E.L.F. Brushes/Crown Brushes - service review.

On Tuesday I ordered some products from E.L.F. I decided to try some of their brushes and I got the three pot brush holder while I was at it. My order cost £30.50 and orders over £30 get free postage. It all arrived yesterday, packed with more bubble-wrap than I have ever seen in one box. It was incredible! I hadn't expected such service. I would also like to note that their free postage was faster than my two (also free-post) orders from asos.com, which were ordered one on Sunday, one on Monday and are not here yet. It's not that ASOS is slow either! Good stuff.

I haven't taken photos of the brushes and holder because I'm not that good at product photos truth be told. I will say, so far so good. I washed them last night and only the two larger brushes sheded at all (a couple of hairs each). They are all incredibly soft, especially the £5 face kabuki. The synthetic studio line brushes bristles are very similar to the Illamasqua brushes in my collection, which is amazing considering how expensive Illamasqua brushes can be.

I got studio face kabuki, contour brush (eye), angled contour brush (eye), powder brush (like a flat top long handled kabuki) and large brush holder. I also got their standard eyeshadow brush and blending (eye) brush. Overall, I'm please with my purchases, so far so good.

I have brushes from Clinique, Illamasqua, Crown (from their luna and syntho lines) and these are comparable in some ways; the non-synthetic ones having, if anything, softer hair than my animal hair Clinique and Crown brushes, and the synthetic ones as soft as any I've tried. For the price, they are definately worth it. Which is more than I can say for some of Crown brushes I've tried.

Service from Crown has always been good for me, although postage wasn't free and there is also tax added. Whilst I'm on the subject of Crown Brushes, I particularly loathe my Luna Jumbo Powder brush. I had forgotten how much it cost, and it's making me even more angry about it! Stay away from this brush! I bought this about a year ago and to this day, when I wash it, the black dye comes out of the bristles. Not only that it is scratchy and itchy and horrible. It's ok for a light dusting of powder to the t-zone, but for the price I'd rather have more from my favourite Syntho line.

I have three brushes from the Syntho collection: Deluxe Flat Bronzer, Deluxe crease and Deluxe Jumbo Foundation. One day I'd like to have all of them! They're my favourite. I like them more than Illamasqua's brushes because they have creamy coloured bristles so you can see that they're all washed out clean and the hairs are so soft and smooth and dreamy. *Sigh*

Ruth x

I wanted to do some jazzy Royal wedding themed make-up today and be all patriotic like. But my face would not co-operate. I tried twice. All I got was sore eyes.