Essence of Beauty Starter Brush Kit for the Face!

Essence of Beauty Starter Brush Kit

I rarely ever look at the brushes on my weekly trips to CVS, but on a visit, some new packaging for the Essence of Beauty brushes caught my eye. I know this is old news, as they introduced the new packaging mid-2011, but I believe my CVS was pretty late on the bandwagon and haven't stocked any of the newly packaged brushed until recently.

You may be familiar with the older style brushes - a beige handle with a black ferrule (reminiscent of Bobbi Brown brushes). It looks like they might be phasing out that style for a sleeker black brush with silver textured ferrule. Kinda nice if you're particular about having all of your brush handles the same color. I personally prefer black handles.

If you're not familiar with Essence of Beauty, it's basically the Ecotools of CVS - they are affordable and good quality for the price you pay. They range from around $5-$10 each. I only own a couple, and I really dig them.

Anyway, I had a few extra-cash bucks to blow, so I decided to pick up the Starter Brush Kit and give it a whirl.

The Essence of Beauty Starter Kit comes with three brushes (a foundation brush, blush/powder brush, double-sided eye brush) and a small brush roll.What drew my attention to that particular kit, was the small foundation brush. I figured it'd be the perfect size brush to apply my under-eye concealer since it's smaller than a standard foundation brush and much larger than a standard concealer brush.

Essence of Beauty Starter Brush Kit

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 Essence of Beauty Starter Brush Kit

Essence of Beauty Starter Brush Kit

The brush roll closed

The quality seems very good as the brushes are sturdy, and the bristles are soft. I've used the foundation brush for applying concealer under my eyes, around my eyebrows and blemishes and it works very well. For a full-face of foundation, it's a bit too small and I'd imagine would take forever. The powder brush is a great brush for powder blush, as it's a perfect size for the cheeks and has very soft bristles. The eye brush works very well too. (This kit reminds me a lot of the Designer Perfect Kit I purchased at Big Lots a while back, but with sturdier handles)

I like that this little kit is travel friendly and can be tossed in my handbag with no worries of dirtying my lining. It's a kit I'm definitely going to keep in the pocket of my bag just in-case I'll need a touch-up during the day.

 I'm happy with the kit, but there are better Essence of Beauty brushes for the same price. The Kabuki brush (pictured below) is around $10 and is dense, and super-soft and dreamy. A very good brush for buffing in a setting powder. I also think the powder brush is a great buy (also $10) as it has a nice rounded, tapered tip and is very soft - definitely one of the softer brushes in the selection.

Every now and then they have sales on Essence of Beauty, so I'm going to keep my eye out so I can try a couple more!

For the full brush selection, you can view them in the CVS Catalog here. (no affiliation)

Have any bargain brushes you'd recommend?