Product Review: Real Techniques Makeup Brushes

The brand Real Techniques is a project by popular UK YouTube vloggers/beauty gurus and makeup artists Sam and Nic Chapman. I've been a long time subscriber and fan of their channel. I have also owned two of their brushes (the Expert Face Brush and the 2-in-1 Kabuki Brush) for a few months and have found myself reaching for them on a daily basis.



Now don't imagine that these are my first brushes, I can assure you they're not even close. I have approximately 75 brushes in my collection (well, before I bought the Real Techniques sets) and they range from drugstore brands like EcoTools, ELF, Kirkland, Sonia Kashuk, and then move up to more expensive brands like Sephora, Lancome, Stila, Urban Decay, Nicka K, and MAC.

The Real Techniques sets retail for $17.99 in my local Ulta and drugstores. You can get them for cheaper online and I'll have the links below.

The first set I got is the real Techniques Travel Essentials Set which includes 3 brushes: an essential foundation brush, a domed shadow brush, and a multi task brush. From this set, I realized that:

eyeshadow brushes are purple 
face brushes are gold
multi-use brushes are pink

This color coding is extremely intelligent and useful when you're looking for a particular brush to put your makeup on in a vast collection! I really like this added organizational bonus. The bristles feel very soft to the touch - I would use the multi tasking pink brush for blush or bronzer for contouring, it's not quite as big as I would like for an all-over face powder, however so I'll stick to using my MAC 150 for that.

Top: Expert Face Brush, Bottom: Buffing Brush

I'm sure you can use the essential foundation brush for applying your liquid foundation, however, I actually prefer the Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for that application due to its buffing capability, it has shorter bristles and is very dense compared to the buffing brush from their Core Collection.









The real Techniques Core Collection Set consists of 4 face brushes: a contour brush, a pointed foundation brush, a detailer brush, and the buffing brush. The contour brush can be used for cream products and bronzers, the pointed foundation brush is great for putting foundation around your nose and under your eyes, and the detailer brush is amazing for applying concealer to specific areas. The buffing brush is as straight-forward as it sounds and lets you buff out your foundation, your powder, or your blush/contour - these brushes are always a workhorse in my collection. The pointed foundation brush is much smaller than essential foundation brush from the previous set. So you're really not getting any duplicates by buying all the sets.




The final set I have recently gotten is the real Techniques Starter Set. This set contains: a deluxe crease brush, base shadow brush, accent brush, fine liner brush, and brow brush. The names of these brushes are quite self-explanatory, you pack on your base eyeshadow color with the base shadow brush, pop the crease color on with the deluxe crease brush and use the accent brush for your inner corner highlight. You can use the liner brush to put your liquid or gel eyeliner and fill in your brows with the brow brush.

I really believe that if you get all of these brush sets, you would have a fabulous and inexpensive start to a really nice collection. The only addition I would make to the set would be to get the ELF large and small duo-fiber stipple brushes to supplement.




I also have to give an honorable mention and 5 stars to the 2-in-1 Kabuki Brush by Real Techniques because it is absolutely fabulous.  You might be wondering, why is it 2-in-1? Well, it is an angled kabuki brush (great for brush and bronzer) that opens up and turns into a fan brush, perfect for contouring! It snaps back into place very easily because it has a strong magnet. I'm a huge fan, it's perfect for traveling, and I use it *all the time*.

2-in-1 Kabuki Brush

If you're looking for affordable, synthetic, professional quality brushes that don't shed, are color-coded and come in perfect travel sized, convertible stand pouches, then these are for you! The bristles are super soft and flexible and they are so easy to clean!