Brushed With Greatness Project

Shu brushes by Cavewoman

My collection of brushes from Shu Uemura isn't as large as some of my other brand collections, but what I have chosen from Shu are mostly brushes for special applications. Shu Uemura brushes are legendary, the standard by which most people judge excellence in quality and craftsmanship, durablilty and versatility.

Some of the brushes you see in the photo were purchased by me at the Shu Uemura store in SoHo. The first time I went to that store, with Cousin Elaine, we were delighed to see the beautifully organized displays, the huge assortment of brushes, and the comfy chairs and magazines for taking a little shopping-spree rest. Elaine chose the chair and a copy of Vogue, while I tested lipsticks at the tester counter (next to a young man who was also testing, we were asking each other's opinions on colors!)

From the top, the most unusual of my Shu brushes, because the handle says "Made In France." All my other Shu brushes are made in Japan. This slant brush has blue squirrel bristles and it is a good shape for working crease color precisely. The small flat liner brush, the flat tapered brush and the perfectly-shaped foundation brush are made for cream-based products, and what I love the most about these is they do not separate or clump together like some brands' synthetics.
The #17 pony-squirrel fluffy brush is just the right size for either highlighting powder or loose powder, not too big or overwhelming, and I tend to reach for this as a finishing powder brush quite often. I like that it fits well into my smaller loose powder jars! Sometimes a jar of powder is too small for those huge powder brushes, so you might want to try a smaller brush if your powder jar is small.
Recently I took a little shopping trip with a buddy, over to the outlet stores near here. I haven't stopped into the Designer Fragrance And Cosmetics store in a year. Rumors of Shu products at the store (a Lancome outlet) were only rumors to me, our store never had anything but a purple-bristle powder blush and the Shu lash curler in the past. But into the store we went, and there they were on the counter, Shu brushes! I bought the #17 pony-squirrel, the #10 kolinsky sable shadow brush (be still my heart, this is a $60 brush that I got for $19!) and the synthetic liner brush that I mentioned earlier. I sure hope that our local store continues to offer Shu brushes at such great prices.
Moving on down. The #14 pony blush brush is a bit longer than the NARS blush brush, and I think it gives a softer application than the NARS. This Shu is unbelievably soft, a pleasure to hold and to use.

The five small brushes are travel size and I bought the four black-handle brushes at the Shu store in SoHo. I have no idea where I found the one with the silver handle! Can anyone shed some light on this, have you seen any silver-handle Shu brushes anywhere?

I'd love to add to my Shu Uemura brush collection in the future. From basic application brushes to highly-specialized styles and shapes, it doesn't get any better than Shu.

Disclaimer: These products were purchased by the reviewer, Cavewoman