Gifts and Gift Giving

What would we do without our makeup brushes, they turn us into beauty ninjas. But lugging around full-size brushes requires a full-size makeup bag on vacation, at the gym and for touchups before after-work dinner or drink plans. That is cumbersome and impractical. While there are always the applicators that come with the makeup, these are generally of poor quality. We recently tried Bella Mini Travel Makeup Brush Set with Mirror Travel Case. Unlike mass production brush kits, these brushes are hand-made in the USA and meet our on the go beauty needs with a face blender, cream shadow, eyeshadow and fine eyeliner brush in a mirrored case.

The handy Belle mini brush set is about the size of a cell phone case and holds four quality brushes and mirror

WHAT THIS SET CONTAINS

THE CASE: The shiny metallic case is roughly the size of a phone. It has a sturdy zipper and contains the four brushes. The brushes each come with plastic cap sleeves to keep them nice and protect the bristles when not in use. The inside of the case holds a mirror for on-the-go touchups.

This Bella Mini Travel Makeup Brush Set has four brushes in a mirrored case:

• Face blender brush
• Powder/Dry eye shadow brush
• Cream shadow brush
• Ultra-fine eye liner brush

The Bella case zips open to reveal four brushes that can be used to apply or blend all your on the go makeup

MATERIAL QUALITY & CONSTRUCTION

We find many mini brush sets, even those from higher-end boutique beauty stores, to be rather cheaply made. We use them a few times and they break or the bristles fall out. They also aren’t all that effective in applying or blending product. This set, however, is constructed with quality materials including durable brass ferrules, the finest hair for bristles that do not shed in use or during washing. I found they withstood powder, cream, BB Primer, Foundation, shadow, gel liner, and concealer.

Bristles that do not fall out, are soft, high quality and durable

MY EXPERIENCE USING THE BELLA MINI COSMETIC BRUSH SET BRUSHES

DRY/POWDER EYESHADOW BRUSH: Many of my favorite eyeshadow palettes, such as the Urban Decay Naked series, come with quality brushes that enable a smooth application, so for touchups or post-gym shadow re-dos, I want to use a quality brush as well. I find the eyeshadow brush comparable to the UD brushes I use both in the soft feel of the bristle, the stiffness that picks up the shadow, the lack of fallout upon application, and ease of use.

Bella dry eyeshadow brush loads color well without fallout. Shown here with Urban Decay Walk of Shame Eyeshadow, my go-to work day neutral eye base shade.

At just shy of four inches, (9.8 cm) this eye shadow brush is an especially nice size for the UD Basics/UD Basics 2/UD and UD Naked Petite Heat, the five shadow compacts that are perfect for pocket or purse but don’t come with a brush.

The ideal size for purse size mini palettes or palettes that do not come with a worthy shadow brush

This brush is just the right size and function, with a thicker base that thins out for better blending. It applies shadow exceptionally smoothly, I like it just as well as my full-size $30 brand name boutique eyeshadow brush.

Blends smoothly and evenly with no fallout

CREAM EYESHADOW BRUSH: For use with cream shadows, I also find this useful for re-applying a base or blending my YSL Eclat or re-applying liquid or cream concealer for mid-day touchups. I use cream eyeshadows less, but find that cream shadow brushes tend to not pick up product evenly, or that there ends up being a fair amount of waste. This brush deposits product without streaks, I like the smoother application, I can get a nice thin coat of shadow.

In a pinch, I find it useful for precise creamy/liquid highlighter, such as MAC Strobe highlighter on the cheekbones. It is not as thicker a diameter as the dry eyeshadow brush, the bristles are straight.

Cream Eye Shadow brush is thinner in diameter for precise application without streaks

EYELINER BRUSH: This brush has a cap when closed, so it can transport some product on the brush is you choose to “pre-load it” with liner product when you are at home such as mineral powder, gel or cream liner from a pot, such as Bobbi Brown’s Long-Wearing Eyeliner Gel or Maybelline’s cream liner, then you have it for touchups without having to carry the liner product. The cap fits onto the end of the brush to make a long handle which makes it easier to create a thin line or cat-eye liner. The cap stays put, and it is steady enough for doing a thicker cat-eye or heavy liquid liner on the go for a transition from a work look to after dinner eye makeup look.

The liner brush tip is not too hard, not too soft. It doesn’t drag or skip on the application. Angle it for a thin or thick line.

I also find it useful to wet the brush either with water or a drop of Visine to create a liner out of dry eyeshadow, I especially like lining my eyes with a few of the UD Basics, such as the black shade, or if I am doing a particularly heavy lash look, a thin line of the taupe eyeshadow applied with the thick end of the brush gives some definition without giving too dark of a look around the lower lashline.

Ideal for wet shadow liner application or shadowing over liquid or cream liner

Lastly, this is a nice size for pressing a bit of eyeshadow over the top liner to powder it down into place, make the line more even, intense and long-lasting.

FACE BLENDER BRUSH: The bristles on this are exceptionally soft and fluffy, but it still blends contour, foundation, powder, and blush very well. The versatile cream, liquid and powder use of this brush makes it a nice go-to item for your bag. It blends makeup well without streaking.

The versatile Bella Face Blender Brush works with both creamy foundations and powder makeup

It is soft to the touch but stiff enough to apply powder in an even thin layer.

The face blender brush is SO FLUFFY yet is stiff enough to blend smoothly

I particularly like this brush for blush touchups during the day, and it works well after a gym workout or while traveling to use it for BB Primer or foundation. By pinching down on each side of the head, it becomes an excellent fan brush travel dupe.

CONCLUSION

This Bella Mini Travel Makeup Brush Set with Mirror Travel Case features four easy to grip, ergonomic handles, soft bristles, portable, attractive, sturdy storage. The set is highly versatile, attractive, durable, fits in even the smallest of makeup bags, and contains brushes that are ergonomic, easy to use, sturdy, and offer an exceptionally smooth application. The set comes with a no-hassle money-back guarantee and one-year return window. A great gift for yourself, a friend, a constant traveler, or anyone who would appreciate quality craftsmanship in a portable and practical brush set.

Style Chicks received the Bella Mini Travel Makeup Brush Set with Mirror Travel Case in exchange for our unbiased review and received compensation for our time and effort. However, our experience with the product and the opinions expressed in this review are 100% ours.