Purchasing my First Makeup Brush Sets – Shopping Paris Presents Real Techniques brushes from Real techniques.com, Flipkart.com and Amazon.in

“The brush is an extension of the hand and is a fundamental tool for a Makeup artist, and whether he is a professional or an amateur, his canvas is the face and/or the body” – Dany Sanz

Now, when makeup is intriguing me, I feel the necessity of possessing good quality makeup brushes. I firmly believe that good quality makeup brushes can add a fascinating dimension to your makeup application. However, it is tad bit hard to find good quality makeup brushes in India. I am nowhere trying to demean Indian companies that produce good quality brushes. I being inadequate to find good quality brushes in India tried my hands on Paris Presents Real Techniques brushes.

“Real Techniques” - this name is very familiar to all makeup lovers globally. The Real Techniques brushes are synthetic Taklon (is a type of synthetic fiber) made brushes, cruelty-free and no animals were harmed during production of these brushes. FYI, Makeup brushes are generally of 2 types: -

• Natural Bristle Brushes and

• Synthetic Bristle Brushes.

Samantha Chapman with her sister Nicola Haste associated with Paris Presents to develop Real Techniques brushes under the brand name “Paris Presents Real Techniques brushes”. Pixiwoo, PixiwooMadness and Real Techniques are the YouTube channels by Samantha and Nicola. Synthetic Bristle Brushes, that are made using high quality synthetic fibers are generally on the expensive side than the low synthetic fiber brushes. Although the Real Techniques brushes are considered to be Drugstore brushes but quality-wise they are worth to fit in any Makeup lover brush collection. Price of these are moderate and are available in India market as well. 

My Experience on buying Paris Presents Real Techniques brushes:

I bought my Real Techniques brush sets from https://realtechniques.com. I bought them on sale from their original website on 50% discount. This being my first purchase of makeup brushes, I wanted to make sure of the authenticity and to my surprise there was a sale running on their website. However, not all products were on sale but few sets/collection were covered under this 50% discount offer. This discount was given for a reason; they were clearing out their old stocks as they are introducing new packaging. Not only have they modified their packaging but also they have made few changes in the brushes to fit in their new sets/collection and renamed them. Whatever, the case may be when I got 50% discount that eventually let me waive off almost 80% of the shipping charges, I could not resist myself to get my hands on them.

I also bought Real Techniques Blush brush from Flipkart and Real Techniques Expert Face brush from Amazon.

• Buying from realtechniques.com

Shopping from international sites is not what I am extremely accustomed with. I had apprehensions before taking the plunge of buying things from this website, what if my products never get deliver? Who am I going to complain in case of any issue? What if they do not refund my money in case of delivery failure? Is using my credit card safe? However, I can say that I am happy that I took this risk of buying Real Techniques brushes from their original site, their site is 100 % authentic. Please take a look at the picture of the sets ordered from realtechniques.com:

Now, I am going to write some question that I had in my mind before buying and answer them myself, I at least possess some experience now! 

Q - Do I need a Credit Card for shopping from this site?

Ans – Yes.

Q – Will I need to open an account with the site?

Ans – I opened an account, ordered my stuffs. However, on subsequent log in I was unable to access my account. I contacted their customer support and then got a mail stating that only U.S customers could avail the facility of accessing the account at that time.Therefore, I could not avail the facility of tracking my parcel via logging in ‘My Account’. I hope this gets resolved asap.

Q – What charges will I have to pay for Shipping?

Ans - You need to pay for Taxes, Duty and Shipping which varies depending upon the amount of your purchase. The Shipping cost is generally estimated keeping in mind the weight and destination of the package. Here is my attachment:

Q – Do I need to pay custom for getting my products?

Ans – NO. You need not pay customs as you pay the duty beforehand with this site. They ship via i-parcel DDP (Delivered Duties Paid) and pay on behalf of you to Indian Custom Authorities.

Q – Is there any formality that needs to be undertaken for receiving my products from DTDC ?

Ans – You need to upload a KYC on DTDC website. You will get a call from DTDC executive requesting to upload your KYC after your product is shipped and handed over to courier partner. Your product will be streamed towards delivery after 5 working days from the date of upload of KYC.

Q – How long will it take to deliver my brushes?

Ans – I placed my order on Feb 26 and got them around March 25 in Kolkata (I am really sorry I totally forgot to keep in records of my exact delivery date). That suggests that at least a month you need to wait if you are ordering from realtechniques.com to India. However, I believe, you may get the delivery within shorter time span, depending on which part of India you reside. 

Q – Is their customer support responsive?

Ans – Let me tell you they follow CST (Central Standard Time) which means they are almost 10 hours and 30 minutes behind IST (Indian Standard Time). They respond to mail only after 4.30 CST. Now, to answer the question, yes they are responsive. I would not say they are extremely responsive to meet your queries but they answered to my mail after 1 -1 ½ days. You can even contact them on their social media pages.

Q – Which country manufactured is mentioned on the package?

Ans – “Made in China”. This is a part that disappointed me as I expected them to be “Made in U.S.A” brushes. (Do you possess Real Technique Brushes? If yes, then please let me know if they too bear the ‘Made in China’ tag!).

In case, you have any other query please let me know in the comment section below. I will try my level best to answer them. I would also suggest you to go through the Shipping & Return details on realtechniques.com.

Packaging :

It came in a pink and white Singlewall cardboard box (that meets all the construction requirements of applicable freight classification). You can see “Real Techniques by Sam & Nic” written on one side of the box. On the front you get to see details about your shipment. On opening you find a welcome card from the company (these gestures makes me happy! Do you feel the same?). Then you find a statement of the items purchased, finally you find your brushes wrapped in a paper. Now I ordered 2 sets:

• Sculpting Set, and
• Starter Set

Packaging of the Sculpting Set is absolutely perfect whereas the package of the Starter Set is tampered from one side. That disappointed me a little however that is acceptable as my products were not damaged.

I got 2015 batch products and the font styles are different in this batch products. Please refer to the pictures below:

About the Brushes:
The Brushes are really soft but I have not used them yet, thus failing to state about the performance of these brushes. I am also unable to give any light on their usage, shedding and cleaning part. I will definitely to do a review about all the above mentioned stuffs once I use them.

• Buying from Flipkart.com:

To tell the truth earlier I have used only Vega brushes (they are good, does the job). However, I wanted to try the single brushes from Real Techniques as tones of people say that the single brushes are extremely good. So this time I thought of ordering from Flipkart as they were offering it on extremely low prices. However, as I went through the reviews on Flipkart, many customers claim the brush to be a fake one. I ignored all those negative comments and took a chance. I received my brush within 6 days. I ordered Real Techniques Rlt-1407 (blush brush) on March 17 and received it by March 22 from Kunchals Store Pvt.Ltd for Rs.382. The Real Techniques Rlt-1407 (blush brush) came in plastic package with the brush covered in bubble wrap. What I discovered is that it is a 2014 batch product, so the fonts on the brush are different from the ones ordered from realtechniques.com. Please refer to the picture:

After going through various comparison and comparing them with the ones I got from realtechniques.com they appear genuine (P.S. - I am not claiming their authenticity!).

• Buying from Amazon.in:

After Flipkart sent me the Real Techniques brush, which appears to be a genuine but old batch product. I gathered more courage and ordered Real Techniques Expert Face Brush from Amazon.in. My seller from this store was Real Techniques, although the invoice I got, is a hand written one and belongs to ‘Shivarambh Traders’, New Delhi. A statement containing product`s authenticity and reminder restraining resale of that particular product, accompanied the invoice.  I placed an order on March 26 and got delivered by March 31 for Rs.495. This product is also from 2014 batch and have the same font as the Blush Brush ordered from Flipkart.com. This brush too appears genuine but an old batch product. Please refer to the picture:

So that is my experience on buying the Real Techniques brushes from different national and international sites. Hope this article is useful to you. Happy Reading!

Disclaimer: I am no way claiming that the brushes I got are 100% authentic. I am yet to discover their authenticity. If you can help me with figuring out their authenticity, you are welcome! Please do not use my images anywhere online or offline without taking my permission.