Maychiri's Thoughts

New Stuff - Part 32

April 11, 2024

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Essence Wish Upon a Star Brush Duo Review

April 05, 2024

One brush set that’s starstruck and ready for the festive season! This is the Essence Wish Upon a Star Brush Duo, variant 01/Secret Wishes On Shooting Stars (this is the only variant anyways)!

I really couldn’t miss out on this brush set! Essence brushes are mostly fantastic, so, with that level of trust, I knew I probably couldn’t go wrong with this set. This set was part of the Wish Upon a Star LE, which was a Christmas LE with designs and colours that were so perfect for December! Everything sparkly and starry... it really makes you want to wish upon a shooting star! So is this set – look how sparkly the two brushes are! I nearly missed it, though! My local Müller sells out Essence LEs like hotcakes – it’s a real miracle I was able to find this set! A... Christmas miracle, perhaps? Well, now that I have it, let’s see how good it is!

Packaging: even though it is just your ordinary cardboard packaging, it’s really pretty! Essence made sure that it fits the theme of this LE, so it’s dark blue like the night sky, and has golden text, golden like the stars in the night sky! Also, stars everywhere! This is so adorable! You’ve got so many stars that you could wish upon here! Information about this brush set is in the back. The front has a nice plastic window that allows you to see the brushes inside – but no touching! I really like this, it keeps the brushes clean! A very sturdy and very pretty packaging, I love it!

The highlighter brush

This brush set contains only two brushes, but it’s two always useful brushes: one highlighter brush and one eyeshadow shader brush. Maybe it’s a bit odd to mix-and-match one face and one eye brush, but this is actually an interesting choice. With the eyeshadow shader you can add some shimmery champagne eyeshadow, and with the highlighter brush you can make yourself sparkle like a real star. Clever!

The eyeshadow shader brush

The two brushes share the same design, which is very festive and really pretty! They are both dusted with gold dust, which looks like stardust! Sparkly and perfect for the festive season! I love the gradient of the gold shimmer on the handle, it slowly tapers off, so it really looks like the brushes have been dipped in stardust! Gorgeous! The brushes are extremely lightweight, this, of course, makes them comfortable to use. Both have a solid gold ferrule, that’s so glamorous! The combination of the solid gold ferrule with the stardust-speckled handle makes the brushes look much more expensive than they were, truly! The brush head has pure white hairs. Lovely as they may be, they are easily stained, so wash the brushes often! Truly a gorgeous design, I cannot stop looking at the brushes, they’re just so pretty! In terms of quality, both brushes have a high level of quality, with no loose parts. The hairs (which are synthetic) are similarly high quality: no fraying or fall-out, and they aren’t very shiny either. Awesome!

The first brush I will be taking a look at is the larger of the two: a highlighter brush!

The hairs on this brush are sooo soft! Omg, it’s like the softest plushie! It’s soft when you swirl, swipe or tap with the brush! In fact, it may be the softest when you tap! It’s so luxuriously soft, and feels extremely nice on skin! The shape of this brush is ideal for highlighters; it is a classic tapered highlighter brush that makes it easy to precisely highlight the high points of the face.

This brush picks up a ton of pigment! Like, actually too much! So I have to be careful how I highlight with it if I don’t want to be glowing. It applies pigment very richly, so be careful how much pressure you apply if you want to have subtle highlighting. It’s also super precise thanks to the tapered shape, so it’s easy to highlight smaller areas such as the cupid’s bow or the tip of the nose. And it also blends pigments excellently!

This brush is incredibly easy to use, and I love to use it! I often reach for it when I need a highlighter brush because I know it’s going to give me fantastic results!

Washing: oh it’s magnificently easy to wash! It doesn’t absorb shampoo, so rinsing it out only takes like 30 seconds. The pure white hairs stay in perfect condition after a wash, the same shape, no fall-out and, it seems, no yellow discolouration at the base.

All in all, what a terrific brush! Essence rarely have flop brushes, so I’m not surprised that this one is this good. But it’s really, really great! The hairs are super soft and feel sooo comfortable on the skin, and the brush applies highlighters so well and so easily that it’s child’s play! Like, I can be done highlighting within a minute with this brush because highlighter always looks excellent from the moment I apply it with this brush – even chunkier, more difficult to blend highlighter! This brush blends so easily, and it doesn’t usually overblend, so highlighters always look amazing! And me, I like to have intense highlighting, so I positively adore this brush because it can give me that intensity in so little time! And it’s always going to look naturally applied and buffed into the skin! Such a fantastic brush – I cannot stress this enough! Wow! I adore it!

Rating: 9.5/10

Now, the second – and much smaller – brush! This is a classic eyeshadow shader brush.

The hairs aren’t very shiny, and they look pretty high quality. But there is one hair that is way longer than the others (ngl, it’s annoying me). The hairs are super soft, but they also feel firm (the hairs are quite short after all). It doesn’t feel hard though, so it’s still very pleasant to use. The shape is very good for applying eyeshadows onto the eyelid as it’s dense and small.

Indeed, this brush is excellent! At least for applying eyeshadows, because it’s far too dense to be able to blend at all. It could be used to smudge, but it’s really best for simply applying pigments. And that’s not a bad thing – I’d rather it be excellent at just one job than be mediocre at multiple ones! It picks up a huge amount of pigment, so much that it often causes eyeshadows to have fall-out from how much it picks up! This is awesome!

It ensures that you get maximum pigmentation from the eyeshadow you’re using. It applies it incredibly evenly and quite precisely, which makes it suitable to be used for smokey eye looks. It’s precise enough to add definition in the outer V or the crease easily, without it looking too smudgy. It’s so fun to use! And it makes creating even more complex looks a breeze! Just be sure to have a spare blending brush at hand!

Washing: as easy as can be! Since it doesn’t absorb shampoo it is super easy to rinse it all out and have a perfectly clean brush! There’s no fall-out or fraying after a wash and it keeps its shape. However, like with many Essence brushes that have pure white hairs, there may be some slight discolouration at the base post-wash; this is likely the glue seeping down, but don’t worry, it doesn’t seem to cause any problems.

I’ve already washed this brush multiple times and this discolouration didn’t seem to do a thing.

All in all, oh wow, this is such a fantastic brush! Essence eyeshadow shader brushes are usually incredible, so I’m not surprised that this one is too, but I am certainly glad! The hairs are very soft, so it’s suitable for sensitive eyes. The brush picks up a ton of pigment, ensuring that the colours are as vivid as possible. But it doesn’t make it look cakey, as it spreads the eyeshadow so well that it looks silky on eyelids. It’s also so precise that it can define the crease easily, without it being very smudgy. Or you can use it to smoke out the eyes, it will look really, really good! The only thing this brush cannot do is blend but that’s okay, because it’s not meant to blend anyways. I love this brush so much – it’s so fun and easy to use, and it always makes eyeshadows look great, even unruly ones!

Rating: 9/10

Oh yeah, this set is fabulous! Not only is it strikingly gorgeous with the stardust-speckled design and the pure white hairs, it is also incredible in terms of functionality. See, both brushes are very high-quality, as they apply pigments so well that they rival much more expensive brushes! Both brushes apply pigments richly and evenly, and both are excellent for their respective purposes. The highlighter brush is amazing at highlighting, and you can easily add just a bit of shine or go full glam and shine like the full Moon! The eyeshadow shader brush makes sure your eyeshadow is at peak intensity of pigmentation, and it applies it evenly across the eyelid. Both are incredibly fun and easy to use, so they’d be great brushes for a beginner or someone who doesn’t yet have a lot of brushes! I have plenty of brushes yet I still routinely reach for this highlighter brush specifically! It’s just that good! What can I say – Essence really know how to make kickass brushes! It’s such a shame, though, that it’s a limited edition set... at least I was able to get it, which was a real miracle in and of itself! But my wishes came true, and I was able to get this set. I highly recommend this set, if you manage to somehow find it somewhere still!

Rating (overall): 9/10

Would buy again? YES