Maychiri's Thoughts

Makeup Revolution Create Super Dewy Stippling Brush R14 Review

February 17, 2024

How about a stylish pink brush? Such as this Makeup Revolution Create Super Dewy Stippling Brush R14?

Hell if I know why I chose a stippling brush out of all of them. They’ve been a major let-down in the past... I guess I was hoping this one would be different? I mean, it promises a lot! That it blends effortlessly, gives you a lightweight, dewy finish, and that it’s got an antibacterial coating... sounds great, on paper. Especially the antibacterial coating part, that is actually what drew me in to this entire range of brushes. When I ordered this brush, it was during the Pandemic, and I searched high and low for products that are antibacterial/antiviral... and then I noticed that Revolution had recently released a whole range of brushes that all have an antibacterial coating! I know that I probably should have picked the blush brush or something similarly useful... but let’s, for now, see if this stippling brush is any different from the others I had used... and, is it any better?

Packaging: a huge cardboard packaging that keeps the brush safe during transport. It’s pretty easy to open. I love the colour! It’s light pink – such a soothing shade of pink as well! And the text complements that colour very nicely, because it’s rose gold. Well, it’s rose gold in the front, the text in the back is black. Could this text be any larger?? Like, it’s huge! Even if you have bad eyesight you shouldn’t have any issues reading this text! The only colourful details is found in the back: “Anti-bacterial brush hair fibres help to reduce bacterial growth”. Quite a bulky packaging, but that’s honestly better then it being flimsy!

The brush itself continues that light pink design of the cardboard packaging. And this makes the brush so beautiful! A thick rose gold handle and ferrule makes up the body of the brush, but it’s also slightly reflective, which gives it an almost brushed metal finish (but less shiny). Very, very pretty!

In terms of details, there’s only the Revolution logo and the name of the brush, in black text. I think black is a good choice here. There’s one detail that I love: on the border between the ferrule and the handle, there’s a rose gold ring, with a huge ‘R’ signet... very classy! Although, this is where one other Create brush had massive problems with the ferrule and handle being poorly glued together. Here, fortunately, it seems to be sturdy and built well. The brush head is large and dense, and features adorable baby pink hairs, with longer pure white hairs in the middle. I love this baby pink/white combo, it’s positively adorable! A very elegant design overall.

The hairs are synthetic. They are – supposedly – coated with an antibacterial coating, so that it’s safer for the skin. Of course, I cannot test this so I’ll just choose to believe. The hairs don’t look too high quality to be honest, they are very shiny and look like they’re crimped. Honestly, they look like plastic. They also feel like plastic because they’re very prickly and just plain uncomfortable to use.

However, dunno how, but I managed to somehow make them softer after a wash... I think it’s the shampoo I’m using. They’re still prickly now, but actually a lot less than before! The shape of the brush is your typical stippling brush shape: slightly flared, with a clear border between the shorter pink hairs and the longer white hairs. It’s pretty dense. As for fall-out? There is some, but it is less than other stippling brushes.

Ugh... another reminder why I don’t use stippling brushes. It’s not good at all. I tried – believe me I tried – to make it work, but nothing works. I tried to use it with a stippling motion... makes sense, this is a stippling brush after all! Nope, no good. It makes liquid products (eg, foundation) look horribly grainy and textured. It’s like it buffs it onto my pores and just leaves it like that, no blending whatsoever. That looks horrible. Then I tried to use it with a swiping motion. Again, no good. This time, it wasn’t quite as grainy, but it was very streaky. Again, impossible to blend. Then, last try, swirling motion... nada. This makes it look both grainy and streaky... yay. I don’t get it. What’s the purpose of this brush then?? It cannot apply liquid pigments and it cannot blend them out either. And this is exactly what it was advertised as being “perfect” for! What a load of BS. It’s just miserable to use so, even if I do use it I quickly give up and just switch to using a makeup sponge. No sense trying to work with this when it’s so bad.

The one thing they are right about is that it does make foundation look more sheer than full-coverage, and I guess it could look dewy. Honestly, this may well be better suited for serums instead of anything pigmented... what a waste of money – and time.

Okay, well it is actually very easy to wash... colour me surprised! It doesn’t usually absorb a lot of shampoo, which makes rinsing it out a breeze. There can be some fall-out after a wash, but not always. I already washed this brush a few times and it did shed hairs then, but it stayed in fantastic condition this time. Interesting. It also keeps its shape very nicely.

All in all, I really, really don’t like this brush. I don’t know if it’s the foundations I have been using or if it’s the brush, but it flat-out ruins them. All those promises about “depositing product on the skin without harsh lines” and “it’s great with liquid, cream & powder based products” are a bunch of nonsense, to be polite. It’s not great with any one of those categories, but with liquid products it is outright horrible. And, alright, I guess it doesn’t cause very harsh lines (usually), but you know what it does cause? A horribly grainy and spotted finish. No matter how I try to use it – swiping, swirling, or, indeed, stippling – I just cannot blend out products to save my life. The more I try to blend the worse it becomes. So, to save myself all that headache, I usually just switch over to using a makeup sponge... because this isn’t cutting it. The hairs are, thankfully, not as sharp as I thought they’d be. Also, fallout is a concern, as with all stippling brushes. So, in short, this brush sucks. No way around it, it just sucks. It’s basically unusable for the exact things it is purported to be “perfect” for. Not a chance I’d recommend this to anyone... just stick to either sponges or flat foundation brushes or something. Just avoid this. At least it was free...

Rating: 2/10

Would buy again? Absolutely NO

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Brush

Revolution Pro 310 Round Well Buffing Brush Review

February 17, 2024

One interesting, odd brush is what follows! This is the Revolution Pro 310 Round Well Buffing Brush!

To be completely honest, the main reason why I ordered this brush is because it just looks so odd! It’s got this deeper part in the middle that is really confusing me! I had never had a brush like this before, so I simply had to order it if nothing then for curiosity’s sake. Like, what would be the exact purpose of this ‘well’ in the middle, at least for makeup? I know that serum brushes often look something like this in order to deposit serum deep into the skin, but serums and foundations are quite different... hmm, I must get to the bottom of this mystery! So, let’s finally check this intriguing brush out!

Packaging: the brush came in a large cardboard packaging, same type as all the other Revolution Pro brushes. It’s got a biconcave shape that should make it easier to open, but it’s still a bit tricky. The monochrome design is reflected on the brush itself, so everything looks fancy and minimalistic. All the information about the brush is in the back – oh god, the size of that font! Oh yeah, you could read that from a mile away, wow. Inside, the brush is kept secure with a piece of cardboard and a rubber stopper. Nothing too spectacular, but it’s secure enough, and that’s what matters.

The brush itself is black and white, like the outer packaging. I love this, it makes the brush look expensive and fancy af! It’s actually a relatively heavy brush, it feels dense. It seems to have two ferrules? Or at least a bridge between the ferrule and the handle.

In any case, it seems to be built well as nothing feels loose. It’s Interesting how it has this narrowing at the base of the black bridge/ferrule, and then it becomes thick again. This gives the brush an interesting shape; relatively thin handle and a mega thick ferrule and brush head. There’s not much in terms of decor, only the name of the brush and the Revolution Pro logo. The brush head continues the black/white design, so it’s all very cohesive. And very elegant!

The hairs are synthetic and very glossy, like they’re covered in glossy hairspray! That would usually make the hairs look cheap, but here it doesn’t because it’s completely normal for hairs that are this sleek and super straight to look glossy. The hairs here are rigid and perfectly straight, even the shorter ones in the middle. Oh yeah, this brush has a special gimmick: the ‘well’ in the centre that should help with buffing liquid products somehow.

The shape of the brush head is circular, and the hairs are all cut perfectly evenly, not a single longer or stray hair to be found – even inside the ‘well’! This gives the brush a perfectly flat top that should help it buff products more easily. Well, perfectly flat with a dip in the centre... remarkable level of QA here! They even got the shape of the ‘well’ to be perfectly circular! Now, these hairs may be cut perfectly evenly, but remember, they’re kinda stiff, which makes them a bit prickly when you tap with the brush. This isn’t good; as you’ll see in a bit, tapping is pretty much the only way this brush can be used effectively, so it really shouldn’t feel prickly then... but it does. It does feel pretty soft when you swirl around or go back-and-forth with it, though. The centre ‘well’ is a bit softer than the outer hairs. This brush is much softer than you’d think given the shape and thickness of the hairs. Also, check out how dense this brush head is! There must be thousands of hairs there! Weird shape of the brush head but the hairs seem to be high quality; no fraying or fall-out ever since I started using it. It actually feels comfortable when you tap quickly and very close to the skin, ngl. It’s kinda plush. Yeah I never expected it to feel this comfy or soft... it seems this brush holds many surprises!

Okay, so this is a bit weird to use, honestly. It’s the ‘well’ that makes it this weird. So, it’s supposed to be ideal for buffing in liquid products, and yeah, I would agree that the shape and the hairs do imply that, but it’s not that simple. To start, this brush does pick up a lot of foundation, especially if you use the method of squeezing out a bit of foundation on the back of your hand and then meticulously applying it bit by bit with a brush. This is, I feel, the most ‘correct’ way to use this brush, judging by the results.

If you start to blend it out directly on the skin, a lot of product will seep into the hairs, including the central ‘well’. In any case, it applies product very richly, and it is pretty even, I do admit. But problems may arise when you go blend out your foundation/concealer/whathaveyou; depending on the type of formula there may be a good amount of pilling! Drier formulas are the ones most likely to pill with this brush, but even greasy formulas have problems because they can be incredibly difficult to blend out properly. So, like, this brush prefers one very specific type of formula and everything else is varying degrees of trouble in terms of blending. I will say, though, that it does blend out liquid products very well, you just have to know how to use the brush. If you try to swipe with it, it will leave a very streaky finish and won’t really be able to blend; the only motion I have had success with is tapping. If you tap with this brush, it actually blends really, really well! The central ‘well’ is still a puzzle to me, but I found out that it’s useful when you get to the chin! If you press with the central ‘well’ on raised areas of the face (eg: chin, nose tip) it blends products in mere moments! But what’s its use outside of this?? Wish I knew... So, like, this brush blends much better than I expected, but it’s kinda hard to use as the hundreds of little taps you gotta do to blend foundation right do lead to hand fatigue. But it does look very good in the end so... idk, is the tiredness and forearm fatigue worth it?

Well, this brush isn’t the easiest to wash but it’s also not the hardest brush ever to wash. The thing that makes it more complicated to wash is the central ‘well’; it’s just deep enough that even when you spread out all the hairs the nibs on the cleansing pad don’t reach the 'well'. I had to really press hard to get it to be spread enough so that I can get at least some of the dirt off the 'well'. The hairs themselves are actually incredibly easy to wash because they’re so slick, which means that they don’t absorb any shampoo, so rinsing the shampoo out only takes like 15-30 seconds. The hairs inside the 'well' are just as easy to wash, it’s just that they’re hard to reach. So, most times, the central ‘well’ is going to stay at least a bit less clean than the rest of the brush. Not very good in terms of hygiene. The brush stayed in fantastic condition after a wash, no fraying or fall-out. I just wish the well was easier to wash...

In conclusion, man is this one weird brush haha! But, truth is, it’s not bad, like, at all! It’s actually a pretty good brush, ngl. I was a bit skeptical at first, I thought that the gimmicky shape would make the brush perform worse than a ‘normal’ brush. But, to tell the truth, the centre ‘well’ doesn’t impact the brush negatively at all; I’m not sure it even helps. So, the brush head is circular in shape, which is already a bit odd given the flat top, but it also has this depression in the centre that... well, I don’t know what it’s supposed to do. Supposedly, it helps with buffing in products but honestly, the outer hairs do a very good job of blending already so this doesn’t really help much. The only instances where the ‘well’ helped or made sense is when I wanted to buff in product on my nose or chin; it’s actually really useful there, which was really surprising. I literally gasped when I noticed how good it blends products on my nose tip and chin when I pressed in with the brush. Of course, this isn’t useful for the rest of the face, so... yeah, it’s a gimmick. This brush works best with slightly drier formulas, but it can blend greasy formula relatively easily, too. You’ll just have to spend more time and there may be some streaks that you’ll have to touch up. It’s not a huge problem, particularly because this brush actually has pretty soft hairs. Yeah, they might look stiff and like they’d be sharp but they’re actually very soft! I am, completely truthfully, baffled by how easy this brush is to use. It’s definitely not the best brush for foundations and such as it can leave a streaky finish and it can cause pilling, but it’s so much better than what I initially assumed it would be. Would it work better if it was a classic flat top brush? Hmm, I actually think no, because this ‘well’ lets the product spread more evenly, and I feel like it blends better because of that. Idk, it’s weird. But sometimes weird is okay, like with this brush! Man, who would have thought I would end up really liking this brush? Not me, that’s for sure haha! Anyways, I... oh why not – I’ll recommend it, it’s good enough. Although I do feel like it would work better with serums. Unfortunately, it seems like it's been discontinued?

Rating: 7/10

Would buy again? NO (...? Idk, it’s not bad I just really don’t know)