Zoeva brushes

Make up brushes are an essential part of your make up. They are also some of the most expensive make up related buys you can make. However, good make up brushes don’t have to cost a fortune if you know where to look. I love my Sigma and Real Techniques brushes and a few months ago I decided to try some Zoeva brushes. I had heard great things about Zoeva brushes but had never tried them. Since you can only order them online from the website, and the brushes are shipped from Germany I considered it too much a hassle. However, when Zoeva updated their collection earlier this year and I was also curious about some of their make up, I decided to place an order. I will review the make up in a separate post, but for now I will let you know how I feel about 5 of their brushes.

Zoeva brushes:
127 Luxe Sheer Cheek
105 Luxe Highlight
231 Petit Crease
224 Luxe Defined Crease
315 Fine Liner

I ordered two face brushes, two eyeshadow brushes and an eyeliner brush. My first impression is positive: the brushes look well made and feel soft to the touch. Each brush is delivered in its own pouch with a ziploc fastening and a plastic cover to protect the brush hairs from getting squashed. And if that seems like excessive packaging, I would like to point out that the pouches and easily be reused to take your brushes with you when traveling or if you need to transport them. So kudos to Zoeva for thinking this through.

Zoeva 127 Luxe Sheer Cheek

The first brush I ordered is the Luxe Sheer Cheek brush. This is a natural bristled brush and Zoeva recommends using this for shaping or for a light wash of color on the cheeks. Of course you can also use this for powder, highlighter or any product with which you may need a large fluffy brush. Zoeva promises a brush which will allow you to apply and blend powders with ease. The angle shape is supposed to fit the contours of your face and you should get a flawless and even color result. I’ve mainly been using this brush to apply heavily pigmented blush or to blend out blush or bronzer when I went a little bit crazy with it. This brush is soft, not too big and it works very smoothly. Another way I like to use this brush is to blend out a contour after applying it with a denser brush. And since stripes of bronzer are never a good look, I use this brush to make it look more natural.

Zoeva 105 Luxe Highlight

The second face brush I got was the Luxe Highlight brush, which I’ve been using for guess what?! Yep, highlight! I got this particular brush even though I have a similar shaped Real Techniques brush. However, I love that for applying bronzer and that left me with no brush for highlighter. Zoeva claims this can also be used for applying contour and I wholeheartedly agree. The brush is make of part natural, part synthetic hairs. This brush is fluffy and not too dense which is great for applying highlighter. It is also super soft and I have been really loving applying highlighter ever since I got it. It ensures your highlighter does what it is supposed to do: give your face a sheen of product rather than transforming you into a discoball.

Zoeva 224 Luxe Defined Crease

This eyeshadow brush, the Luxe Defined Crease, was high on my wishlist when I saw it on their website. I have blending brushes but no real brush that makes it easy to apply color in the crease. I tend to use a tapered blending brush from Sigma to do that, but that will automatically turn the color into more of a wash, rather than actual color. So I wanted a brush that would allow me to do some more precise crease work and this tiny little fellow does just that. Again, this brush is make with a blend of natural and synthetic bristles. It is supposed to allow you to create a detailed, but lightly defined crease. And I feel this brush does a) what it promises to do plus b) what I would like it to do. It defines the crease with more color than an average fluffy blending brush, while not doing anything too crazy such as applying nothing but a line of color. Due to the inverted cone shape and its small size this fits my eye perfectly and I’ve been loving to make looks with a more defined crease because of it.

Zoeva 231 Petit Crease

I only owned one pencil brush with a tapered point (by Sigma) and I found that one a bit too small to define my outer V so I was solely using that for inner corner stuff. This brush is a tad bigger than the Sigman one and it makes life so much easier for applying shadows to the outer V and even my lower lashline. This is a natural bristled brush and is meant to define the crease and shade the edges of your eye look. I only use it for my outer V area as well as connecting a darker shadow that I’ve placed there to my lower lashline and I have to say it’s doing its job very nicely. I love how it is slightly bigger than your average size pencil brush which makes for a smokier application which I love. The only complaint I’d have is that for some reason I have to go back and forth a few times to create the lid portion of the outer V shape.

Zoeva 315 Fine Liner

Last but not least, there’s the finest eyeliner brush I have ever used. The Fine Liner brush is tiny. The crooked shape intrigued me and I love applying a fine fine line of eyeliner over a thick and bulky one. I only have so much lid space to work with, so I don’t want to ‘ruin’ a nice eye look with a thick line of liner. The bristles are nylon and the brush is designed to work best with cream or gel eyeliner. The design is ergonomically approved according to Zoeva, and it should make applying eyeliner a breeze. And I agree, but only partly. I desperately want to love this brush as it’s so easy to create the finest line with it. The brush is stiff yet flexible enough to make application a breeze, but there are two things holding me back: the size of the brush and the hooked shape. The hooked shape works miracles when I apply eyeliner to my right eye, but not so much to my left. See, you have to turn the brush in order to be able to apply anything on your left eye (if you’re right handed) and then things simply become a tad harder. The other downside to this brush is the tiny tiny size of the brush. I find the brush is so small and the tip thus so sharp that it hurts if I accidentally poke myself. Especially around my tear duct area I find this brush slightly irritating and it makes my eyes water.

In general I am very pleased with all of these brushes. The only one I wouldn’t recommend is the Fine Liner as it’s too much of a hassle to work pleasantly. All the other ones have quickly become staples in my brush collection.

What is your experience with Zoeva brushes?