Love Lauren Luke Flat Contour Brush

I've never understood the importance of having good brushes, and even thought I don't need them until I got EcoTools, Sonia Kashuk, and now, Lauren Luke.

I've never really blogged about my other brushes, but by starting off with the Lauren Luke ones, it does not means that the rest are not good. It just means I need to start somewhere, and I am sharing about my latest ones first.

Lauren Luke Flat Contour Brush

Available: https://laurenluke.com/shop/, GBP 5.25


Volume: 1 brush, ~18.7cm long (this is really quite a long brush)


Star Properties: For sharp or subtle blending effects when using powder products on the cheeks, nose and jaw line. Goat hair. (Taken off Lauren Luke Shop website.)


Packaging
All my brushes came in individual transparent plastic with stick-stick, like a super long envelope. It is very drugstore style, even though I bought the Set of Eight Essentials. Lauren Luke does not provide special brush rolls for her only set, unlike the Real Techniques ones or Sigma.


However, I am not complaining. In fact, I hope she continues to keep the prices down than provide brush rolls but charge more. (In my very honest opinion, I think the Real Techniques ones are very expensive because one set comes with so few brushes. This means you are actually paying so much for those stand-able brush rolls, which you may not need.)


If Lauren Luke ever decides to have a brush roll, I hope she makes it optional, so it is clear how much one is actually paying for a brush roll.


Brush Hair Design and How I Use It
The brush is not round. It has a flatter side but fatter side, a slimmer side, and it is oval-shaped, like an eye.


If you use the fatter side to apply blush, your blush will look rounder.

 Flatter, fatter side.

I placed it like so on my cheek bone:

And because this way, the height of the brush is taller, I can pick up a gradient of colors from the SilkyGirl blush, and the result is as below, where you can clearly see the highlight at the top, and the darker bronzing color at the bottom.

(Before blending out) SilkyGirl blush using Lauren Luke Flat Contour Brush.

And I blended it out to look like this. You can still see the roundness of the blush due to me using the fatter side of the brush.

Blended out.

If you use the slimmer side to apply blush, your blush will look sharper.

 Slimmer side.

Next, I used the slimmer side to pull blush upwards towards my ear. (I am sorry that this picture can be a bit misleading. I actually used the slimmer side on my other cheek, but I am holding the brush on my left cheek, because my left hand is not functional. I need my right hand to hold the camera.)

Slimmer side to move upwards towards my ear.

And my left cheek looks like as below. And you can see that the blush edge is sharper here, and not round.

Blended out on left cheek.

Lastly, the oval-eye shape from the top allows this brush to go extremely nicely into the hollows of my cheeks, and beside my nose bridge, for precision sculpturing.

Many blush brushes I've used are slight larger, and that slightly difference makes them just that bit too large to sculpture the nose.

But then again, the Lauren Luke one is actually called a contour brush. It is a contour brush that can be used as a blush brush, not the other way round, like I keep saying in my video. =P I am so sorry about the mistake.

Oval-eye shape flat top.

The flat top allows me to buff. Be it buffing out harsh lines or buffing in loose powder, I had not problems with both using this brush!

And lastly, I applied bronzer too, to look like so:

From front, both ways of applying blush.

If you notice, my left cheek (your right), has the blush going way lower, almost down to my mouth. This is because I used the fatter side of the brush.

And my right cheek (your left), has the blush ending right at the level of my nose. This is because I used the slimmer side of the brush.

By rights, it is more desirable for most ladies to use the method for my right cheek (your left), because it will prevent over-do. The rule of thumb is to leave a two finger spacing from your bottom lash line, and two finger spacing from the side of your nostrils, to prevent yourself looking like a clown. This means that my blush really shouldn't be near the level of my lips.

However, on wider faces like mine (heart-shape), it actually pays to pull the blush slightly lower (because I have a LOT more area to play with than people with oval or long face), to give the illusion of a longer face, so that the face is perceived to be closer to the golden ratio of 1:1.618.

(It's just like how every book will advise not to draw eyeliner all the way in, but it just does not works that  way for my eyes. The more defined my eyes, the larger it looks. The more I don't outline the rim, the smaller it remains.)

So you really have to play around and find what accentuate your features more, instead of going by the book as though it is a law. Taking pictures really helps the learning.

haha, that was my two-cents worth on makeup techniques. =P I am not trained in any way. I only learn what is good for myself, because I have no one to practice on. It is more of sharing what I have read, tried, and therefore found out to be true/untrue. If you also have heart-shape face (or round face), no harm trying. =)

I made a video version of this review, to complement this post, because I thought that you may find it so confusing about what I mean by fatter, slimmer. A demonstration is the best way to show it. There are a little bit of extras in the videos, because I brought in a number of blush for comparison. It is still my first few videos, so please be kinder with feedback if any. =) I know it's not perfect as I go through the editing, so I am already taking note and will work to improve!

Here goes:

Before signing off, I'll share a pose I just had to try.

I think it's the redder lips and more intense blush that made me feel this would work. =P

I definitely find this brush,
Positively Nice, 5/5!

Yours truly,
Jyoan
PosiNice

Have you tried the Lauren Luke brushes? What is your best blush brush of all time? And why?

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