Because You Never Know When You’ll Need to Do Your Makeup in the Desert at Twilight: The New Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight Mini Brush Set

On the set of An Owl Hoots in the Dark…

“Places, everyone! Places! Okay, Karen, it’s twilight. The sun is setting. Remember, you’re in the desert, and it suddenly strikes you to do your makeup.”

“Okay…”

“Aaaaand, action!”

“Doopdadoo, let’s see… I think I’ll do my makeup now. Seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do here in the desert, seeing as it’s too dark to read.”

An owl hoots somewhere close by.

“What’s that?! Jeez, I’m really jumpy tonight. That’s gonna make it hard to do my makeup with these little brushes…” 🙂

When I was getting ready the other day, I challenged myself to do an entire eye look from start to finish with the four mini brushes in the new limited edition Bobbi Brown Desert Twilight Mini Brush Set ($55), and ya know, I actually got pretty far.

I finished my eyeshadow and liner, both of which I think turned out okay, but then I got stumped.

The Desert Twilight Set comes with a roomy metallic and turquoise pouch (cute!), a tiny Blush Brush, an Eye Sweep Brush (basically, a flat eyeshadow brush), one of Bobbi’s Angle Eye Shadow Brushes, and an Ultra Fine Eye Liner Brush. Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t come with a blending brush, which makes application a little tricky for me.

I like to use a fluffy, domed eye brush to buff out any edges and create color gradients when I do my makeup (my favorite for blending is the MAC 217).

Now that I think about it…I kinda wish Bobbi had swapped the cheek brush in the set for a fluffy domed blending brush. I mean, I think the cheek brush works fine — I’ve been using it to apply powder beneath my eyes — but for me at least a blending brush would have been more useful.

Oh, and what about brows, B? I know there’s room in that cute little pouch for a small-angle brow brush, too (like the MAC 266). Having one would make filling in my brows with MAC Concrete that much easier.

So, would I ditch my regular arsenal of everyday brushes for the brushes in this kit? Um…probably not, although I wouldn’t hesitate to use it if I suddenly woke up in Vegas one morning without my regular brushes and had to quickly slap on some face paint to be the maid of honor in a spur-of-the-moment wedding at an Elvis-themed chapel.

In a pinch, I think they’d do fine. You might just have to work around some of the set’s limitations, like by using a brow pencil instead of a powder or by packing a separate blending brush.

Fifty-five dollars is a lot of tacos, but there’s good quality here. These are much better brushes than usual for a mini brush set. The bristles feel soft, and the brush heads are all nice, full and fluffy. Not scratchy, scratchy.

And the case that comes with the brushes is surprisingly roomy, easily big enough to hold the NARS Foreplay cheek palette or four full-size Bobbi Brown glosses.

Right now I’m using it to carry my iPhone. 🙂 It looks like a little iPhone sleeping bag, LOL!

PRICE: $55
AVAILABILITY: Available now at Bobbi Brown counters and online at bobbibrowncosmetics.com
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B

Speaking of brushes..

I was cleaning mine last night with my trusty bar o’ Burt’s Bees soap when I realized that the 10 minutes I spend every day washing my brushes add up to more than an hour a week.

That’s four hours a month, 48 hours per year, or TWO FULL DAYS spent washing dirty makeup brushes.

Holy freaking crap!

You know what we need? Self-cleaning makeup brushes.

Inventors of the world, heed my call! And please start with the MAC 217, 239, 224 and 266 brushes (the eye brushes I use most often).

Thank you. That would be great. 🙂

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen