Real Techniques Brush Crush Volume II Review

Real Techniques Brush Crush Collection

There isn’t brush brand out there that excites me outside of Real Techniques – I swear! Brushes, by and large, are tools and therefore not really that interesting to me… except when Real Techniques puts out a new brush range, be it shapes, or differently coloured handles… well… I actually get a little bit excited!

Real Techniques Brush Crush Collection
Real Techniques Brush Crush Collection

Within the Brush Crush Volume II Collection you’re getting four brushes and a sponge duo. The handles on the brushes have the appearance of frosted snow on a windshield, and the handle on the brushes are twisted for a little extra touch.

I tend to use my brushes not quite as they’re labeled – so for me the flat-angle foundation brush made a great stamping and blending tool for blush. And I used the blush brush more as a highlighter brush. The larger powder brush was great for applying all over face powder, but I found it to be a touch too floppy for precise application like blush. The eyeshadow brush is similar to all of the other RT blending brushes I have, which is to say it’s wonderful! I have about four or five of these in constant rotation in my daily routine, so I’m always happy to add another one into the mix.

Close up detail of the marbling in the sponge
Close up detail of the marbling in the sponge

The sponge duo set are absolutely beautiful to look at – I love, love, LOVE the marbling on them. I found the texture to be identical to my beloved Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, but the shape made it a little bit more awkward to hold in my hand. Overall, I like the appearance of the rounded sponge, and it does apply foundation the exact same way as my regular sponge, but the shape isn’t necessarily right for me. That being said, I’ll be using the sponges up I feel like they need to replaced, so they’re definitely a good product!

Close up of the cracked ice/snow on a windshield look of the brush handles.
Close up of the cracked ice/snow on a windshield look of the brush handles.

I really can’t get over just how beautiful the brush handles are though! That cracked ice appearance is one of my most favourite things I’ve ever seen in a makeup product, and I’m so happy to have a set of brushes that have that design on them.

Your best bet for finding the Brush Crush Volume II range is at Walmart.ca – I can see the entire range is still available online.

And now… on to the giveaway!

Real Techniques Brush Crush Set Giveaway

Giveaway Rules

  • This giveaway is open to Canada only!
  • This giveaway starts on December 21, 2018 and runs for one week.
  • One winner will receive the Real Techniques Brush Crush Volume II – brushes (4) and sponge duo.
  • Please be aware that all entries will be double checked to ensure fairness.
  • Once the winner has been contacted, they will have 48 hours to provide me with their mailing address. If the winner fails to respond within that time frame, I will pick another winner. (And so on.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration, and the prize pack is provided by the PR team.

SocialEyes Lashes – Vegan Fake Lashes (Review)

SocialEyes Lashes

If you’re looking for a massive array of fake lashes that are vegan, cruelty-free (no animal parts to be found here!), with a price tag under $9 (most of them are much lower) AND run by a Canadian YouTuber… well you’ve found it – and the brand is called SocialEyes!

SocialEyes Lashes - Vegan False Lashes
SocialEyes Lashes – Vegan False Lashes

Karissa Pukas started SocialEyes in 2014 when she couldn’t find affordable, well-crafted fake lashes. So, she set out to create them! And holy smokes… did she ever… if you visit the SocialEyes site, you’ll be absolutely inundated with options. You want small, flirty lashes for a little extra boost? You got it. You want hugely full lashes for a big night out? You got it. And there’s everything in between too!

SocialEyes accessories - tweezers and glue
SocialEyes accessories – tweezers and glue

Not to mention, SocialEyes also makes lash glue and lash tweezers which can help you with your application if you’re not a fan of using regular tweezers. I found the lash glue to be exceptionally good – it’s completely on par with my beloved House of Lashes glue, so I was really pleased about that. The lash tweezers I actually found to be useless to me in terms of applying the lashes to my eyes, and that may be because I’m used to using regular tweezers. I ended up using the lash tweezers to clamp the fake lashes to my real lashes after I’d applied them and I felt like that really helped to meld my lashes to the falsies – more of a seamless look, you know?

I was sent a massive array of lashes, so I wasn’t able to try out every single one of them for this post, but I did try out four different styles that I felt suited my style the best.

Wearing SocialEyes - Lady
Wearing SocialEyes – Lady

The Lady lashes have an invisible band with a series of lashes clumped together in sections. I like the band because it’s translucent and also quite flexible. It doesn’t have the MOST amount of flex I’ve seen in a band, but it’s good enough to wrap around the curve of your eye without worrying about the ends pinging off.

Wearing Wearing SocialEyes - Foxy
Wearing Wearing SocialEyes – Foxy

Foxy was probably my favourite pair that I tried because they’re my preferred lash style – quite fluffy, but not super long.

Wearing Wearing SocialEyes - Glamorous Shortie
Wearing Wearing SocialEyes – Glamorous Shorty

What’s nice about SocialEyes is they actually make “shorty” sizes for some of their styles. I’m wearing the Glamorous Shorty styles about, but if you like something a little bit longer, you can just pick up the Glamorous style.

Wearing Wearing SocialEyes - Lush
Wearing Wearing SocialEyes – Lush

While the band on most of the lashes is quite transparent, there are a few that have a slightly milky-white texture that makes hiding the band a bit more difficult. While I liked the style Lush (above), I would this one to have the most difficult band to cover, even when I applied liquid liner on top of the eye lash. You can see a hint of the white-ish band sticking out. I was able to mostly cover it with liquid liner, but it does stick out on areas I missed. Out of the four I tried, this was the only one that I had an issue with the colour of the band.

Final Thoughts

Well I’m dead pleased with these! I knew basically nothing about SocialEyes lashes before the PR team reached out to me to try some out, and now I’m sold. These are affordable and well made lashes. I love the lash glue, and the tweezers work well to meld my lashes to the falsies. I like that the price point doesn’t break the $10 mark and that most styles are under that price point by several dollars. And the variety of styles? Unreal. Their web site has more than you could ever hope for!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.

Swatch Sunday: Tarte Tartelette

Tarte Tartelette

The original Tartelette palette! I feel like this one by Tarte doesn’t anywhere near the same amount of attention as the Tartelette in Bloom palette, but it was definitely the original that started the “Tartelette” theme for Tarte!

Tarte Tartelette
Tarte Tartelette

The Tarte Tartelette palette has twelve matte shades that are both cool and warm, but I do find it leans slightly more on the warm side of things overall.

Tarte Tartelette
Tarte Tartelette

Tarte Tartelette Swatches

Tarte - Free Spirit
Tarte – Free Spirit
Tarte - Force of Nature
Tarte – Force of Nature
Tarte - Dreamer
Tarte – Dreamer
Tarte - Multi-tasker
Tarte – Multi-tasker
Tarte - Caregiver
Tarte – Caregiver
Tarte - Natural Beauty
Tarte – Natural Beauty
Tarte - Best Friend
Tarte – Best Friend
Tarte - Bombshell
Tarte – Bombshell
Tarte - Super Mom
Tarte – Super Mom
Tarte - Wanderer
Tarte – Wanderer
Tarte - Power Player
Tarte – Power Player
Tarte - Fashionista
Tarte – Fashionista

The Tarte Tartelette palette can be purchased at sephora.ca for $49 CAD or on sephora.com for $39 USD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.