Sunday, February 13, 2011

Illamasqua Eye Brow Brush

Click the pics for a closer look

If you've been reading this blog for more than five minutes you will know that I constantly bemoan the state of my eyebrows - they're trashed after many years of plucking them too thinly in the 90s. They were never that hairy to begin with either. I am always trying to regrow them and get them properly shaped, but each time I attempt it hijinks ensue and it falls in a heap. The most galling thing is that I am obsessed with perfect eyebrows; they are the first thing I notice about people, and I have been known to take a particular liking or disliking to celebrities based purely on their eyebrows.



Therefore, I'm always searching for that Holy Grail product that will make my eyebrows look - if not perfect - decent. I have dozens of pencils, powders, waxes, and so on. I also bought a MAC #266 brush specifically for my eyebrows. I was annoyed to find this was too soft to give the really precise line I wanted.

A while back I was watching one of camiloveskiwi's videos and she gave the Illamasqua Eye Brow Brush a bit of a rave, saying it was very precise and had firm bristles and a fine width (or words to that effect).

I have to admit that I've been avoiding Illamasqua - it's pretty enough but it doesn't really excite me, and it looks like it would be horrifically expensive here in Australia. I can't really tell you whether it is, because there's no store in Adelaide (coming soon, I hear) and they don't have an Australian website. However, this brush sounded like it was exactly what I have been wanting, so I bit the bullet and ordered one from the UK website. It was £18.50, about $30AUD, so it's expensive but not quite as expensive as MAC. For comparison, the MAC #266 is $39 here. Although I also had to pay for shipping, which I think was £8.00 ($12AUD), so I didn't really come out ahead on that. (I threw in an eyeshadow just to make the shipping a bit more worthwhile.)


The Illamasqua brush is a fair bit bigger than a #266, which is pretty teeny. The handle is a bit longer as well, which is probably my only complaint about it. I do my eyebrows with a hand held mirror, and the handle is so long it's hard to get close enough to the mirror to see what I'm doing properly. I don't know why cosmetic companies insist on these really long handles - Sigma does it too.

Aside from that little moan, I FREAKING LOVE THIS BRUSH. It's firm enough to get a nice, precise line, and it applies powder like a dream. When I first ordered it I was a bit peeved at the price I had to pay to get my mitts on it, but now that I've used it, I don't regret coughing up at all. In fact, I want to try more Illamasqua brushes.

This is just some dried up old gel liner, but you can see the difference in the lines anyway - the left swatch was done with a MAC #266, the right with the Illamasqua Eye Brow Brush. It's a much finer, sharper line.

I can't speak highly enough of this brush, it's just about my favourite thing that I own at the moment.

Agent Dale Cooper gives the Illamasqua Eye Brow Brush the thumbs up.

3 comments:

  1. This sounds great! I'm only just getting into Illamasqua myself and so far, I like! Everything seems really well thought out and high quality. You can also order Illamasqua from BeautyBay.com in England, and the prices are a bit cheaper than the Illamasqua website :)

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  2. oh good lord we're alike LOL I have the same problem with my eyebrows, have bought countless products and I'm always on the look out for the next best thing. I watched this youtube video raving about the illamasqua brow cake. I checked out sephora but they didn't have a color I thought would match me so I too ended up ordering from the UK site, ouch ! I have to say, I love it, can be used wet or dry and it stays forever. I use the Anastasia eyebrow brush though and it works great

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  3. Sarah, I agree that it all seems very high quality - the eyeshadow I bought with this is lovely. I'll have to check out what Beauty Bay has, thanks for the tip. :-)

    Sue, I sympathise with your eyebrow issues, but I'm glad I'm not the only person who has to deal with it! (That sounds mean, lol.) I've heard lots of good things about the Anastasia eyebrow products; I'm curious to check them out some time.

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