Showing posts with label Sonia Kashuk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sonia Kashuk. Show all posts

Sonia Kashuk Tools No.07 & No.08

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

 You know, I go to Target at least once a week so I think I must glance at Sonia Kashuk brushes dozens of times each year. How is it I don't have more SK products? I think maybe it's because Target rarely ever discounts them (I think I've seen a 5% sale on core products?) and you know me. I can't stand buying things at retail pricing. Sure, I may indulge in high end products quite often but I'll be damned if I don't wait for some sort of sale or GWP offer.

Sonia Kashuk Lavish Luxe 10 Piece Brush Set

Sunday, January 5, 2014

I first spotted this Sonia Kashuk Lavish Luxe Brush Set at Target a couple months back and had been mulling over whether or not I would purchase it since. I did pull the trigger and am beyond happy that I did. 

I'm a brush snob, there's no doubt about it and don't tend to buy sets because seldom do I want to use the majority of the ones included. This set is an exception. I actually each and every single brush in this set! For $29.99 you get 10 brushes which is rather shocking - I've never seen brushes in the $3 range that are of this quality. 

The brushes are a mixture of synthetic and natural hairs (goat, I'm assuming). The core of the handle is plastic but each brush is encased in gold metal which gives it a very pleasing heft and sturdy feeling construction. I love the way they look, they have a very old fashioned, elegant appeal. 

Duo Fiber Fan Brush, Domed Powder Brush, Synthetic Pointed Foundation Brush. 

 Precision Liner Brush, Synthetic Concealer Brush, Brow Lash Brush

Pointed Blending Brush, Large Shader Brush, Angled Crease Brush, Brow Brush. 

The hairs vary. The synthetic hairs and incredibly fine, delightfully soft and packed to a great density. The natural hairs are cut tipped (as opposed to brushes like from Chikuhodo, Hakuhodo which have natural tips that have never been trimmed) but are still very soft. I find them to be much softer than my Sigma brushes (to be fair, I only have black haired ones to compare to) on par with Smashbox or Stila. The Brow Brush and Brow Lash Brush contain much stiffer, coarser hairs but that makes sense given their purpose. 

My favorite brushes are the Pointed Blending Brush and the Pointed Synthetic Foundation Brush because I have no dupes of either. The Pointed Blending Brush is definite the most tapered, pointy eye brush that I have and it really does a great job of blending out crease colors without dragging the shadows too far. The pointy foundation brush is great for the corners of my nose, all the areas that are hard to reach with my regular flat foundation brush. 

In short, this set exceeded all my expectations. I'm usually not one to extol brushes based on value but given that the whole set is cheaper than quite a few single brushes out there from higher end brands and yet do not stick out like poor relations, I highly recommend this set. 

This set is limited edition for the holidays, available at Target. 

Products featured were purchased by me, for my own  use. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.

Blargh- Still Raining. Target Displays, Pt. 1

Saturday, March 13, 2010
No LORAC swatches again, the terrible weather holds. On the bright side it's supposed to clear up by this weekend, and you know what I get on Monday? More LORAC. No joke. I have five more eyeshadows and another cheek stamp coming- you know the routine- stay tuned.
Here's something to tide you over the weekend. I went to Target today and found that they reset the Boots, Sonia Kashuk, pixi, NP Set and Jemma Kidd displays. This is a good thing, because they've been around for so long that they were getting appallingly disgusting- smeared lipstick, greasy fingerprints and broken eyeshadow cakes galore. I was pleasantly pleased at the new items, I'll be honest that I wasn't expecting much. I'll be talking about my experience and what I saw in three installments.
Sonia Kashuk- the new display is finally up!
Here's the good news- I did actually see that palette, the two brush sets, the big kabuki brush, the powder brush and the foundation brush there. The bad news? The brushes in the sets don't meet my expectations.

The smaller Out-of-the-Woods 4pc set  where very tiny. I estimated that they were about five inches long, no joke. The flat top brush, which I was highly anticipating, had a very tiny head.  The rest of the brushes just had such small handles that I didn't really even want them. This might be great for a travel set but since that wasn't what I was looking for, I decided to skip it.




The other set,  Out-of-the-Woods 6pc was also much smaller than I had hoped for. The blush brush (largest brush) was the only brush that I really wanted, it looked like it would fit the apples of the my cheeks well. However, the second largest brush (when I looked at the back of the package, it was described as a 'multipurpose' brush) puzzled me. Multipurpose for what? Much too small to be a powder brush. It has a tapered end (more tapered in real life than in photo) so I didn't think it'd be that great at blending highlighter or anything else that you want to diffuse gently. It's too large for anything relating to the eye, what the heck would I use it for? The other brushes, a crease brush, smudging brush, concealer brush and small eyeshadow brush looked nice, but since I already have about 5 of each kind, I couldn't justify $19.99 for a set in which I only appreciated one brush. I would rather buy one good Sigma or MAC brush.
The good news? The Spring Awakings palette ($16.99, top of page) looked quite nice. I wasn't able to swatch it or purchase it (yet!), but I can say that I would use all the colors, because they were very well coordinated. The kabuki ($12.99) was very nice and full, I wanted it and have mentally added it to the list of brushes I -need- to get. Same with the foundation and big powder brushes, and the bamboo handles are gorgeous and the perfect length, they'd really make a statement among my other brushes. I went in intending to buy the 3 eyeshadow brush set, but alas they were out of stock already. Now, I understand that it's limited edition, but it really shouldn't be limited quantity in stores. That's just ridiculous. In fact, there was only one or two in stock of everything that I saw there. And the display was brand spankin' new, I've been stalking Target just waiting for this collection to come out.
One last thing- blue peeps were stripped from the display! That's right, I couldn't find the blending sponge anywhere, I have a sneaky feeling I'll see it marked down on a clearance end cap soon.
All in all, it was much easier to talk myself into walking out of Target with only a Vitamin Water ( tranquilo- tamarind/pineapple flavor, it was superb and oddly complex for a flavored water drink) than I had originally anticipated.

Is There Anybody as Excited as I am For These?

Monday, February 22, 2010
I'm really loving Target right now, honest. I recently picked up one of those famed amazing Studio Tools duo fiber brushes (more commonly known in the makeup world as a 'skunk') on clearance for $3.88. Although, I think it was red-tagged out because they're being discontinued, which does sadden me. But onto the more exciting news!
Sonia Kashuk 2010 Spring line!  Are those brushes not gorgeous? I can't wait to get my hands on some, but my local Targets are always slow on stocking new items. I saw a picture posted by a fellow MUAer, and it made me a little sad to see brushes that were touted as 'natural' being wrapped in hard plastic packaging. But then I took a closer look, notice how the ad says 'eco chic' not eco friendly? Sneaky. None the less, the brushes look like they are beautifully crafted- just look at that round cut on the blush brush- and a tapering point too!
More great news about thrifty brush finds- do you remember during the last holiday season, there were some select e.l.f. Cosmetics items available at Target? It was mostly all from the $1 line, but also some value sets too. Well, e.l.f. Cosmetic's facebook confirmed that they would be releasing more items, and hinted that some Studio Line items would be available!