Brushes #4 - Eyeshadow blending brushes

Hello, hello my little makeup blogosphere! I am so sorry for being absent for such a long time, but I have a confession to make. To be as short and as concise as possible: I had to write my thesis. And I had to defend my thesis. As a result I finally obtained my PhD and now I am entitled to call myself a doctor of natural science (I am not joking!). :D 

As you can imagine, that took a lot of energy, time and effort, so I could not invest my time in anything else. Since I still have this crazy passion about makeup, I want to keep writing about it and other related things and I promise I will try to write at least one post per week. Otherwise shame on me! 

This week I want to continue writing about brushes and hopefully bring this brush series back to life. Today I am presenting eyeshadow blending brushes that I own: Ebelin blending brush, Kiko Eyes 200 and M.A.C cosmetics 217. 

First, Kiko Eyes 200 - I already mentioned this brush in one of my older posts (Kiko cosmetics review) and it was the first blending brush I owned. I still believe it does the job, BUT comparing it to the M.A.C 217 and Ebelin blending brush, it is SO rough - it hurts and pokes the eyelid all the time. I use it so rarely because it simply hurts to use it! I might use it for a quick wash of color or to highlight my cheeks, but not in the 'window-sweeping motion' needed for blending the shade, because it 100% will poke your skin. If you swipe it in one direction, you are pretty safe. 

Since I prefer to have my eyeballs intact, I wanted to try something different and 'softer', so I decided to give a go to Ebelin blending brush. Now, this is an ultra-cheap brush, but oh so soft and so capable of doing what it is meant to do. It cost unbelievable 2,95€, compared to 9,90€ which is the price for the Kiko Eyes 200. It really does the job, you can apply the eyeshadow with it, swirl it around to blend it in the crease and finalize the application with 'window-sweeping motion' above the crease for a 'full blend'. And you cannot do wrong for this price!

Finally, the queen of the blending brushes, the one and only: M.A.C 217. It is truly a wonderful brush, worth the hype and worth every single cent or penny or whatever you want to name it! It is just a perfect eyeshadow brush! I use it so often, I have to wash it almost every other day. So far the bristles are intact and they are not falling out, which I was afraid might happen due to frequent washing and using. It costs US$24.00 (I bought it in the US), which is not a small amount of money, but in my opinion it is a good investment if you're into makeup. As far as I am concerned, it is very soft and you can apply and blend the eyeshadows impeccably - it is good as that! In comparison to everything else I own, this brush does the job for you, whereas with other brushes you have to make some effort.

That concludes this week's post. I hope you liked it! If you have any comments and/or suggestions, don't be shy to leave them below.

Until next week!

Love,

~Anelei

Disclaimer: All of these brushes have white (Kiko, M.A.C) or black (Ebelin) bristles. Since I used them before these photos were taken, they are stained with eyeshadows and therefore can seem to be dyed. Ebelin brush is made out of synthetic fibers, Kiko brush contains the mixture of natural and synthetic hairs and M.A.C brush is made from natural white goat hair. I thought this information might me important for some of you!