Blush Brush

Sinsay Harry Potter 5 Piece Makeup Brush Set Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - July 21, 2023

I was at Sinsay one day and noticed this brush set. I immediately liked it due to how unique the brushes look. I have always loved Harry Potter films, they have definitely been a big part of my childhood, especially Chamber of Secrets. So I, naturally, had to have this brush set!

There is one thing that bothered me, though. The previous Sinsay brush was... let’s just say, not too good. I convinced myself that this set would be just like that one, so I decided not to buy it until it’s been marked down. So, is it as bad as the previous one?
 
This brush set came in plastic clamshell packaging, which, as usual, is annoying to open and tends to cut the skin easily. Inside it was a piece of cardboard that had looked like the newspaper in the Harry Potter films. It’s really cool! The brushes were kept safe and secure inside the cardboard. I just love the Harry Potter inspired design!
 
This brush set includes 5 brushes, 2 for the face, and 3 for the eyes. There’s a dense brush (for contouring?), a blush brush, an eyeshadow blending brush, an eyeshadow brush, and a more detailed eyeshadow brush. It’s a good variety of brushes, honestly. 
 

The brushes all have a very dark, dramatic design reminiscent of wizard wands. The handle is black, lacquered and all bent, like what an evil wizard's wand would look like. Like it’s been corrupted by evil! The black, dramatic handle reminds me of Voldemort, though, he has a white wand. The ferrule is metallic pale goldish and has the Harry Potter logo on it. It does not fit too securely, as I can hear some creaking while using the brushes, like it’s loose. The hairs are synthetic, black and quite shiny and plastic-looking. They don’t really look like they are good quality, especially since most of them have unevenly cut hairs and fraying from the get-go. By far the best part if the brushes is the lacquered handle, it’s just so gorgeous! Too bad the rest doesn’t match the quality of the handle.

 

 

The first brush is the dense, pretty flat cut brush.

I am not too sure what this brush’s intended use is; it’s not dense enough to be used with liquid and cream products, but it’s too dense to be used effectively with pressed powders. It might be good for contouring, though I used it for setting powder (I know it’s not made for that). The hairs are cut pretty evenly, with only a few stray hairs. It does not fray easily and I didn’t notice any fall-out.
 

This brush picks up an okay amount of powder, but it’s really not enough. I have to constantly take more powder because there’s not enough powder just for my cheeks, let alone the whole face. So it’s a cycle of apply powder to a small area of the face, swirl around to pick up as much powder as you can, rinse and repeat. And it’s really annoying that I have to do that. And the powder doesn’t stay on the brush hairs, it disperses too easily. It is good at applying a thicker layer of pigment, and it is a fairly precise brush. However, given its density, it’s not the best brush for blending. This brush is relatively soft, but the unevenly cut hairs make it a bit prickly. It’s not terrible to use, but it’s also not the most pleasant brush to use.
 
 
This brush is very easy to wash, and it doesn’t absorb a lot of shampoo. 
 
Conclusion: not a terribly good brush; the hairs aren’t very soft, and it isn’t the easiest to use because, while it picks up a decent amount of powder, it just disperses from the brush in an instant. It’s also not the best at blending; understandable, given its dense hairs. It’s a bit of a hassle to use, so I don’t really like it.
 
 
Rating: 6/10
 
 

 

The second brush is the angled blush brush.

This brush is meant to be used for blushes, given its small, yet angled brush head. It can be used for contouring, with less success, though it doesn’t look too bad when you contour with this brush. The hairs aren’t very soft, however, and can get a bit prickly. They also aren’t cut evenly at all, with some hairs fraying, as well. I also had some fall-out. That is very bad, indeed.

 
 
 
 
This brush picks up a decent amount of pigment and applies it nicely, but it’s nothing amazing, really. It’s pretty easy to use as it can deposit pigment precisely on the cheeks, or in the hollow of the cheeks. And it also blends pretty well, and it’s easy to get just the amount of blending that you want. 
 
 
 
 
It's very easy to wash as it doesn't absorb a lot of shampoo.
 
Conclusion: just like the previous brush, this one is quite mediocre, as well. The quality of the hairs is quite bad, with a lot them being cut unevenly, and some fraying or falling out. They also aren’t terribly soft. It’s fine to use, though, as it applies an alright amount of pigment and can deposit it precisely where you want it. This brush is pretty good at blending, and it’s easy to control exactly how much you want to blend. While it’s not the worst to use, it’s certainly not the best, either. It’s just really mediocre.
 
 
Rating: 5/10
 
 

 

The third brush is an eyeshadow brush, meant for packing on eyeshadow pigments.

This brush is obviously made to be used for applying eyeshadows all over the eyelid. Its relatively short and quite dense hairs suggest that. The hairs are pretty soft but they aren’t incredibly soft. At least they aren’t prickly. The hairs are cut evenly and there isn’t any fraying. One of the better brushes in the set? Too soon to tell, yet.
 

This brush picks up a relatively small amount of pigment, and even when it does manage to pick up a larger amount it’s like it stays in the brush or something, as it doesn’t end up being intense on the skin. And it is somewhat uneven, which is bad. It’s also not very good when it comes to blending. With enough effort you can get a nice looking eye look, but it definitely takes a lot of effort because it just doesn’t apply eyeshadows all too well. I don’t know, it definitely picks up a good amount of pigment, it’s there when you clean the brush. So where does it go in the meantime? Why doesn’t it transfer from the brush to the skin? Perhaps it’s due to how plastic and cheap the brush head looks.
 
 
At least it’s incredibly easy to wash, as pigments just slide off of the hairs. It doesn’t absorb shampoo, either.
 
Conclusion: not a very good eyeshadow brush. While you can get an intense look with it, it will take many layers and a lot of time. It doesn’t apply eyeshadows right, I don’t know, it’s like the pigment gets into the middle of the hairs and doesn’t want to budge. But when you clean the brush all of that pigment comes off, so it’s not that the brush doesn’t pick up enough pigment. This also isn’t the most precise brush out there, although it can be used to pack on pigment in the crease. Just don’t expect the finished look to be spectacular, this brush isn’t capable of that. Pretty average, at best.
 
 
Rating: 5/10
 
 

 

The fourth brush is another eyeshadow brush, this one is much fluffier and better suited for applying pigment in the crease.

The brush head of this brush is much fluffier than the previous one, so it stands to reason that it will blend well and be good for diffuse applications of pigment. The hairs are soft but not incredibly soft. At least they don’t feel prickly. They are cut pretty evenly. But the hairs don’t seem very high quality, they just look plastic. 
 

So, this brush really struggles to apply a decently intense layer of pigment. It is always sheer and poorly pigmented, so you’ll need dozens of layers to get it to look at least somewhat intense. And it’s not because the brush doesn’t pick up pigment, it’s there inside the brush, it just doesn’t transfer from the brush to the skin very well. It is fairly decent if you want to apply eyeshadows all over the eyelid, but it is actually worse for the crease than the previous one, somehow. If you try to use it in any smaller area you’ll just get a smudgy, messy look because this brush is 0% precise. And it doesn’t even blend all that well, either. I tried to blend with it and all I got was even more smudging and mess. So I guess it’s not really useful for anything?
 
 
At least it is easy enough to wash as it does not absorb shampoo. And pigments slide off the plastic hairs without much rubbing.
 
Conclusion: this is a bad brush, no sugarcoating it. It cannot apply intense layers of pigment, only sheer, poorly pigmented ones. Which doesn’t have to be bad, per se, if only it made up for that in other areas. But it cannot even blend well enough for that to make up for the poor application of pigments. It’s far too imprecise to be used anywhere tight, like the crease, for example, as all you’ll get is a smudgy mess. Which is also what happens when you try to blend with this brush. So it’s actually very difficult to get a good looking eyeshadow look with it. Simply put: it’s bad. Let’s move on to the next one already; I am tired of this one.
 
 
Rating: 3/10
 
 

 

And finally, the fifth brush is one more eyeshadow brush, this one is an eyeshadow blender brush.

This is a classic tapered eyeshadow brush that can be used to apply pigments in the crease diffusely or to blend out pigments. Again, the hairs are soft but it’s nothing remarkable. They are cut evenly, at least. And there is no fraying or fall-out. It still looks rather cheap.
 

It’s fluffy, so I get why it cannot apply rich, intense layers of pigment. But it struggles to apply anything at all! It’s so sheer that you literally need dozens of layers before you get halfway decent pigmentation. Compared to the previous brush, this one is more precise, able to be used in the crease without making a huge mess. It still makes a mess, but not nearly as big of a mess as the previous one. The primary function of this brush should be to blend very well. Notice that I said ‘should be’. That’s because it doesn’t really blend very well; it makes a smudgy mess, although, again, not as bad as the previous one. But you’d think you would be able to even out pigmentation with a brush by blending it out where it is too intense. No, you cannot do that. So if it cannot do that, then what’s its purpose even?
 
This brush is very easy to wash as the plastic hairs don’t absorb shampoo and the pigments just slide right off of them. 
 
Conclusion: another bad brush, or, at best, average if I am feeling generous. It can be used to blend out eyeshadows but it leaves it all messy and smudgy, not perfectly blended out so that it has a smooth gradient. Since this is a blending brush, you cannot really apply pigment with it, it is just too sheer. So, if it cannot apply pigments and it is bad at its primary function, which is to blend, then what use is it? It’s just bad.
 
 
Rating: 5/10
 
 

 

So, after all that, what are my final thoughts on this set? Well, I wasn’t wrong to think that this would be a bad quality set. None of the brushes can be called good; they are, at best, average. They are all very plastic and cheap looking, although there isn’t any fraying or fall-out. They also feel cheap when you use them. There’s something weird about all the brushes where their hairs pick up a lot of pigment but it stays stuck somewhere inside them, so you actually only get a small fraction of the pigment on the brush itself. Which makes applying pigments with these brushes needlessly clunky. None of them blend particularly well, either. The only thing they’ve got going for them is that they look cool, like real wizard wands. Which is pretty much the only reason why I bought them. I knew they’d probably be bad, but at least they would be a nice decorative piece. But, as a brush set, you can get much better brushes than these, so don’t waste your time – or money – on them. No recommendations.
 
 
 
Rating (overall): 4/10
 
 
Would buy again? NO, not a chance

 

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