I love makeup brushes. I feel like I've only really come to appreciate different types of brushes in the last couple of years... and of course that means that my brush collection has pretty much exploded to epic proportions and I do actually use most of them fairly regularly. Because of this brush obsession of mine, I'm always on the lookout for affordable brushes. Inevitably at Christmastime, you will see inexpensive brush sets in stores, but the quality tends not to be so on point. Recently, when I popped into Walmart to see about picking up a few more Flower Beauty items to try out, I noticed that there were new brushes on the shelves there from this company called Still Spa Essentials and that they're incredibly affordable. Obviously, I had to pick up this set and try it out, right? I had to!

Keep reading for a closer look...

I literally can't find these brushes anywhere online, which is something I'm not quite sure how to feel about. Not even the Walmart website has them. However, I'm not going to let the lack of web presence colour my opinion of them. Walmart offers each of the brushes individually, as well as a few other brushes, and also has a couple of other sets including a travel set. I chose this particular set because it featured the two brushes that I was interested in, the eyeshadow blender brush and the blusher brush, for the same price as buying them individually. No brainer, right?

One thing that I really like about these brushes is their appearance. Each brush is rounded on the back with a flat front and bottom. The handle is matte black with metallic silver writing, a silver ferrule, and two toned bristles. Appearance wise, I definitely think they look a lot more expensive than their price point, which I think we can all agree is always a good thing.

Let's take a look at the individual brushes.

This blush brush is very fluffy, pinched in at the ferrule and flaring to a wide rounded top. The bristles are not packed too densely and are incredibly soft. I was initially worried about the size of it, because I felt like it might be too big for the size of my cheeks, and I considered that it might be better as a powder brush. However, on my first use I did find that it gave a really pretty, natural application of a fairly highly pigmented blush. The fluffiness definitely gives a good blend around the edges so that nothing looks stripey or weird. Also, upon further consideration, I don't find this brush to be dense enough for powder for me, as I like a more densely packed brush for powder application. I think that I will likely actually end up using this brush for bronzer to warm up the face, because it is large and fluffy enough to give a really natural look on my skin.

This blending brush is also very fluffy and pinched flat at the ferrule before flaring to a domed top. The bristles are incredibly soft and have slightly varied lengths at the tip. For a long time, this was the type of brush that it was really hard to find at a drugstore price point, but more and more companies are coming out with brushes in a similar style to this. I used this brush to apply and blend out my transition shade and I sincerely couldn't be happier with it. It's quite a bit smaller than the large, fluffy blending brush that I've been using from the Sonia Kashuk anniversary brush set. The size is just perfect for a soft application of product in and above the crease and I feel like the fluffiness of the bristles makes it easy to apply just the right amount of product to keep everything soft and blended. At $2.97 to purchase individually, I think I might be picking up a couple more of these for my collection.

This brush has smooth, stiff bristles that are densely packed and sleek. The tip comes to a flat point for precision application. To be honest, before I opened the packaging and saw the printing on the back of the brush, I assumed that this would be classified as a lip brush and that is much more likely how I'm going to use it. That said, for precision spot concealing, I think this would be a really good brush. The bristles don't have a lot of flex to them, which makes it ideal for precise application of product. I definitely wouldn't recommend this for applying product under the eyes, because it's much too small and wouldn't have the delicacy required for that area. Like I said, I will likely use this for applying lip products, such as my OCC Lip Tars, again because of the pointed tip and firm bristles.

This standard eyebrow brush has short, flat bristles with an angled tip. The thickness of the bristles is, I would say, middle of the road. Not to thick nor too thin. Honestly, this is kind of the throwaway brush of this set for me. It's just... standard, very much the same as most other brow brushes that I have in my collection. Now, this isn't to say that it's bad, because it absolutely isn't and I think it's a good addition to the set for people who don't have a massive collection of brush sets. I mostly just feel like if you've seen one brow brush, you've seen them all. Sometimes I use these small angled brushes to apply cream or gel eyeliner, but I think this one would be just a little too thick for the fine like that I tend to look for.

I think this set is a really good value for the money. I would highly recommend this set for teenagers especially, since I think it does all of the things that girls in that age group really need their brushes to do. For me the standout brush is obviously the blending brush, which I will almost certainly double or triple up on, and the blush brush which will likely become one of my regular bronzer brushes. Now, I can't speak to shedding with washing, as this is a first impression, but I did give each brush a tug and didn't notice any obvious shedding. Esthetically, these are really nice looking brushes, particularly for their price point. For an average of $2.50 a brush, I'd really say that this is a great value.

Have you seen these in your Walmart or tried them out? What did you think?

Have a great weekend!

XO.