JennySue Makeup Product Review :: KIM Makeup Brushes

Everyone that reads my blog regularly knows how I feel about makeup brushes.  The cheap ones that come in those free gifts from the department store brands...they aren't gonna cut it for me.  An artist is only as good as the brush she paints with!!  I'm a true believer that quality makeup brushes make a huge difference in the way that makeup is applied.

Since you now realize how I feel about brushes, then imagine my joy and elation when I received a few new makeup brushes from KIM Brushes to play with!!  I guess you could relate new brushes to a chef receiving new paring knives for their kitchen.   New tools are always fun.

Brushes from L to R:  Hair mix round F251, Eye medium shader E112, Narrow lip L311

Of course in JennySue Makeup fashion, I dived right into trying out my 3 new brushes, and after my application, realized I might have used two of them the wrong way...oops.  However, they still performed quite well with the products I used- Ha!!  These brushes range from natural hairs to synthetic depending on which one you get. Here are the descriptions of each brush and the way I used them, and the way the KIM website describes they should be used.

This was my everyday look using these 3 brushes:

1.  KIM E112-  (eyes) medium shader brush- $20.  This was the only one I used correctly!  It is just what it says, it is a great flat oval shaped shading brush that I used to apply my two colors from lash to brow (cream) and my (taupe) darker color from lash to crease.  Great size for my eye bed space.

2.  KIM L311- (lips) Narrow lip brush- $9.  This is where I went wrong.  I should have noticed that the first letter in the description of these brushes correlates with the part of the face it goes with (L=lips, F=face, E=eye), duh.  However, I used this lip brush to sweep my crease color underneath my lashes, which actually working quite well and was the perfect sized head to do this without getting color all over my lower lash line!  After doing this and reading over my brushes again, I realized what I'd done, then took my lip gloss and applied it correctly- after cleaning off the shadow first of course!  This narrow brush was also the perfect size for my tiny lips (see lip gloss applied correctly below!).

My comparison of my old Prescriptives bronzer brush (silver on top) to the new KIM one (below).

I liked that the KIM one is a bit smaller so I don't get bronzer all over my face and I can be more precise.

3.  KIM F521- (face) Hair Mix round brush- $39.  I also went wrong here.  Apparently this brush is to be used with wet foundation, however, I used it as my bronzing brush, oops. It just looked so much like my old school Prescriptives bronzer brush I got a long time ago, I just assumed it was for bronzer.

But guess what- it worked with my bronzer and I actually loved it bc it has a smaller head on it and I was able to be more precise with applying my bronzer right underneath the apples of my cheeks without it interfering with my blush color.


OVERALL OPINION.  Overall, I think these are great brushes and the prices are very comparable to say MAC brushes which are some of my favorites.
My only beef with them, (and this is me being really picky) is that I found where the handle (black part) meets the silver brush attachment that the bristles are secured into, is not a flush smooth transition.

Handle comparison pic.  KIM brush on top, my MAC brush below. It sticks out slightly. 

All 3 brushes stuck out a bit at this area which I had to adjust where I was holding my brush bc it bugged me that it wasn't flush.  But once I held it elsewhere, I was happy!!  The bristles on all 3 brushes though were wonderful, soft, and blended beautifully.  Check out the complete KIM website here to see their brush sets which take the confusion out of which brushes to buy for yourself! They come in basic, full , and professional.

And for all you ladies that have been questioning how to clean your beloved brushes (yes, not only do quality brushes apply makeup better, so do CLEAN brushes!), you can check out my previous blog here on that subject.

Have you tried KIM?  What did you think?  How important are good quality makeup brushes to you?


This product was sent to me for consideration only from KIM pr department.  I was not paid for this review.  All opinions are my own- as usual;-)