Ever since I first got into make-up, I knew that I would need a good set of quality brushes before I could even go anywhere with anything. And living in Canada, we don't have many accessible brands of good make-up brushes. The only two brands then I have found with good,
usable, make-up brushes that I've seen relatively frequently is
Quo (which is available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart) and
Annabelle.Basically, this will be my personal opinion and experiences with these brushes, and you can make your own judgments on them with a grain of salt. (:
My collection of Annabelle brushes (on the left) and Quo brushes ( on the right).
$10 and up.
Where You Can Purchase From: Only at Shopper Drug Mart locations in Canada.
Look Of The Brushes: All brushes in the regular line are long & silver handled.
Left to right: Face contour brush, all over eyeshadow brush, crease blender brush, 4 brushes from limited edition holiday set.
Quo is well known in Canada, so I thought there wouldn't be a better time to pick up brushes than during a 40% off sale that Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) had on Quo implements.
First of all, SDM regularly has sales on Quo implements (stuff like sponges, eyelash culers, brushes, etc..). And they can range anywhere from 15% to 40% off. So if you're looking to try out some brushes, wait until there's a sale going on.
Quo also has a good selection of different kinds of brushes. Which is a good thing for someone just starting out in make-up and looking for simple but useful brushes. To see the full collection of brushes that Quo has available,
click here.
I personally own:
- Face Contour Brush (I use this for blush)
- Crease Blender Brush (I originally bought this for blending, because the sales associate said it would be good for that, but it's not any type of blending brush at all. This is suppose to be used for precision crease work and contouring your outer V)
- All Over Shadow Brush (I use this for my highlight colour, and for blending my highlight and crease a bit)
To begin with, I'm not a big fan of Quo brushes. They're just mediocre to me.
I also feel that they're a bit overpriced for their quality, so I would never pay full price for them. My face contour brush
seems to be "crushed." Like, the hair at the top isn't full, and it's bent. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm not a big fan of it. I'm not sure if it's because of the way I wash them or what, but it hasn't "straightened" out. You can kind of see it in these pictures below:
You can kind of see how it looks a bit uneven, that's because of the "crushed" hair.
The ferrule dis-attached from the wooden handle of the brush. Also, this paticular brush has a bit of wood & paint that's chipped off.
The brushes do shed a bit, but not a lot to the point where they lose their "fullness."
The only other brush I would purchase is the Eye Smudger Brush. My sister owns this brush and I borrowed it the other day to apply an all over eyeshadow and although it's really small, it's really dense, and it applied my shadow beautifully.
Overall, Quo brushes are okay, and I would recommend them to someone, but only if they couldn't find anything else. I hardly find myself reaching for the 2 eyebrushes that I have, and I stopped using the face contour brush, only because it hasn't really wowed me, and I've found something better.
Annabelle Brushes:Price Point: $4-$12
Where You Can Purchase From: At some Wal-Mart, Shoppers Drug Mart and Zellers locations.
Look Of The Brushes: All brushes are travel-sized and black.
To begin with, Annabelle brushes may be a little hard to find. I know that SDM and Wal-Mart sell Annabelle
cosmetics, but they may or may not have their line of brushes. Some Zellers locations also sell Annabelle cosmetics, and maybe also their brush line. So the best thing to do is to look to check if any of these locations near you have the brushes.
Annabelle has a small limited selection of brushes, but they do carry just the basics.
I personally own:
-
A-21 Large Shader Brush (I use this for apply all over eyeshadow, applying my highlight colour, and blending my highlight and crease colour a bit)
-
A-10 Medium Shader Brush (I use this for applying eyeshadow)
-
A-8 Small Shader Brush (I use this for applying eyeshadow and doing detailed work, like contouring my outer V, or applying colour to my crease, or a highlight to my tearduct, and applying colour on my lower lash line.)
Overall, I'm a big fan of Annabelle brushes. They're affordable, all of the brushes are under $12 (on a side note, I've found that Wal-Mart is the place that has the cheapest price, but if your Zellers carries these brushes, you can use your Student Price Card [SPC] card and recieve 10% off). These brushes are also incredibley soft, I've had the A-8 brush for a year now, and I've have
VERY minimal shedding - probably like only 1 hair *knock on wood* haha.
I would definietly reccomend Annabelle brushes if you can find them. The only thing I'd love to see is a better brush selection.
I hope this helped some of you Canadian ladies out who have been looking for quality make-up brushes. Have any of you tried Annabelle or Quo brushes? What do you think? Let me know! (:
Till later guys. (:
We used the flat iron method, and it was relatively easy. I didn't have any mishaps, fortunately (: And it's nice now to have my MAC eyeshadows (all four of them!) in one place, plus I can use my depots for Back 2 MAC. :D
By the way, does anyone have any suggestions for using Satin Taupe? I thought I'd be able to wear it with everything cause it's a big staple in peoples neutral palettes, but I find it goes on a silver-muddish colour, and I don't know what to pair it with. :/
I don't know why my left eye is so squinty like that. :/
Used:
My lions mane, haha.
My lions mane, haha.
