Make Up Brushes - Crown?

[MissFoodie]

Am in need of some new face powder brushes, currently use Bare Minerals brushes.
Has anyone tried/used Crown?
Or any other recommendations, but NOT: Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier or Mac pls!
Thx!

bump - watching with interest!

I have some Crown brushes that I bought at IMATS a few years ago. Some of them I really like and some I'm not so keen on so it's hard for me to give an opinion.

I do, however really like Royal & Langnickel's Pro Silk brushes. I use them a lot for work and some of them are much better than MAC equivalents that I have in my kit. You can get them on Amazon. Some of the sets are an amazing bargain. Particularly the 20 brush set for £45 which in amazing bargain, containing pretty much every brush you need. The quality of the brushes is fantastic too.

www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dbeauty&field-keywords=pro+silk&x=0&y=0

oooh great thanks!
which of the Crown would you recommend? and which of the R&L?
Am looking for an angled blusher/powder brush and a large brush for pressed powder/loose powder

Hmmm, to be honest, the Crown brushes I bought years ago and some have since been lost (an occupational hazard, unfortunately) so I couldn't tell you which ones they were.

This one is nice for contouring

www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Langnickel-Applying-Bronzer-Contour/dp/B002USC96I/ref=sr_1_20?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1323126836&sr=1-20

This one for powder

www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Langnickel-Gently-Pointed-Blush/dp/B002USC968/ref=sr_1_36?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1323126987&sr=1-36

Or this one

www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Langnickel-Applying-Powder-Brush/dp/B002USC95Y/ref=sr_1_63?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1323127051&sr=1-63

Depending on how much coverage I want. The larger one is more 'floppy' so will put the powder on more sheer. I do quite like the smaller head on the blusher brush for getting around the eye and nose area though with powder and it would give you more coverage due to the density of the hairs.

There are some Smashbox brushes on half price sale on www.justbeautydirect.co.uk - I have the big powder brush and the blush brush and they are nice.

Best foundation brush IMO is the Royal one from amazon - if you search 'Royal foundation brush' it comes up - costs about £3 and is WAY better than the MAC 190 brush that I paid £26.50 for.

Also very much like the Makeup Geek foundation stippling brush, which is about $15 plus shipping ($6 last time I ordered from there - I got this brush and one other small thing). It's amazing for giving foundation an 'airbrushed' finish, and for buffing in powder.

Ok, so 1 large powder and 1 contouring are about £24, or there are these sets, questions is, are the other brushes in the sets worth it? or am I never going to use them and should just buy the 2?

www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-Langnickel-20-Piece-Cosmetic-Brush/dp/B002USCBQG/ref=sr_1_1?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1323127874&sr=1-1

also, I need a new brow brush, so is the one included in the above set any good?

I think they've changed the set a little since I got mine as I don't have the brow brush. There are some great eye brushes in there though, their equivalent of the MAC 224 is so much better than MAC's. The flat eyeliner/definer brush is also excellent.

ok so as I need 3 brushes (powder, angled and brow) would you go for the silk kit? or get a mix of silk and Crown?

Personally, I'd go for the Pro Silk set. 20 great quality brushes for £45 is an amazing bargain. If you get a mix of brushes you will end up spending close to that on 3-4 brushes. I am not familiar enough with Crown brushes to recommend anything with great conviction. They may have upped their quality since I bought the ones I had, which must've been about 7 or 8 years ago but I'd say the R&L brushes a better quality.

That said, I can't tell you anything about the R&L brow brush so it's really up to you. I tend to use the MAC 266 for brows on clients but like a smaller one for myself. The one I use is one I bought in the States about 10 years ago so I can't tell you much about that one either I'm afraid!

ok many thanks, will treat myself to the 20 set for xmas!
:)

ps what brush do you find the best for baked pressed powder? I tried today with a bare minerals and found you really have to rub hard to get any product on to the brush?

I went to get a new brush for face powder today and was going to the get this from the Body Shop, but I saw they had a good set for £25 including that face brush which would have been £16 on its own + concealer/lip brush, eyeshadow brush, brow brush/lash comb and a brush roll. I had a voucher for £10 off when you spend £25 so with that and love your body card it made it such a bargain. Strangely this brush set it not on the website though! I do recommend Body Shop brushes. I have been using the foundation one for a long time and really like it.

MissFoodie I'd probably recommend one of the R&L Kabuki brushes for a baked or mineral powder, which isn't in that set. You need something quite compact and dense. The contour brush would probably be ok but you will already be using that by the sound of things. I have a set of the 3 kabuki brushes and they are really nice. If you're not looking for a highly buffed full coverage though the powder brush in that set is lovely.

The Body Shop looks a bit blunt cut for my liking. You would get a much better finish with brushes that have tapered hairs. The brushes in the R&L sets are all hand laid so they are shaped whilst the individual hairs all taper rather than being cut into shape.

thanks for that, can't see any R&L kabuki brushes though?

You can buy them on here

www.facetime.co.uk/shop.php?catid=20

I'd recommend the synthetic dome one in small or medium.