Hi! I'm a new member here who is a big fan of MAC and make-up in general.
Like many others on here, I was interested in the MAC holiday brush sets. I went to my local CCO and purchased last year's set. I have many many MAC brushes from the full size permanent line and many of these brushes were included in the holiday sets that I bought. First off, these brushes are not the same as the regular line. However, these are still useful brushes. While you may not get the same effect from the holiday set that you will get from the full size brushes (which are of better quality), I still find many of them useful. The large and small stippling brushes as well as the shader brush are pretty close to their original versions. The traditional foundation brush feels like the original but I returned the original before I used it because I learned how to use the stippling brushes. I do not care for any of the blush or powder brushes. These are not as good as the originals. For me, the worst one is the contouring brush. It doesn't deposit color nicely on me. The blush brush is ok and it does work but I prefer the full size version. The full size version's shape is quite different. The powder brush is ok but I do not use it much. I do not have the full size version so I can't really compare. The eyeliner brushes work well but I do not have the full size versions. I absolutely love the crease brush but I can't compare to the original because the original is no longer available. The mineral crease brush is very nice for a lighter application and is comparable to its original version. I am still not quite sure what to do with the mineral shader brush. The one brush that I do despise is the blender brush. It is nothing like the original and I have yet to put it to good use. No matter how I use it, I just can't get it to do much for me. If you are looking for some brushes to play around with and have fun with then by all means purchase these. This is the purpose that they serve me. If you're on a budget and want to get a nice size brush collection going then buying these will be a good idea. However, if you are looking to save money and get the original version of all of these brushes then I'd say that you may be disappointed. When comparing these to the originals, I'd say they are of lesser quality but they are still of good (not excellent) quality. I'm glad that I purchased these sets and I'll most likely pick up this year's sets as well. I was able to touch this year's sets and they feel like they are better quality. They look a lot nicer. I wish that MAC would have come up with another face set which included the 109 and some other brushes that were not included in last year's set.
I pre-ordered:
-All 3 eyeshadow sets
-The face set
-A coral lip set. I'm still trying to figure out if the beautiful blush that the SA showed me comes with this set or if I accidentally did not purchase the blush. Anyone know what is in the coral bag for $70? I forgot. I was just super excited to get to go in the back room and see everything.
I will most likely go back and pre-order or eventually just order:
-All 3 lip gloss sets
-All 3 brush sets
-The coral blush and maybe the pink blush. The pink one is so pretty and when I finger swatched it, it was very bright and pigmented. I said no when I did that because I already bought a lot but now I'm regretting it as I can get both pinks and corals to work with my skin tone.