Beautyblender Detailers makeup brushes review, usage and photos

My Beauty Junction is the first to try out the Detailers eye and makeup brush set from the Beautyblender. As you have seen in the teasers and preview, the Detailers brushes are six in number and all of them are cruelty-free.

The bristles are synthetic and the handles look like light aluminium and the ferrules like plastic, I think - yes, that's the extent of my ignorance about these things. Each brush measures 5'' in length - just right for the natural curve of the palm. The bristles are pure white in colour and the ferrule is a pale blueish grey. The handles are also white.
I have been using no other applicators but the Detailers brush set and the Original Beautyblender Pro, reviewed here, for a whole month now, and it is time to share my findings. Each of these brushes deserves a separate review, but I wanted to showcase the whole set at once, so it is a rather long post.

Here is the detailed review along with usage tips for each of the six Beautyblender Detailers makeup brushes.

A quick background first. The Detailers brushes are specially curated makeup applicators designed by Hollywood makeup artist, Rea Ann Silva, who is also the brain behind the amazing Beautyblender. Silva relied upon her experience and came up with the brushes that she herself found most useful while applying makeup on her celebrity clients. And those very same brushes are now available to us all.

Plush brush by the Beautyblender

The largest brush in the Detailers set is the Plush Brush - you can use it for powder and blush (and bronzer and highlighter, of course). If your Dad, like mine, used shaving brushes and Gillette razors rather than electric shavers (despite owning three), you must have loved pretending to rub the soft shaving brush all over your face - okay, so I'm weird; it's a mercy he hid the razors. The plush brush reminds me of those shaving brushes. Fluffy, very, very soft, dense, and taking a round shape when you press it down, just like Dad's shaving brush.

 Have a go at that cute Beautyblender charm at the end of the Plush Brush! I wish they would sell it as a keyring!

The head of the plush brush is meant to mimic the shape of the Beautyblender, so as to get around the curves of your face, just like that wonderful sponge.

Apart from being THE best brush I've ever used for touch-ups and for setting powder post-foundation, I can tell you that this brush comes in handy for dusting off fall-out, post-eyeshadow.

I will be doing a detailed comparison with famous blush brushes so that I can prove beyond doubt that the Detailers Plush Brush knocks the RT blush brush into the middle of oblivion. And I'm willing to swear that under oath. Here are pictures of the Plush Brush before and after application of Lancome Blush Subtil.

Why, you ask? Because the Plush Brush is a lot denser, picks up pigment faster and more easily and DEPOSITS more pigment instead of retaining it, and is a lot easier to clean. There is far less space between bristles and ferrule than in the RT brushes.

Argh, I just gave away the entire contents of the comparison post I had planned!

Cleaning the Plush Brush

I've been using Johnson's Baby Shampoo. And once you do the cleaning and rinsing, all the bristles clump together as one unit, just like Dad's old shaving brushes - whereas the bristles clump together in groups for other brushes. I find that less water gets into the ferrule in the former case. You can see the difference and the clumping here.

Detailers Chisel Brush from the Beautyblender

This is my favourite brush from this set. HOW did I live without it for so long? I'm dumping all those eyeshadow/lid/shader brushes I've hoarded and want two more of these, one for travel and one in anticipation of war. The Chisel brush is the right size for me and my eyes are rather small and inconspicuous on my face (snub nose, gargantuan ears, wonky tooth...).

First of all, the chisel brush is cut at an angle, with no symmetry. This means you can use this brush in three ways. I'm talking about the eyes alone, and not concealer.

With the flat angled surface, you can pick up shadow for the lid. Oh, and the brush-head isn't dirty or grey or yellow; I've done a bit of experimenting with lighting so you can actually see the bristles. They're pure white.

With the longer edge, you can pick up a highlighter for the inner corners.

Or, you can pick a darker colour for the crease with the longer edge.

I've tried all three and it works brilliantly. But because there is already a nice blending brush in this set, I love using the flat angled surface for packing colour on the eyelid, as you can see, and pick up highlighter for the inner corners with the taller edge of the brush.

I've tried using concealer with this brush and it is far more effective in blending out cream or liquid concealer than my previous concealer brush (the Real Techniques Deluxe Crease Brush from the Eye Starter Set). But since I love this brush for shadows so much, I would rather keep it for that purpose until I can pick up a couple more.

One more thing - the colours won't mix on the brush until you blend them on the eyelid. For some reason, I find that you can get two colours at the same time on this brush and they won't mix.

Cleaning the Chisel Brush

Being equally dense and soft as the Plush Brush, the Chisel Brush cleans up easily with a drop of Johnson's Baby Shampoo - maybe a tad more tough to get all the eyeshadow pigment off, than skin-coloured foundation, that's all.

Detailers Soft Touch Brush

Think a softer, yet equally firm version of M.A.C. 217. That's the Soft Touch Brush. It is very dense and there is no gap between the bristles and the ferrule.

Needless to say, I use it for the crease - to blend out a darker eyeshadow. It's just the right size for fitting into my crease socket and feels very soft.

It picks up colour very well in just one swipe - take a look!

Cleaning this brush is a breeze, no need to muck around.
Now, you can also use this brush for highlighting, but I've never done so, and therefore I can't talk about it.

Detailers Sketcher Brush

I love angled liner brushes. And the Sketcher brush is. The. Dang. Best. One. I've. Ever. Tried. I get very good colour pick-up with just one sweep over the palette and the colour is deposited equally well in one sweep over the upper lashline.

 And, like the other brushes, the Sketcher is also easy to clean with a drop of Johnson's Baby Shampoo.

Detailers Lip Brush

I haven't used this brush for lipstick - I use it to apply Time Balm concealer. I have a feeling the Chisel brush will be a tad better for applying concealer but I'm having a lot of fun using it for eyeshadow.

Detailers Brow Brush

I tend to skive off brow gel since I began growing out my eyebrows - any darker and they would be visible from the moon! So I use the Brow Brush to separate my lashes after applying mascara, or brush out clumps. 

Storage: I pop them into the Beautyblender's plastic case, or into a brush pouch from Bourjois, now that I'm travelling.

The Beautyblender Detailers brush set will launch in January 2014 and can be bought from beautyblender.net for $75. This is an incredibly reasonable price at $12.50 per high-quality brush. Even the 217 (of which the Detailers Soft Touch Brush is a superior version) costs $24 by itself. You can also get a limited edition Holiday Set including the Detailers brushes, the Original Pink Beautyblender, the Solid Blender Cleanser and a bangle and a mesh pouch for $129, wherever Beautyblender products are sold.

Bottomline: You need the Beautyblender Detailers brush set. Everybody does. They're the best eye brushes I've seen (and I've played around with some 30 brush-brands until now). That's all I have to say!

 PR Sample