Monday 18 March 2013

Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman Your Eyes Enhanced Starter Set

 Retailing at £21.99 in Boots, the Real Techniques Your Eyes Enhanced Starter Set has received its fair share of rave reviews from beauty bloggers, and as a girl who can't go out without my signature heavy eyeshadow, I thought this would be a fantastic addition to my kit to revolutionise the way I apply my eyeshadow.

Sadly, I was bitterly disappointed. I'll go through each brush and their intended uses, and explain why they really disappointed me.




The Brow Brush
I absolutely adore this angled brush for filling in my brows, the bristles are fine and close together so I'm not picking up too much product and ending up with pitch black eyebrows!


The Deluxe Crease Brush
This is definitely way too thick to use in the crease, but I like to highlight just under my brows and blend everything with this brush. I'd never use it for blending a shade into the crease though, it's just too wide and sprays eyeshadow everywhere.


The Pixel-Point Eyeliner Brush
My least used brush out of the set, I use liquid eyeliner so this is pretty obsolete. When I tried it with gel liner, it was hard to pick up any product because the bristles are so long they just bend away when pressed against something. I'd prefer an eyeliner brush to be shaped just like the angled brow brush in this kit, not like this.


The Accent Brush
Very useful for highlighting the inner corner of my eyes, I find this is the best eyeshadow brush out of the kit. I can apply colour neatly and cleanly into my crease without powder spraying everywhere, I get a nice defined crease and a lot more control over where I'm applying with this, especially when I want to apply some colour in my waterline.


The Base Shadow Brush
This really has to be the biggest let down for me. It's practically impossible to use this for its intended purpose. Base shadow is about packing a colour on, but you have no flat surface on this brush with which to pack a colour on, so it just sprays my eyeshadow EVERYWHERE instead. Sure, it'd be useful for blending, but it's by no means useful for applying a base like it's intended.

I'm probably the only person that's disappointed with this kit, because I only ever use two out of this kit every day, the brow brush and the deluxe crease brush, but the latter not even for its intended purpose. I'm still using an old brush to pack my base colour on because the base shadow brush here is totally unfit for that purpose, and for this reason I feel I wasted £21.99 on a kit that's not built for its purposes. Yes, Real Techniques do stipulate that you can use the brushes for any other uses, but as I'm an eyeshadow artist, I hoped for a kit full of brushes that would improve my eye looks. In fact, I'm still referring back to my old brushes, and these just lie around unused. It's a shame when the kit cost so much that I'm only using two, but I live and learn!

What are your views on this kit?

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17 comments:

  1. I was disappointed with this kit too, I felt like the brushes just weren't right for the intended use, I know it says they can be used for other things but if a brush tells me it is a "base shadow brush" then it should be able to pack on colour and do the job well, and be a semi-decent crease brush if need be. I find with the one in this kit it's a blending brush and a blending brush only.

    I hardly use this kit, I also think the brushes are far too light in weight and I feel like I could dent the metal easily.

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    1. Definitely, if a brush is supposed to be an eyeliner brush, I'd like to think it actually does the job, but perhaps we're expecting too much of a product? It's such a shame it's cost so much when you barely use it! I know what you mean about denting too, they feel so fragile :/ x

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  2. Wow, I've been after this for ages but I might go for a different kit now - I'd be really disappointed, too, after spending that much money.

    Jesss xo

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    1. Definitely, I wouldn't say it was worth all the pennies by any means, even if you do find alternative uses for them. Hope you find a better set! x

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  3. I see this in Boots and it never really appealed. I have the Real Techniques Core Collection and it's fab but this eye set has brushes I already have or won't use. I looked around and got the Sigma Performance Eyes kit, it's much more what I was looking for in an eye set.

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    1. Ah so you'd recommend the Core Collection? I'm very concerned about handing over the money for that kit regardless of how much I'm lusting after it, purely because this kit was so damn disappointing! I'll have to look into the Sigma ones, thanks for the recommendation! x

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  4. That really sucks that it was a disappointment. At least the brushes have pretty handles? xD. I've been looking at their face brushes (either the kit or just a couple brushes) but I'm not sure given the price.

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    1. Haha considerably pretty handles but not worth the money sadly :( Yeah same here, I'm seriously wary about forking out for the Core Collection now this has really disappointed me :/ x

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  5. I have to say I was disappointed with this as well especially considering how good the core collection is x

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    1. I'm glad I'm not alone in this, I felt I was surrounded by Real Techniques fangirls when I posted this, thanks for reassuring me, I'll have to check out the core collection now though, once I've gained the courage to spend the same amount of money on a risk again :/ x

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  6. I agree! I was really disappointed with the crease, and base brush. They are basically the same brush.. and not defined enough to apply eye makeup! :( xx

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    1. Yeah you're right, they're equally as inaccurate for applying colour :/ It's a real real shame given the price of them :( x

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  7. Thanks for such an honest review - I've been umming and ahhing about what eye brushes to buy. Saw this and thought the brush sizes didn't quite look right for what I would want each one for. I think i'm going to invest in MAC ones and just save up for each one, one by one. xx

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    1. No problem, I can't help but be brutally honest when reviewing things, I've never felt the need to lie about something when readers rely on honesty, just like I do when I read other blogs! It's definitely worth investing in MAC ones, not that I have any myself, but if this is the kind of offerings we get on the high street, perhaps MAC is the way forward! x

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  8. I've always seen the Real Techniques range as over-hyped - a few good things but mostly over-priced for what they are. Here are my *much cheaper) recommendations for eye brushes:

    Crease: E.l.f. Studio contour brush (synthetic) or Model's Own blending 'eyeliner'* brush (pony hair I think). Both similar shape, don't shed, soft, dense small heads. For a more diffuse effect, MUA E2 angled shadow brush (synthetic).

    *I wouldn't use it for eyeliner unless you're smudging.

    Lining: I disagree about thin brushes for this, I use the MUA E4 and the E.l.f. Studio Angled Eyeliner brush for gels and liquids and get great results. For the brush type you prefer, I just got a generic small angled brush off eBay.

    Base shadow - MUA E2, Model's Own eye shading brush, E.l.f. eyeshadow "c" brush.

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    1. Good job I'm not the only one thinking it's overhyped, there's so many RT fangirls out there that kind of push us skeptics into the background! Fantastic recommendations for alternatives, thank you so so much, I've made a note of them all so I have a huuuge wishlist for my first ELF order! Thanks again! xx

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  9. I love Real Techniques brushes. This set is just okay though. I have 2 of the face kit set, I love it so much. That set has pretty much replaced my MAC face brushes it's so good. But with this particular set, I don't use brushes for their intended purposes. Like, at all! Some of these are waaaaaay way too big for my small Asian eyes. I use the eyeliner brush for lip products. And I use the crease brush to apply, and blend in, my concealer. The brow brush is way too soft for how I like to do my brows so I use it for liner. The other two brushes, I love though. Though, I don't use them for their intended purpose either. The base shadow brush is my favorite in this kit but I use it for blending.

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