Review: Bare Minerals Refillable Buffing Brush

I often say that I could never be mistaken for a beauty blogger. I barely wear make up and am pretty hopeless at even the basic skin care routine. Its partly because I’m lazy, but partly because I have very sensitive skin, made worse by a bad attack of varicella (better known as chicken pox) when I was 20. The Wife introduced me to Bare Escentuals’ mineral foundation range a few years ago, and last year, I finally purchased some myself. My little collection has grown, but I never use them.

Mineral foundation can be a fiddly set up to use.You’ve got pots of loose powder which when combined with a clumsy blonde (hello, thats me), ends up with clouds of dust everywhere. Its not a particularly travel friendly system – which isn’t great for me, because I leave so early in the mornings, I have to be one of those women who do their make up on the bus. Have you ever tried to do mineral make up on the bus? I have. Its not good.

I needed to find a way to make this a little less messy and a little less awful for my co-passengers. I went to the stand in House of Fraser Bristol, and picked up this, the refillable buffing brush*.

The brush is exactly what I wanted, and more. Above is the brush in the closed position. At the base, you can just about see a little bit of clear plastic – you fill this up with your chosen foundation, and screw back in to place. To open up the brush, you twist the main part of the body (there are three settings, closed, buff (so no foundation will come through) and open)

In the open position, this allows the foundation to come through the brush head, so theres no need to swirl and tap, just buff away! The brush is actually magnetic, which makes cleaning much easier.

When I’ve applied the make up before using the “normal” system, its always felt a bit caked on, especially around my eyebrows (with the chicken pox scarring and psoriasis – I’m such a catch) but using this brush has been great for me as it doesn’t allow too much powder out at once.

I’ve actually been wearing make up every day this week, which is very unusual for me, just because this is so easy to use. Its also allowed me to mix a few shades together – I have three different shades of foundation when trying to find my perfect match, so mixing them together means at least I don’t feel like they’ll be wasted! (If Bare Escentuals could create a super pale powder, I’d love them even more)

Oh, and if you buy this from Debenhams online, you can use the code LM93 to get an extra 10% off until Sunday. I think that code is valid for all purchases, so a good time to start the Christmas shopping!

(apologies for the not so great photos, and no pics of my skin – I literally had 5 minutes to snap these the other morning, and hadn’t even done my make up by then! Also, I’m not sure I’d share photos of my skin, its a bit of a horror story landscape)