High-quality makeup brushes make a massive difference to your makeup application. They help ensure products apply evenly, do not drag across your skin, and blend seamlessly. Excellent makeup brushes are also long-lasting and durable, so paying more upfront leads to long-term savings.
With this in mind, I review the recently launched Glow & Restore vegan makeup brush set. The G&R Full Make-Up Brush Collection is Glow & Restore’s full makeup brush, beauty sponge, and powder puff collection.
Are Glow & Restore’s new vegan makeup brushes worth investing in, or are there better alternatives? This honest review tells you everything you need to know, including the brushes’ fluffiness, ease of application, and collection aesthetics.
About Glow & Restore’s vegan makeup brush set
The G&R Full Make-Up Brush Collection costs £80 and includes 9 different tools. The set features 7 makeup brushes, 1 powder puff, and 1 beauty sponge.
Each product is vegan and promises to be super-soft and luxurious. The brushes, sponge, and powder puff claim to not drag across your skin nor irritate it, instead leaving you with radiant and airbrushed skin.
Glow & Restore brushes use bio-responsive bristles infused with Dermabrush Technology, designed to sync with your skin’s natural elasticity, ensuring a smooth, effortless blend every time. The result? A more even finish, less product waste, and a brush that works as hard as your skincare to give a natural radiant glow, according to the brand.
The technology behind the blend includes SkinSync Fibres, which are advanced micro-fibre gradient bristles designed to move with your skin, reducing irritation and micro-damage. Precision Gradient Bristles are tapered and density-optimised for seamless buffing, sculpting, and blending. While the brushes, sponge, and powder puff are engineered to enhance the performance of both foundation and skincare-infused formulas for maximum glow.
The G&R Full Make-Up Brush Collection includes:
- GR11 Foundation Brush
- GR22 Mini Buffer Brush
- GR21 Angled Brush
- GR13 Curved Concealer Brush
- G&R Beauty Sponge
- GR19 Blush Powder Brush
- GR05 Large Powder Brush
- GR24 Small Powder Brush
- G&R Powder Puff
The set is colour-coded to indicate what type of product they’re designed to work with. The lighter pink tools are designed to work with cream makeup products, while the coffee caramel tools are designed to work with powder makeup products.
Brush collection review
Below, I share my thoughts on each tool in the vegan makeup brush set, before sharing my thoughts on the overall collection.
GR11 Foundation Brush
The GR11 Foundation Brush is wonderfully dense and fluffy. The fibres are incredibly soft, which makes sweeping foundation over my skin a breeze. Instead of applying foundation streakily or patchily, this brush provides medium coverage and a seamless blend. I found that gentle circular buffing motions gave the best application.
GR13 Curved Concealer Brush
The GR13 Curved Concealer Brush is a tightly packed and fairly small brush with soft bristles. This brush is particularly good at concealing underneath your eyes, as the curved shape lends itself well to fitting under your bottom lashes. Personally, I prefer a slightly larger and fluffier concealer brush. As this isn’t as fluffy as my usual concealer brush, it took longer to buff the product into my skin. However, the application was smooth and still easy.
G&R Powder Puff
The G&R Powder Puff is very soft and slightly flatter than other powder puffs I’ve used. Actually, I found this flatter shape helpful when patting loose powder underneath my eyes to set them using the tip of the powder puff, as the thickness didn’t get in the way. This puff did a great job of setting the oily areas of my face and my concealer. The loose powder didn’t look blotchy or patchy and instead gave my skin a smooth finish.
GR19 Blush Powder Brush
The GR19 Blush Powder Brush is supposed to be used for powder blushes. I actually used this to apply powder bronzer. The bristles are fairly soft, although they’re not as soft as the Glow & Restore concealer and foundation brushes. This is a fairly fluffy brush.
On reflection, I think a more tightly packed brush may have worked better for powder bronzer application. My bronzer applied a bit patchily, and it took a fair bit of work to build up my desired level of bronzer. I think a denser, rounder brush would’ve applied the bronzer more easily and with more coverage. This brush would be best with a very pigmented powder blush, but I still prefer other blush brushes in my makeup collection.
GR21 Angled Brush
The GR21 Angled Brush is supposed to work with cream products. I think this is a particularly nice cream blush brush, as the angled shape lends itself well to dispersing product across your cheeks. I’ve used this brush with both powder and cream blushes, and it works beautifully. The bristles are very soft, and the brush is fairly dense but still fluffy, which means the product applies smoothly with great coverage. Blush also blends effortlessly with this blush. It’s very versatile.
GR05 Large Powder Brush
The GR05 Large Powder Brush is a large, fluffy brush with incredibly soft bristles. Out of all the brushes in the Glow & Restore vegan brush set, this one has the softest bristles. I use this to apply setting powder, and it works gorgeously. As the brush is so fluffy, the powder doesn’t set into fine lines, congeal with any base makeup, or look too heavy. Instead, the result is airbrushed, smooth, and poreless skin. This is now my fave large powder brush!
G&R Beauty Sponge
The G&R Beauty Sponge is a soft, medium-sized beauty blender that sits on an angle to allow you to get into tighter spaces on your face. This sponge expands with water but still retains a soft, bouncy texture. I’ve used softer sponges that apply base products faster, smoother, and more evenly compared to this one. However, the shape of this sponge is particularly useful for smoothing over any harsh or messy lines and getting underneath your eyes. It’s a good sponge that provides medium coverage.
GR24 Small Powder Brush
The GR24 Small Powder Brush is perfect for applying powder highlighter or setting powder underneath your eyes. It’s a small, fluffy brush with very soft bristles. I used this to apply a powder highlighter over my cheekbones, and it provided a lovely finish. Instead of a thick strip of blocky highlighter on my cheeks, it provided a more diffused, soft glow. As the brush isn’t dense, you can also blend the edges of the highlighter into your skin for a more natural, scattered effect. I really like this brush.
GR22 Mini Buffer Brush
The GR22 Mini Buffer Brush is the perfect size and density to apply cream bronzer or contour. The bristles are soft, and the brush sits somewhere in the middle of being fluffy and dense. For this reason, if you want a more sculpted, angled look, you could pack the product onto your skin with little effort. But if you want a softer all-over bronzed look, you can easily blend and buff the product into your skin for a more natural finish.
Is the Glow & Restore’s vegan makeup brush set worth it?
Overall, I think The G&R Full Make-Up Brush Collection is totally worth £80.
All of the tools in this vegan makeup brush set are ultra-soft, non-irritating, and feel very high-quality. None of the brushes dragged across my skin, and I think the bristle density across the entire collection was spot on. This feels like a well-thought-out brush collection that’s versatile, makes makeup application seamless, and comes with a great range of shapes and sizes.
I also think the look of the Glow & Restore makeup tools is lovely. The soft blush pinks and coffee caramel tones with gold lettering look chic, sophisticated, and modern.
Rating: 4.5
I still prefer some of the other brushes in my makeup collection, but I will certainly use these tools time and time again. I also think £80 for 9 high-quality tools is very reasonable!
Join the list
Keep up to date with all the latest beauty & lifestyle content
Thanks for subscribing!
Sarah Sarsby is the owner of A Woman's Confidence. With over 6 years' experience of writing in the fields of beauty and lifestyle, Sarah is passionate about all things content, makeup, skincare, wellness, and lifestyle. She has oily skin, is obsessed with lip gloss, and loves cookie dough.