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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Mini Coastal Scents Haul featuring MAC 217 dupes




Coastal Scents had a quick sale on my favorite brush. If you read this blog, you know it well, its the Pro Blending Fluff, which is an excellent MAC 217 dupe. You can read my initial review here and check out my video about affordable eye brushes here. If you follow me on Twitter then you probably saw my tweet alerting people of the sale. The brush was 45 percent off! That made it $2.72. (The sale is still going on until 8/10/12 at 3 p.m. EST) Amazing. I picked up two more, and a couple of other items I've been wanting to pick up.

I paid less than $20 for these items, shipping and tax included. 

Coastal Scents Brush Purifier $4.95 (8 oz.)

One of the first items I wanted to try out was their brush cleanser, which is supposed to condition and sanitize your brushes. I followed the instructions on the back of the box which tell you to add solution to a cup and soak brush bristles for 15-20 minutes (depending on how dirty your brushes are) to loosen up product. I didn't wait that long. But what I did find is that I used a lot of product (it went from a full bottle to the top of the black label) to clean my brushes. Granted, I cleaned a lot of brushes, but still, I used what I felt was a lot. It could be user error, so I'll try a lighter hand next time. 

What I did notice, and this big in my opinion, was that it got my beauty sponges super clean. As in, they look new. The closest I'd gotten to squeaky clean was by using Dawn dish soap on my beauty blender dupes, which only left a few tiny spots of stubborn concealer behind. But after I used this cleanser it was all gone. My SOHO beauty sponge was bright pink again! That alone makes it worth it to me. So I'll be trying to see if I can manage to use less of it when I clean my brushes so I don't blow through this as quickly. 

One note, don't use too much on your sponges. I was squeezing out product for what seemed like forever!


I also picked up two eyeliner brushes in addition to my blending brushes. One is a small angled liner brush and the density super fine eyeliner brush. Each was only $1.95. I almost got the classic angled liner brush, which looks just like my angled Sonia Kashuk eyeliner brush, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not doing it. I'm forever cleaning my Sonia Kashuk brush. Oh well, I wanted to try out the small angled liner so that I could see if I could do better at drawing on a thinner line than I do with a regular angled liner brush. Same goes with the super fine liner brush. Below is a closer photo of the brushes. 


I was rather excited to see that this batch of the pro blending fluff is even more similar to the MAC 217 than the first ones I bought. As I mentioned in my video and my review, the first Coastal Scents brushes I got were a bit pointier and just a tad flatter. This made it easier to get into the crease and draw a more defined outer V, pack on color, all while still blending colors out just as well as my 217. 

The newer ones have a bit more of a rounded top and are just as fluffy (maybe just a bit more so) than my 217. Below is a photo of my MAC 217 in between the Coastal Scents version and another photo close up.

New Coastal Scents Pro Blending Fluff (left), MAC 217 (center), Old Coastal Scents Blending Fluff (right)

New Coastal Scents Blending brush (left), MAC 217 (center), Old Coastal Scents Blending brush (right)
I also wanted you all to see how the other two brushes compare to brushes in my collection. The photo below shows just how much smaller and thinner the angled liner brush is compared to a regular angled brush from Studio Tools. It's a bit flimsier, but I'm thinking its so small, it's going to be great for getting gel liner right up against the lash line. 



The density super fine liner brush took me a bit by surprise. I was expecting it to be really slim, and as you can see form the photo below, the bristles are a bit thicker than my Sonia Kashuk bent liner brush. This makes me a bit nervous. I got it hoping to draw super slim lines, not sure how good it will be at that. But, here's hoping. I can't be sure until I try it. 




This should give you a few other inexpensive brush alternatives to choose from if you are in the market. I totally recommend the pro blending fluff and at 45 percent off, you simply can't beat it. Will you be giving it a try? If you have a beauty blender type sponge, are you curious about the Coastal Scents cleanser?



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