed be a replacement brush, cleaned it right in front of me to check for dye.  She asked about the quality of the other brushes and I told her, she was clearly disappointed.  She grabbed a few more brushes, then asked if there was any book I didn't have, I said no, but a friend had been eyeing up my copy of Timeless Makeup and I could pass my other copy to her.  She personally signed the book and gave me all my goodies, I hung around for a few minutes chatting makeup, brush cleaning tips, foundations preferences, everything really.  Before I left she pointed out that I now had her personal e-mail address and if I had any other issues to contact her directly.

I am now ready to fall in love with these brushes, I was hurt before, I won't lie, but I can tell a genuine response from a fake one and Rae Morris was on my side, she was warm, lovely, funny and has a heart of gold, lucky for Emma, I had already worked out she was in heels and I in flats...just in case...

A happy ending methinks, interestingly when I compare the brush I bought with the new one I was given, they are a bit different, the new one of markedly softer, have longer bristles and a slightly different shaped handle.  Might be a blog post in that too.

And Lizzi and the brushes lived happily ever after...

US Makeup Haul Part 2- Brushes

I love makeup brushes, I mean LOVE them.  I keep them clean, I have lots to afford me this luxury and Sunday nights in my house are 'dance around the kitchen and wash the makeup brushes' night.

I wrote an article for Makeup Utopia on Dirty Brushes being gross.  Since then my mum as taken a very active interest in my makeup brushes, and so while she was in the US she bought me more brushes...

Eye brushes from MAC and Sephora, and a brush set from Sephora;

You might remember from this picture in US Haul Part 1, that I said I would address the silver case separately?

This is why...

They are an anti-bacterial set, I haven't researched their claims*, for the simple reason I don't want to disprove them.  I could, but in the mean time I'm enjoying my naive bliss.

It's actually got a good range of brushes in it, I often find that brush sets have maybe 3 brushes that I'll use and the rest are a bit shit.

If this wasn't enough, I also got this:

Not a bad haul of brushes from a lady who routinely states 'don't you have enough brushes' I say state because I see it as a rhetorical question, because clearly the answer is- no, NEVER!

How do you treat your brushes? do you wash them often? never? only when you drop them? 
Do you think there is such a thing as 'too many' makeup brushes (I'd prefer you didn't answer that)
Mmmmm makeup brushes!





*Usually 'Anti-bacterial' brushes are coated with an agent which, 1, will wash off eventually and 2. Is only tested for certain types of bacteria, nasty and reasonably rare ones, and I doubt that in tests they 'dose' the brushes to ensure they do in fact work to kill 'germs' as much as they test for the presence. 
Usually the 2 commons ones are Escherichia.coli (or E.coli as it is usually known) which we all know is nasty and makes you very sick, and Staphylococcus aureus (or Staph.a an organism commonly found on the skin, bat can cause serious issues if an over abundance occurs) anyway, although serious, these are not the only form of bacteria you might find on your brushes, further to that, many organisms, such as yeasts or moulds AND viruses will not necessarily respond to an anti-BACTERIAL agent, because they are not bacterias in the true form of the word.  BUT they might still cause reactions, breakouts and are gross.
ANY WAY enough science, this is why I won't test them and I'll still wash them like usual!

The Bitter Brush Debacle of 2012

This is not a brush review- I will be addressing these makeup brushes in their own right in a separate post.  This is instead, a little story about brushes, claims and what I learnt...

UPDATE: Please read on, but find what happened next here.

It starts out with me reading reviews of Rae Morris brushes everywhere, and every one of them raving. 

I own every one of Rae Morris's books; I follow her on Twitter and Facebook.  I am a fan.  So I decided that a product which seemed SO well loved by SO many bloggers I follow, admire AND trust.  These brushes would be an investment.  A gift to myself to finishing my MUA training.  A celebration that I had arrived in this crazy world of cosmetics as more than just a consumer.  I was a professional, and I deserve professional quality tools!

Having read all the reviews, I slowly put together a list of the 'must haves'.  I already have 27 brow brushes, I don't need one of those, I'll get the Deluxe Kabuki, because then I can use it for the same jobs as the mini kabuki, and other such reasoning a girl makes when purchasing, well, anything. 

I did my maths, did I want that whole set? YES! I did, but I did the maths and from my perspective it made most sense to get the personal kit and subsidise it with my other must haves.  All in all it came to just over $500 (GULP, I know, but I'll only buy them once, and they ARE worth it...)

$500 for 18 of the finest quality, PETA approved, dye free, ethical (Rae herself has travelled to China to ensure these were manufactured to her strict instructions- no child labour here) professional makeup brushes with fantastic features, like magnets in the handles! SO clever! 

Plus, that's not actually that much, I'd easily spend the same or more on fewer brushes from MAC or another equivalent.  So I bit the bullet...

Under a week of waiting by the mail box, my brushes arrived, I was so excited.

I opened the packaging, whilst explaining to my sister about how brilliant these brushes were, how everyone loved them, how they were definitely worth the money...

Once I had them out of the packaging to do my first wash (yes, I always wash my brushes before use) I noticed a few things.  Two of my brushes had glue through the bristles...yuck, oh well, it will wash off. 

Then I noticed that my deluxe eyeliner brush was bent at the tip, not so great for the 'accurate application' of eyeliner....miserable.

Before I washed my brushes I sent a twitter message to another blogger, to ask for advice on cleaning the brushes with no ferrule, was it the same as usual? Yes, but be careful because of the wood.  So off I went to wash my brushes to get the glue off and reshape that eyeliner brush taking the utmost care in doing so. 

Meanwhile, I had had another response to ask how I found the brushes- I mentioned the glue- I was told it wasn't good enough.  I don't like to make a fuss, so I had washed them, but I thought, as a courtesy I would let the company know.

I did this while I waited for my brushes to dry, they agreed it wasn't good enough but that they would replace ANY brushes wasn't happy with, even though I had washed them. (+1 for customer service)

When I went back to my brushes, I found this:

IS...is that dye? I believe so. When I dry my brushes I place them on paper towel so that the water is drawn down and they dry faster. 

What I believed this to be was a very basic form of Paper Chromatography, where dye separates as it travels through paper- you can see the initial black- to brown then pink.

I also e-mailed the company about this, they maintain they are meant to be dye free but would check with the manufacturer.

Now, not many beauty bloggers have access to the same resources as me, so I consulted a qualified chemist.  He confirmed this is what I thought.  Its dye.

I work within a manufacturing environment, I know accidents can happen, perhaps this brush was contaminated through the air with dye, and maybe something odd happened during manufacturing.  As suggested by my (at this point, 2) chemists, I recreated the experiment.

I washed my brush again.  The second time, I didn't think I'd find much, you know, like when you buy jeans and the first wash brings out the dye, but from then on, they're pretty good to go in a mixed wash?

This is what happened the second time...

You can clearly see it’s the same outcome, there is a perfect line around where the bristles end.  I'm going to go ahead and say; this is not a dye free brush.

Another of the calims I was always a little uneasy about the claim these brushes were PETA Approved. I was always under the impression, that PETA believe an animal needs its fur and there is no way to remove said fur without cruelty or potential cruelty.  This is what I thought, but hell, all those bloggers can't be wrong can they? 

In my annoyance at the dye issue, I went searching the Rae Morris website for confirmation of this.  NOTHING.

I didn't stop there, I contacted PETA, and their statement on these brushes is:

"We have not and would never approve these brushes"

Oh. OUCH! So who's lying here?  I'm not going to link the blogs who made these claims as I don't think that’s fair, I suspect that at the brush launch a room full of bloggers were told these brushes were 'PETA Approved' in a verbal declaration, and they ran with it.  They can now make the coice to amend past articles.

I have contacted one of the bloggers, and she agreed this is pretty much what happened, she has since amended her post.

So did Rae Morris lie to the bloggers, or had she been misled herself? Are all the brushes full of dye, or did I get a dodgy one (what a set of hands for a dodgy brush to fall into) I'll probably never know, I asked the company to keep me informed about the dye in the brushes, but I suspect I will never hear back.

What I have heard is that my new replacement brushes are in the mail, I only decided to have the 2 gluey brushes and the liner brush exchanged.  Perhaps I should have also chosen to replace the (dyed) Flawless Shader Brush, now I know its quality will degrade with the washing out of the dye, like Rae says happens- that’s why she wanted her brushes dye free; to maintain softness...

What do you think? do you think bloggers were deliberately used in a ploy to spread the false word?  Do you think the PETA comments came out of nowhere, that one blogger said it and the others copied?  Either way, I think it’s safe to say that most of the reasons I stated for buying these brushes in the first place are now defunct!

I'm disapointed.  I was utterly thrilled to have saved to buy these, I had wanted them for ages, even with the new brushes, I can't help but feel a little let down by the whole thing.  All that is left for me to do now, is use the brushes and review them in their own right and hope they at least, live up to that hype.

Blush Brush Bomb Diggity

A few weeks ago, I posted a haul post about my new Real Techniques brushes.  I've been finding every excuse to try them out and I love them all, but the stand out brush for me has got to be this one:

No shit, it is possibly the best blush brush I've ever used.  Its brilliantly tapered to allow precise application to the cheeks, but its big, soft and fluffy enough to enable blending too.  Yesterday I used it on a friend who's cheeks, either love or hate blush, because it always looks like clown couture, it never blends and it looks horrid.  Alas, enter Real Techniques blush brush, magic, needless to say, even prior to the brilliant blush outcomes on Jo's face (I forgot to take a picture, I'm so annoyed) I had bought more.  I like to have at least 2 of each brush I find amazing, one for my kit and one for my face, I wash my brushes often and fastidiously, so I'm not worried about using them interchangeably, BUT its a pain to remove it from my kit to use on my face, then wash it and remember to put it back, I'm just not that good.  Therefore having 2 or more, (OK, more, I have 4 of these now) is just the sensible thing to do.

I believe the RRP for these in Priceline is about $25 but there are plenty of retailers online offering them for a much more reasonable price such as iHerb where this particular brush is US$9 (about AU$8.70) and shipping for this item alone is $6 (about AU$5.80) calculated by weight.  That's pretty cheap, hell, even at $25 this brush is worth the money, I can not say enough about it.

Seriously, if you're looking for reasonably cheap brushes, the Real Techniques range are pretty kick ass.

Brush Hauling

 Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm a makeup brush whore.  I love them, I lust after them, and I cannot get enough!!! Partly because hat to have to clean them often but dirty brushes are gross and partly because I'm constantly searching for that one Holy Grail brush to complete my life collection.  I buy all kinds of brushes, a bit like my philosophy on makeup, I believe that if you limit yourself to only higher end brushes, you miss out on some fine ones.  Anyway, having seen a bit about them, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase these babies:

Aren't they soooo pretty, I've used the powder one so far and I love it, I will eventually get around to using them all, I have at least washed them all already.  Yes I wash brand new brushes, who knows where they're been?

So far I can tell you they're super soft and I LOVE the nifty stand thing...SO clever.

Brush Storage Idea

If you're like me and a complete freak when it comes to getting dust and yuck on your foundation brushes then I have come up with an excellent idea...A Straw Dispenser.....Genius....

Probably only good for your flat brushes because the sides with squish fluffy ones BUT as far as I'm concerned the brushes used for liquid products, which you then place on your face with a certain degree of pressure -foundation and concealer are the ones you REALLY want to protect.  The best thing is these are pretty cheap in places like The Rject Shop etc. Brilliance.

Mrs. Bunny Essentials kit

This post is mostly just to show off my new (OK I've had it for a few weeks now) brush set from Sigma. It is so pretty, I had a discount code so I didn't pay full price AND I got free shipping, but for the number and quality of brushes the US$109 price tag isn't that bad (in my opinion) best of all, the 12 piece brush count doesn't include annoying things like eyelash combs, sure, we all need one, yes, ONE not one per brush set.  (seriously, if anyone wants a lash comb, let me know)

So when it came out of the Parcel, it looked like this, so cute.

Inside the box is an even more cute case which holds all the brushes to keep them safe. 

Then this conveniently opens out to be 2 brush holders. 

The brush handles themselves are baby blue, as you can just see, with pink ferrules, the bristles are 100% synthetic and vegan friendly. You can find this set here.  It is also available in black as the MR. bunny set.  Either in the essentials kit, as I have or the travel kit, a smaller more compact kit.

For interests sake the number/type of brushes are as follows:

Eye Liner - E05 An extra fine-tipped brush that delivers a precise, firm, even stroke to line the eyes. Synthetic bristles.

Pencil - E30 Precise application of colour on the crease, outer corner, upper and lower lash line.

Tapered Blending - E40 Rounded and tapered top. Specially designed to apply and blend colour on the crease.

Eye Shading - E55 Soft and dense with a rounded finish. Can be used to apply pressed or loose eye shadows and pigments.

Large Shader - E60 Flat shape is ideal for application of cream formulas and eye shadow primers.

Small Angle - E65 Essential for the application of gel or cream eye liner on the upper and lower lash line.

Medium Angled Shading - E70 Angled, tapered, flat top. Ideal to apply highlight shades underneath the eyebrow and on the inner corners.

Large Powder - F30 Very dense with a rounded top. Ideal to apply powder products on face and body.

Large Angled Contour - F40 The angled shape makes this brush ideal to apply blush or contour shades.

Duo Fibre - F50 Specially designed to generate an airbrushed finish when used to apply blush, highlight shades and foundation.

Foundation - F60 Can be used to apply liquid or cream foundation. Recommended to apply moisturisers and conceal large areas.

Concealer - F70 The rounded, tapered, flat shape makes this brush ideal to conceal the under eye area.

The Purple Power Makeup Brush set from Furless.com

So for my first product review I have decided on the brush set that arrived in the mail this morning.  I haven't had a chance to use them yet but i was just so excited by what I recieved that I couldn't wait.

Firstly, when they arrived they were wrapped like this

 Pretty special I thought, so I carefully unwrapped the paper to discover a beautiful purple pouch

 On the inside was a rather lovely selection of 7 brushes.  I had my doubts when I ordered them, they were only $29.95 and I do have the old school view that natural bristles are better, softer, last longer etc etc etc...

However... These are vegan brushes and I have a fair number of brushes of various types and I think I'm safe in saying these are possibly the softest I currently own.  If I hadn't been at work I may have sat brushing them up and down my face for most of the day.  I can't speak for their functionality...yet... but if they are half as easy to use as they are soft I'll be laughing.  Also, less than $30....and in a cool purple colour and a nice case that isn't a brush roll (I hate those, they annoy me, the flap that serves to protect the brushes inevitably gets in my way and i can guarantee that at least one of my brushes will have been smooshed into a strange shape by the rolling)
The set consists of:

• Large Powder Brush
• Angled Contour Brush
• Foundation Brush
• Angled Fluffy Eyeshadow Blending Brush
• Fluffy Eyeshadow Brush
• Angled Liner Brush
• Small Eyeshadow/Concealer Brush
• Lip Brush

The lip brush comes with a really awesome cover too.  I found (on the Furless website) this YouTube review, its long an waffly but if what if i haven't said enough, this chick sure will. Purple Power Brushes review
Also Worth mentioning is that if you spend more than $80 on the Furless site at the moment, you will get these brushes free.

Get your brushes here