Review: Pro Makeup Brushes

Disclosure: PMB sent along a few brushes for us to review.

Pro Makeup Brushes was started by Kate Lyon, who went into business in 2007 having worked in the beauty industry for a number of years.  The company aims to provide professional quality, reasonably priced brushes, and not only supply to individual makeup artists and the public, but also customise brushes for companies such as Elizabeth Arden.

Refreshingly, the range does not contain 100000 subtly different "essential" brushes (yes, I'm looking at you, MAC) - there are fifteen brushes available.  Of the brushes I was sent, there are three which have become favourites.  The large fluffy eye brush, pictured to the left, is big and soft enough to quickly apply eyeshadow to the lid as a wash, or to pack colour on while blending the edges out.  While the bristles are not the softest I've ever felt, they balance softness with effective colour pickup.

The tapered blending brush is also made of goat hair like it's fluffy cousin above.  It's a fairly dainty tipped brush, and I find it to be exactly the right size for quickly defining the crease.  As it's still quite fluffy, it blends at the same time as applying the colour, and it enables me to apply a two shadow blended eye look in about three minutes flat.

The standout brush for me, however, has got to be the large face contouring brush.  I quite like a bit of contouring, and have been using tapered blush brushes, making this is a complete departure from the norm for me.  Using the flat of the brush to apply colour in a relatively straight line under the cheekbones results in a more precise application than I've managed before with a tapered blush or contour brush.  Also, it's much easier to get the angle of application right with the straight edge as you can align it with the angle of your cheekbone.

All in all, I've been very impressed by these brushes.  While they aren't the softest thing ever, they are definitely effective.  I also really like the white bristles, which make it easy to tell when you've picked up too much colour, or are in dire need of a brush washing session.  The quality is consistent; Crown Brush are a favourite of mine for cheap, decent brushes, but the quality can vary widely between individual brushes, but this is not the case with PMB.

If you'd like to try these out for yourself, you can get them direct from PMB via their website, where the contour brush will cost you £15, the fluffy eye brush £10, and the tapered blending brush £11.  They also sell the full set of brushes in a roll for £90, which is a fairly good price to pay for a full set.