I'm so slowwww!! I've had these brushes for a couple of weeks now but as always, I am late in posting the haul. If some of you don't know the concept of
Lumiere's Pre-Buy, here's how it works: Lumiere was selling these brushes at a very steep discount for a limited time. The downside is that you had to wait a couple of months or more for these to arrive at your doorstep, but for some, it's worth the wait, and the dirt-cheap price can't be beat.
Originally, these duo fiber angled blush brushes are I think $22 each and the long-handled kabukis are $19 each, but they were sold for only $6 each if I am not mistaken. The pre-buy season is now over, but Lumiere is now having a 30% off sale (code: GREEN) to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Here were my lovely Lumiere pre-buy brushes I got in 2009 and 2008:
As you can see, the brushes I got in the previous years looked much nicer than their 2010 counterparts. I liked the black and white hairs a lot more than the pink and brown. However, the angled duo fiber brushes are still heavenly and they are still amazing as mineral blush brushes and glow/highlighter applicators. Below are excerpts from previous entries explaining why these angled duo fiber brushes work great with mineral blushes and glows:
As for the angled duo-fibre brush, this is a holy grail product for me. Lumiere is the only company that manufactures an angled duo fibre brush. This is one of the best brushes to apply mineral blushes, mineralize skinfinishes or glows, and pigmented blushes or bronzers because it applies the softest whisper of color to the skin to give a lit-from-within effect. The hairs give the slightest sheen of glow to prevent the discoball look, and the delicate application also prevents clown cheeks. The angled head makes it easy to apply the product exactly where you want it, which prevents the glow, contour or blush product from getting all over the cheek area. If you want an angled blush or bronzer on the cheeks, this angled duo fibre easily gives a beautiful contoured look. It's like the MAC 187 with capacity to give an angled, precise application.
Anyways, I LOVE everything! I love my super duper soft synthetic flat top, long-handled kabukis (which I prefer to the short-handled ones because of their denser head), and the beautiful ANGLED duo-fibre brushes. I tried it tonight and I love the result. Think MAC 187 but with a more precise application because of the angled slant, so it just doesn't apply product via the shot-gun method (i.e., all over the place), but application is just precisely where you want it to be. The short and long hairs also allow the application to go on smoothly, sheerly, in order to deposit just a whisper of color to produce a glow-from-within effect. Goodbye clown cheeks! I'm so glad I got two of these, I will enjoy applying my mineral and non-mineral blushes, bronzers and skinfinishes with these awesome products.
As for the new long-handled kabuki brushes, though, I am disappointed with these. They are not as dense as the old ones from Lumiere. The head is not full and a little splayed - it operates more like a mini powder brush than a kabuki brush for me. I have not tried it yet with my mineral foundation, but I love a dense, full head of hair on my kabuki. This is definitely not as dense as I want my mineral foundation applicator to be. I will try it and will update this blog.
All in all, I am disappointed with my 2010 Pre-buy. The angled duo fiber is still the same in quality, but I just didn't like the new color. The long-handled kabuki brushes are less dense and really not my type. I will still be using them, though, but the earlier ones are my favorites.
