Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone is well rested and enjoyed their weekend. This weekend I gave my skin a break and didn't wear any makeup but I sort of missed my makeup brushes so as a way to play with them today I decided to do a post on them. A lot of people may be confused by makeup brushes or intimidated but they don't have to be. So lets get started, shall we?
First things first. If you've never used brushes you need to figure out how much or how little you want to actually use brushes. I, personally, use brushes to put on every aspect of my makeup, from foundation to eyeshadow. This helps keep me from touching my skin too much and keeps me from transferring unnecessary oils from my fingers to my face. So write down what brushes you want so you can figure out what brush set is right for you. There are a million types of brushes but you only want ones that you will use. Do not spend $300 dollars on a brush set that you will only use 5 brushes from. Some brushes you may want to consider are the following:
- Foundation
- Concealer
- Powder
- Blush
- Eyeshadow (all over and lid)
- Blending eyeshadow
- Eyeliner
- Eyebrow
- Smudge stick
- Eyebrow/eyelash comb
Now there is nothing wrong with buying brushes one by one, however, this can end up costing you more than a couple hundred dollars depending on what brand and what they're made of. Brush sets are economical and you can find a set that will be a good fit for you.
So after you figure out what brushes you want to use you need to think about what kind you want. Brushes come in both natural and synthetic hair. Depending on your beliefs or preference you can find brush sets in both or a mix of both synthetic and natural hair.
So lets take a look at a few brushes that you can get from brush sets that I've purchased and had great luck with.
First up are powder brushes-
These brushes are used for applying powder all over the face and neck area. You want to find a good brush that will give you great coverage and not crumble your pressed powder. The brushes shown are from the Sephora Perfect Pink brush sets. You will want to wash these brushes at least once a week to avoid too much oil and makeup build up. These brushes are from two different sets but they both work just as well.
The next brushes I want to talk about are the foundation and concealer brushes. This brush is perfect for applying foundation. It's a lot easier than you think to apply foundations and there are two ways to do it. You can put your foundation on the back of your hand and apply it that way or apply it to your face with your fingers and work it in that way. But whichever way you put it on you always want to always brush downward when applying foundation so as to make all the hairs on your face lie flat.
To apply the concealer just dot it under your eye and work it in with the brush until it's well blended and no streaks are visible.
The brushes to the right are all eyeshadow brushes. The two on the left in the picture are both large eyeshadow brushes, which means they are used to put on a base shadow or all over color. The two on the right are a small eyeshadow brush and a contour or blending brush. The smaller eyeshadow brush is used to put color just on the lid or the edge of the lid. The contour or blending brush is used to apply color to the inner crease of your eyelid or to blend the crease color with the all over color or lid color. That brush is a great tool to avoid having too sharp of a line on your eye lid. So your colors blend and will make your eyes really pop.
The brushes to the left are all eye liner tools. The angled brush is used for eyeshadow, gel or liquid eyeliners. You will need a steady hand to use this but I find it's easier to control the amount you get on the brush than it is to control the amount on the wand that comes with most liquid liners.
The brush in the middle is a smudge stick and is a great tool to accompish an amazing smokey eye look and to soften any hard eyeliner lines.
The flat brush that looks like a paint brush is one that I use to fill in my eyelashes. I will use a little black eyeshadow or eyeliner and get as close to my eyelashes as possible and fill them in. This is great if you have thin lashes.
These two brushes are both my most favorite and my most loathed. Not that they're bad brushes in any way or more superior just their functions are on two different plains for me. The brush on the left is a fan brush. This brush is used for wiping away or dusting all over your face. I love to use this brush to dust shimmer all over my face or to wipe away errant eyeshadow from my under eyes. I do use a lot of eyeshadow and this brush keeps the shadow from smashing against my face and coloring my cheek.
The next brush is a blush brush. The only reason I say that I loathe it is that I do not use blush at all. I feel like it makes me look a bit clownish and I don't use it. It is a great brush, don't get me wrong, I did use it to see how effective it is and it does a fantastic job in not crumbling blush. So while it does it's job it is just a wasted brush for me.
Ok, so these brushes all focus on a regularly neglected part of our face. The eyebrows. Women usually forget about them but if you have sparse or minimal eyebrows then these brushes can make your eyes look more full and really highlight your eyes. The brush on the left is meant for eyeliner but it's a bit too fluffy for that so I use it to fill in my brows and it works better than any other brush.
The brush on the left is meant for lips but I use it to blend my eyebrow color and make it less severe if I use too much brow filler.
The brush in the middle is probably my least favorite that comes with any brush set, not just this set. I find that the bristles are too hard and if your bristles are too hard you will develope flakes in your eyebrows. Who want's that? Another thing I can't stand about these cheap brushes are the flimsy plastic combs, the teeth break and bend and then it's a useless brush. But like I said it's not just this brush set it's almost every brush set in the world. So I ended up replacing the brush in the middle with this beast...
I'm not exactly sure if the brush is full synthetic hair or a mix but it is light enough that I don't get flakes in my eyebrows. However, this brush is not feather light or anything it does still have some stiffness but it won't take off any skin with it's bristles.
The bottom picture has a better view of the comb, now, in the first picture you see the comb has a black plastic covering and the bottom one does not. This is to show you that you need to be sure you keep up with this plastic cover. I know a lot of the times when a product or tool comes with some little protective piece it's usually lost down the drain, dropped in the trash or in the toilet where it's lost forever. You want to be sure you keep this covering. If you happen to just throw this in your makeup bag and go to reach for it later or reach for something else it will draw blood. It does amazing work separating eyelashes and making them look full and long. But I do want to also caution against the sharp teeth if you poke yourself in the eye with them or prick your finger you will be finished with this brush for a while. But it's an amazing brush if you're careful and is well worth the money.Now there are a million different brush sets out there. These are just the two that worked for me and were as reasonably priced as I could get without breaking the bank or sacrificing quality. Some places you can check out are any of these sites.
www.ulta.com
www.sephora.com
www.eyeslipsface.com
www.sigmabeauty.com
I hope I was able to help you or explain what brushes do and make them less intimidating. Using makeup brushes will also help your skin and give you a more flawless finish to your makeup that your hands can't do.
Have fun and stay beautiful!
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