Sonia Kashuk Travel Kabuki Brush

Price: $17.99 at Target

What I say:
This brush is so bad.

Back in the day, or should I say, a while ago, I had a great travel kabuki brush.  It was soft, it was compact, it was easy to bring with me, but it had a little problem; the glue for the ferrel was not the best, and eventually the brush head fell out of the brush, and while I could have fixed it, I thought I should buy another one instead.  The original brush was from an online mineral company, and the brush wasn't marked, and since it was a gift, and I had no idea who the company was...

Any case, this lead me to find another brush, but most companies charged quite a bit for a brush that I wasn't sure if I would like online, and not many companies sell decent ones in person.  Finally, I stumbled upon this brush at Target, and as there was a tester, I was able to get a feel for the brush before purchase.  The brush in person was soft, not shedding, not too stiff, not scratchy, and basically a good brush for the price.

New brush in hand, I headed home, and quickly lost the brush (if you have cats, you can guess what happened).  Luckily, being a tube, the brush was unharmed when I finally got it back, and so I started to clean, and use, said brush.

Hmm, a bit of shedding.  Well, even the most expensive brands can shed when first washed.

Hmm, a bit scratchy, well, that's not good.

Hmm, it smells funny, strange I didn't notice that in person.  Maybe if I let it air out a bit.

Hmm, still shedding, and now it is shedding when I use it on my face.  I never had a brush do that before.

Huh, still shedding, still scratchy, still smells, doesn't apply makeup well... bah!

Maybe I got a bad brush?  Or maybe Sonia Kashuk sends the best brushes, or superior quality ones, for testing.  Strange, because I have heard a number of good things about this brand's brushes before, and thought that after the reviews, and seeing it in person, that maybe I had found a good buy.

Overall, this brush is rubbish.  About the only thing that I can say it does even slightly okay is apply a layer of translucent powder (like blotting powder) during the day when traveling, and even that I have to be careful doing, since the application is sometimes messy from how this picks up powder.  You can try this in person, and maybe you'll be more lucky than I, but for the price, and how the tester was, I really expected a lot better than this.

1/5, don't waste your money (or hope you are more lucky than I was)