Review: Real Techniques Foundation Brush Set

I just wanted to do a quick review on a purchase I made this week at Walmart. Earlier this year a lot of people spotted a feature display at their Walmart of Real Techniques brushes. Though I do not see this brand on the shelves regularly, I didn't even see the feature display in any of my Walmarts! I have never lived anywhere close to a place that sold Real Techniques and being that I have never tried their products, I was reluctant to order them online. You can order other Real Techniques brushes on the Walmart website and someone returned an unopened package of brushes at my Walmart, so I decided to buy them and try them out.

This 3 brush set is for the face. The first brush, starting on the left, is the "Essential Foundation Brush"; the middle brush is the "Pointed Foundation Brush", and the last brush on the right is the "Contour Brush". The set was $14.98 and just in case you didn't know- all brushes from the Real Techniques line are synthetic. After doing some research, I found that this specific set was part of the feature display at Walmart found earlier this year and I do not see them for sale on the official website or Walmart's. 

As far as the brushes themselves, I would say they are nice and they work pretty well. I like the aluminum handles. I travel quite a bit and take my brushes with me, and wood handled brushes just do not hold up the same and definitely peel quickly. I found that the brushes applied foundation, concealer, and bronzer/powder well. The brushes are a little rougher than I am use to though, more specifically the 2 foundation brushes. I have always been told to use synthetic face brushes, because I have pitted acne scarring and the pros say that synthetic brushes help put the product into the pits and make them less visible. I personally find it's more in choosing the right brush for the product you're using and I like to use a thick creme foundation and I have found that a flat foundation brush is not my best friend with that type of formula, so I do not see myself using these brushes often.

Overall, these are decent brushes, but a bit on the expensive side when compared to other similar brands like Eco Tools or BH Cosmetics. I'd like to try the eye brushes and see how they compare, but I'm not overly thrilled with them. They are just okay to me. 

I'd love to hear your opinions on this brand. Leave comments below!

Hard Candy Cosmetics Products for Fall 2013

So, I've said this before- I work for Walmart and I work directly with the part of consumable departments that Cosmetics fall under. Thus, I see 99% of everything that comes in before it hits the sales floor for everyone to buy. It is pretty cool to be able to see up-close what a lot of these things are, but it's not all that special since in today's age you can see everything online before it is in stores. On top of that, my store usually is LATE in putting the products on the shelves and sometimes we are the last to get the actual products shipped to us. (I have noticed that the lower the store number the sooner they receive products in most cases; most stores around here are in the 1,000's, while my store is in the higher 2,000's and we get our products after them.)

Today, I bring you the new products from Hard Candy Cosmetics for this fall (2013). While I was not able to photograph everything, because I had to do my job, I did at least get a picture of something in every category.

Aside from the new polishes coming out, these baked eyeshadow quads are what I am most excited about! They remind me a lot of the ones I received as a gift from Paris, France. (I will one day do a haul post on everything I received from Europe when my fiance went, but it's not actually in my possession right now. He has it and when we finally meet up to move I will have it! Once I am settled in my new place I will show it all.)

As you can see, these are all shimmery and they contain colors that go together. While I'm not a fan of snake print, I am thinking these might be decent quality. They look that way to me.

These say they retail for $6, which isn't bad. When Hard Candy first came out everything was $5, but since then I have seen them come out with things that are $6 or more; their foundations and CC Cremes are more (obviously). I am not opposed to paying a little more if the quality is good.

I actually do not know the official name of this product, because I did not have the time to look. Nor do I have the official names of each quad, but obviously you can tell from the pictures what they are. I apologize for the flash spots, but it was a pretty dark area where I took the pictures and the flash was necessary for you to be able to see the shimmer and colors properly.

I do not have pictures of all of the colors. I know for sure I am missing a picture of the Blue quad. There may have been another, but I don't think so.

Like I said before- The other product I'm really excited about from this company is their polishes! They have some new glitter polishes. This one of them. I definitely did not have time to photograph all of them, but they are all pretty and I want them all, lol.

Here is another glitter one. I have another picture of this exact polish, later. It is called "#729 Emerald's Eye".

This texture is not new to the brand. It's a shimmery texture, but they do have new colors coming out and this is 1 of them. Again, I did not have time to photograph them all. They have a beautiful teal color in this texture that I would love to own!

I'm not the biggest Hard Candy buff, but I believe these fall in line with their milky polishes. I have one called "Gummy Green", but the difference here is that their current milky polishes have dots in them and these seem to have chunks and pieces. All of them have white chunks in them with other colors mixed, but all of them have white. 

They have 2 new Lip Def colors. They look to be sparkly overcoats and are loaded with sparkle! 

They have a pink one too. I only recall seeing the 2 of these Lip Defs, but there may be more that we don't have yet.

They have new Eye Def shadows as well. Most of the colors appear to be light and although they all seem to be loaded with sparkle, which is perfect for the holidays, the shades remind me more of Spring.

They have a few new shades of Lash Tinsel coming out. These look a little nicer than the current ones. They seem to have more depth to them; there is more colors/different colored glitter in them. The current ones seem to just have 1 color in them. I am not interested in actually putting this on my lashes, but they may be nice for a little sparkle on the lids.

They have new Poppin Pigments coming out. Again, the shades remind me of Spring. This set is called "Violet & Roses". I have never tried these for fear of disappointment. Not sure if I'll pick these up either.

They have new Walk The Line liners coming out and these are their glitter liners. The colors all seem dark. I do not have more pictures and I do not remember all of the colors, but here is one.

They also have new That's How Eye Roll shimmers. Again, the colors here are very light. There is another one that is like an off-white. This particular one in the picture is called "Girls Rock".

They have new All Lid Up shadows coming out, which are their creme eye shadows in a pot. The colors, again, are very light. While brown is more of a fall color, there is also a light pink one. The one in the picture is "#742 Fancy Pants."

Last, but not least- Here is a picture of 1 of the new Shadow Dancer duos. These are also creme shadows. There is at least 1 more of these that I can remember.

So, here is the other picture of Emerald's Eye that I was talking about before. This picture, unlike the rest, was taken at my house by my real camera. Someone made a mistake and put this polish out and I bought it. The new modular is set to be done on September-2. This means that pretty much all Walmarts should have these products out on this day, but Walmart gives a week for them to do it, so for some of you that means you might not see it until September-9. If for whatever reason they do not get to it, some of you may be waiting longer, however, they're all suppose to be done by September-9. Some of you may have already seen these products, as some Walmarts are on their a-game and will have these done before the due date. There are some Walmarts that ignore dates and even if it says "do not put out until *this certain date*" they will put it out anyway to clear room for other merchandise in the back. There is also a big saying in Walmart- "It can't be sold if it's sitting in the back." So, some Walmarts are big about getting the products out there for you to buy, even if that means it's not in the right place; you may have gone into a Walmart and have seen products on the shelves that do not have an actual place and are new or a special featured item, but they'll still put them out so it can be bought.

Hope you all liked this little preview. Let me know if you plan to buy anything or already have. I myself and eyeing the rest of the polishes and the quads!

Salon Perfect "FIRST LOOK" Fall 2013

The nail polish company, Salon Perfect, has a new display at Walmart. The collection is for the fall of 2013 and is titled "First Look". 

All 4 rows contain the same exact polishes, which makes only 12 different polishes on the display. None of the colors are new, however, depending on your Walmart these may be hard to get polishes. Not all Walmarts carry the same colors and some Walmarts only get certain colors in for displays and not on their shelves. At my Walmart, the modular is not big enough to hold all of the colors it is suppose to, so not many of these colors make appearances unless they have a place to put them. 

What I would like to point out is the bottle on the right. It is not an actual color, it is a Matte Finish. I have not seen this available before from Salon Perfect in any of the stores around here. I did not purchase it, because I have one from China Glaze that I've yet to use, but this is a way better value. The bottle is $3.98 and I paid $2.99 for a bottle less than half the size that was on sale from China Glaze.