Hello! Today I would like to talk about my Louise Young brushes. Louise Young is a famous British movie, TV makeup artist who has been active in the industry for more than 30 years. She is also an author and makeup educator among other things. I first heard about these brushes in the Pixiwoo videos though I never felt the need to buy them.
Nevertheless, last summer, I was desperately looking for the old NARS‘ #12 brush all over the internet. The NARS #12 brush a dome-shaped brush used for blending. I saw it a lot in makeupzone.net ‘s videos. Even when I went to Barcelona last September, I asked at the NARS stand in El Corte Ingles and that’s when they told me, it had been discontinued and replaced it with the brush #42 which in my opinion is not a really replacement since it’s another brush with another size and subsequently does another job. Anyway…
As the new #42 brush did not catch my attention, I continued looking on the internet and that’s when I found the Louise Young brushes on beautybay.com. Since I had never seen the original NARS #12, I didn’t really know which Louise Young brush to pick. After hours of comparison, I decided to go for the LY13, LY14 and LY38 which are three completely different sizes, but, hey, you can never have enough brushes, right! 😉
I didn’t expect much from the brushes because it is a brand I was not familiar with, but hell, was I surprised when I first saw them!!! Not only do they look professional and sleek, but they are very, VERY soft. The bristles are natural and they always stay compact. They don’t need brush guards to give them their original shape. As the NARS brush, these three are also dome-shaped and they are (mostly) used for blending. They are not to light nor do they weight too much which, in my opinion, is something to consider when it comes to precision and control. I give you an example: I can’t work with some Sigma brushes because there is something with the balance which makes it sometimes very difficult to work with. I don’t have the feeling I am controlling what I am doing. I didn’t care that much at the beginning. However the more I more I progress, the more these details matter to me, especially when you pay an article a certain price, you expect something back, right?
Now I’ve had them since last October and I am more than convinced about my purchase.
LY13:
(below)This bush is the smallest of the three I have. I use it to blend with precision, for example, when I do a smoky eye and I want to blend the eyeliner in the waterline with the eyeshadow on the lower lash line. You can also use it to apply some highlighter on the inner corner of the eyes.
LY14:
(middle)I use this brush a lot when I want to blend the eyeliner or dark eyeshadow put on the upper lash line to soften it and make the eye makeup look less rigid. I do this a lot for an everyday makeup.
LY38:
(on top)This is the biggest of the three. It goes marvelously well to blend in the crease of the eye or if you want to apply a dark shade with precision in the crease. It marries perfectly every eye shape I have worked with so far.
Score:
Quality: 10/10
Price: 10/10
Use: 10/10
By the time I had prepared this post, I had already purchase the LY01 mini foundation brush which answers the following question: Would I purchase again from the brand? YES! Louise Young brushes have been such a great discovery of the year 2014! I have no negative word to spread about them except that the brand is not available in Luxembourg 😉
I hope you found this article useful.
As always, thank you for your time!
Graziana