Brush

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Eyeshadow Blender Brush Review

By Maychiri's Thoughts - December 14, 2024

Ah, the second brush! And one that is quite necessary, as you will have to blend out eyeshadows – don’t want them to look all blotchy or unblended, do we? Although, from the picture in the back, the brush head seems comically large... hope it isn’t that large for real! Now, the Shader Brush was an excellent little brush, so I have high hopes for this one, too! Let’s finally see what it’s like!
 
 
 
 
Packaging: same exact design as the Eyeshadow Shader Brush. This means: black and red design with gold details. Of course, the details are art deco themed, like the rest of the calendar. The black and red is a truly gorgeous colour combo! The text is peach coloured in the back, which does align with the colour of some of the details, so it all looks very cohesive. Also, the back is where you’ll find information about the brush. 
 
 
 
The packaging is made of cardboard, which doesn’t offer a lot of protection to the brush inside; similarly, there’s little protection for the brush inside the packaging as well, as there is no brush guard or even a piece of plastic foil. And this brush really could have used that as it is quite fluffy.
 
Okay, let me amend this – I am blind, apparently. The cardboard isn’t black, it’s dark purple... whoops!
 
 
 
Brush itself is, first and foremost, light as a feather! So that’s 2/2 brushes now that are almost as light as air! This, of course, makes it even easier to hold and use as your wrist won’t be straining to hold it. Now, let’s focus on that blinding gold body! The entire brush – minus the brush head, of course – is solid gold! How incredibly amazing! It’s reflective as well, so prepare for it to be smudged with fingerprints in no time. The only detail is the Catrice logo, which is darker gold. 
 
 
 
 
Solid gold is the only thing that really makes sense for a Golden Age of Hollywood theme, isn’t it? The build quality feels great, nothing is loose and there is no fraying or fall-out. I left the brush head for last because I am honestly confused by it. It is enormous! Like, why is it so big??? This is much too large to blend out anything on the eyelids; like, I know I don’t have huge eyes, but still, this is way too enormous. The only thing you can achieve with such a huge brush head on the eyes is to get a huge smudgy mess. 
 
 
I literally cannot even fit it onto my eyelid, let alone the crease! So I guess I won’t be using it as an eyeshadow brush after all... but you know what this size is great for? Highlighting! Sure, it’s not tapered like highlighter brushes ought to be, but it is the perfect size to highlight the cheekbones! The shape is another weird thing; it’s fluffy and flared, but it is actually flat from two sides, not fluffy all around. This is another reason why I feel like this would make a better highlighter brush than an eyeshadow blending brush. The brush head has hairs that are wheat yellow, then brown, then white. It’s a basic, if very pretty colouration, that makes the hairs look very natural. It’s just that the shape and size of the brush head is all weird.
 
 
 
 
The hairs are synthetic, as usual. But they don’t look very plasticy, even though they are quite shiny. They look very soft! The hairs are cut pretty evenly, even though there are a few hairs that are longer than they should be. Nothing that will interfere with its performance, though. But oh my god, the hairs are so magnificently soft! They never feel prickly, no matter how I use the brush! I can even tap with it and the hairs don’t feel one bit prickly! How can they be soooo soft??? This is wonderful! Ahh! Truly very high quality hairs here! Oh, I cannot wait to actually use this brush to make a look!
 
 
 
 
Oh yeah, my intuition was completely right. This brush is far too large to be used to blend out eyeshadows, unless you have extremely ginormous eyelids. My eyes are on the smaller side, so there is no way at all to fit this in the crease on even on the outer third. So its primary function, to be an eyeshadow blending brush, is a bust. But you know what it’s actually excellent for? Highlighters, like I thought! Its shape and size make it ideal to apply highlighters right where you want them, and, since it excels at blending, it only takes a few seconds to get highlighters to look perfect! It’s literally the perfect size to be used on the cheekbones; I managed to get perfectly highlighted cheekbones that are super bright with no effort whatsoever! It picks up a good amount of pigment and then deposits it pretty evenly, but, more importantly, it blends it out as you are applying it! It was even easy to highlight the cupid’s bow! While it’s not exactly good that it cannot do what it’s intended to do (and that will deduct a couple of points in the end), it is actually freaking savvy to make it into a highlighter brush! Because there is a highlighter in the calendar, so, quite clever!
 

 

Washing this brush is super easy since it doesn’t absorb a lot of shampoo. And the super soft hairs don’t require a lot of rinsing out to get them to be squeaky clean. The brush stays in perfect condition after a wash – no fraying or fall-out, and the shape is preserved very nicely. Again, high quality!
 
 

 
In conclusion, oh I really love this brush, but not for what it’s supposed to do. Oh no, this was perhaps intended to be an eyeshadow blender brush, but its true purpose is to apply highlighters like a pro! Yup! This is a highlighter brush masquerading as an eyeshadow blender brush – just look at the shape! That is a classic highlighter brush shape if I’ve ever seen one! Well, maybe more flared than usual, but it’s still more a highlighter brush shape than an eyeshadow blender brush. And it’s much too large to be used effectively on the eyes. But this large size makes it ideal for highlighters, as it is just the right size for cheekbones! I cannot stress it enough just how amazingly this brush applies and blends out highlighters! They immediately look professionally applied, with no effort required! It’s such a savvy move to make this into a highlighter brush, given what I got on day 1... now that is some 4D thinking! Now, this does create a conundrum... how do I rate this? Because, objectively, this brush is superb; it is easily a 9... but at something it wasn’t actually designed to do. Hmm, I’ll just deduct a few points, since it cannot do what it was meant to do. But trust me, this is one phenomenal brush! I am so happy to have it!
 
 
 
Rating: 7/10 ?





 

  • Share:

0 comments