Review | Real Techniques Sam’s Picks LIMITED EDITION set = BEST BRUSH SET EVER!

Hello again! Feels like an age since I sat down to write a blog post, but thankfully with the assignment deadlines and exams over (for this month) and a splendid three week holiday from University I am able to share with you guys some fantastic bits and bobs I’ve picked up recently.

I thought I’d start with one of the best  bargains I’ve picked up, and something  every girl should own (in my humble opinion). I also think this would make the PERFECT gift for any girl who wears makeup, whether once in a blue moon or every single day because it’ has you covered for everything! When I first saw this, I couldn’t believe my eyes and knew it had to be mine as soon as possible. Now luckily enough around the time that I got into makeup, Sam (from Pixiwoo on YouTube) and her brilliant ‘Real Techniques’ brushes were fairly popular around YouTube, so I didn’t have to waste a crazy amount of monies on MAC, Sigma, and the rest of them. At the same time I didn’t have to buy a lot of cheaper, poop quality brushes either, I bought my set of RT brushes and haven’t really looked back!

In terms of pricing, these brushes are cheaper than the high end ones, but if you wanted to get a whole kit it would still be pretty hefty for a student budget. So I did my research and purchased my brushes from iherb.com which is a US site that ships to a tonne of countries worldwide. The shipping is fairly cheap ($4 per order) and of course the brushes are such great value! The core collection for example would cost you around £21 to buy here in the UK but only around £11 to buy from this site! The catch was however that if your package’s contents costs more than £15 you were likely to get charged  customs import tax. Essentially you wouldn’t be able to pick up your parcels till you’d paid the tax. So me being the money saving, bargain loving human being that I am decided to plan this out and purchase 3 parcels and split up my brushes making sure that I didn’t go beyond the limit, so I’d recommend you do the same if you plan to order from them, and don’t forget to use the voucher code – LCD104  to get $5 off your first order!! (every little helps ;D)

However if you would like to order from a reliable UK site then I would suggest you purchase it from here – a site which offers free worldwide delivery over £10! (currently)
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ANYWAYS onto THIS fantastic set, first off I purchased it from Amazon, because even with the American savings it would still cost me over £15 and p&p and then probably TAX so I thought it was better off just buying from here. Furthermore it contains 4 brushes I desperately wanted, and the other two aren’t half bad either! So this set contains all of Sam’s personal favourites and it is actually limited edition. It came in this plastic box (apologies for the bad photo) and the brushes are held pretty firmly in place. The RT system is that if its a yellow/gold handle it’s a base brush, if it’s a pink handle its a finishing brush and if it’s a purple handle its an eye brush. This set contains two of each, including a brush that’s brand new and very much needed essential crease brush (something the eye’s set should have had!)

I’m going to run through each brush separately, if you already own them then feel free to skip ahead to the next review 🙂

So starting with the multi-task brush one that is unfortunately not sold separately and only available in the travel essentials kit (something I didn’t want to purchase but was strongly considering it for the sake of this very brush!) It is definitely one that should be sold separately! I was so so pleased to see that this was included in the kit. It is less dense than the buffing brush, so more fluffy and the head is larger too. I ADORE this for blusher, I find it is perfect for adding some colour too the checks but not overdoing (something which is easily done with the actual RT blusher brush). It is also great for a lazy/natural contour. What I love about this brush and a few of the other RT brushes are, the barrel isn’t fully rounded, instead its almost squashed just before the head so there are multiple uses for the brush as it becomes flat as well as being round and fluffy. It most definitely is a travel essential as one could easily do everything powder related with this little guy and achieve a flawless finish for each use! I am SOO impressed with it, I only wish you could purchase these separately because I would have more than one in my collection. rating: 5/5

Moving onto the setting brush this is one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITES. I picked this up from iherb months ago, but it was only when I purchased the Ben Nye Banana Powder (review here) that I started to use it, and boy was I impressed. Alot of people use a damp sponge to set their concealer with that powder, but for me this method was too cakey and uneven (not to mention a total faff). This brush however is perfect in size and shape for setting the undereye area. It’s extremely soft, as are ALL RT brushes, and very light. The bristles aren’t in the slightest dense so patting a dusting of powder on is done effortlessly, and this saves me so much time in the morning. People often use this for blending concealer out as well, because it does a great job due to its size. I was actually going to purchase another of these from the UK (they’re around the £6/7 mark) for highlighting  because it’s again a perfect brush for distributing highlight across the face evenly and not packing it on! I used the same brush from both setting and highlighting for months, so I’m over the moon now I’ve got a second one now which will be my designated highlighter. Its a little one, but I’ve been totally stunned by how useful it is! rating 5/5

Next up, this brush needs little introducing..it’s the well known buffing brush and probably the most raved about RT brush out there. In short, it has a lovely shape to it, with medium-high density bristles that are as soft as a baby’s bottom. It makes blending foundation, tinted moisturiser, powder, cream products, pretty much ANY product a total dream. Some people prefer the expert face brush which has a smaller head and denser bristles..I would say personally the buffing brush gets more use from me because I like the coverage I can achieve from this brush. If I want more coverage I will go with the expert face brush, but they’re both fantastic foundation brushes to be fair. I was again going to purchase another core collection kit for this and the contour brush (which sadly isn’t included in here) so that I wouldn’t have to use the same brush for the majority of the week (hygienically it’s not the best for your skin, and I don’t have time to wash them more than once a week). So I’m mighty pleased the buffing brush is in Sam’s picks! Rating 5/5

The Pointed Foundation Brush is next in the line, and it is available as part of the core collection. Personally I’ve never used a flat foundation brush for my base, simply because buffing it in with a round and fluffy brush is quick, and more flawless looking. However this brush is still made with exceptional quality and it is super soft. Admitably it is probably one of my least used RT brushes, but it’s fab for blending in concealer around tricky areas like the nose, or if on a night out you wanted to do a Kim K highlighter style look this would be the perfect tool to help create that. Useful when needed, but not a necessity brush for me. Rating 3/5

Next is the essential crease brush one that looks typical of a blending brush, with its tapered head. I love this brush, not quite as much as my MAC 217 (but which eye brush could come close to that anyways eh?)  but it is a fabulous cheaper blending brush. What I’m particularly happy about with this fellow is how small it is, so perfect for blending out the crease, or any part of the eye as the tapered point makes it easier to do detailed work. It is a set exclusive, and already one of my favourite RT eye brushes ever. The only reason I’ve knocked half a point off of this is because it should have been part of the Eye’s kit which was really lacking a blending brush…but hey we got there in the end. Rating: 4.5/5

Finally we have the fine liner brush which I’m really excited to try out! This AGAIN should have been included in the eye kit in my opinion, purely because the liner brush that was given is so thick in size it’s extremely difficult to do an everyday winged liner with such a large brush. This brush on the other hand is very thin in size, and has fine short hairs. It looks amazing, but as I’ve not tried it just yet I can’t comment or rate it. This is available to buy alone, but its pretty expensive! It’s £6.99 and as much as I love RT I couldn’t justify that much for a little liner brush, so this was for sure one of the reasons why I picked up this UNMISSABLE SET.

Honestly guys I couldn’t rave about this more if I tried! It is BY FAR the best brush kit RT have released and the fact that it is limited edition just makes it even more unmissable. You get 6 fantastic quality brushes, for cheaper than if you bought them individually/in their sets. For a beginner in makeup to the pros, this is truly an amazing present. You have everything you need to do your makeup to a professional standard and I really believe using brushes not only speeds the makeup process up and is more hygienic, but gives you better results too. All RT brushes are made from synthetic hair, so they’re cruelty free and I’ve had these brushes for almost a year and haven’t experienced shedding from a single one. They are easy to wash and dry quickly, they’re colourful and quirky and I don’t know what I would do without my little RT brush family! Need I say these are HGs?? They are worth all the hype in my opinion! And this set is such a steal. I bought mine from Amazon from THIS LINK and having just clicked on it they’re £5 cheaper than when I picked them up! (darn it!)

So lovelies order this before it’s too late, it is without a doubt one of my best purchases this whole year!