What I'm Not Buying: Kylie Cosmetics Brush Set

Kylie Cosmetics has added brushes to their brand, which include a limited-edition brush set that retails for a staggering $360. 

And I won't be buying. 

If you're active in the makeup community, and I imagine that you are if you read my blog or stumbled across this post while searching for these brushes, you know that these brushes have gotten a ton of attention lately, mainly because of the price. 

This brush set costs $360, not including tax. The Kylie Cosmetics website now offers free shipping on domestic orders over $40 and international orders over $60, so shipping does not need to be factored in here. 

I've seen some videos on these brushes where people have just roasted the brand for this price, and I'll get this is out there now, I also think that price tag is laughable, especially for a brand that is only sold online.

I'll get into the price more in a bit, but I would first like to talk about this brush set on the whole. 

The brush kit comes with 16 brushes (I've included the each brush's intended use, according to the Kylie Cosmetics website):

• Large Powder Brush (for face or body powder)
• Large Stippling Brush (for blending liquid or cream makeup)
• Medium Tapered Brush (for highlight or setting powder)
• Dense Powder Brush (for bronzer)
• Angled Face Brush (for contour or blush)
• Rounded Blush Brush (for blush or contour)
• Medium Stippling Brush (for liquid or cream blush or highlighter)
• Small Fluff Brush (for highlighter and setting powder under the eyes)
• Fan Brush (for highlighter)
• Large Shader Brush (for eyeshadow all over the lid, nose contour, and highlighter)
• Angled Blending Brush (for brow bone highlighter)
• Medium Shader Brush (for eyeshadow all over the lid)
• Small Shader Brush (for powder or cream eyeshadow or concealer)
• Concealer Brush (for concealer)
• Tapered Blending Brush (for blending transition colors into the crease)
• Small Smudge Brush (for eyeliner)

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, let's break it down. 

Of these brushes, I personally would hardly ever/never use the following:

• Large Stippling Brush (for blending liquid or cream makeup)
• Angled Face Brush (for contour or blush)
• Medium Stippling Brush (for liquid or cream blush or highlighter)
• Small Fluff Brush (for highlighter and setting powder under the eyes)
• Large Shader Brush (for eyeshadow all over the lid, nose contour, and highlighter)
• Angled Blending Brush (for brow bone highlighter)
• Concealer Brush (for concealer)

And I would personally get very little use out of the following:

• Rounded Blush Brush (for blush or contour)
• Fan Brush (for highlighter)
• Medium Shader Brush (for eyeshadow all over the lid)
• Small Smudge Brush (for eyeliner)

Which means that of the 16 brushes offered in this set, I would get daily use out of these:

• Large Powder Brush (for face or body powder)
• Medium Tapered Brush (for highlight or setting powder)
• Dense Powder Brush (for bronzer)
• Medium Shader Brush (for eyeshadow all over the lid)
• Small Shader Brush (for powder or cream eyeshadow or concealer)
• Tapered Blending Brush (for blending transition colors into the crease)

Yep. So, for $360 and 16 brushes, I would regularly use six of them. 

Now, if you can't tell, I am actually not a fan of buying any brush set, not just these from Kylie Cosmetics. And that's because there is undoubtedly at least a few brushes that you will never use. 

Buying brushes individually can be very expensive, especially when buying ones from higher-end designers. So I definitely see the appeal in getting a set and acquiring many brushes in one transaction. And when you are first starting out in makeup, brush sets can be really fun to try and figure out what kind of brushes you like the best. 

I've been active in the makeup community for about eight years now. And in that time, I have found some brushes that I love. Others I don't love as much, but they get the job done for what I want. There are other brands and designers that I am interested in looking into in the future, but for now, I thought I would walk you through the steps in my makeup routine and show you the brushes/tools that I use. 

For primer, I use my fingers.

For foundation, I use the black Beauty Blender:

If I use concealer (which I haven't for a few months now), I will also use the black Beauty Blender. 

For setting powder and finishing powder, I use the Real Techniques Blush Brush:

For bronzer, I use the Tom Ford Bronzer Brush:

For blush, I use the Wayne Goss 11:

(I am not sure if this brush is still available. Online, the bristles are now white, but it looks to be generally the same shape.)

For highlighter, I use the Sigma F35:

For applying a transition color into the crease area, I use the Sigma E40:

For blending colors into the crease, I use the MAC 217:

(This is a natural bristle brush, and MAC is transitioning to all synthetic brushes, so this brush will no longer be available.)

For packing color all over the lid, I use the MAC 239:

(See above note.)

For brow bone highlighter, I use the Morphe E15:

(I don't know if this brush is currently available. The brush online is different from the one that I have. I bought this brush from a retailer in NYC, so it may have been a special collection.)

For smudging color on the lower lash line, I use the MAC 214 or the Morphe M408:

(See above note about MAC brushes.)

For applying an inner corner highlighter, I use the Real Techniques Small Shader Brush:

As you can see, the price point widely varies between brushes in my collection. The Tom Ford Bronzer Brush is the most expensive brush in my collection ($115), and the least expensive is the Morphe M408 ($4). 

These are the brushes that I typically reach for on a daily basis, but I also have eyeshadow blending brushes from Hakuhodo, the Anastasia Beverly Hills A23 highlighter brush, and the Wayne Goss 15 fan brush, among others. 

I have found that there is not one brand where I exclusively love all of their brushes or think that all of their brushes work for me. Overall, I have more brushes from MAC than any other brand (and I have multiples of the 239 and 217), but since they are changing their brushes, I can't say as of right now that they (generally speaking) have my favorite brushes. 

I never would have tried Morphe brushes had there not been a store in NYC that sells them, and I bought the two that I have when I was in a pinch and needed a cheap brush. I bought a couple other Morphe brushes at the same time, but I genuinely don't think they are good, and I don't use them. So for all the people shilling their Moprhe affiliate codes saying that you can get a Morphe brush set for a cheaper cost, while that's true, I don't think all Morphe brushes are great, and I personally would not want a Morphe brush set. 

Kylie Cosmetics does sell each of these brushes individually, and the prices range from $48 to $18. If you bought each brush individually, the price would be $382. 

Let's talk about that for a moment. Typically, the appeal of buying brushes in a set instead of individually is that you are saving money. But with the Kylie Cosmetics brush set, you are only saving $22, which is essentially the cost of one brush. Included with the brush set is a silver brush roll, but it looks cheap to me, and I don't personally think that's worth much. 

Kylie Jenner took to social media to comment on all the backlash she's been getting over the price of this set, and she said:

I have developed for you guys the most amazing luxury brushes ever. Real brushes don't compare to synthetic brushes. Different performance/quality/everything. I am 100% down to do an entire synthetic line in the future which will ultimately be cheaper. I always flight for the lowest price on all my products.

Kylie then showed the prices of "other real brush lines for reference," which included brushes from Artis, Kevyn Aucoin, and MAC. 

Now, I personally have some problems with all of this. 

One, Kylie's statement of "I have developed for you guys the most amazing luxury brushes ever" is clearly hyperbolic. Hyperbole is huge in marketing, and I'm not saying that this is specific to her whatsoever, but these are clearly not "the most amazing luxury brushes ever."

Next, while I personally prefer natural bristle brushes (what she calls "real brushes" here) over synthetic, I don't think it's fair to say that synthetic brushes "don't compare." 

Next, I do not at all believe the statement "I always flight for the lowest price on all my products." I just don't. Kylie Cosmetics is created by the founders of Colourpop, and Colourpop has considerably lower prices. I don't claim to know the business agreement between all of the parties here, but it is clear that the "Kylie Jenner" name is why the prices are significantly higher. 

Finally, I'm annoyed that Kylie showed Artis, Kevyn Aucoin, and MAC brushes as examples of why her brush set costs so much. Kevyn Aucoin and MAC are incredibly respected and established brands. And the Artis founder, Matthew Waitesmith, was a former senior vice president at MAC. I don't think many people, if any, would put Kylie Cosmetics in the same caliber as these other brands. 

As a general thought, I don't think any brand that sells exclusively online has any business charging luxury prices as there is no way for a consumer to actually test out the product. Adding to that, Kylie Cosmetics does NOT offer refunds. (Colourpop also does not offer refunds, and it is one of the reasons they give as to why they can keep their prices so low, which does not apply with Kylie Cosmetics.) So, if you buy this brush set and don't find the quality to be worth $360, you cannot return it. 

As a final thought on this post, I just want to talk about Kylie Cosmetics for a moment. I am fully aware that I am not the target demographic for this brand, and I have never purchased anything from the brand because none of it appeals to me. The target demographic, I think, are people around Kylie's age and younger. Kylie herself is 20 years old at the time I am writing this post, so I imagine her biggest fan base are teenagers and people in their early 20s. Personally, I can't think of a worse demographic for a $360 brush set. 

Most teenagers and people in their early 20s can't afford much on their own. Typically they are high school or college students, and/or they are working low-paying jobs. So I can imagine Kylie fans saving up a ton of money to buy this brush set or asking for it from their parents or as a gift. And I just don't think that the brushes themselves or the Kylie Jenner name is worth that. 

I know that fandom is a strange thing, and it's something I've talked about a few times on my blog. I know that when I was much younger, I would have purchased anything that was connected to my favorite celebrity. But I also know there would be no way I could have afforded this brush set and no way that my parents would have spent that much on it either. 

And I think about what else could be purchased with that money. When I had my first job (which was incredibly low-paying), I saved up all of my paychecks and bought a dog. And what I paid for the dog is less than what these brushes cost. That dog is still alive, though he is very old. And I think about how much joy he has brought to me and members of my family. And it's crazy for me to remember working that hard, saving all that money, and think about buying a brush set with that money just because it was from a celebrity. 

I think these brushes are overpriced. Most people think these brushes are overpriced. It took me years to acquire all of the brushes I have now, but I never felt like I was "missing out" because I didn't have a complete brush set when I was younger. I had two brushes (one for my face and one for my eyes), and I was able to make complete looks with those two brushes for years. And when you have brands like Elf and Wet N Wild coming out with inexpensive brushes, there really is no need to drop this much cash on a brush set where you will very likely not use all or even most of the brushes. 

I have zero need for a brush set, especially one that costs this much, so I won't be buying.