Brushes #3 - Ebelin blush brush and Elf powder and blush brushes

Hi all! It has been a loooong time since my last post. I was extremely busy for the past few months - I was travelling quite a lot for work, travelling quite a lot for pleasure :D, working a lot for work, working a lot for some other things... And to be honest, I am currently in the final stages of my PhD, so I hope I will still manage to write a post here and there. 

Enough chit-chat, today I am going to write about powder brushes: blush brushes and classical powder brush (I already mentioned a Ebelin powder brush in my previous post).

In general, brushes made for powders are usually fluffier than the foundation blushes and more loosely packed than the foundation brushes. They need to be good at blending (which is the same idea behind the eyeshadow blending brushes) - packing a product onto the skin, setting the liquid/cream foundation and creating the appearance of smooth, flawless skin. 

The first brush I am mentioning is the Ebelin blush brush. Again, Ebelin is DM's brand and similar in quality to other Ebelin brushes (check my previous post). As I also previously mentioned, they are really cheap, so great for experimenting with make-up and general getting to know brushes. Nonetheless, I do like this brush. The ferrule is oval-shaped which means that the brush is kind of squished on one side, making it great for blush application and contouring. I particularly like to use it for bronzer application and blushes that are not very pigmented (as you can easily build-up powders using this brush). Also, I've used it for cream blushes and it performed very well. All in all, I am quite happy with it - it distributes the product and blends it quite well.

The next brush is the E.L.F. Complexion Brush which I got in the US. It was rather cheap, something around 3$. I believe all of the E.L.F. Studio line brushes are around 3$. But my God, this is the softest brush I've ever felt!!! It is incredible, I would like to use it on my face all day long. It almost has a therapeutical effect. :D And the application of powder is amazing - it just puts the right amount of powder to the skin. I use it to mattify my skin, as I have very oily T-zone. It has a tapered tip made of a long and very soft bristles. No words can explain how much I adore this brush! <3

The last brush I will be writing about today is the E.L.F. Brush Brush. Again, AMAZING! :D And again, only 3$ or so... It seems that the Studio line brushes are quite good. This brush is not as soft as the Complexion Brush and it is smaller than the most blush brushes I've seen/owned (including Ebelin blush brush), but that actually makes it so good. The bristles are not as flexible as blush brush bristles usually are and it has a pointy top - which is just perfect for contouring. It is just incredible! I also use it for blush application, especially for more pigmented blushes and blushes with shimmer (baked blushes such as Bourjois blushes). For the pigmented blushes I lightly apply the blush with the side of the brush and then I blend it with the circular motion. For the shimmer blushes, I go straightly using circular motions. 

If I compare the Ebelin blush brush and the E.L.F. blush brush, the size is the main difference and that's the reason while I usually don't apply very pigmented blushes using Ebelin brush, as it would apply it to the bigger portion of the cheek. In this regard, if I would apply very pigmented blushes using a bigger brush, I would squish it even more using my fingers and use a very light touch. 

This was all for my third post on brushes and with this I am wrapping up the "Big brush" series. Next I will write about smaller brushes, such as eyeshadow, eyeliner and lipstick brushes. 

I do hope you like this series... If you have anything to add, leave the comment into the comment section below. :) (I very much appreciate comments, suggestions and any input from your side...)

As a small surprise, I have a discount code to share with you for iHerb.com (only if you never ordered from iHerb before) where you can order E.L.F. cosmetics and brushes (also RealTechniques)! :)

Use the Rewards Code LKD252 or the following link: http://www.iherb.com/?rcode=LKD252 if you never ordered from iHerb before; you will save $5-$10 off your first order.*

*As a disclaimer, this is not a sponsored post - this is a code I received for my personal order and I would like to share it with you (because I am that nice :P).

It is definitely time to rest a bit and go to bed - it is almost midnight and I am quite tired (constantly kept writing brush blush instead of blush brush :D). It was an extremely busy and hard day for me at work and now I just want to sleep...

Until next week (hopefullY),

~Anelei