My Most Used Makeup Brushes

Having lovely makeup products is all well and good, but without the right tools, you’ll struggle to create the makeup looks you want to. Today, I thought I’d share with you my most used makeup brushes. These are some of my favourite makeup brushes, but not all of them. I have makeup brushes that I love, but don’t use often because my go-to looks don’t require them. I’ll bring you a follow up post with these makeup brushes.

My Most Used Makeup Brushes: Base

For minimal makeup days, I love using my MSF Natural with the Real Techniques Buffing Brush. The combination of these two gives me the perfect coverage when I don’t want to wear much face makeup, but want to even out my complexion. I’ve tried other similar brushes with my MSF Natural, but none have given the right amount of coverage like the Real Techniques Buffing Brush does. The Real Techniques Buffing Brush is synthetic and from their Core Collection, which costs £20.99.

I’ve recently added corrector into my makeup routine and wish I’d done so years ago. It’s made such a difference to my under eye circles. I like to get a precise coverage of corrector over the darkest parts of my under eyes. For this, I use the Real Techniques Detailer Brush, also from the Core Collection.

Setting my concealer is a must for me. The brush I love to use for this is the Laura Mercier Pony Tail brush. This picks up just the right amount of loose powder and is the perfect shape for my under eye area. It’s also super soft, which is really important for me when applying makeup around my eye area. The Laura Mercier Pony Tail brush is made from natural hair and costs £27.

On more made up days, I like to set my foundation or tinted moisturiser with a setting powder. The brush I usually use for this is the Real Techniques Duo Fiber Face Brush. I’ve found other face brushes have moved the base product I’m trying to set, Face Brush doesn’t do this. As the hairs are less dense than standard face brushes, it also means that I’m not going to end up applying too much powder and looking cake. The Real Techniques Duo Fiber Face Brush came in a set of three, that unfortunately isn’t available any more.

My Most Used Makeup Brushes: Cheeks

My go-to brush for my cheeks is the MAC 168 brush, a large angled contour brush. I love this brush so much that I have two! It’s a great shape for applying blusher to my cheeks. It’s also the perfect size and density to contour with. If I’m in a rush, or don’t have other brushes clean, I’ll use this brush for my highlighter too! The MAC 168 is made from goat hair and costs £28.

At the moment, I have two go-to brushed for applying highlighter. For my intense highlighters (like the Becca Highlighter in Opal), I’ll reach for my Real Techniques Duo Fiber Contour Brush. This is great not only for my more pigmented highlighters, but also for contour products. It can be easy to overdo it with some contour products, but using this brush allows me to build up the colour intensity and not over do it. The Real Techniques Duo Fiber Brush came from the same set as the Duo Fiber Face Brush.

For less pigmented highlighters, (like the Soap & Glory Glow All Out Luminizing Face Power), I reach for my Real Techniques Setting Brush. This brush is denser than the Duo Fiber brush, so picks up more product. The Real Techniques Setting Brush costs £7.99.

My Most Used Makeup Brushes: Eyes

My most used eye makeup brushes are the MAC 239 and the MAC 217. The 239 is perfect for putting eyeshadow onto my lid. It’s just the right size and density. I also like how thin it is. I’m not sure why I like thinness. Maybe because it’s more flexible than deeper brushes and so more comfortable to use? Anyway, I love this brush so much that I have two.

My favourite and most used brush for my crease is the MAC 271. This is the perfect size and shape for my eyes. The brush apply shadows evenly and makes it easy to get precise application of shadows. Perfect for using several shades to create a smoky eye. The MAC 239 costs £21 and the MAC 217 costs £20. Both brushes are made form goat hair.

I also get a lot of use out of my Sigma E25 Short Handle brush. This came as a free gift with a magazine and I hoped it would be a cheaper version of the MAC 217. Unfortunately, the hairs of E25 fan out more than the 217 and I find this doesn’t give as precise an application.

I use the E25 to apply shadow to my brow bone. I have a few shadows that, when applied with a dense brush like the 239 brush, look too stark on my brow bone. The Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in Bone is a good example of this. If you want to compare, my ideal brow shade is Bobbi Brown’s Ivory eyeshadow. But when applied with the E25, eyeshadows like Bone look subtle. To save ending up without a clean blending brush for my brow bone colour, I use the E25 purely for this purpose. I got the E25 brush free with a magazine.

What are your most used makeup brushes?

Find me on:

Bloglovin’ | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Snapchat | Google+ | YouTube

You can also sign up for my newsletter!