Lauren Luke brush collection

I'm always on the hunt for great affordable brushes to fill gaps in my collection, I don't think enough brands offer a wide enough range of brushes. You mainly have to buy them from the more high end brands such as Mac, Nars etc. and as much as I love Mac's makeup, brushes are always the very last thing I will splurge on. The only brush I currently own from Mac is the 263 as I did want a good quality brush for filling in eyebrows. Other than that I much favour Sigma over Mac, which has a such a large collection of brushes for a considerably less amount of money. Since they come from the US I tend to buy quite a few brushes when I do buy from them to make paying for the shipping worth while.

I remember looking at Laurens brushes when they first came out and just passing up on them because I think I thought they were too expensive! I've been hunting for brushes lately so I went back for another look and I do not remember them being this cheap! I searched the internet and alot of other people had been saying she had dropped the prices too. When the most expensive brush in the collection is only £6.50 and you've heard great things about them on the internet well, I decided to just buy the whole collection. It consists of 8 brushes and as a total came to £33.75, thats roughly £4.20 a brush! On to the brushes...

This set includes:

• Angled liner brush (£3.25)
• Blending eyeshadow brush (£4.50)
• Flat contour brush (£5.25)
• Flat eyeshadow brush (£4.00)
• Foundation brush (£6.00)
• Large powder brush (£.6.50)
• Pencil brush (£3.25)
• Tapered blending brush (£4.50)

First off, you can never have too many blending brushes. There's nothing more soul destroying than applying your makeup and trying to blend it out with a blending brush you havn't cleaned yet. It looks like a muddy mess! When I was looking at this collection the other day I considered just stocking up on blending brushes since they're so affordable. I was also surprised at how stiff the angled brush is too, I love my Mac 263 but this one is really pretty decent! Also, the pencil brush included in this collection I favour more over my Sigma pencil brush, this one is much more fluffier, I find the Sigma tip is way too pointy, that's just personal preference though. There's not much else I can say about the eye brushes, except they're amazing quality. This brush set truly does have all the essential eye brushes needed to create simple/dramatic looks.

Owning quite a few eye brushes, I was more excited to receive my face brushes, I don't have so many of these because you can never seem to find anything decent under £10! (and that is at an absoloute push!) This brush set really does hold a hidden gem of the brush world. I don't know if you're familiar with Louise Young brushes but I first saw these being used by the Pixiwoo sisters ( Love them) and the brush that always stuck with me was the LY34, it was a domed foundation brush, used for buffing in liquid products to give a seemingly flawless finish, I HAD TO HAVE IT..but not for £24..I wasn't that desperate. So you can imagine how ecstatic I was to see that Lauren had included a domed foundation brush in her collection! I've used it a couple of times and it doesn't dissapoint. Here are a few close ups of the beautiful face brushes!







I can't see me getting a whole lot of use from the large powder brush, I rarely powder due to having extremely dry skin and I favour a more 'dewy' look, over matte. It's definetely worth having for the price though, large brush prices in Mac and Nars can be ridiculously expensive! The flat contour brush however it just simply amazing! Brilliant for precise application of bronzer and for dotting blusher on to the apples of your cheeks for a rosey glow! I really can't praise these brushes enough, can I?!

I've always been such a fan of Lauren, she was the first guru I ever watched all the way back in 2008, I consider her one of the origionals! She is such a lovely person and an inspiration when you see how well she has done for herself, can you imagine your makeup collection being sold in Times Square?! If you have a big enough brush collection, then I would probably skip these out (Unless you're curious!) But if you're just starting out or filling gaps in your collection, these are a must!

Love, Hol xxx

Top 5 make-up brushes

Here are some of my most favourite brushes out of all the ones that I own, I have mostly Sigma but I'm not a makeup brush snob! I love my elf brushes and I'm also currently looking for some more cheaper brands to try out. I think it's definetely so important to have the correct brushes for the type of look your're trying to acheive, a smokey eye would never work out without some form of fluffy brush! My freinds frequently question how I do my eyeshadow nicely for a night out, and that they can't do it, but I always tell them they could do it if they owned the right brushes! I love to hear how people personally use makeup brushes, I was usually always very stick to the rules only use a conceacler brush for concealer kind of girl, that is until i saw Nic from pixiwoo using a blending brush for concealer, I'm continually trying to look for new and creative ways to use brushes now! :)

Anyway, without further ramble, some brushes and descriptions! Unfortunately I'm not so great when it comes to looking after my brushes, they're looking a little worse for wear however I did just give them a little clean up before I took some pictures!



Sigma F55: My ultimate face brush! I'm such a fan of buffing foundation in with the duo fibre style brushes. This is a great size but I'd really like a bigger one. I also use this for bronzer/blush.

Sigma E25: This shorter handled silver brush was actually a freebie from Sigma, I have two of them! I actually use this for a number of things. One is blending, as it's lovely and fluffy, two, its great for just applying a wash of colour to your eyelids, and lastly, it's not typically domed shaped like your usual blending brushes, it's a lot flatter, so I think its great for blending hard to get to sections like underneath your eye, and a more precise blending brush for the eye crease.

Sigma E35: Probably my number one brush of all time! A domed tapered blending brush. Gets rid of the harsh lines. Soft. Fluffy. AMAZING. Also have another one of these for blending out concealer underneath my eyes. I think everyone should pray to the makeup gods for one of these tonight because you'll soon find out you simply can't live without it!

Mac 263: Since I love to play around with my brows I had to put this in. This is actually the only Mac brush I own! It's really thin and stiff so you can acheive really accurate lines. Also great for winged eyeliner. A must have in your collection!

Elf Studio contour brush: A recent addition to my brush collection but a sure favourite! Perfectly shaped to fit right in to your crease. I love applying a nice dark eyeshadow all the way along my crease with this and then blending it out with my Sigma blending brush. The brush is also quite dense, so you can pack quite a nice amount of eyeshadow if you wish to!

Shockingly I don't have any flat shader style brushes in my little Top 5 but we've all seen them before and been told that they're great for packing colour on to the lid. Personally, I love fluffy brushes, washes of colour and buffing.

What are your favourite brushes/brands?! Any good brands for me to try out?!

Love, Hol xxx