Brushed With Greatness Project

Tony +Tina brushes by Cavewoman

Sometimes you get a second chance.

I passed up the beautiful Tony & Tina brushes so many times at our Cleveland Nordstrom store. Maybe I was too involved in playing with those splendid pots of glitter, (I blame that on Miss Blogdorf herself, who loves sparkly loose shadows and shimmery powders, maybe she distracted me!) but whatever it was that led me away from the brush sets at the Tony & Tina display, I was sad to learn that the line had been discontinued, and that my chance to grab the beautiful synthetic-bristle brushes would be gone forever.

Rumor has it that Tony & Tina broke up.

And then we started to hear of the brush sets showing up at TJMaxx! I scoured the stores and found a few sets, under ten dollars, and sent them out in swaps and gifts. I forgot to save a set for myself! And then, one day at the fabulous TJMaxx store that Chanel dresses, I spotted a few of the shadow and powder brushes packaged on their own, and this time they would be mine.

I've heard that Shu Uemura made these brushes for Tony & Tina. I'm not sure if that is true, but the quality of these brushes is amazing. The powder brush is incredibly soft and flexible, and I reach for this brush when I'm using my La Mer loose powder. The handle has a nice heft to it, and is perfectly balanced, easy to keep clean, and pretty! The bristles are densely packed, but the dome is nicely rounded and not the least bit stiff or scratchy. I can't say that the shadow brushes get much use because I tend to reach for flat brushes, but these round, nicely shaped shadow brushes are great for crease work and for blending. I used to be a natural-bristle-only brush buyer, but now I check out synthetic bristles in other lines. Be alerted that Sephora's own brand has a new group of synthetic-bristle brushes that are so fabulously made and so soft, that they had the Cleveland Gang gasping in delight! Synthetics have come a long way, probably due to the fine Tony & Tina brushes establishing a great standard for synthetics.

What synthetic brushes do you own, how do you use them, and how are they performing for you?

Disclaimer: This product was purchased by the reviewer, Caveoman.