The perfect partner to Bare Minerals products (Bare Escentuals id Full Coverage Kabuki Brush)

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	Bare Escentuals id Full Coverage Kabuki Brush
Date:	04/02/09 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to handle, picks up powder easily and distributes evenly, gives a flawless finish, lasts well

Disadvantages: Not the cheapest

When it comes to makeup brushes I believe it's really important to have a good quality set of tools to work with. When used with a good set of brushes, even cheap makeup can look flawless and give you a professional finish. Foundation, particularly powder and mineral foundation, is one make-up item that really does benefit a lot from a good quality brush, and Bare Escentuals' Full Coverage Kabuki brush is recommended and designed specifically for use with their Bare Escentuals SPF 15 Mineral Foundation.

I am a big fan of the Mineral Foundation and my introduction to it was a starter kit which came with a Full Coverage Kabuki brush. Looking a lot like a shaving brush, the kabuki brush doesn't have a handle as such, the bristles are attached to a small silver circle. The bristles themselves are light brown and at first appear to be quite firm and a bit stiff, which I find is always the case with better quality brushes. The bristles are made of sable hair and when you brush them against your skin, they feel incredibly luxorious and soft and just stroke against your skin without scratching at all. The brush is nice and full and is slightly tapered which allows easier application and shading, and to apply the foundation around the eye area easily.

The Kabuki brush is designed to partner the Bare Minerals Foundation and I have to admit I was dubious about how well it would perform in this respect as opposed to my usual Ruby & Millie powder brush. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well the two products work together. The bristles pick up the powder easily and absorb it into the brush, allowing you to distribute it evenly onto your face, blending it perfectly and giving a flawless finish. The marketing info from Bare Escentuals says that "The Kabuki Brush is specially designed to capture just the right amount of bareMinerals" and I would say that this is the main area where this brush performs better than my normal brushes. It does absorb the powder far better where with a normal brush I find it can tend to sit on the tips of the bristles more, making application more difficult.

The quality of the brush is very good. I've been using mine for over 6 months now and have not had a single bristle drop out (not that I've noticed anyway). It hasn't lost any of its softness and still feels like a really good quality brush. Make-up brushes in my opinion should be a very rare purchase - a good quality brush should last a long long time, and it appears that this one will. After washing it feels exactly as it did before (I hate washing my brushes and finding that they never feel quite the same as before).

If you use the Bare Escentuals SPF 15 foundation, then this is a must have to ensure you are correctly applying the product with the 'swirl, tap, buff' action that they recommend. It also works well with their other face powders such as the Mineral Veil, or Warmth Bronzer.

It retails at £24 and the cheapest I have seen it available online for is £20.99 from www.beautybay.com, which is actually not too bad when you consider a MAC powder brush will tend to set you back £40. You can normally get it in a good deal if you invest in a set with the foundation and brush together. I bought mine in a starter set for about £35 which included the Kabuki brush, foundation, Mineral Veil, and a blush, which is a pretty good deal!

Summary: Brush for applying Bare Minerals Founation