Maychiri's Thoughts: Brush

Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Eyebrow Brush Review

January 06, 2025

Ah, I love eyebrow brushes – they are so versatile! They function the best with eyebrow powders or eyebrow pomade, but I also love to use them to get a smoky eyeliner kind of look with dark eyeshadows. However, for this specifically, I will go back to my trusty eyebrow powder that I haven’t used in a loooong time! I cannot wait to see the results!

Packaging: unlike the previous two brushes, the cardboard for this brush is light in colour. This one is light pink! What a delightful change! I have always loved powder light pink as a colour, and it goes so well with the bright red and black details. Text is black in the back, so that it is easy to read. The details are, of course, art deco style, to match the rest of the calendar.

But, although this packaging looks fancy, it doesn’t really provide much protection for the brush, as there is no brush guard or anything inside it. But I appreciate the effort that has gone into designing it!

The brush is, like the previous two, solid gold. Very luxurious! Ooh, I love these fancy gold brushes! Although, it will become smudged with fingerprints in no time. At least it’s small so those smudges aren’t very noticeable. The only detail is the Catrice logo, in darker gold. The whole body is gold, including the ferrule. As for build quality, it feels like it’s built very well. It certainly doesn’t feel loose anywhere! The brush head is tiny, as befitting an eyebrow brush!

The shape is your standard angled flat brush like any other eyeliner/eyebrow brush, the angle is quite sharp here, though. This will make it easier to fill in your brows naturally, as this shape does imitate the natural angle of eyebrow hairs very nicely. As for the colour, the hairs look very natural; they are this straw-yellow colour with a dark brown band and white tips. The white tips are especially prominent on this brush! I like this colouring, it makes the hairs look so natural!

But guess what? The hairs aren’t natural – they are synthetic! They don’t look too plasticy, though. But, since the hairs are so sleek and completely straight, they are quite shiny. I don’t feel like this makes them look cheaper, all brushes that have such straight hairs have shiny hairs. In fact, the hairs look quite high quality to me! They are cut perfectly evenly - not a single longer or stray hair! This is especially important for eyebrow brushes as they need to be geometrically perfect in order to draw sharp lines. Having stray hairs might lead to smudging, and you don’t want that with an eyebrow brush, so it is excellent that this brush is so perfectly cut! The hairs are wonderfully soft – at least, for an eyebrow brush!

Of course, they aren’t as soft as the Eyeshadow Blender Brush, but eyebrow brushes are never super soft simply because of the way they are built. But as long as I am just drawing lines with the brush, it stays so very soft! It does become prickly when I tap with it, but that’s normal for this kind of brush. What’s important is that it is softer than usual when swiping with it! It will definitely be gentle enough for eyebrows, it’s actually soft enough to be used on the eyes, too! So I will be able to make eyeliners with this – yes! And also, no fraying or fall-out!

So, now that I have found my trusty ol’ eyebrow powder, I can finally test this brush out properly. I could have used it with eyeliners but eyebrow brushes tend to draw thick lines and have difficulties drawing a sharp tip; if you take an eyeliner brush, you’ll notice that, while the general shape is the same, they are less ‘thick’, i.e., they have less hairs. So instead of using it to make eyeliner with eyeshadow, I will use it the way it was meant to be used: with eyebrow products! I don’t currently have an eyebrow pomade at hand, otherwise I would test it out with that, along with the powder. But, let’s see: how does it apply eyebrow powder? Bloody fantastically, that’s how! The brush picks up a pretty large amount of powder, which, for me, was enough to define roughly 2/3 of one eyebrow. It also applies powders so evenly, that it looks professionally applied with literally zero effort! Lining the brows is as easy as can be, as the brush is super precise. And filling in the brows naturally is just as easy as the brush isn’t too large, so you can quickly draw hair-like shapes by flicking your wrist. I was astonished by how incredible my brows looked – and that’s without even using any spoolies! Truly, there is little need to comb through the brows as this wonderful brush takes care of that all by itself! And since it is so precise, it is super easy to precisely add just a tiny bit more powder right where you need it. Wow! What an awesome brush, just... wooow!

Washing this tiny little brush is extremely easy. The hairs are slick, which makes it all that easier to rinse out eyebrow powder, though, if you use pomades instead, you may need to spend a bit more time rinsing it out – pomades are always a bit of a hassle to remove. The brush keeps its shape after a wash and there is precisely zero fall-out or fraying. Nice!

Eyebrow powder applied using this brush - phenomenal results!
Peep the eyeshadow - that's the eyeshadow palette from the Advent Calendar!

In conclusion, oh yeah, this brush is IT! I had my hopes set medium-high for this brush, as I’ve had other similar Catrice brushes and they were all incredible, but, as we’ve seen before, things aren’t the same as usual in this calendar. Not always. But luckily, this little brush is absolutely fantastic! The hairs are cut perfectly evenly and the shape is ideal for filling in brows naturally, using hair-like strokes. The hairs do feel very high quality, and that is evident when you start to use the brush. See, it applies eyebrow powder so perfectly that I did not have any need to use a spoolie to comb through the brows! This means that the powder is both applied evenly and blended out perfectly – all at the same time! Like, I remember this eyebrow powder being amazing, but this brush squeezes out every little ounce of awesomeness out of it, making the brows look even better than before! Huh... now I remember why I loved using powder – just look how natural, yet dense my brows are! Even the tails aren’t stubby and thick! And I was able to blend out two different shades of powder without it all looking muddy or too soft. I didn’t even have to try hard to get this kind of fabulous result! It just... comes naturally with this brush, I guess! Wow, wow, wow... I am blown away by this brush! Oh, and it’s also super soft, which isn’t all that common with these kinds of brushes. So not only does it apply powders so spectacularly well, it is also gentle on the skin – what more could I want? Honestly? Nothing, this brush is perfection!

Rating: 10/10

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Catrice The Great Christmas Advent Calendar Eyeshadow Blender Brush Review

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 ?

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Terra Naturi Setting & Highlighting Brush Review

November 01, 2024

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Misslyn My Favorite Beauty Brush Review

November 01, 2024

One more brush, but a very interesting one! This is the Misslyn My Favorite Beauty Brush!

So, once upon a time, Müller had Misslyn products for sale. But, as something seems to have happened over at Misslyn, and no new products were launched in over two years, Müller decided to remove all Misslyn products (and eventually replace them with MUA Makeup Academy). But even before this, a portion of the products were separated off in a sort of clearance bin, with marked down prices. This brush (and its partner, the Lovely Beauty Brush) were there. Available in two colours, teal blue and salmon pink, I honestly didn’t care which one I’d get, I just wanted one of them because they looked so cute! See, they were selling out very quickly, so the next time I happened to be at Müller I had to act fast and buy one, no matter the colour! So I bought the teal fishie... now let’s see how good this cute brush is, actually!

No protection aside from the plastic shell case around the brush head. This should be tamper-proof, however, anyone can come and open it since it is not sealed with tape. The shell is semi-transparent so that you can see the brush head inside. It has two little tabs that close super securely, with a loud click, but they can be tricky to fit properly; they bend easily, and can break way too easily. Indeed, one of the tabs doesn’t click properly for me. Maybe someone already tampered with it before I bought it... actually yeah, that is probably what happened.

The brush itself is hella cute! It literally looks like a little fishie! I love the detailing: the embossed scales and the tail fin being ribbed. It doesn’t look like cheap embossing. This adds a very fun 3D tactile element to the brush! I love how reflective it is! It’s literally like a mirror as you can see your reflection on the brush; this makes it a fingerprint magnet, so you’ll need to clean it regularly if you don’t want it to be all smudged with fingerprints. Unlike the Lovely Beauty Brush, this one doesn’t have a thumb rest, so it is a bit more uncomfortable to hold in the hand. Thank god for the tail fin! It acts as a natural stopper for the hand to rest on. You could also hold it by the tail, it’s robust enough not to break easily. There are no details on the brush – not even the Misslyn logo. The brush head is tucked into the base, there is no visible ferrule. The hairs are the same as with the Lovely Beauty Brush: yellowish at the base, with a brown band between the base and the lightish brown tips. Not my favourite colour for brush hairs, but eh.

The hairs are synthetic. The entire brush head is actually pretty flat, but it’s extremely dense. I cannot even begin to imagine how many thousands of hairs there are here! The hairs aren’t as soft as with the Lovely Beauty Brush; they feel at least a bit prickly no matter how you use the brush. They are the most prickly when you tap with the brush, but they still feel somewhat prickly when you are swiping or swirling with the brush.

This is the price to pay for such a dense, thick brush head. The hairs are quite flexible, but not quite as much as the Lovely Beauty Brush. This all makes this brush feel stiffer and less comfortable to use. As for the quality, the hairs are shiny, but they don’t look overly cheap. They are cut perfectly evenly and there is no fall-out at all, so obviously the quality level is good.

Both variants of the brush

So, you’d expect such a dense brush to be good for when you need to apply intense, thick layers of pigment, like for example, contouring. Well, it isn’t the worst, is how I’ll put it. Misslyn does advertise this brush as being a multipurpose one, able to be used with blushes, contouring and powders. Not in my experience. Only thing it is even remotely good at is contouring, everything else, it is just far too dense for. But even with contouring it has problems. See, it applies pigments unevenly so they end up at least slightly patchy. It should be better than this, honestly. Like, it picks up a huge amount of pigment but it’s like most of it ends up in the centre of the brush, so you’ll quickly run out of it. So you’ll have to go back to the pan, but what it does apply is already pretty thick and intensely pigmented, so you’ll have to somehow make it even without making it too thick. Easier said than done. This makes it kinda difficult to apply good contouring along your cheeks or jawline; the cheeks are especially tricky to contour with this brush. But if there’s one thing it is, it’s being precise! Because, due to the flattened shape and extra dense brush head, this brush ends up being super precise. Well, it is, as long as you are not using the sides to apply pigment, because they are very much not precise. I love how intense the pigments look with this brush, but it’s just not easy to use and needlessly complicates the contouring process. Also, don’t even think about blending with this brush, you’ll just make a right mess. Or you’ll make everything even patchier. Just save yourself the trouble and grab a fluffy powder brush to blend everything out.

This brush, despite being so extremely dense, is actually really easy to wash! It doesn’t absorb shampoo, so you don’t have to spend ages rinsing it. It stays in excellent shape post-wash; no fraying or fall-out.

Overall, this is an alright brush, but it’s not exceptional by any metric. The brush head is extremely dense and very thick, which actually causes problems with how it applies pigments. See, due to the shape of the brush head, it applies pigments slightly unevenly. It’s like it runs out of pigment way too soon. This makes contouring a not so simple task, because you cannot properly shade along the jawline or the cheeks. It’s always at least a little bit patchy, which is a shame, because it applies pigments so intensely! And it’s extremely precise, so it should be great for contouring... were it not for the issues with how patchy and uneven it is. And it cannot blend because it is way too dense. Honestly, it’s kind of disappointing... I can get decent contouring with it but I need to spend way too long to get it look that way. It’s just kind of annoying to use, sadly. But it sure is cute! It literally looks like a little fish! With the scales and everything! Certainly one of the more adorable brushes in my collection. But that doesn’t change how tricky it is to use. So, sadly, I will not be giving this cute brush a recommendation. It’s alright, but definitely not my favourite beauty brush.

Rating: 6/10

Would buy again? NO

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Barbara Hofmann

Barbara Hofmann Foundation Pinsel [Rose Specialedition] Review

November 01, 2024

Another brush in this little brush phase we're having this week! This time we are taking a look at the Barbara Hofmann Foundation Pinsel, variant Rose Specialedition!

This brush was purchased at a time when I was still experimenting, trying to buy brushes from as many different brands as I could, to determine which ones are good and which ones aren’t. As I was at Müller, time had come to finally try out one of their own in-house brands, Barbara Hofmann. I see their brushes every time I go to Müller, I just never thought about buying one because they were a bit pricey for me. But I decided that this time I would finally buy one, and I thought that a flat-top foundation brush would be a good choice. You can never have too many foundation brushes as they tend to become worn out sooner due to having to be washed more often. This one was so pretty with its rose gold design, and me being the magpie that I am, I just had to have the most sparkly one! Now, let’s see how good this brush is!

Packaging: the outer packaging is not it. The brush came with only a clear plastic sleeve over the brush head and ferrule and it was open from one side. This means that any number of people could have touched it. Not good hygiene at all. Honestly, I would prefer a flimsy plastic bag to this.

The brush itself is gorgeous! The handle and ferrule are rose gold, but they look different still. The ferrule is smooth metallic, while the handle features a very captivating texture: it looks like cracked metal, with what looks like metallic flakes. But it’s smooth to touch, not rough or scratchy. This is so interesting! Stunning design! The brush head is large and has a flat top. It’s got dark brown hairs with white tips. I love the brown colour, it really complements the rose gold so well! The overall quality of the brush feels high, it feels sturdy and well-made.

The hairs are synthetic. The hairs are kinda odd; they are quite shiny and sound like paper when I blend with the brush, but they don’t feel cheap or low quality. The hairs are sleek and super straight, so that does explain the shininess of them, I guess. But why does it sound like paper? Anyways, they are actually high quality, no fraying or fall-out to be seen and all hairs are perfectly evenly cut, so that it has a completely flat top. Now this is what a flat-top brush should be like! The hairs are sooo super soft, wow! Flat-top brushes tend to be prickly when using a tapping motion, but not this one! It feels wonderfully soft no matter how you use it, be it a swirling, swiping or tapping motion. This is miraculous! Man, what amazing hairs!

This is a brush meant to be used with liquid products, as evidenced by the extremely dense brush head. That said, it is a dream to use! It picks up a ton of product, more than what you’ll actually need, and then it applies it perfectly evenly and richly! It gives you a full coverage look without even trying much! However, a decent amount of product does get absorbed by the hairs, so that’s one reason why it gives such a natural, perfectly blended out finish.

Now, I already spilled the beans, but yeah, it blends incredibly well! I’d say that it’s definitely in the top 3 foundation brushes (that aren’t flat) in terms of how well it blends. It just buffs products onto the skin so incredibly well that you are left with a gorgeous base, and it doesn’t cause any pilling, either! It’s also super easy to use around the nose, thanks to the flexible hairs, and it isn’t hard at all to get foundation and concealers to look good on the nose when you use this brush. It blends just as well whether you are tapping with it, swirling or swiping, but I prefer to use a mixture of gentle swiping and tapping. I swear, foundation and concealer look much better when I blend them with this brush! I just wish it didn’t absorb as much product as it does, but that’s a small problem anyways.

Washing this brush is actually quite fun because it is extremely easy to wash, which isn’t often the case with foundation brushes. But this brush has hairs that seem like they don’t absorb a lot of pigment, so that pigment just slides off the hairs when you wash it with shampoo. I cannot express how much easier this makes everything! I usually struggle to remove all foundation from foundation brushes, but this one is as easy as can be! And the slick hairs stay in amazing condition after a wash, no fraying, fall-out or any sign of wear! Amazing, truly!

In conclusion, this brush is phenomenal! I love how well blended out foundations are when I use this brush! See, this brush blends liquid products extremely easily and it doesn’t leave a streaky finish! It just buffs in foundations so well that they are blended out within seconds! It’s amazing! It’s also soft, even if the hairs do sound a bit like paper while blending. It blends equally well however you use it, swirling, tapping or swiping. It does absorb more product than usual, but I don’t care as long as it blends this well! And it’s so pretty! I cannot believe I haven’t considered buying this brush sooner... it may be a drugstore brand, but it feels so much higher quality! I will give this brush my highest recommendation, it deserves it!

Rating: 9/10

Would buy again? YES