Maychiri's Thoughts: Powder Brush

Wet n Wild Powder Brush Review

July 20, 2025

The first step we can do with today's brushes is to apply setting powder! And for that we will use the Wet n Wild Powder Brush!

I already have a few of these basic Wet n Wild brushes, but because Pokémon instilled in me a sense of “gotta catch ‘em all”, I wanted to complete the collection as much as possible. Thus, I bought this brush! Powder brushes are crucial, so it’s important to find a good one; previous Wet n Wild brushes were pretty decent so I figured this one would probably be good, too. So, let’s check it out!

Packaging: the brush came in a flimsy plastic bag that really does nothing to protect the brush during transport. I do like that Wet n Wild gave a brush guard. This is really helpful, if only I had the foresight to actually keep the brush guard instead of tossing it...

The brush itself is fairly basic in terms of design: white ferrule and handle with only the Wet n Wild logo as decoration. I love how the body isn’t matte, but has a very nice glossy surface. The brush head is really pretty! The hairs are white with peachy pink tips, so beautiful! While this design is as basic as it gets, there is one incredibly useful detail on the handle: there’s an indentation where you’d place your thumb! This helps with the ergonomics of this brush immensely! It’s the perfect size for the thumb to rest neutrally, which eases tension in the wrist. It’s such a small detail but it makes all the change in the world! I really wish more brushes had such an indentation.

The hairs are synthetic. They are pretty shiny; honestly, they don’t really look too high quality. They look like they are a bit crimped, which, with the shininess, makes them look slightly plasticy. They aren’t cut as evenly as I’d like them; there are quite a few unevenly cut hairs all over the brush head. Hmm, not good. They make the brush feel a bit prickly when you tap with it. But when you swipe or swirl with the brush it is as soft as a soft blanket! It feels so soft and fluffy and not at all hard. There is also no fall-out or fraying.

Okay, so there’s something that bothers me about how this brush performs. It’s like it doesn’t pick up enough pigment, I don’t know. It picks up a moderate amount of powder, not nearly enough for me. So I have to go back to the pan many times before I am satisfied with how the powder looks. It spreads the powder evenly and it does blend it out well, but something just feels off. I cannot place my finger on it though. Like, it is easy to use and it does make powder look good in the end, but it’s something about how it applies powder that feels off. Well, as long as it can blend it out easily I guess I can deal with this...

Washing: although it does absorb some shampoo, it is still very easy to wash. It keeps its shape after a wash and there is no fraying or fall-out. Although, drying might take a good while – there are many, many hairs here! Just note that, as with the other basic Wet n Wild brushes, there will be something orange/brown draining down the brush head; this is likely the glue from inside the ferrule, although this doesn’t seem to affect the brush negatively, so don’t worry too much about it.

All in all, this is a good powder brush, but I’ve used much better ones. The hairs are soft until you start tapping with the brush, then they become relatively prickly. But when you swirl or swipe with the brush it feels super soft! Very comfy how soft it is! The hairs are of alright quality; they certainly could look less plasticy and be cut more evenly. The brush picks up an okay amount of powder, and it deposits it evenly and richly. It is very good at blending, this is crucial for powder brushes. But something about what it’s like to use it feels off – I cannot explain precisely what it is, but it just doesn’t feel as great as my other powder brushes. Oh, and these wonderfully snowy white hairs? They will get stained, but not from what you might think. See, they’ll get stained near the ferrule because something (glue?) likes to drain out of the ferrule. This all might sound like I don’t like this brush, which is not true, I actually rather like it, but it does have some problems that I cannot ignore. Its price is low, but it doesn’t feel cheap. And that is what matters – because it’s important to have cheap brushes that are good as not everyone can afford single brushes at €40 a piece. But powder brushes are necessary, obviously. And this brush, despite all its quirks, is still good enough for me to recommend it.

Rating: 6.5/10

Would buy again? Probably YES (it’s not that bad)

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Bronzer Brush

Essence Flat Powder Brush Review

November 14, 2024

How about we take a look at another brush, before ending with a nice lip pencil? Let’s check out this Essence Flat Powder Brush!

Ah, another one of these basic brushes to add to my growing collection of them! This one actually did interest me a lot as I hadn’t really seen many other flat powder brushes; the shape was so interesting to me, I just had to see how it would apply pigment! Plus, it’s one step closer to having them all, which is, of course, the end goal! Now, let’s see how good it is, really!

Packaging: as with the rest of the basic Essence brushes, this one, too, has a cardboard and plastic packaging. The packaging is nicely matched to the brush: it’s peach and white, which matches the text on the handle. All the information about the brush is in the back. Just be careful! The plastic is very sharp, and can cut easily! Be careful how you open it!

The brush itself continues the design other basic Essence brushes have. It’s got a white handle, rose gold ferrule and a beautiful light gray with white tips brush head. As for details, there’s just the Essence logo and the name of the brush, but it’s peach-coloured, which is nice. The brush head is giant, look how large it is! As for the build quality... well it really depends. Sometimes, you’ll get a brush that is in great condition, where nothing is loose and there’s no fall-out or fraying. The first Flat Powder Brush was like this. However, things took a turn for the worse when I bought another one. See, sometimes, you’ll get a brush that is in horrible condition and sheds hairs like crazy. That’s what happened with the second one. I have no idea whether it’s just horrible QA, or whether I was just unlucky with the second one but it is bad. Really bad.

The hairs are synthetic. They aren’t very shiny and don’t look low quality or cheap. They are prickly when I tap with the brush, but feel very soft when I swirl or swipe with the brush. Indeed, it feels super soft when I swirl with it! The hairs are cut pretty much perfectly even, and the hairs aren’t frayed. However... like I said, it seems like there’s a 50/50 chance that you’ll get a brush that sheds hundreds of hairs immediately.

If you get a good quality one, it won’t have any fall-out, and will stay in good shape for quite a long time... just pray you don’t get a lousy one. There is also one other thing, but I’ll mention it in the washing section. Anyways, all that aside, the shape of this brush is interesting. It is definitely flatter than most powder brushes, which makes this brush much more precise compared to normal fluffy powder brushes. But it’s still large enough to apply powders across the face easily.

This brush is actually very, very good for compact powders, setting powders and the like. It picks up a good amount of powder, although not as much as I’d like, so I have to go back to the pan to get more until I have a good, even layer on my skin. It’s not a big issue, but still. But it does apply powder evenly, and actually quite precisely, which isn’t something powder brushes can often claim! This is because it is flatter than many other powder brushes, so it is possible to precisely add powder to smaller areas, if you are, e.g., fixing a mistake. And it blends pigments extremely well, sometimes even too well. Also, it is fantastic for bronzers; it is precise enough to apply bronzer on the cheeks, but fluffy enough to disperse the pigment across the hairline and the jawline. Thanks to this brush, I looked sun-kissed and gently flushed! It looked fantastic!

Most of the basic Essence brushes; the Flat Powder Brush is the second from the top
Source: Essence Facebook

This brush is quite easy to wash, even though it is quite packed with hairs. It doesn’t take long to rinse out shampoo as it doesn’t absorb it into the hairs. However, it needs to be fluffed back into shape after a wash as it does tend to become flat and shapeless. Now, it’s a dice roll whether you experience fall-out and fraying after a wash or not; with the two brushes that I have, one stayed in pretty much perfect condition after a wash, while the other continued to shed many hairs. It’s a toss-up. Just hope you got one that is in good condition... oh, also, don’t be scared if you notice something yellow at the base of the brush. This s more than likely the brush glue coming from the ferrule, but it hasn’t affected my brushes negatively so far.

In conclusion, eh, this brush is a gamble, so if you feel like gambling, go ahead, buy it. You might get a perfectly fine one, which is super soft and which applies and blends powders incredibly, giving you a perfectly blended out complexion; or a beautifully sun-kissed look if you decide to use it with bronzers! But you may, just as likely, get one that is in horrible state; one that still applies and blends pigments excellently, but whose brush head sheds literally hundreds of hairs before even the first wash. Good luck washing that brush. It likely won’t survive until the second wash, I reckon it will lose too many hairs and have to be chucked in the bin. Why am I saying this? Because I wanted to buy one more copy of this brush (as they were being discontinued) and the second one I got was in this horrid condition. I opened it, fluffed it a bit... and then hairs just started falling out, and they kept falling out every time I even just as much as gently pulled on any hair. Fortunately, it seems to have stopped for a while, but this is absolutely inexcusable. This is rubbish bin quality... but then, if you get a good one, it’s excellent quality. So what am I to do now? How do I give it a rating? I’m just gonna make things easy on me and deduct several points from the total score, since it is quite a great brush if you happen to get a good quality one. I love how it applies and blends out powders and bronzers and it is super easy to use. But the QA issue still stands... yeah, because of that, I won’t be giving it a recommendation. Words cannot express how disappointed I feel, even angry, that the second one is so terrible...

Rating: 6/10

Would buy again? NO (I bought one more and it literally shed a ton of hairs when I first opened it...)