Karla brushes

A bit of a caveat on this post - I'm by no means a makeup artist and I know that my application of lipstick using brushes isn't perfect, but hey, I'm not a professional ;)

I think it's fair to say a lot, if not most, bloggers know who Karla Powell is - she's a very well established and accomplished makeup artist who creates fantastic creative looks for people like Magnum or Polo mints etc as well as a lot of really creative lip art.  If you haven't yet, do check out her Instagram, she posts a lot of looks there, as well as more recently, pictures of her new baby, aww.

Anyway, that's a bit of background to the artist, well, being the fabulous makeup artist that she is, and working specifically on a lot of lip art, she's brought our her own collection of lip brushes after the success of her face charts.

The brushes are all synthetic (taklon), cruelty free and vegan.  In the collection there are 3 different brushes for 3 different purposes.  

There's the KL1 (The Filling brush) this is probably my favourite of the three, it's the one I used in the dusky pink lipstick above (3 pics up), it's softer and more flexible than the other two, and create for creating a really fine line around the edge to line the lip, although it's strength as a brush is in filling the lips. 

The KL2 (The Precision brush) this is angled like the KL3, but not quite as firm.  This is great for lining the lips very precisely.  I *think* this is the brush I used on the bright pink lipstick above (lipstick is Eurydice by Illamasqua).

The KL3 (The Cupid's bow brush) designed to line the cupid's bow of the lip, precisely and without the lipstick bleeding.  This, if my memory serves me correctly, is the firmer of the brushes.  I *think* this is the one I used to create the red lips (bad blogger, I should have taken note!).

For me as a non-makeup artist, using different makeup brushes on different parts of the lip is something I need practise on, typically I'll pick a brush and use just that one for that purpose.  But with these 3 I can really see after using them, how they each play their own part, especially with their different pressures, flexibility, shapes and thickness.

I don't have a lot to compare them to, my only other lip brush is a cheapie Models Own one which I've had for years, and while it's not much to compare to, these are most definitely much better - I like their firmness, it helps to give me control to create a better line, something I always struggled with when using the Models Own one.  You certainly don't need to be an MUA to use these either, they're suitable for anyone who applies lipstick.  I've never really been a fan of applying directly from the bullet either, I always tend to go for a brush, I find that lipstick looks better when applied that way, and stays in place a lot longer too, and doesn't start looking patchy quickly.

You can pick up this set for £15 from Beauty Chamber.

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