My Real Techniques Collection

Make-up brushes can literally be the maker or breaker of your make-up; even the best of products look bad when applied incorrectly! As the realisation of the importance of the make-up tools we use has dawned on us ladies, more and more brands have arisen. Sigma, Morphe, MAC, Eco-tools – most beauty stores and brands even have their own collections now because we just can’t get enough! Personally, I opt for the extremely well known high-street brand, Real Techniques, which is what today’s post is entirely about. Real Techniques brushes may not be quite as high quality as other brushes like Sigma/MAC in terms of bristles, but for me they are the perfect compromise – because what 16 year old can really afford to spend £20 per brush for an entire collection? Instead, I’ve opted for just a few higher end foundation brushes (MAC) because the base is the most complicated and important part for me, and then a larger collection of mid-market Real Techniques brushes. But, somehow I always end up needing to add “JUST ONE MORE BRUSH!” to the family that lurks in my makeup drawers… It’s a thing that many of us make-up addicts suffer from. Anyways, onto my collection!

Okay, so here it is, all laid out for you! As I said, not massive but, don’t you worry it’s still growing. The orange brushes you can see are all designed for the base, pink are for ‘finishing touches’ as such and purple are for the eyes/brows. The only colour that I don’t own is the Bold Metals metallic brushes (there’s a deal on the set to save £34 at Boots at the moment by the way – just click the link I’ve attached!) – they’re a teeny bit more expensive and my bank balance can’t quite support this just yet! Now, I’ll zoom in to each colour collection and no doubt natter on about everything possible there is to do with each brush… Excuse any babbling!

Let’s start with the piddly collection – the ‘finishing’ type brushes as I would name them. Brushes that are part of this collection include kabuki brushes, stippling brushes, setting brushes and sculpting brushes. Brushes for the final touches to your look. After discovering the wonders of contouring thanks to the ever-evolving world of beauty, I decided to ask for a brush specifically for this purpose as part of my birthday wish list. This was the Real Techniques Sculpting Brush, which can be seen on the right in the first picture above. It has short fibres for accuracy and an angled characteristic to help you apply your contour right under the cheekbones (where it should be). I have to say, I’m loving it so far and it does the job much better than my Real Techniques Retractable Kabuki brush (seen to the left of the sculpting brush) did. Instead, I like the use the kabuki brush for highlighting (I use MUA Undress Your Skin Highlighting Powder) or blending in my contour (NYX HD Blush in Taupe)  to achieve a natural finish. The only issue I have with these two RT brushes, in particular, is that they’re not really soft enough for my ever-so-sensitive skin. But, if I had to choose between one of these, I would certainly choose the sculpting brush.

Onto the face brushes, my favourites! From left to right you can see, Expert Face Brush, Contour Brush, Pointed Foundation Brush and Detailer Brush (these three are part of the Core Collection set). Firstly, the Expert Face Brush, the newest to my collection; it’s often raved about by the blogging and vlogging communities and after using it I CAN TOTALLY SEE WHY! Honestly, with this brush there is 0% chance of your base being streaky – it blends to perfection! I use this after my MAC Keepsakes Collection Foundation Brushes to ensure evenness and also to blend in blush/contour. Next, the so-called ‘Contour Brush’, as part of the core collection, this actually does a rubbish job at applying contour. It’s good for blending out contour in circular motions, but I would’t say it’s an essential. The Pointed Foundation Brush I also don’t love, but those who prefer a heavier foundation probably would. The issue with this is that it leaved my complexion very streaky if I use it to apply light products and the less streaks the better, isn’t that right girls? Finally, a brush that I actually adore. The Detailer Brush can be used for lipstick or concealer; I prefer concealing with it, personally. It’s so small and great for completely hiding even monster blemishes – I use it with my MAC Select Moisturecover Concealer in NW15.

Lastly, onto the eye brushes – this is the Real Techniques Eye Make-up Brush Starter Set. It includes (from top to bottom) an angled eyebrow brush, a shadow detailing brush, a smudged brush, a blending brush and a shading brush. My personal favourites are the angled brow brush, which I use to tame and shape my brows along with Miss Sporty Just Clear Mascara and the blending brush for transitioning shades. However, I feel like my eye-brushes collection is the one that needs work on it the most. I’m not great with eyeshadow and it never seems to go how intended – I’m wondering whether this is because I don’t use a primer or because I need some different brushes? What do you think?

Have you tried any of these brushes? Are there particular ones that you love/hate? Any brush brand/type recommendations for me? Let me know below in the comments!

Emilia x

p.s. If you’re a beauty and/or fashion lover like myself, make sure to enter my giveaway right here!