Essence Smokey Eyes Brush and Blush & Powder Brush

Here is a review for two Essence brushes I picked up as fillers (in order to use those 3.5 dollars off 10 coupon at ULTA). While they are not the best tools I have ever used,  these cruelty-free brushes are nevertheless pretty amazing  for what they are (basic tools for basic needs) and how much/little they cost.

Essence Smokey Eyes brush ($1.49) is a tapered round eyeshadow/pencil brush with purple synthetic hair and a matte black plastic handle. The bristle of the brush is stiff enough to be directional while still remains reasonably soft. The pencil brush does a good job both picking up and dispensing powder shadow but I feel that it's made for spreading out deep creamy eyeshadow pencils (something I neither own nor plan to buy), like the $16 pencil blending brush from Urban Decay.

Replacing the blush brush (reviewed here), the pink haired Essence Blush and Powder Brush ($2.99) seems to be a skinnier remake of (This semi-chubby powder brush from their Moonlight collection). The new brush feels rather soft on skin (just like the old blush brush) while the resilient hair gives it a little more control on where you want the color to be. It's a great item to toss in a travel (or just regular) makeup bag as it's compact, affordable, soft, gets the job done (although it might not work that well to blushes that are too pigmented/firmly pressed) and very low maintenance (super easy to wash, dry and it never sheds). I personally prefer the old version over this as it's seems just a little coarser/less slippery that it seems to pick up more powder at a time (the difference is trivial though).

 Speaking of cruelty-free brushes, I recently spotted this Limited Edition Ecotool Beautiful Expressions kabuki set (around 15 dollars) at Target. While I like the patterns on the ferrules, I don't dig the idea of having several little similar looking kabuki rolling around, each intended for (just) one makeup application step.