Brush Review: Bobbi Brown Eye Contour Brush

This brush I haven't reviewed right after I bought it, considering I bought it as a birthday gift to myself last June. Actually, I guess now's the right time to review it after being my companion in a whole lot of gigs and even experiencing it personally.

This in fact is my first Bobbi Brown purchase, after the book, which was a gift to me for my birthday. I guess my birthday was Bobbi-sponsored heehehehee. I chose the brush since I needed a brush that wasn't similar to any of my existing brushes and of course, something long-handled with good quality.

So here's my Bobbi Brown Eye Contour brush:

The handle's a bit too long, since I got the professional brush size, and the Bobbi Brown handles are usually longer than other brushes. It couldn't even fit the frame. I actually hold the brush closer to the bristles, like before the "B" in the Bobbi part of the logo.

The use of this brush is to apply a greater amount of shadow in the crease to contour the eye. The bristles are flat here, as shown in the closer view as compared the the eyeshadow brushes wth a tapered or dome tip. The shape of the brush is round and flat, and the bristles are made of super-soft natural fibers (goat, I think for this type of brush)

The head is dense so it serves best to deposit products. For me, I recommend this to deposit color and then I still use my tapered brush to blend the color for seamless gradiation. Although using this particular brush to deposit and blend could work for girls with larger eyes, Smaller eyes can shrink more with a heavily-deposited dark contour color. I could also use this brush to sweep browbone highlight since it fits my browbone area well.

Another use for this brush is for nose contour/nose line. To fake a high bridge, I dab this brush on a matte dark contour color and tap off excess. When I make nose lines, I want to create subtle shadows instead of a super-fake line hence using little product at first and then adding more if needed before blending. I draw the line from the eyebrow head down to the side of the nose tip and blend the contour color with the highlight color on the bridge of the nose and the foundation so everything looks natural.

For the bristle texture, I get the same comments: the hairs are super-soft, up to now. So i try to maintain the softness by washing my brushes regularly with gentle shampoo and then conditioning them.

Overall, this is one brush I like due to the double purpose it has plus the texture. Plus with the high quality of this brush, this sure would last me a long time (provided I take good care of it, which I do).

Makeup 101: Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual

If there was a book that could be called "Makeup for People Who Are Absolutely Clueless and don't know where to start" it would be makeup artist and Today Beauty editor Bobbi Brown's newest book, Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual. This book isn't so new as it has been available already in leading book shops for quite some time. However, it has been perpetually out-of-stock until I saw it at Bibliarch at Glorietta during my birthday. I looked for other bookshops that might have sold it for a lower price and I found out that National Bookstore sells it for like Php1,295. I wanted a paperback edition since it's cheaper and easier to tote around but I think this is only carried here as hardbound. Oh, by the way, this book is one of my birthday gifts. Horray! Yep, I just got to blog about it now.

See? I covered it in plastic so it's super protected. Shame that I only got to blog about it a month before I got it. Anyway, it was in good fate because it was freshly delivered from the stockroom but there were only a few left. I guess it must be good.

When I read it at home, I couldn't let go of it. I didn't know whether to start reading the text, read the text, or just look at the pictures, because looking at the pictures are just divine. What I like also was that it illustrates everything step-by-step, as if Bobbi herself was talking to you. She starts with skin care, as the very basic foundation for makeup. Skin care didn't stop with just cleansers and all but taking care of the skin from within, meaning proper diet, exercise, and avoiding smoke.

She also illustrates the different brushes and their various purposes, since many can get overwhelmed with brushes and their purpose. Tip: have your man read that chapter when he wouldn't understand why girls spend so much fortune on good-quality makeup brushes - okay I'm kidding. Although the book uses primarily Bobbi Brown makeup, she doesn't hard sell the products that much.

Application of eyeliner (for Asian eyes here) is just one of the many step-by-step illustrated instructions. It shows how to apply powder blush, cream blush, liquid bronzer (which can be a pain to apply since it's so difficult to blend), foundation, concealer (in various color-correcting methods), lipstick, individual falsies, full falsies, and many more. It even gave us ideas on how to do creative and artistic makeup.

Starting with regular beauty makeup (far upper left), Bobbi demonstrates how she did this avante garde look using colored powder pigments while letting the reader unleash his or her own creativity.

Aside from makeup for everyday, Bobbi gives tips on how to do makeup for teenagers, older women, brides, and women of different races making this book a book for all ages and races.

However, makeup 101, skin care, and application is just a part of the book. Bobbi writes this book with startup makeup artists in mind. She answers questions on how to book work, career inquiries, and even gives a brief history on makeup. She illustrates that makeup differs on how you apply it - on a celebrity, model, or actress. Makeup for TV, HDTV, and photography are different and she shows you the different techniques for each of them. She even lists down short biographies of makeup industry icons as a source of inspiration to would-be makeup artists as well as addresses and websites of various agencies and makeup artist unions (However, this applies to makeup artists residing in the United States).

I like what Bobbi Brown said in her book to always be pleasant, that even if her work was just okay then, she got called back because people loved her. This is something that should really be imbibed in every makeup artist, to always be grounded and have a pleasant aura with no diva attitude. Maybe that's why Bobbi's so successful until now - her positive energy and neverending quest to share what she knows and even goes to the extent of listing beauty supply shops' addresses and websites for her readers - all good karma and positive vibes.

Although this book teaches the basics, I sure was able to pick up a thing or two. This is useful to makeup artists who are venturing life abroad. The makeup industry abroad is tougher since requirements are stricter, for example, in working for film, you need union membership. Some require training and certifications and a very strong portfolio. I recommend this book not just for makeup artists and makeup lovers, but for anyone who wants to learn a thing or two. This is a beauty book PLUS.