Artis Brush Dupe: Is it worth it?

So, I don't know if anyone else has been seeing the Artis brushes pop up left right and centre in the blogosphere, but I, for one, was so sick of the sight of these I thought I just had to try one.  Until I came to look at the price of those little things and choked on my tea.  Needless to say, for a student, £48 for the 'Oval 7' face brush was a little out of my budget.  

You can imagine my glee when I was browsing YouTube one morning and saw that blogger Lily Melrose had uploaded a video reviewing an Artis style brush dupe that she found on Amazon for under ten smackaroos.  Within a couple of minutes I had ordered my own dupe Artis brush for £4.89.

Presenting...  the so entitled 'VALUE MAKERS Toothbrush Curve Liquid Foundation Blending Brush-Pro Cosmetic Makeup Face Powder Blusher Brushes-Contour Cream Concealer Blusher Make Up Kit-Beauty Cosmetics Tools-Makeup Kit (style 8)' (lol)...

The brush itself is pretty small, and the handle is fairly naff quality - it feels quite flimsy (but what can you expect for such a cheap brush).  The bristles aren't too bad; they're quite soft and very densely packed.  

My first approach was to cleanse moisturise, etc.  I then mixed together my primer and foundation on the back of my hand and used the brush to gently pick up the mixture and apply it to my face.  This was a complete failure - it was instantly absorbed into the bristly abyss, with only around 10% of what I had on the back of my hand ending up on my face.

A little bewildered, I tried a second method...

 

 

Applying the foundation directly to my face, and then smoothing out with the brush in small, gentle sweeping motions. 

Half blended...

 

And the finished product....

 

 

For me, it felt very strange to go back to using a brush after having been a beauty blender convert for so long. I find using a brush to give a more matte and heavier coverage look overall, compared to the dewy, airbrush effect that using a damp beauty blender has.  Although this brush blended my base in well on the majority of my face, I found that it exacerbated dryness in certain areas prone to lack of moisture, giving me a slightly uneven and flaky finish in places.  I also found the bristles to be far too absorbent for my liking, resulting in a lot of product waste.  For all-over foundation application then, this brush gets a thumbs down from me.  I'll be sticking to my beauty blender, thanks.

 

However it's not all bad news.  I did then try using it for blending my contour out, with considerably better results.  I use a powder contour by Smashbox, and so the brush dispersed the product out nicely instead of absorbing it.  Ultimately though, I wouldn't be using this again for foundation.  It's quite good for blending out powder products, but for me, not worth the excitement.

 

Before

After

 

Has anyone tried one of the real Artis brushes?  What did you think?  

Ruby x

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