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Five Essential Makeup Brushes

Ok ‘essential’ is a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe which brushes make life a bit handier? That aren’t foundation that I spoke about here or eyeshadow brushes that I speak about here? That’s more of a mouthful though 🙂 And I promise it’s just a coincidence that I have five here like the other lists.

A blush brush is definitely one of these. It’s handy to have a makeup brush dedicated to this task.

Blush is usually pink or peach and you don’t necessarily always want them colours on the rest of your face, so pick up a smallish, soft brush. One that will fit the apple of your cheeks but still blend the colour in.

A concealer brush is handy, but of course not a necessity.

I know you can just use your foundation brush (or your fingers). It’s handy to have a smaller, dense synthetic brush to apply concealer though. You can get into all the nooks and crannies of you face with it.

A powder brush for me, I think is pretty necessary in this business we call makeup application.

You can have one to apply your setting powder and bronzer or one for each, it’s up to you. I think if you were to have another brush, grab a large fluffy variety and even a smaller one for under the eyes (if you’re feeling really fancy) or like to use a different powder under there like I do. 🙂

Ok contour.

I know not all of us do it, nor do all of us give a crap about it, but if you do and are interested, there is many a brush to help you on your contouring journey.

Flat paint brush types, tapered fluffy types or even small rounded types. There’s one for all! If you want a stronger contour, choose a denser brush like the paint brush, but if you want to add a more diffused contour grab something tapered and soft.

Ok, last unnecessary but necessary brush. One for highlighting.

Again this all depends on your highlighting needs, if you don’t do it, you don’t need a brush and if you just use your fingers, that’s perfectly acceptable. This is just another brush option, if you want one 🙂

As you want to use a light hand with a highlighter…well I’m assuming you do? So a fan brush is a great brush to have (although I cannot find mine to use as an example sorry). Or a mini duo fibre brush works really well, as you can just use the top less dense layer for application. Anything smallish with a soft lightly packed bristles is good for the job really.

What do you think? Too many makeup brushes? If you are a full on makeup junkie, you’re probably thinking eh Gemma where’s the rest of them I know 🙂

Thanks for reading as always and be sure to follow me on social media for the chats. Snapchat is becoming really handy for that. I’m Beautynook over there.

xxx

August 17, 2015/3 Comments/by Gem

Top Five Foundation Brushes

I popped up a post about the top five eyeshadow brushes to have in your collection last week here and it went down really well. So I thought I would add onto this and talk about my top five foundation brushes. Now I’m not saying you need five foundation brushes in your life, that’s just for beauty junkies like myself who just can’t stop buying them. I just thought I would list five different types of foundation brush that are on the market and explain a bit about them and you can just pick your favourite from the bunch…or all of them… it’s you prerogative really 🙂

First up I have, the kabuki style brush.

These come from all brands in all shapes and sizes.

They are a basically a tightly packed, (hopefully soft) synthetic foundation brush. They can apply alot of product and do it quickly and can be used to really buff foundation into the skin. These are probably my favourite type of foundation brush, as I have large pores and I find I can get the foundation into the pores really well with a kabuki brush and fill them in.

Next up is the old school flat foundation brush.

I only have one of these in my brush collection, because for me personally it’s not my favourite application tool.

However alot of people love using this type of brush for applying foundation and then even using something like a beauty blender to work it into the skin more. For me, I feel a flat brush leaves the foundation sitting on your skin more, it tends to apply like a paint brush. I have oily skin, so for me especially this doesn’t bode to well throughout the day. Again, it’s just personal preference really 🙂

Here we have the stippling brush.

The stippling brush is a duo fibred brush. This means it two different types of fibre within the same brush. It has denser (usually darker) bristles at the base of the brush, with lighter looser packed bristles at the top, which are again synthetic hairs. Synthetic bristles are much better for creams as the the product doesn’t soak into them and disappear as much as it would real hair.

A stippling brush as you would assume is softer on the top, so you can really massage your mug with it in whichever way you prefer depending on the pressure you use. You can kind of have the best of both worlds with it.

Buffing brushes are next in my top five.

These are like a less densely packed kabuki brush.

So they splay out more as you use them to work your foundation in. Because of this they give a less concentrated coverage, so a lighter coverage of product ensues 🙂

Ok the last brush I’m going to talk about is not a brush at all. But I wanted the title of the blog post to be the same as the eyeshadow one so apologies (I’m sad I know).

So makeup sponges!

Sponges have been used since the dawn of time to apply makeup so there’s nothing new here really.

You can buy packs of them in the euro shops for next to nothing. I personally would say dampen the sponge before you use it, it makes for a smoother application and it doesn’t suck up all your foundation. Sponges like the Beauty Blender and Real Techniques ones I have here market themselves to be dampened, but the cheaper one wouldn’t always tell you so tis’ a handy little tip. Sponges are a great tool for using after your foundation brush aswell, to just roll on your skin, and take up any excess product and just make sure your work is blended as much as it can be 🙂

So there you have a little synopses of some of the foundation brushes on the market :p

Of course there is a million and one ways of doing it, this is just a break down of a few I have tried and tested.

Cheers for reading as always.

xxx

August 10, 2015/1 Comment/by Gem

Makeup, Makeup Tools

My Top Five Eyeshadow Brushes

When I say top five eyeshadow brushes, I don’t mean you have to run out and buy these specific brushes. I just mean having similar brushes in your life will make your eyeshadow application a little bit easier.

I’m a firm believer in letting your eyeshadow brushes do the work for you. Obviously, makeup lovers tend to accumulate alot of brushes over time, but if you take care of yours, I think 5 (or so) will get you through any makeup look.

First and foremost, you need a blending brush.

Blending brushes can be used for pretty much everything.

The Mac 217 is probably the most infamous blending brush, but most brands have their own version of them nowadays. I use a blending brush for applying my crease colour and blending it out softly . As they have a rounded top, you use the higher bristles to apply the products and then diffuse it using the whole of the brush. It’s handy to have two blending brushes in your collection so if the one you are using gets too much product on it, you can switch, but you can always just wipe it off as you go. Noone wants a muddy crease line do they? 🙂 A blending brush works just as good for applying colour all over the lid to, so it’s a bit of a multi tasker in your arsenal which is never a bad thing.

For more defined crease work a tapered brush will come in very handy.

These are just examples of what I use, but again anything similar you can get your hands on will work fine. You just want a soft(ish) brush with a more pointed top. It will let you isolate the colour more when adding it to the crease, so you get a more distinct line there, but you can still use it to feather out the colour if it’s looking a bit too harsh.

A flat brush is a great one to have in your collection too and is definitely a part of my top five eyeshadow brushes list.

Something you can pack colour onto the lid with. It’s great to have a bigger one and a smaller one, but whatever your budget allows is really ok. You just don’t want something too big, unless you’re just using it for washes of colour all across the lid.

I think a pencil brush is another essential brush to have in your collection.

Like a blending brush, they can be used for a plethora of reasons. To apply colour under the lash line, above the lashline, in the tear duct, on the brow brone, or for applying very precise lines in the crease, if you are being particularly fancy.

Finally, I think an eyeliner brush is a must.

I think which one you choose comes down to comfortability really. Whether you are a bent liner brush gal, a straight thin brush, or one of an angled variety, there’s one of to suit all.

There are so many brands out there now that do fab eyeshadow brushes, for all different uses and price points. Sigma, Zoeva, Louise Young, Real Techniques, Mac the list is endless. And us Irish have some fab brands on our doorstep like Nima Brushes and Blank Canvas Cosmetics which is pretty brilliant.

When it comes to real hair or synthetic, just remember don’t apply liquid products with real hair brushes, it will soak up all the product and it will probably damage your brushes in the process too. Synthetic brushes are much more suited to this and you can apply powder with them aswell.

There you have it my top five eyeshadow brushes. I hope that was somewhat helpful, if you’re in the market. If you have any more questions, just ask me in the comments sure 🙂

Thanks for reading.

xxx

August 5, 2015/6 Comments/by Gem