MAC 227 Brush - Review and Pics

I have had my current MAC 227 brush for over 3 years. I believe I owned one prior to that, but due to "an act of God" at my house a few years back, I lost all of my brushes at the time. This is a big eye brush and is referred to as a large fluff brush. Biggest eye brush I have. Most beauty gurus, bloggers and addicts will tell you that you don't need this brush and that you should pass on it when putting together your makeup brush collection. I see their point to some extent. Technically, you don't need this brush whatsoever to put together any eye look.

I, on the other hand, love this brush and reach for it all of the time. For me, it is multi-purpose brush. The main thing I use it for is to put an all over wash of colour onto my lids. It's fast, puts down a lot of colour, covers a lot of ground, and blends out edges very well. This is my go to brush most mornings when I am running out of the door to go to work and I don't have time to do much to my face. I grab a neutral eye shadow and this brush and away I go. Takes a few seconds, literally.

I also use this brush for highlighting my brow bone arch area. It works very well for that purpose. The final use I have for it is to clean up the sides of my eyes when I do a cat eye or some serious crease work. Just use a skin colour eye shadow and sweep the brush back and forth between the edge of your eye at the outer corner and the end of your eyebrow and it gets rid of most mistakes or harsh lines in that area. This is an awesome trick and I highly recommend that you try it sometime!

This brush is $38.50 Canadian and $32 U.S. Ouch? Yes. Insane? Totally. Have I got my money's worth over the years? Absolutely. These brushes can last 10 years or more if you look after them. Mine looks close to new and I use it almost everyday! Sigma sells a knock off version of this brush called an E50 and they sell it for $14 U.S. I do not own the E50 so I can't really say if the two brushes are comparable. To save some money though, it might be a good choice. Heck, I might pick one up one of these days to see if they are similar and also so I have a backup.

My only criticism of this brush other than price is that sometimes when I wash it, especially in the beginning, some black colour bleeds out of the bristles. I have never had this happen with any of my other MAC brushes and I own a lot of them. I don't know if my brush is a one off in that department, but the issue seems to have practically disappeared.

Packaging: 10/10    

Easy to Work With: 10/10
Longevity: 10/10
Usefulness: 10/10
Texture/Softness: 7.5/10
Price: 1/10
Travel Worthy: 4/10 (it's large and bulky and I often don't take it on trips)
Overall Rating: 8/10 (only negative is really the price)
Would I buy this again? YES