Beauty ponders

It's the 20 pony brush intented to be used for blush or face powder. First up you can see the handle is quite short in comparison to other brands such as MAC. But, honestly, this handle is just perfect. The longer the handle, the more I seem to grab it at the starting of the brush. Apart from being short, it's also a bit bigger than normal handles, again a plus because it works so easily.

The bristles have a roundish shape that is maintained easily, but I also use the brush guard for it just to be sure. The bristles look very soft and indeed, they are... I really hate all that brushes that appear to be soft and when used on your hand are soft but then, when you put them on your cheeks... horror! That's not the case with this baby, this is such a lovely soft brush, much softer than a MAC brush. It doesn't irritate my sensitive skin and because it's not that big it works very precise. It picks up the colour nicely and blends out like it should. A tiny downside to this brush is its price, which is around 50$ but -to me- it's totally worth it. I'm really trying to invest in some decent brushes because I do notice the difference in applying my make-up. This one is defintely on my recommend-list!

The goods: soft!!!!, short/easy handle, blends well, picks up colour nicely

The bads: price

Overall a great brush that I really commend. It will cost you some, but you get a decent luxurious brush in return that will last you a long time... Just try it and I think you'll love it!

By now you should already know that I'm a big fan of hard-to-get brands and this particular one today is such a brand, especially here in Europe. I first heard about Shu Uemura on a fashion forum where people were raving about their products, after some looking into it I noticed there was one store available in my country... So far I haven't been able to pay a visit, but on my citytrip to London I luckily ran into a lot of Shu counters and I admit, I love Shu...

Shu Uemura offers skin care, make-up and hair care. In their skin care regime, the cleansing oils are quite popular - as seen above. I have yet to try a skin care item of theirs so I can't really comment on that part... They also offer a primer, UV mousse that has a lot of popularity, as always it's on my list.





I also have their brush cleaner, on which I already did a review so check that one for my thoughts on it.

And lastly, probably their most popular item, the eyelash curler. Everyone in make-upland knows about Shu curlers, they are referred to as the best and YES it's true. I bought mine a year ago and it curls them the way a curler should. I often had the problem that most curlers don't curl enough or don't curl all my lashes or the curl would fade away quickly. This is not the case with this one, it curls all my lashes the way I like them and it does so quickly. Afterwards you have enough time to apply mascara, your lashes will stay this way. I really recommend this curler, if you want your eyes to look awake and if you have some euros to spend, this is an item to consider. It will last you a long time.

Overall, I like most Shu items I have even though I don't have many. This will surely change once I visit the Shu store and have a chance to look at/feel all their items and colors... Let me know what your faves about this brand are!

I usually try to wash my brushes once a week with my Da Vinci soap but sometimes I don't have much time (lazy me) or sometimes I want to use a particular brush with another color - I don't owe that many brushes you know. Those were my main reasons for purchasing this brush cleaner a couple of months ago. I have a few Shu brushes that I'm fond of so I know they offer quality. I bought it from strawberrynet but you can also buy it in Shu stores or from other webshops. I paid 10 euros for 120ml/4.2oz.

A must-have for all makeup wearers. Designed to provide the proper care for your Shu Uemura makeup brushes, this formula instantly removes color and grease in seconds. Cleans thoroughly without rinsing. This non-abrasive formula is specifically designed to instantly remove all colour, residue and grease from makeup brushes without harming the integrity of the fibres.

It comes in a glass bottle with very simple packaging like all Shu Uemura products. When opening you see there's a special lid/dropper, I like this because it's easier to estimate how much product you will get when you turn it upside down. You won't waste your product.

Putting it to the test and we're going to clean one of my eyeshadow brushes that used to be white. I put a few drops of the cleaner on a tissue, circle the brush around - upside down - and so on, here's to the result:

It's white again and the eyeshadow has moved to the tissue. So yes it does its job!

To sum it up: simple packaging -just be careful with the glass- and easy to use because of the dispenser. I don't like the smell of it as it smells like alcohol but so does every brush cleaner similar to this one. The smell doesn't linger luckily enough. The cleaner doesn't harm the fibres of my brushes like promised. A big advantage of cleaners like this is that they get rid of bacteria in your brushes and that's an absolute must. Brr I'm already shivering while thinking of it. A disadvantage of cleaners like this one is that it doesn't always clean thorough - in my opinion. I would always clean your brushes a few times a month with a shampoo or soap.

For this price I would buy it again, I've had mine for a few months now and am almost halfway through it.