I am a big believer in multi-tasking tools and I really like to use my fingers/hands to apply makeup because it’s easy and effective. That being said, I am a huge brush lover and have far too big of a collection because I think they are key to pulling off any look beyond the basics.
Here are some of my favorites.
Real Techniques is a great budget-friendly yet high-quality brand. The following are my favorites, which I use in both my personal collection and professional kit.
The Core Collection – has four classic face brushes that can be used for liquid foundation, powders, concealers, etc. It’s a great basics kit.
The Starter Kit contains all the eye brushes you would need to create great eye looks. There is a fluffy blending brush, a fluffier shading brush, a short smudger brush, an eyeliner brush, and an angled brush which could be used for eyeliner or brows. Since the shader and buffing brushes are fluffy they aren’t very precise, but they’re soft and great for doing less detailed work.
Stippling Brush is great to stipple foundation. It is a duo-fiber brush so it won’t apply super heavily. Compared to other duo fiber brushes I’ve got, this one sheds the least and feels very substantial in my hand which I like.
Sephora Pro is the high-end brush collection sold through Sephora. They are SO soft, and made really well. Out of all my brushes, I think these shed the least. Pretty much every brush I’ve bought from this collection has become an all-time favorite, but I’ll show you the two that I can’t live without.
Pro Airbrush #56 is my holy grail foundation brush. I have one in my personal collection and three in my professional kit because I just can’t be without it. It is so dense and soft, but it isn’t super fluffy to the point that it becomes imprecise and wastes a lot of product. I swear, it’s the perfect foundation brush. Blend using circular buffing motions and love the airbrush skin it creates!
Pro Airbrush Concealer #57 is the perfect concealer blending brush. I am not a big fan of flat, small concealer brushes because I think they make it difficult to apply product over larger areas and don’t blend efficiently. This brush is a bit bigger but its tapered and dense and gets into the nooks and crannies so well. When I use this brush, concealer looks flawless.
MACÂ is a well known popular brand of brushes. There are a lot of copy-cat brands out there with good quality brushes and for much cheaper, but the following two brushes cannot be replicated. I’ve tried all the dupes and always come back to the MAC versions. My only complaint is that these do shed, but they are so damn good that I let it slide.
239 is a flat shader brush. The 239 is unique because it is firm and dense and a bit shorter than a lot of shader brushes out there. Its perfect for a light wash of color, but it really shines when you want to pack on a heavy color because it picks up SO much color. I have at least five of these.
The 217 is an infamous crease/blending brush. Again, I’ve tried all the dupes out there and I think the 217 is just different and impossible to recreate. This is a perfect brush for applying crease color because it’s fluffy but also a little flattened so it really cuts into the crease accurately, but its also great for blending out color because its tapered and precise. Again, I have SO many of these.
130 is a short duo fiber brush. A lot of the duo fibers out there are long and wispy which is nice but can sometimes feel a little weak when you’re trying to blend. Because this is shorter and denser, it’s firmer and better at blending out. But because of the duo fiber, it deposits a light amount of color really evenly. I use this mainly for applying cream cheek products because it won’t be too harsh, or for blending out foundation.
Coastal Scents is one of the knock-off brands of a lot of major brushes. Their products are very cheap and somewhat hit or miss, but when you find a hit, it’s well worth it.
Bionic Flat Top Buffer is a great foundation and powder brush. It is ultra dense and so awesome for stippling and blending creams and powders into the skin. I use it a lot for foundation. My only complaint is that it eats a lot of product, so I tend to spray it with Fix+ before using so it won’t absorb so much.
