Anyone who has stepped into Sephora knows, they also sell their own brand of brushes! Affordable brush sets (like these), but recently have also begun selling more prestige brush sets ($150+). The prices of their brush sets extremely vary, from $40, to $90, to $200. Essentially, they have something for everyone's budget.
I was provided with both the All A Glow Brush Set, and the Gold Star Skinny Brush Set a little while back. They are limited edition and I do not see them available on Sephora's website anymore, but I wanted to post about them anyways, incase you can still find them in stores. Edit: I did see the All a Glow Set stocked yesterday at my local Sephora. Not sure about the Gold Star set.
Both sets come with 5 brushes, mainly face brushes, and both are very compact brush sets (they are minis!).
L to R: Concealer Brush, Highlight Brush, Foundation Brush, Contour Brush, Cream Blush Brush
The Sephora All A Glow Brush Set retails for $38 (a $104 value) and the brushes were made to pair with the Sephora All A Glow Face Palette. The bristles are synthetic, and the clutch that the brushes come in is big enough to hold a bit more than just the 5 brushes.
The Concealer Brush was a bit too small, rounded, and sparse. I ended up with a ton of streaks trying to blend it out. The Highlight Brush was also, a bit useless for me. It is too small to highlight the cheekbones, but it is useable if you are only looking to highlight the bridge of your nose. The Foundation Brush was decent, although I can see this as being more of a concealer/under eye concealer brush. The Contour Brush is shaped oddly, and I was unable to blend and ended up getting out another brush instead. The odd shape isn't too clearly visible in the photo but I'd much rather use the cream blush brush for contouring instead. The Cream Blush Brush is my favourite out of the lot. I thought this was the contour brush initially, and used it to contour my cheekbones. It worked! Ok, it was a bit harsh but I did successfully blend it out a bit. You can definitely get away with using it for both purposes, but I think I'll stick to cream blush unless I'm desperate. I then used it for it's said purpose -for cream blush. It does do a much better job at what it was intended for, as long as you use a light hand and blend!
L to R: Powder Brush, Foundation Brush, Crease Brush, Shadow Brush, Liner Brush
Sephora Gold Star Skinny Brush Set retails for $39, stated as a $109 value on their website. The brushes are tiny, with handles roughly about 4" long with synthetic bristles. The gold colouring gives it a bit more of an expensive/prestige look. This set contains 2 face brushes, and 3 eye brushes.
The Powder Brush had a hard time picking up much loose powder, but I found it to work well with applying a translucent pressed powder onto the skin. I surprisingly achieved an almost streakless application using this Foundation Brush. It was however, a bit stiff. I prefer the look and feel on the skin of the All A Glow Foundation Brush from the other set, but this one applied foundation much better without as much streaking. The Crease Brush picked up product well, but using it was a bit of a different story. It was very difficult to give it a little blending, and the brush is too flexible. The Shadow Brush picked up product very well, and made it easy to apply a strong colour on the lid. It does take time to cover a significant amount of the eyelid, so I'd likely just end up using this to apply black shadow close to my upper lash line. The Liner Brush also picks up product well! It seems thin enough to use for brows if need be, although I found it a bit pokey/stiff to use for eyeliner.
Again, the bristles of the brushes in this set were soft. However, the bristles just seem a bit too long and springy(?) for my liking.
I didn't have much luck with the majority of these brushes, but a few stood out to me such as the All A Glow Cream Blush & Foundation Brushes, and the Gold Star Foundation and Shadow Brushes. They are definitely gorgeous, compact, and would be perfect as a gift, especially for the younger teens. Although unfortunately, I wouldn't particularly buy either of these sets for that makeup guru or makeup artist friend. They are just not on par with other brushes out there; but those sets are typically sold at a higher price. I do think that they would be more useable and appreciated by someone who is used to cheap, rough, drugstores brushes. A few of the brushes in these sets are definitely a step up from those (although by no means do I mean Real Techniques or EcoTools, those are awesome brushes!).
These products were received for consideration. All opinions stated are my own and are not influenced by any affiliates.
