The Vintage Cosmetic Company floral brush roll pouch and real techniques core collection

When I was in London and Scotland, one of my goals was to find products that I couldn't find in Belgium. If there is one thing that is really hard to find in Belgium is good quality affordable brushes and accessories. I knew I would pick up the core set from real techniques (I did three boots to find it, all on the infamous Oxford street), but I was pleasantly surprised by the brush roll.

The Vintage Company floral brush roll

The vintage flower design brush roll has a plastic finish. It's a pretty traditional brush roll that is foldable in three. You can put 12 brushes (or pencil) and it has a little zipped pouch. I find it good to carry my cotton pads. You can buy it on Boots international that ships in most European country and retails for 10 pounds.

As you can see the elastic size are made for standard handle here shown with some mac, quo, sephora, ecotools and illamasqua brushes (that I will review soon because they are quite unique). It won't fit those big real technique face brushes handles. Overall this is all I can hope for in a brush roll and I love how cute it is.

Real Techniques core brush set

The real technique brushes have been reviewed, reviewed and reviewed some more, so I will try to be succinct and give you my personal experience of them. The come in their own travel pouches and contain four brushes: contour , pointed foundation, detailer brush and buffing brush. They sale an expert face brush separately that is very similar to the buffing brush only with shorter and denser bristles. All the brushes are made with taklon cruelty free synthetic fibers. I bought the set at boots for 21.99 pounds, but you can find those brushes literally everywhere online.

Contour brush

Bristles: 29mm long and diameter of 25mm. 12.8 cm handle. 

The contour brush is small face brush.  The brush is tapered completely round since the ferule isn't pinched. The bristles are very dense and very soft. The brush as the perfect size for my face size.

You can use it in different ways:

- With setting powder for small areas of the face like under eye
- With powder contour
- With cream contour and highlighter (where it excels).

I use this one mostly with highlighter, because I have other synthetic contour brushes, but it does a fantastic with contour as well. This is not for sale separately and is the main reason I picked up the set, instead of only the expert face brush.

Pointed foundation brush

Bristles: 25mm long, 14mm wide and 5mm thick. 12.8 cm handle.

This is the least essential brush of the set, but it's still nice. It's just a small paddle type of brush. It's mostly useful to apply concealer in larger area like in a triangle shape under the eyes or to cover larger patches of redness or uneven skin. You can also use it with liquid highlighter for precise placement. 

Detailer brush

Bristes: 10mm long, 5mm wide, 2mm thick. 12.8 cm handle.

This brush is really, really small. It's nice and firm and it really excels at apply concealer in very small areas like the inner corners of the eyes and on a pimple. It also makes a fantastic lip brush. This brush apply a lot of product on a very small area. 

Buffing brush

Bristes 27mm long, diameter of 34mm. 12.8 cm handle

The expert face brush is the most popular brush from real techniques and I understand why. It is adviced on the package to use it with mineral foundations, but almost everybody uses it to buff liquid foundation. It really gives an airbrush finish. Because I have dry skin, I don't buff with this brush.  I use this brush to spread my foundation, just like with a flat foundation brush. It works perfectly that way and does not leave any streak.

Anyway, I hope I didn't ramble too much. Brushes are really one of my favorite thing!