I briefly mentioned my Club Monaco #02 eye shadow brush in my brush stash post. I called the brush as one that I would run back into a burning building to rescue.
Club Monaco Beauty was a full range of makeup sold at Club Monaco (CM) stores in Canada and at Sephora in the US. [Fun fact: Club Monaco was a Canadian company until they sold it to Ralph Lauren in 1999] The makeup line included signature items such as the infamous Monica Lewinsky lipstick (Sheer Lipstick in Glaze), Eye Grease (cream eye shadows), and Cheek Dew (cream blushes) – all in sleek brushed silver and frosted lucite packaging. I feel they were ahead of the time since no other makeup lines in the early 2000’s offered items like theirs. From the line, I owned an eye shadow palette, a powder foundation, a concealer, a handful of lipsticks and lipglosses, and even a metal eye lash comb (I wish I had saved the lash comb but it wasn’t very good). I could go on about the history of CM but that’s for another time! Today I’m here to talk about the eye shadow brush #02 which I acquired from the eye shadow palette:
What makes this brush so special is that not only is Club Monaco Beauty no longer available – making this brush somewhat of a collector’s item – the quality of this brush is outstanding. I’ve had this brush for at least 10 years and it has retained its shape and all its hairs.
The bristles are of natural bristles (in fact, back then, good quality synthetic brushes were a rarity) with a sleek frosted lucite handle. The shape is a classic eye shadow shader, with densely packed hairs and a slightly tapered tip. The most unique aspect of the CM brush is the narrow shape – around 1.0cm wide – and its firm hairs, making it perfect for packing on powder eye shadow onto the lid.
In recent years, I began looking for brushes with similar shape so I could have a rotation of shader brushes. The closest I’ve ever found were from Bourjois (which then I prompty bought 5 as back-ups) and Sephora (Pro Small Shadow #15) – but neither have as firm hairs as the CM.
I’ve placed the MAC 239 Shading brush and Shu Uemura Natural Brush 10 next to them for comparison – both of them are much wider than the CM, however, the Shu brush does have a similar firmness as the CM.
Meanwhile, I still kept an eye out online through makeup swap forums and ebay for the actual Club Monaco brush. Would you believe that one evening I typed in “Club Monaco brushes” into ebay and it turned up a listing for THREE brand new eye shadow brushes? And would you believe the listing was $10 for all 3? (The shipping cost twice that, but that’s typical to Canada) It was so odd, a woman in the US owned these brushes for years and never used them and finally decided to sell them. While the #02 brush was not among the 3 that I received, it was amazing to get my hands on other sizes. I added #05, #06 and #07 to my collection:
My favourite of these is #06 since it is the most similar to my original #02. The #07 brush has different hairs than the others – softer – and is my least favourite since it doesn’t pick up eye shadow as well.
I’m SO happy with my finds! I’m now on the hunt for Club Monaco face brushes! 😀
Do you have any “run back into a burning building” beauty products?
stash matters 
good luck finding more brushes! I believe in you!
I think my “run back into a burning building” brush is the Sigma Flat Top Kabuki F80. First, it’s pretty inexpensive, so that’s awesome, and it just blends out liquid foundation like a dream ❤
Loved this post! :))
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I hope I can find more – it’ll be so exciting if I did! But not sure if lightning will strike twice! 😛
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How great that you got more off eBay! 😀 That looks like a great collection of just the CM brushes.
I myself only have a CM powder brush (which I still use practically every day) and a lip brush (I don’t use this much, but it’s a great lip brush). Oh, and a pencil sharpener.
I wish the lipsticks were still good. I loved Glaze (think I went through 2), and a few others like Beam (which was similar to the old UD Bruise that was purple/green…I think it was Beam, anyway).
I actually rediscovered one of my CM cream eyeshadows. It’s Pewter and OMG it is still good. Crazy. Wish they’d bring back the line. They had nail polish, too, though it was the weakest CM product I tried.
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Wow, that’s impressive your CM cream eye shadows are still going strong! I’d love to see a post on it! Include your powder brush in the post! #TBT post idea. 😉
My friend gave me an eye grease and cream blush from CM but being a makeup newbie, I did not appreciate it and gave them away.
They really should bring back the line – it would do really well. I really liked their glosses too – I had a dark grape colour (so 90’s) that I loved. Never tried the nail polishes! Do you still have any of them? Another #TBT post idea! 😛
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Haha, yes! I still have them. Some were pretty crappy, if I’m honest! I’ll have to see if they’re worthy of being posted 😀
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That’s awesome that you found a listing on eBay for those! I’d be pretty depressed if my J210 was gone forever.
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But you could replace it. I get panicky when things are discontinued or LE and irreplaceable!
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Bay can really surprise you sometimes 😀 Not gonna lie, I’ve never heard of these brushes, but your ‘go to’ 02 reminds me a bit of the brush that comes with Urban Decay Naked Pallet. It’s hard to say from the picture how close it is, but you can maybe have a look and compare if you’ve never tried one? (I might be completely wrong btw 🙂 ). Hope your luck doesn’t run out and you find more of these!
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Funny thing is that I don’t ANY of the UD Naked palettes so I wouldn’t have any way of comparing! I’ll have to see if UD sells the brush separately. Thanks so much for the tip! 🙂
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Maybe you can see them up close in the shop, though, to see if it’s close 🙂
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I shall have a look! I should also bring my own brush in for comparison haha! (don’t laugh, I have actually done that… brought in a Limited Edition MAC blush I wanted to match into Sephora!)
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haha (sorry, I’m too rebellious). There’s nothing wrong with that, though! Better safe than sorry 🙂
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Very nice eye brushes! I hadn’t ever heard of this brand. 🙂 xo
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Club Monaco is primarily a clothing brand – I’m not sure if they have stores everywhere in the US but they have nice clothes but overpriced! 😛
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Oh ok I see!! 🙂
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GOD! I worked at Club Monaco when Monica Lewinsky gave that infamous interview wearing the awesome Club Monaco Glaze lip gloss. We could NOT keep that stuff in stock…and then it ran out and they eventually discontinued the makeup line. WAHHH!! They also did a lip gloss called Sugar that was immensely popular…. Great post!
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Oh wow, you were right in the front lines! I remember that lip gloss! It was a frosty peachy champagne shade! I loved the frosted tubes of those glosses!
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Yes!!!! I remember the lip glosses being the best part of that makeup line. The lipsticks were too dry and the eyeshadows weren’t pigmented enough. xo
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Club Monaco was really well-priced until it was bought out by Ralph Lauren. That’s when the prices sky-rocketed. The quality is quite good though. You’ll pay a lot for the clothing, but it will last a long time.
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I agree, the prices are a little insane nowadays. My wardrobe consisted of a lot of CM stuff at one point (the clothes lasted for years) but now I don’t shop there as much unless there’s a sale!
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Ditto! LOL! xoxox
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