ELFs professional 9 pc. Brush Collection

This brush kit retails for $15 on ELFs website. You may already be familiar with this, but one of the great things about ELF is that they regularly (I almost want to say daily) offer some kind of sale. If there's not sale, they also advertise several coupon codes to use during checkout. Sometimes they have 1 hour deals where you can purchase large collections (etc) for very low prices.

I purchased this for Brush collection for $7.50 when they were selling all their brushes for 50% off. Fortunately, this sale was applicable to their brush collections.

Ohhh La laaa

The roll

As you can see, once you open the roll there are two compartments, one on each side, where you can store additional items.

I usually throw in my primer, blush, lip and eyebrow products in the compartments. Sometimes I throw mini eyeshadow palettes in there like my Smashbox Masquerade Eyeshadow Palette or my Too Faced Glamour to Go Fairy Edition palette.

The presentation is aesthetically pleasing.

I save the plastic covers in the brush roll.

Placing the covers on the brushes after use can help keep the roll clean and reduce the amount of bacteria that ends up on the actual roll itself. This, IMO, is tedious. I just clean the roll every time I wash my brushes.

Now time for the review.

Whether you want to spend $15 on this or not is entirely up to you. Personally speaking, I'm not sure that I would have purchased this had it not been on sale for 50% off.

Total Face Brush- I've used this brush to apply finishing powders to my face and it distributes the powder evenly without irritating my skin. However, this brush may not be for you if you have sensitive skin. The texture of the brush reminds me of an improved version of those cheapy mineral brushes that comes with Maybelline's Mineral Power Foundations.

Blushing/bronzing brush- This is not a dense brush but it applies blush well. I would say that this brush has a similar texture to the Total Face Brush.

Foundation brush- This liquid foundation brush is notably thinner than comparable foundation brushes. In terms of performance, this brush will allow you to evenly apply foundation. Due to the lack of bristles on the brush, the hairs seem a bit flimsy.

The eyeshadow brushes in this kit work very well. One thing to note is that the metal part of the brush may separate from the wood over time (my previous experience with Elf E/S brushes). When this happens, just super glue it back in place and you won't run into that problem again.
I rarely use the eyeliner brush to line my lids but it lines them very nicely =D. I use it to shape and sculpt my eyebrows. It does an amazing job.

Of all the brushes in the kit, I'm not loving the smudge sponge brush. I don't hate it, but I find that it removes my eyeliner as I'm trying to smudge it. It could be an application technique that I need to work on, but meh. I've got other brushes that function as better smudge brushes (ELFs small smudge brush is WAY better than the sponge brush)

Recommended For?:

I recommend this kit for beginners or for anyone looking for an affordable travel brush kit.

I'm a bit of a MAC brush snob, however, replacing a MAC brush requires reflection, meditation, and prayer as they are notably expensive! One MAC brush is the cost of this entire kit AND MORE!

All in all, I like this brush kit. I travel a lot and find this brush collection very useful when I'm away from my staple brushes and cosmetics.  It's aesthetically pleasing and the brushes are functional.