Wilko is a diverse store that has a lot to offer at bargainous prices, so it can be hard to pinpoint one specific thing you nip in for when shopping. Not everyone may even be aware that the store has a pretty good selection of make-up brushes on offer, so STYLEetc put them to the test to see what we thought of the value and quality of brushes by Wilko.
Luxury Brushes
What first caught our eye was the adorable designs that were available to choose from. If you like your rose gold and copper tone hardware, you’ll adore the designs on offer.
The first selection we tried had pink and cream ombre handles on the brushes, copper coloured hardware and grey and white bristles. The design is minimal but pretty, worthy of displaying on your vanity table or bedside stand.
Our samples from the labelled ‘luxury’ range included the eyeshadow, eyebrow duo, smokey eye duo, foundation and concealer brushes.
The smokey eyeshadow brush (£4.00) is also double-sided, with one side featuring angled shaping and the other more rounded with a fluffy texture. The angled side works well to apply eyeshadow, we found it holds product well and does it’s best to stop fall down. This worked as well as expected, the bluntness of the angle was particularly good for adding harsh lines, such as under the eye. The fluffy end was our preferred side, it worked well for working with bolder colour choices, with the large size of the brush providing great blending for a synthetic brush.
The eyebrow brush is double-sided, with a wand on one end to shape the hairs and flat angled tip at the other end for smoothing and applying product. The wand works impressively well to apply pomade brow product, working like a mascara brush to create a more natural brow shape. If you’re the type of person who hates thick, blocky eyebrows but still want definition then this will be a saviour to your beauty collection and costs only £4.00. After prolonged use, we found this lasts a good length of time with proper care and cleaning too.
The foundation brush (£5.00) also had an angle to the bristles, taking the tip from thin to wide from end-to-end. We’d say it works best for lighter foundations, use the brush to pat your foundation of choice across your face, anything too heavy could result in lines or cakey texture which you certainly don’t want.
There is also a concealer brush in the luxury collection, this had a similar shape to the eyeshadow brush and could definitely double as one for multi-benefit (again only £4.00). The thinness of the edge, with rounded bristles, served it’s purpose of adequately applying concealer with ease. Overall we were impressed with the entire collection considering the purse-friendly prices.
Essence Collection
The ‘Essence’ collection is a less frills, more minimal kind of range. The handles are plain white, with a little text on and similarly include copper coloured hardware. From this range we tried the angled crease, Hololighter and flat contour brushes.
The Hololighter (£3.50) was one of the favourites tried, giving a wide span of bristles to achieve a light and pretty highlight effect.
Likewise, the angled crease brush did the job and had good construction to apply eyeshadow well. Considering this was £1.50 this performed amazingly well and we cannot fault the value for money.
We found that the flat contour brush was a little clunky, it was easy to overdo it with stronger pigmented product so application did need to be much more sparing and lighter in consideration of this. If you have a fainter shade, or like a dramatic look this would work fine and is still very good considering the £3.50 pricetag.
Both collections were similar in quality, with the bristles looking the exact same on both. It looks like you get a little more design for the extra few quid that the luxury collection offers, which is worth it if you want a little more instagram value from your brushes. All brushes have, as expected, synthetic hairs and plastic handles. After a few uses, they all fared well when washed and dried, without losing too much structure or quality. You definitely get a good lifespan out of the hairs, especially for the price so on the whole we would certainly recommend both collections for a cheap choice of make-up brushes.
