Review: Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Professional Brushes

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Hello!

I was incredibly fortunate to win a set of Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics brushes last month through Fan Fridays on FB courtesy of Glossybox. The whole set! Brushes! I'm reduced to ecstatic shouting.

Now, while most makeup lovers have undoubtedly heard of or tried OCC's most famous product - the Lip Tar, I have to say there aren't many opinions floating around the blog world concerning the brushes. I can't recall ever reading a single review on any of the OCC brushes.

The brushes have long (wood, I'm guessing) handles and the white color sets them apart from my others which are predominately black. So far none of the lettering has come off and the ferrules feel tightly crimped onto the handles.

001 Large Powder Brush, 002 Small Powder Brush/Blush Brush

The big tapered paddle of 001 is exactly what I was looking for to replace an old discontinued Borghese face brush that I had really loved over the years. 002 is great for contouring as well as blush and could even be used as a foundation brush if you like buffing.

002 Foundation Brush and 003 Concealer Brush. My one and only critique of OCC brushes is that I would have preferred a small, thin, round type of concealer brush over this one, which is 2/3 the size of the foundation and too large for precision concealing. Primer, perhaps.

008 Small Shader Brush, 007 Large Shader Brush, 006 Short Shader Brush

Rounded eye brushes, excellent for patting on color and laying down color.

005 Angled Blending Brush, 012 Large Tapered Blending Brush, 004 Blending Brush

This trio are the blenders. The tips are very soft and glide over the skin when buffed back and forth.

009 Angle Brush and 010 Precision Lip Brush

The Angle Brush is soft enough to use on the eyelid with gel liner yet the hairs are highly resilient and could sketch in a wicked brow as well. The Precision Lip Brush is a full sized version of the minis that used to be included in each Lip Tar. I have two of them already and they make a great pinpoint concealing brush as well.

In the past, almost all my reviews of synthetic brushes have been along the line of, "well yes that's nice... for a synthetic brush" as I had a clear preference for quality natural bristles. These brushes break that barrier for me, they're simply good brushes. I think the success lies in how closely these bristles mimic natural hairs, from the textured base, the dense belly of the hairs to the finer, softer tip. It feels like an uncut, natural tipped brush and the resilience offered feels not unlike good quality black goat.

As far as pricing goes, prices range from $18s to just uner $30. The brushes as a whole, are pricier than Real Techniques (but softer, gentler) and about the same as Urban Decay, slightly less. I find UD's brushes almost a bit too soft (same issue with EcoTools), the bristles don't move pigment across skin like OCC brushes. I think they're a solid offering and I were to limit my brush collection to strictly vegan brushes, I would pick OCC over the other brands I mentioned.

Obsessive Compulsive Brushes can be purchased directly from the OCC website.

Is there a lineof brushes out there that you just don't seem to really hear about but deserves praise?

Products featured were won by me. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.