Real Techniques: Core Collection

When contemplating purchasing this kit around 6 months ago, having read review after review, I was led to believe this would be the best kit, with the best brushes. Ever. I hate any degree of hype surrounding a product, but admittedly these are pretty good brushes!

The core collection comes with a 2-in-1 case and stand which contains 4 brushes: contour brush, buffing brush, pointed foundation brush and detailer brush.

The case is lovely quality and nicely padded to protect the brushes and is also handy for holding your brushes upside down after cleaning them.

However, on your average morning getting ready for work it's way too time consuming and fiddly to be bothered (for me, anyway!) to put the brushes back in after use as they don't slide in easily. So whilst I started off with the best of intentions to mother and care for my new brushes, invariably I just chuck them into my cosmetics bag on my way out of the door and they have to fend for themselves along with the rest of my make-up. They seem to be holding up fine so far!

The actual quality of the brushes is really good and they are mostly lovely and soft. I haven't had a single hair fall out of any of the 4, which is impressive after 6 months' use. I love the bright colour of the brushes too and they are really easy to clean.

However, in effect I only use 50% of the brushes. 

The buffing brush I use daily: it applies my foundation wonderfully and blends it in so quickly, leaving a lovely smooth finish. I also use the contour brush every day, but usually for blusher as it's just the right shape. It's good for contouring too but I just think that's a bit overkill when I'm only going to work.

Now, as far as I can see, the other 2 brushes are really fillers in this kit, and haven't got much use out of them since my initial experimentation. 

I can't work out what the detailer brush is for; it's the least soft of all the brushes and I've tried it for concealer and around my eyes but its too sharp for either. Very strange. 

The foundation brush is bizarrely small and the finish it gives isn't worth the time it takes to paint my foundation on! It leaves a streakier finish than the buffing brush and I just can't see why you'd need both in one kit. I'd much rather have seen the powder brush (available individually) within this kit as I don't need to apply foundation twice - so why do I need two things performing the same task?!

This considered, I still think the price is pretty reasonable for this kit. I paid around £16 for mine when feelunique.com had a 20% off promotion on but the prices generally vary from around £17-18 online to £21.99 in Boots and Superdrug. It's great to see them available on the high street but I'm fundamentally tight and would rather pay £5 less and wait for a couple of days!

In the unlikely event the entire kit goes missing from my life, I would definitely repurchase.

Pros:

- lovely soft brushes with no shedding of hairs

- handy little stand/case 

- good value for money

- widely available in store and online

Cons:

- (in my opinion) 2 less useful brushes

- detailer brush a bit harsh