Essence of Beauty Brushes: MAC brush dupes?

When I got my first MAC brush set, which is the Heirlooms set, the first thing I thought of when I saw them is that they looked a lot like the Essence of Beauty face brushes that I have. So are EoB brushes dupes of MAC? Let me show you the pics to compare. May I remind you that the MAC brushes I have are SEs, not FS so they are smaller than the FS brushes.

Here is a look at my MAC 168SE (left) vs. the EoB blush brush (right):

The MAC is of course, smaller because it's not an FS brush, but they look very similar right?

Here is a look at my MAC 190SE (left) vs. EoB foundation brush(right):


Aside from the size difference, the EoB foundation brush is more pointed.

Here is the MAC 194SE (left) vs. EoB concealer brush (right):


My EoB is unwashed so it has a lot of residue but without it, it looks pretty similar to the 168SE. The EoB concealer brush is wider, though.

They look really similar don't they?

My Essence of Beauty Brushes

I finally got my Essence of Beauty Brushes from eBay! This is actually my first purchase via eBay and I got them for a decent price. I actually started eyeing this because of Girltalk and I saw Shen (shensaddiction) with these babies during the MMU weekend. I loved how they look like! These are 3 double-ended brushes with 1 bonus eyeshadow brush.

from top to bottom:

blush and powder brush

foundation and concealer brush

blending and eye shadow brush

eye shadow brush

I'm no expert on brushes, but I think that these brushes are mixed. Some are synthetic while some are animal hair. The 3 duo brushes are soft, but the bonus eye shadow brush is hard and scratchy. I already see a little bit of shedding in the blush brush, which I guess to be made of animal hair. Because they're double-ended, they're very handy for travel, but it's a little hard to store. I wish I was able to find more of their eye brushes though, because they're much raved about. I guess I'll have to wait till I actually go the US to buy those.

Anyway, I was in Watson's today and look what caught my eye:

See the giant 70% off? It was originally P100 (around $2) but it came out at P20 only (around $0.40) so it was actually 80% off. I tried to feel the sponge (since it couldn't be opened) and it felt more durable than the usual sponge tip applicators so I decided to give this a shot. When I finally opened it up when I got home, yes it really was more durable. Although, this won't last as long as a brush will. LOL.