Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush Review, Photos, Swatches
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush ($23.99) is supposed to “revolutionize your foundation application” to give you “flawless coverage.” It is three-sided such that you can more easily maneuver underneath the eye and around the nose. The brush head is in 42 length, 25mm in width, and 13mm in thickness. It has a total length of just over 21 centimeters with an open ferrule.
In theory, I like the concept of a three-sided, tapered brush to get into the nooks and crannies. In practice, it didn’t apply foundation well, was uncomfortable to use, and I have no idea what I could use this for, because it feels unusable. This is one of the scratchiest, most painful brushes I’ve used in years. The bristles just seem sharp and seem to stab at the skin, so you need to use it incredibly lightly and drag it across the skin in a downwards motion to minimize the bristles poking the skin. Unfortunately, that technique leaves the skin covered in visible strokes of liquid foundation–lines everywhere–and this brush is incapable of smoothing out those lines. I couldn’t believe how uncomfortable it was to use, and if you’re prone to reddening if your skin gets irritated, stay far away from this. I looked like I threw myself into a rose bush after using this.
#101 Triangle Foundation Brush
PPermanent. $23.99.
See more photos!
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Real Techniques #101 Triangle Foundation Brush
Wow, I didn’t expect such a negative review. I knew this brush wouldn’t be particularly useful in practice but I am surprised it’s so scratchy. I wonder if the rest of the Bold Metal brushes are the same.
None were quite as bad as this one, but I hated this one – and I don’t use the term hate lightly.
I was afraid the quality of this would be poor. Even comparing my two expert face brushes(one I bought at the start of RT, and one I bought about 4 months ago) the quality has dropped. 🙁 such a pretty brush though!
Oh no! 🙁
I noticed this too with the miracle complexion sponges that rt makes! When they first came out they were smooth and even. Now the sponge feels cheeper and flimsier and the “pores” in it are larger and irregular, making any foundation you put on with it look stippled without being blended.
I noticed that their sponges were awful now too! I sent them a fb post about it they change, but they flat out denied any changes. I don’t buy it.
the same thing happened for me. The first real techniques sponge I got was wonderful and even better than beauty blender. The second was awful and there were a lot of complaints on site. But when I addressed customer support, they denied changes. But I’m not blind!
I commented in the post about this line how I’ve also noticed a decline in quality. I love the brushes that I’ve owned for awhile, but I bought an expert face brush recently that had issues. There were three long, like half inch above the rest of the hairs, hairs on it. Plus the overall brush shape it slightly crooked. One side sits lower than the other. Disappointing.
Wow, that is amazing and surprising given it’s a Pixiwoo (Sam Chapman) design and the price point. I expected much better.
I was really surprised that it was painful to use!
Oh, you poor thing 🙁 I can’t imagine throwing my face into a rose bush, but thanks for being the guinea pig. So does this rate as an F-? I hope your face feels better really soon, and I’m staying FAR FAR away from this brush, it should come with a warning label !
If there were brush ratings, it certainly would be quite low since you have the poorly cut bristles/materials used, but most importantly… it doesn’t even do a good job applying liquids!
I love how sincere you are! Thank you, always.
My pleasure, Mel!
Such a gorgeous looking brush! Sad it doesn’t deliver better results 🙁
Me too 🙁
Thank you for the review I was tempted to get this one to hide my pores and scsrs. I am not a big product user and just stick to wearing light makeup. Would you recommend a good foundation brush that would help with application for smoother finish and something to hide my pores? Your make up looks so flawless in your swatch reviews and your skin makes me go waaawww!! Lol
I actually use Real Techniques’ Expert Face brush most of the time. If you made me choose, Tom Ford’s is better, but because it is pricey, I don’t like to use it everyday, haha.
Hi christine, im looking for a good foundation brush, im planning to buy the estee lauder double wear light but dont know which brush would be good for apply it, i have the beauty blender but its been almost a year since i got it so i have to replace it so i was thinking its better to invest in a brush, i was thinking on the Marc Jacobs the face II and the tom ford cream foundation brush, but i dont know which on would be better, the consistency of the double wear light is a little thick and creamy but it doesnt leave a cakey finish
A lot of people actually prefer the Beauty Blender for liquid foundation over brushes, so it might not be bad to stick with it – if you love the results you get with the beauty blender!
I haven’t tried MJB’s brush. I love Tom Ford’s, but Hakuhodo has a very similar version for a bit less.
I don’t mind splashing more money if it gives me the look I want. Food and makeup – my two weaknesses! Thank you for your tip I will definitely try those out!
I have not tried any RT brushes, but I am quite pleased with using the Sigma F80 for this purpose. They don´t last that long tho, I believe I am on my 4th one now. Next week I will receive the Hakuhodo G5557-2mm, hoping to replace the Sigma with it.
I also have larger pores, and don’t wear heavy foundation regularly, but I tend to reach for the Sonia Kashuk flat-top multitasking brush (I forget the exact name, but it has a black handle, and is round & flat) for foundation, or the EcoTools BB Cream/TM brush for thinner products.I also really like the RT Expert Face Brush Christine mentioned, but mine are older, and apparently they’ve changed…
I feared this would probably be a dud among the other seemingly awesome brushes from this line. It’s still pretty to look at though!
At least it is pretty to look at!
This from the same company which brought us the expert face brush?? The mind boggles. I hope there is a redeeming review for a brush in this range upcoming!!
Hahahaha you know what occurred to me as I was scrolling down the photos – it would have been a scream if you’d posted a photo of yourself looking horrified
I should have posted a picture of me looking like a tomato!
uh.. No thanks, I’ll stick to a sponge
lol!
I bought this (and a few of the other Bold Metals brushes) because I own a lot of Real Techniques brushes and I love them. I watched a Pixiwoos video and they said that the Bold Metals collection has super soft bristles. But they’re not at all. The standard brushes are so much softer. And like Chriatine said, this brush just causes streaks all over your face which are impossible to brush out. Personally I’m not a fan of this collection, with the exception of 2 brushes, they’re all scratchy and pretty much unusable which is a shame.
Which two did you end up liking? I was honestly SO surprised that there was a softness issue with these – a lot of synthetics are rather soft, and as this is the higher-end line, there’s no reason for the cut job to be so poor!
The flat contour and the large shadow brush which I use as a concealer brush. I’m not great at contouring, and I really liked that brush, it made it a lot easier. All the other RT brushes in the basic range are so much softer. Considering these are twice the price of the basic ones, I was hoping they’d be amazing. It’s nice to see you give an honest review, I’m sure it will stop a lot of people wasting their money like I did.
It’s really odd that the regular line is softer, because I believe they said these are the softest synthetics ever.
Oh no! I honestly couldn’t imagine how this would be usable when I first saw the line on ULTA’s website- the bristles just look too long and floppy. Your last line made me actually laugh out loud. 😀
It definitely fits into the contours of the nose/underneath the eyes better than some other foundation brushes, but it leaves so many streaks behind that it is pointless to use.
Thanks for the honesty! Absolutely will not be purchasing this! Your poor skin! Hope it has recovered!
Of course! 🙂
So disappointing! Even for their regular priced brushes (less than $10) this would be disappointing. Really terrible to see this type of performance on a $24 brush.
Thank you for the honest review Christine!
This was surprisingly unusable!
ouch ! figuratively and literally
Haha!
It’d probably been better if the bristles were shorter. Even from the screen I could tell it’d be too long for foundation. At that price and quality, I wouldn’t waste my resources getting it over to Singapore.
The whole brush needs an overhaul.
This brush just looks so uncomfortable to hold in the hand. Real Techniques has some very good brushes for reasonable prices. Why oh why did they not just stick with what they do so well? I have not read a single good review of these brushes.
I didn’t have any issues with holding it – didn’t feel uncomfortable to me, at least!
I’m so glad I didn’t end up purchasing this which I did lament initially. The shape was the most interesting but, obviously, that didn’t translate well into practise. :/
Good skip!
I am sticking with my real fur brushes and those made in Japan. Exacerbating for this brush to have this awful quality.
I have no idea why it is this bad.
That looks exactly like one of my acrylics brushes! The only difference is that mine has an even longer handle. Pretty funny!
How funny!
Sounds terrible! I think I will return the one I just bought…I don’t think I need to experience throwing myself into a rose bush! Thanks for taking one for the team, Christine!
It was surprisingly owww to use!
I know everyone seems to go nuts over the Real Techniques brushes, and I went out and bought two sets of the original brushes on sale at Ulta after all the hype. If I can be totally honest, I didn’t care for any of the brushes I purchased and don’t understand why everyone seems to love them. I absolutely love the Pixiwoo sisters, and their videos are awesome so I honestly expected more from their line. To me, the brushes were not all cut well to be suited to the purpose described, or just were way too dense for the purpose they were intended. I don’t have an expert face brush, which is the brush I hear the most about, but I didn’t want to go out and spend money on it after disliking the rest of the collection so much. The brushes definitely don’t outperform my MAC or even Sigma brushes, and ended up in my travel kit to only be used when I don’t want my other brushes to get damaged in transit.
Expert Face Brush is one that I use a lot!
Red flags always go up for me when some of the more popular folks on YouTube rave about a product but customer reviews on the website selling the thing are fairly poor. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here!
That’s true! Especially since I find retailer reviews to generally be more inflated than not… so if it’s REALLY low, then it’s like, “Whoa.”
Oh wow, I definitely was not expecting this :-O What a shame. I had such high hopes for this collection…
Me neither!
When I first saw marketing photos for these brushes, I thought they lacked quality. The bristles looked exactly like they were described here. I really feel that they rushed these to market to fit the need to a mid-level price point, but in doing so, made a terrible product. Well, hopefully the “market” will take care of it and reviews like this will help them re-tool their quality in the future.
It’s pretty crazy to push a premium line but not make sure it had premium quality.
What a shame. I’m glad I didn’t pick this one up.
So glad you escaped!
Wow, this is terrible. But I like how you post honest reviews.
As another comment said, I feel like the quality of real techniques went down. A bit more than a year ago I bought miracle complexion sponge and I really liked it, so I repurchased it in september and it was a totally different product. It’s way less dense and takes up a lot of product, also the application is not the same. I’d rather buy any cheap sponge. Really disappointed
Super disappointing to hear 🙁
When I saw this in stores I thought it looked useless, and from the reviews I’ve read that’s pretty much spot on. My favorite foundation brush is by MOTD Cosmetics. It’s super soft, and gives me a flawless application every single time.
I like the concept of the three-sided brush, but the execution was a total miss.
Well, it sounds useless if it’s painful to use and leaves streaks! Glad I didn’t impulse buy this one! Very disappointing considering this is supposed to be better quality than other Real Techniques brushes and Pixiwoo and others have been talking it up so much. Thank you for your honest review!
Pretty much! Like I have no idea what to use it for, because it’s just… bad.
I am prone to reddening and have very sensitive easily irritated skin. I have to be careful as I can only use soft brushes and I prefer synthetic bristles. The Real Techniques lower priced line is pretty good for how much they cost. But, this one will be a skip for me. By the way, I bought the Make Up Forever 128 Precision Powder Brush during the Sephora friends and family sale last year because of your review and I have to say it is my softest and best powder brush I own now. I find your reviews are always spot on and thank you for that.
Definite skip for you!
So glad you’re digging the #128. It’s SO nice!
Wow, sounds like you had an awful experience 🙁
I’ve got 4 brushes of this collection (100 – 200 – 201 – 301) and I really like them! I especially love the 200 for applying cream eyeshadow, it gives a flawless result on me that I’ve never been able to achieve with any other brush in my collection.
Can’t wait to read your thoughts about the other brushes!
x.
Happy you like the ones you have!
I saw this on another blog and was intrigued by the idea of a three-sided brush. I’m sorry to hear it’s so uncomfortable! I definitely couldn’t imagine using a scratchy brush on my face.
It’s SO painful!
I can’t believe how badly this performed. I’ve only tried the eye brushes but they’re such great quality so I was definitely expecting better from this “luxury” line. Especially at this price point.
I couldn’t believe it!
My experience with using this with liquid foundation is similar – it sucks for sensitive skin. I have had better luck using it with powders for highlighting on the face, but it’s still not great. Definitely a disappointment.
Good to know it is a bit better for powder/highlighters!
I fear Sam Chapman is going to damage the great reputation she built up for her original brushes by coming out with these much pricier and, it would seem, really crummy quality ones (IMO they also look pretty ugly and potentially dangerous!). She made such a good name for her product and her company and all of that can be lost if this launch is all similarly disappointing.
Yes, reviews for these haven’t been kind, and this is just a bad brush – it’s more than scratchy, it’s actually painful.
Hahahahaha! Oh man. Wow. Pass.
Good idea!
Thank you for your honest review! I have been planning on picking up all of these soon, but now I think I’ll hold off until I see the rest of your in-depth reviews.
No prob, Emily!
I really, really love RT brushes, and reach for at least 3-4 every time I put makeup on, but when I saw these in-store, they just looked “off”. I thought the same when I saw the previous LE set, Nic’s Picks, as the bristles actually *look* like plastic. It seems since they’ve amassed this great “cult following”, they’re just putting anything out.
There’s something about the cut and/or thickness of the fibers that just… doesn’t work.
Yikes!! O_O Don’t you hate when you pick up those gorgeous artefacts as loot, and then they turn out to be cursed or corrupted or something, and you can’t even pay the cleric in the town to bless them or whatever? Lame.
😉
LOL! It’s total fails like these that I never know what to do with. I don’t want to give someone a torture device!
I was actually going to get the whole collection of these bold metal brushes just for the aesthetics of things, because let’s be honest, they’re really beautiful to look at. However, the first ever brushes that I bought were from real techniques and I bought a bunch after hearing everyone rave about them, but at the end of the day they were nothing but disappointment (SO.INCREDIBLY.SCRATCHY.) After purchasing brushes from different brands, I came to the conclusion that the brushes from real techniques are a waste of money and I regret buying all of the ones that I own but I’m kind of reluctant of throwing them away because I spent my money on them… never the less I very hardly ever reach for them. The only exception is the Blush Brush – It’s not great, I just don’t mind using it.
I’m so sorry to hear that the brushes you bought from RT were scratchy! 🙁
I LOVE the original line of RT brushes. I use the powder brush, blush brush, all-purpose face brush, and domed crease brush everyday! But I have no desire to buy any of the brushes from the new line, mostly because all of them have a MAC brush price tag. I wish they would have made the original line brushes, that come only in the kits, be available for individual purchase!
Hopefully they keep up with their regular line and its quality level!
Damn, that sounds terrible! Glad I didn’t get it.
Lucky escape!
I was excited when I first heard these were being launched, and they are very pretty, but. I bought the blush brush and the eyeshadow brush, the bigger one. The blush brush is okay. Not my favourite, but it does perform its intended function and doesn’t scratch my face off in the process, so I will use it. The eye brush, on the other hand, hurts – I can’t even use it to deposit colour on my outer V to then blend with a different brush; even that much contact is uncomfortable for my sensitive eyes. Complete waste of money. 🙁
Owww!
Thank you so much for giving this detail review. Lucky that I find you before I order my brushes. Can you also give review for other brushes in the line? Please……
Hi Mandy,
I’m still testing.
Will you be doing a review on the other new RT brushes? 😮
Hopefully.
Wow, what a let down! To be honest, it even looks stiff in the photos. 🙁
It was such a disappointment!
Such a nice looking brush! Too bad, it didn’t do it’s job. I feel like RT’s brush prices just keep going up.
This is supposed to be their “premium” line so the price hike is very deliberate.
Shame this is a dud considering the Pixiwoo girls said that they worked really hard on this brush line. They did say it took a year and a half to make these!
It makes me wonder how they use it to never have noticed it can be painful.
FINALLY someone else who doesn’t like it! I agree with every single thing you mentioned. I’ve TRIED with this brush because I figured as I’m so used to their Expert Face brush/Buffing brush, a classical style brush would take some getting used to. My foundation just absorbed into the product and then whatever did apply to my face was streaky. As you said, this was really scratchy, despite the hairs being very very soft. I think it’s the cut of the brushes?
It’s a shame because I think their other brushes are fantastic and the girls are great. I wish I’d maybe tried to powder brush or the contour brush now. Such a shame!
It’s definitely something to do with the cut, I think. Either the cut or maybe fiber thickness? Regardless, it was really, really finicky and generally a pain to use!
I love the Expert Face Brush but wasn’t sure how this would work and clearly – it doesn’t! Thanks for saving me £25 🙂
No prob!
This is the only brush I was tempted to buy in that line but looks like you had a terrible experience with it. Which face brush in the Bold Metal line would you recommend?
I don’t know that I’d recommend any at this time – I am still testing the others. This one I couldn’t test any longer, since it really does a number on my skin.
Damn, that’s bad.
It was!
wow!! So glad its not just me!! Not a pleasant experienve using this brush. Stabbing sensation because of the sharp bristles and face bright red afterwards. Not good considering the price.
It’s crazy, right? I wasn’t expecting it feel like it was stabbing me.
I have this brush and the contour brush. I actually loved the contour brush once I watched their video on how to use it, but I hate the foundation brush with a passion. It makes me disappointed in pixiewoo that they would put their name on such a product.
LOL! I’m right there with you as far as this brush is concerned!
Christine, your reviews and opinion – always invaluable to me. Thank you. (whew – now I don’t need to look like a rosebush). 🙂 I really appreciate your honest opinions.
My pleasure 😀
The brush is not even worth the hype or price.. this sounds like a pain on face.. 🙁 .
No redeeming value really 🙁
I bought into the hype of these brushes when they first came out. I purchased this brush and one other which I cannot remember at the moment which one it was. I tried this brush first and they went right back to Ulta within the next 4 days. Awful, painful, left a terrible, streaky mess on my face an not worth a dime.
Right?? This brush was really bad… One of the worst I’ve tried, period, just because it’s not just painful but it doesn’t even DO the job it’s supposed to.
I’ve been skeptical about these brushes from the gate, but especially this one…
Guess you were right!
This didn’t look like something I’d really use when I saw PR release and now with this review I’m definitely not going to order it. Such a shame they didn’t release a flat top with this collection because they are so gorgeous to look at. I’m so sorry about your face, and thanks for the review! Will you be reviewing the rest of the line?
I hope to!