Review: Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore Ultimate Lip & Concealer Brush

Purchased by Me

About a month ago I showed you the new makeup brushes that Flower Beauty by Drew Barrymore recently introduced into the permanent line at Walmart (click HERE if you missed that post). I've reviewed several of Flower's cosmetics for you over the past few years, and I've had really good luck with some of them, so I was very curious about these new brushes.

When I finally saw all five of the Ultimate Makeup Brushes in person, I decided on the Lip & Concealer Brush since it looked like it might be pretty versatile. Have a look!

Flower Beauty Ultimate Lip & Concealer Brush

(retail: $6.98 at Walmart and the Walmart website)

This brush is made in China and contains the "softest, finest, man-made hair" (aka: synthetic bristles).

The most unique thing about this brush is the shape of the handle:

The handle of this brush is made of plastic, which I'm not a big fan of in general (I prefer wooden handles) but there's something special about this handle. It's curved on one side and flat on the other (all of the brushes in this line have this handle shape, by the way):

Believe it or not, the shape of this handle makes it VERY easy to grip and it feels wonderful in the hand. You wouldn't think that one flat side would make such a big difference, but I really do feel like I have better control of this brush due to the shape of the handle. Weird, right? The handle itself is made of lightweight plastic so the balance does tip slightly to the ferrule/brush end. The shift in balance doesn't feel dramatic to me, although I'm wondering if it would be more noticeable with one of the larger face brushes, since those would carry more weight in the ferrule and bristles.

The ferrule of this brush is kind of a darker gold shade (not as bright as yellow gold). I was sort of hoping that the ferrule would be Flower's signature rose-gold color but it's not quite rose-gold to me.

The bristles of this brush are very soft and quite firm, making this great for applying lip color. The only issue you might have if you purchase this for lip color is that the brush head is a bit bigger than most traditional lip brushes. It's not ridiculously big for lip color application, but if you're used to using small brushes for your lips, you might find this one a tad large.

For concealer, this brush did not work for me. I use the Real Techniques Dome Shadow Brush for applying my concealer and I like that brush because it's dense but not too firm, which allows me to both dab and blend with ease. With the Flower brush, since the bristles are so firm, I find that it leaves brush strokes on my face (particular under my eyes) when I'm trying to blend. For me, this isn't a good brush for getting that air-brushed quality with your concealer, BUT it is good for spot application. For instance, if you have a small acne scar and you want to build up coverage with your concealer, this would work for dabbing a very targeted area.

I tried using this brush a few other ways, and I found that I really liked it for:

• Applying gel/cream liners (it's definitely firm enough for this, especially if you like a softer, thicker, more blended line. You are not going to get a razor-sharp, extremely thin line with this brush, but I usually like a softer look with my gel liners, so it works for me personally).

• Applying powder eyeshadow as liner (it's especially nice if you like to get your brush wet before applying powder shadows--the firmness of the bristles gives you a lot of control).

• Smudging eyeliner (it's wonderful for smudging liner--seriously, this might be my favorite use for it because the bristles are so soft, yet very firm).

• Applying cream eyeshadows (the bristles of this brush don't work that well for picking up or applying powder eyeshadows, but they are wonderful for applying cream shadows--you would just need to go over your shadow with a fluffier brush for blending because, as I mentioned above, this brush does leave some brush strokes due to the firmness of the bristles).

• Applying lip color (as described above).

I've washed this brush about ten times so far and I haven't encountered any shedding. Also, there's no odd scent to the bristles and it wasn't hard for me to thoroughly clean this brush (even stubborn concealer rinsed pretty easily using just my Dr. Bronner's Castile Liquid Soap).

FINAL VERDICT: Is this brush worth $6.98? If you need a brush for any of the purposes outlined in my bullet points above, then YES. I didn't think the unique handle shape would make such a dramatic impact on me, but it really is a joy to hold--and use--this brush. I also love how soft yet firm the bristles are, making it ideal for smudging liner (and all of the other purposes above). I'm totally happy with this purchase and I'm looking forward to trying the other brushes in this range.

Do you own any Flower Beauty Ultimate Makeup Brushes? I'd love to hear from you!

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.