Jolie Brush vs Elf Cosmetics Brush (for nail cleanup)

                 

So like many of the ladies in the nail community, I was in love with using the Elf Cosmetics concealer brush as my mani clean up brush. Slowly, but surely, many people started using a new larger brush. This brush comes from Bory, owner of Jolie Polish @joliepolish and the famous @nailthedeal. I decided to see what all the fuss was about and purchased one for myself 2 months ago. Here's what I found....

[The Jolie brush is on the left (the larger bristles with the blue swirly handle and cuticle pusher on the end) and this picture was taken after 2 months of everyday use)  The Elf brush is on the right and is much smaller with a basic wooden handle that's been painted white]; this picture is after 1 week of everyday use)

As you can see in the pictures below, after 2 months of everyday use, the Jolie brush is still nice and flat; whereas the Elf brush has sort of puffed out everywhere. These little puffs had made it really hard to cleanup without a rogue bristle mistakenly knicking my nail polish. 

                        Jolie Brush - top view                                                        Elf Brush - top view                                                   

                   Jolie Brush - side view                                                      Elf Brush - side view

Now, before buying the Jolie brush, I used to trim my Elf brush to make it more flat which would give me another week or so of usage, but if you're like me, I HATE having to trim brushes!

The Jolie brush retails for $10.00, while the Elf brush is $1.00. Sure it sounds like a better deal to buy a bunch of cheapos, but it's really not. I believe the Jolie brush will last me a minimum of 1 year if I continue to use it as often as I do now. The Elf brush (without cutting it) lasted 1 week. I would be spending $52.00/year on Elf brushes and only $10/year on the Jolie brush......big difference!

I also used to have the issue where it seemed the Elf brush bristle weren't completely glued into the head of the brush and they would fall out. Nothing worse than getting a bristle, or hair for that matter, in your fresh mani! #firstworldproblems.

I always had to pinch the bristle in really tight with pliers before using them for fear this would happen. I have yet to have this problem with the Jolie brush.

I was also hesitant about the brush being bigger, I mean hello, nail beds are pretty little! But in reality the larger brush is so much easier to use. The bigger handle gives me so much more stability for more accurate cleaning. 

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So, in my opinion, it is completely worth spending that $10.00 on a quality brush that will last.

If you want to order a Jolie Brush, you can do so in Bory's shop! These sell out pretty quick, so if you miss a restock, be sure to follow her on Instagram for restocking updates! (she also sometimes offers a pink handled brush that is slightly smaller than the blue and has a dotting tool on the end; I have not tried this one, but you can check out other review by searching the hashtag #joliebrush and  #joliebrushdemos)

Remember: if you don't take care of them, any brush can seem crappy and of poor quality, so be sure to clean your brush. I always soak the bristles in acetone for a minute and then pat dry any polish residue off. Then I rinse the entire brush in warm soapy water, pat out the excess water and let it air dry. Good as new and ready for your next mani!

If you have a review or anything you'd like to point out regarding  these brushes, feel free to leave a comment below (keep it nice)!

Thanks for reading!