Aromaleigh Rocks! Sonics and My Crease/Blending Brushes

Last June 30th, Aromaleigh had an amazing 50% sale off their Rocks! Sonic eyeshadows. To those not familiar with Aromaleigh pigments, the Rocks! Sonic collection has the most intense, brightest, off-the-charts pigment colors available in this brand, and also some of the most vivid and most pigmented you could find anywhere. It is not 100% minerals but a hybrid of natural minerals and some ingredients used for traditional cosmetics. I was over-the-moon when the sale was announced because I've always wanted to get full sizes of some amazingly-colored Rocks! shadows. I didn't know that the price would go as low as 50% off! So I placed an order that day, and three days later it arrived at my doorstep. Pretty quick, huh?



I noticed that several of the Rocks! Sonic shadows I've encountered needed some sort of mixing medium to make them adhere to the skin. That's fine because I almost always use my MAC mixing medium for pigments anyway. These swatches were applied wet with no base.





When the family had dinner at Macaroni Grill last night, we decided to pass by Target right after. I was lured to the Sonia Kashuk shelf again, and I bought a crease/blender brush and another small pointed blending brush I got the other day with the bent liner brushes. I noticed that the new crease/blender brush has a fatter, rounder head than my old SK blender brushes. Here is a comparison photo:



I don't know if I'm going to like the new one over the old brush, because the old blender brush really worked great. This nuance led me to compare all brands of my crease/blender brushes:


The first one from the left is Sonia Kashuk's deluxe blending brush. The handles resemble a woman's body (lol). It is more expensive than the white-handled ones but I actually prefer the white handles because this curvy handle makes it a little hard to hold.


The Chanel #3 brushes are heaven-sent for loose mineral shadows because the smaller head just fits perfectly in my crease (as I have small crease), thus minimizing fall-out. It is also perfect for contouring the crease because of the small head size. The hairs are really soft too. The MAC 224 is impossible to use on my crease because it's too large. I use it for all-over blending though.



The Japonesque blender brush also has a nice smaller head that can be used on my crease and outer V color application. It is made of the finest squirrel hair and is just uber-soft.

The one from Walgreens has a foam smudger built on the other end of the handle, and was on clearance. I don't know if Walgreens still carries this, but the head is very soft and is perfect for crease work.

MAC 222 works better on my crease than the 224 as it is has a smaller, stiffer head that gives a controlled amount of pigment on the crease and outer V. It is made of goat hair.

The 217 has a rounder head but is also made of goat hair. It is good for blending harsh lines and packing color on the lid. I honestly don't use this often, but I use this for blending gradient colors and applying color on the outer lid.

The last two brushes are some of my oldest eye brushes. I bought them in 2004 in Manila. They are from Prestige and work great even though I've used and abused them many times. The #104 is similar to MAC 217, while the #103 looks like a MAC 224.

There you have it, my crease/blending brushes. I most often reach for the Sonia Kashuk blender brush (I have several of these for each color I use, since I am too lazy to wipe down residue color after each application). I also like to use the Walgreens brush, Chanel #3, MAC 222 and Japonesque, and my choice depends on what product I would be using that day (either MAC shadows or loose pigments).