May the Best Brush Win!

As promised, it's the Battle of the Brushes!  Since I have done a decent amount of complaining about different brush sizes, I thought I would upload pics of some of the brushes I have mentioned so you have a better idea of what I'm talking about as well as one I have not complained about yet.  :o)  I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about what your prefer and what you have encountered.

First, I mentioned the flat, thick brush from SH's Complete Salon Manicure line (color shown is Green Tea).  It is also a little rounded at the end.  I think the rounded edge was a good idea and it is smoothly rounded.  But the flatness and thickness were a bit much for me.

SH CSM Side view

SH CSM Front view, same brush

The next brush was from Icing (the color was Butta).  This one was incredibly thick and I had a really hard time with it.  It was like trying to paint my nails with a mop.  However, it may have been a fluke that I got such a thick brush, as you will read about below.  For comparison, the first picture is Icing's Butta, with the bad brush.  The next picture is Icing's Hazelnut.  The brush on the Hazelnut was better, but still very thick.  I think the frayed and flared brush on Butta was just a case of the occasional bad brush, which Icing pollies seem to have a problem with.

Icing Butta: VERY thick brush

Icing Hazelnut: Better, but still thick

Unfortunately for Icing, their bad brush flukes seem to permeate all of their pollies.  I recently bought a bunch of their Magnetix pollies - both for me and for a swap.  While none of these brushes were flared like my Butta was (that just doesn't sound quite right, does it?), I did come across a couple with warped brushes.  I don't know how else to explain it.  They are bent.  This one shown is their gold Magnetix color (no name).  Sadly, both of the golds I bought were like this.  :o(

Icing Mag: Front view

Icing Mag: Side view, same brush

My best advice (which I will be following from now on) is to check the brushes in store anytime you purchase an Icing polish.

The next brush is from SH's Hard as Nails line.  The color shown is Hypnotic Pink.  This time, I thought the brush was much too thin.  It took several strokes to cover my nail.

SH HaN

This next brush shown is one that I felt was "just right."  It is from Piggy Polish.  This color is called Blue-mmm.

PP

Finally, the last brush I will show you for now is from Spoiled.  I haven't swatched these yet for you, but these brushes are, by far, the worst I've come across (with the exception of the occasional funky Icing brush).  They are similar to the SH Complete Salon Manicure brushes, but thicker and jagged.  I tried to get some good closeups of the brush tip for you so you can see how jagged it is compared to the SH's smooth and rounded brush, but you know my camera.  Very poor quality (both my camera and the Spoiled brush).  It was like trying to paint your nails with a oar.

Here is Spoiled's brush.  The color shown is called Good Karma.

Spoiled

Next is Spoiled's brush (left) and SH's Complete Salon Manicure (right).  My camera just couldn't handle focusing on both, so the SH brush is a little soft.  Sorry about that.  But the main goal was so you could get an idea of the thickness of the brushes side by side.

Left: Spoiled. Right: SH CSM

Last but not least, a closeup of the Spoiled's brush bristles...just terrible!

Spoiled

It dawned on me after I took all of these pictures that I should have slated all of the brushes next to a ruler.  That darned hindsight is always showing me up!  Hopefully, this was helpful to some of you!  And again, I'd love to hear about your opinions and experiences, too!