so... a while back, about.. i'd say a month ago, i got me a stippling/skunk brush from sephora (#44)
it worked okay. i  liked it. sometimes it shed, but hey, all brushes shed a little bit SOMETIMES.
i washed it for the first time, and some of the black dye on the goat hair came out. "no big deal" i say. "sometimes the over excess of dye washes out. yanno, like when clothes bleed in the wash the first time"

as you can see, i rationalize a whole lot.



then i realized every time i used it, hairs would come out. every time i washed it, more and more dye would bleed out. this was a problem. maybe i had a shitty brush. i decided to research. researched proved that i wasn't the only one. a lot of other people's brushes were just like mine. sooooooo after reading and reading, i gots angryz. because i had technically spent $35 on a piece of shit brush. THANKS SEPHORA. thennnnnn if i wanted another stippling brush, i could go to costal scents and pay $7, but it even says on the site that their brushes shed. at least they're honest.
i could go look for another company that made stippling brushes.
i could go to hobby lobby or jerry's and pick up and ACTUAL stippling brush (no thanks)
last, i could drag myself into mac and spend $42 on the original stippling brush, the 187.

i decided not to go with coastal scents. an extensive internet search that lasted until lunchtime did not turn up any other companies that had stippling brushes. an actual stippling brush for painting is out of the question. so, today i had to walk myself down to MAC, and spend great monies for another brush. GOD DAMMIT. 

getting the brush itself was another adventure i will not get into in this entry. maybe some other time. maybe never.
blah blah blah.

i buy it, and god i hate MAC. for an expensive as fuck brush, they COULD maybe put it in a plastic PROTECTIVE sleeve instead of a little bag. seriously :-/
i touched it, and it was sooo soft compared to sephora's #44. at first i thought it was smaller than the sephora one, so i was a little pissed because then it was a bigger rip-off than sephora's.
once i got home, i compared the two together and they're the exact same size! :D

but... well... picture time so i can stop typing and rambling >_>;;;
ALRIGHTY.......

black handle= MAC
silver handle= sephora
just in case you can't figure it out on your own

stats:
sephora= washed 4 times
mac= brand new as of today, washed once
i use sephora professionnel deep cleaning antibacterial shampoo for deep cleaning, and MAC brush cleaner for spot cleaning.


this is when they first met each other. they rolled together and got frizzy together @_@
guuuuuhhhhh.
as you can see, the white fibers of the sephora brush have all been dyed greyish black by the black hairs's dye coming out in washing.
that dye does NOT come out of the white fiber.




no flash, at an angle. LOK AT HOW GROSS #44 IS.


flash, at an angle. keep in mind that both brush's tips are supposed to be white.


comparison with flash. they look exactly the same. the heads are the same, the ferules are the same.


again.

after testing foundation on myself, i find that the MAC 187 is a lot softer than the sephora 44. even though the fibers are softer and less "pokey", they have more of a.... bounce? i have no idea how to word that. the brush pushes back when you're stippling, instead of poking/stabbing/whatever your pain tolerance may be. i also find with the 187, there's a lot less buffing going on. i can stipple a lot and it'll be fine, and i don't actually need to take the time to buff my foundation in, even though i did it out of habit anyway. when washed, there was no dye and only 3 hairs fell out (fine, but this better not happen next time. i don't think it will though).
i can't wait to use it tomorrow.






verdict:
MAC 187- money well spent
sephora 44- FUCK YOU SEPHORA, FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU.



random:

blue tint!!!! no point to this picture, i just wanted to post it because it was blue and therefore cool.

 


TL;DR: looking into buying a stippling brush, go straight to MAC and ask for a 187. DO NOT go anywhere else.