I'll be the first to admit - I don't own a great deal of makeup brushes. They are absolutely gorgeous, and some make the whole process a lot easier, however I don't find myself using a whole lot of them. My collection pretty much consists of my Jessup brushes (already reviewed, here), my Real Techniques Your Eyes Enhanced Starter Set (I probably should review these), and bits and pieces I've ended up with over the years. Not a huge lot to choose from. However, there are some I reach for time and time again, because they just help me apply products so easily, and I've realised there are some I just can't live without. Eye brushes are especially important, because, seriously, try doing your eyebrows or eyeshadow without any brushes and see how you go (spoiler: it won't be amazing).
These are my top 6 picks:
- Real Techniques Your Eyes Enhanced Starter Set - Accent Brush
- Real Techniques Your Eyes Enhanced Starter Set - Base Shadow Brush
- Ecotools Angled Liner Brush
- Elf Eyeshadow "C" Brush
- Elf Contour Brush
- Jessup Precision Tapered Brush
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| Not the most attractive photo I've ever taken, but gets the job done. L to R: Accent Brush, Base Shadow Brush, Eyeshadow C Brush, Contour Brush, Precision Tapered Brush. |
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| Y'all know I've gotta fit in some fancy photography somewhere! |
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| Decided this picture needed to be X-LARGE. |
As you can see, the C brush is the widest, the base shadow brush the longest, with the accent brush and angled liner brush similar in size, and the contour and tapered brush also fairly similar.
And here's my play by play for each brush individually:
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| Front on: it's tiny, quite square in shape, and the bristles are dense and not too bendy. |
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| Side on: shows you how thin it is. |
As stated above, this brush (and the Base Shadow Brush) come in the "Your Eyes Enhanced" Starter Set. This is available from Priceline for $40 but PLEASE don't buy it from there. I know, I love Priceline but these are just SO grossly overpriced in Australia I can't stand it. If you're going to buy them, it is well worth picking them up from iHerb for $19AUD and pick the $8 shipping option and they'll be yours in a week! The shipping price evens out if you pick up some E.l.f. products as well (also grossly overpriced here).
In terms of the brush itself, I've never seen one this shape or size, and works really well for placing colour into my crease or outer V - my hooded lids make this difficult with anything larger. It is nice and firm, and picks up heaps of pigment. Love it.
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| Front on: wide, fluffy, looks more like a typical blending brush than a typical base shadow brush. |
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| Side on: looks even more blendy, considering it's domed shape and fluffiness. Thinner than front on though - it's not round. |
Real Techniques have this thing where none of their brushes look like the 'typical' shape one expects for a brush with that purpose (case in point: this blush brush - have you ever seen a blush brush like that before?), and the Base Shadow Brush is no exception. It is definitely more reminiscent of a blending brush than a base shadow brush to me. Luckily, it can be used as both, which is what I love so much about it.
It's not my favourite brush for base shadow (that comes later), but it does the job sufficiently. Where it really prevails, however, is in its ability to blend into the crease like a demon. Seriously! Because it is thinner side on, it fits into the crease perfectly, and its slight pointed tip and fluffiness just combine to be able to blend precisely. Other blending brushes (like the one in this same Starter Set) are just way too big for my crease and don't allow for any precision whatsoever.
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| Front on: nicely angled, quite short bristles that are nice and sturdy, and don't bend too much. |
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| Side on: LOOK AT THAT PRECISION. HOW CAN ANYONE USE ANYTHING ELSE FOR THEIR BROWS. |
I'm pretty sure I've gone on and on about this brush on this blog and my Instagram that people are probably getting sick of me, so I'll keep this one short.
There is NO better brush for your brows, in my humble opinion. It is razor thin, yet sturdy and picks up product really, really well. Also super easy to wipe clean as there aren't a huge amount of bristles for the product to get all caught up in. I stumbled upon this early in my makeup-loving life (I feel like it's been a new life hahah) and have not felt the desire even once to use anything else for my brows.
I will note, however, I'm not a huge fan of using it for liner (its actual purpose) at all - for gel liner I use the brush that came with the Maybelline gel liner which I absolutely love.
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| Front on: wide and flat. |
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| Side on: quite thin, very dense. |
Another brush I got from iHerb (as well as the contour brush), and used in conjunction with the contour brush I found these the perfect set to begin using eyeshadow. This picks up pigment and packs it on really well for such a cheap brush ($3USD) and feels super soft. It's not the most precise brush - you can see in the above photo the curved top isn't quite even and there are a few hairs poking out here and there - but it works great for its intended purpose - a fairly generic, cheap eyeshadow brush. I also use it for placing colour into my crease due to its flat shape.
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| Front on: curved top, very round brush. Hairs are a bit all over the place, but for $3 you can't really complain. |
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| Side on: I took this to show how useless a side on image would be. It is super round so looks exactly the same... |
I have no idea why this is called a contour brush. Maybe it was named before contouring became 'big' in the makeup world, and its original meaning was to contour the eyes, by placing colour in the crease? Who knows. But this is another cheapie brush that works really well for the price. It is like a normal-sized version of the oversized blending brush in the Real Techniques Starter Set, and I use it mostly to blend small areas, or place colour in the outer V of my eye. It is fairly dense and not hugely fluffy, however I find its denseness good for blending out small areas of eyeshadow (gotta be precise with hooded lids). I also haven't seen a similar shaped brush around, so I find it a good addition to any collection, however small or large.
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| Front on: pointy, dome shape, long bristles. |
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| Side on: looks wider this way, but I've never noticed that in person. It's pretty round. |
This brush comes in the ten piece Jessup set found on eBay (check out the link to my original review above for details), and is the stand out of the 5 eye brushes included. It is quite big, but comes to a point, meaning eyeshadow can be placed quite specifically, or blended out. These brushes, in general, are insanely soft and I love them all, however this one is the one I reach for the most.
That's all for today! Let me know what you think, hope you've enjoyed reading.
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