How to choose makeup brushes: Make-up artists about what they use themselves
Although if you want makeup you can do just your fingers, outstanding brushes are able to change the approach to make-up and help develop skills. In any case, the choice is purely individual and is determined only by your needs and tastes. This task, unfortunately, does not facilitate. Everyone who is not indifferent to face painting has a set of brushes and sponds one way or another: some of them are used every day, meeting with others turns out to be a mistake, others come to us along with cosmetics and, as a rule, are immediately put aside. We talked with people for whom the brush is a professional tool, and we learned that they choose for themselves personally, guided by empirical experience.
I am a big fan of form, my addictions change periodically: literally a year and a half ago, I was crazy about thin beveled brushes, but over the past year brush-torches have conquered my heart. Now I have more than 15 of them. After the form, when choosing, I pay attention to the nap (I love the synthetic ones dearly), the build quality and so on. Not so long ago, she went crazy for an unusual or, on the contrary, minimalist design, striving for a unified look, but now the form has overshadowed everything, so what's the pen and color, the tenth thing: it will be bright - good, monotonous - not worse.
In the make-up for myself, even in the daytime, even in "special cases", the main factor is the time that I can spend, and depending on it, the number of brushes is determined. As a rule, this is a set of three: for a tone (fluffy or with a tightly packed pile), which, if necessary, you can powder, feather or medium-sized torch, which can be used to put shadows, highlighter, and to sculpt a face (although the latter is rather, to the previous brush, which works easily with modern cream correctors), and thin flat oblique for eyebrows, arrows, lips and just clear lines.
The more time I have for makeup, the more opportunities to use brushes from this set in different sizes. The daily “on the run” version looks like this: twice dunk the brush into the cushion, because after applying the sponge, the finish is too tight for me, hold the contour stick on my cheeks and shade where necessary - powder, eyebrows and polish with a highlighter. If more time appears, arrows, shadows or blush are added, or whatever you like.
I have a belief that almost every brand that produces brushes, you can find a decent copy. In the professional they, of course, are more common, but the mass market can be surprising. Brushes Morphe Brushes, dearly beloved by American bloggers and makeup artists, clearly show that you should not discount products of an affordable price category. If you look at today's prices, the most expensive of my brushes are MAC, which have been faithfully serving me for more than four years. Most of the space in my tube is occupied by the middle price segment: Real Techniques, the recently released trio of Pudra, Sephora and NYX. Can fingers replace brushes? Can Summer. Because in the winter in the morning in our climate, even if you are in a hurry, the tactile pleasure of spreading creamy silicone textures on the skin with cold limbs seems doubtful. Invigorating, of course, but better give me two extra minutes to meditate with my brushes.
Choosing a brush, I first of all pay attention to the pile and the build quality, and only then to the design and other characteristics. I think the brand is important, and it's not the price. There are inexpensive brushes decent quality. For everyday makeup, I often use cream products, so it’s convenient for me to use my own hands as a tool. But just in case I have two brushes in store: Tom Ford 02 (it is universal and suitable for contouring, applying tone and blush) and Zoeva 227 for blending shadows. There is another tilted brush Tom Ford, but I hardly use it. In general, I like the MAC tools, Zoeva, Bobbi Brown. I think that each brand has both successful and unsuccessful brushes. Eyeliner brushes and lipstick, I often buy in art stores, because they often get lost and wear out. The only thing that is unacceptable for me is fakes. That's what you really can not buy, this also applies to cosmetics.
I think that it is quite possible to do without brushes and special tools. A couple of times I had it so that I forgot the brush, and had to paint only with my hands. But still, it seems to me, it is worthwhile to have a good brush for tones, powder and blush and a comb for eyebrows. For myself, I can not leave anything, but if you need to choose only one tool, then let it be my brush Tom Ford.
For me, the softness of the pile is important - no one likes a hard brush that almost scratches the skin. In this case, the origin of the pile does not interest me. Morally obsolete sources state that it is better to choose artificial brushes for liquid and cream textures, and natural brushes for dry ones, but in practice many makeup artists like to apply concealer with a MAC 217 goat pile brush. There are brands that make only vegan brushes, such as Make Up For Ever. In my personal collection of regular brush-brush, which I comb my eyebrows, and a mini version of NARS Ita Kabuki. This is a flat brush for blush and bronzer, but my cheekbones do not see it - I put shadows on it for ever. It turns out beautifully to make up an eye one movement.
When I want to make arrows, I use a bevel brush for the eyes or eyebrows. This form is convenient to apply and cream, and dry product, and even dye eyelashes. I clean up all the excess with a cotton swab dipped in micellar water. In special cases - when I have time to wash the sponge immediately after the make-up - I apply a tone with a beauty blender. By the number of my leading tools Make Up For Ever and NARS. I bought them specifically for studying as a makeup artist in order to immediately work with good tools. Then I didn’t understand well and didn’t know that Sephora, L'Etoile, and art goods stores have excellent brushes. First of all, it is important that the brush does not fall apart after contact with water, does not scratch the skin and is universal in use.
Fingers do not exactly make up the eyelashes, and eyebrows difficult to comb. I tried - does not work. The main tool in my makeup remains a brush for eyebrows and eyelashes. The most pleasant thing about this brush is the price. Even if it is a cheap disposable brush, it will still perfectly comb your eyebrows and paint your eyelashes.
Due to the fact that I am constantly in a hurry and late, I usually take five to ten minutes to put on makeup. I don’t use brushes at all simply because I have a beauty bubble. All that I can not cause sponge, I put a stick. This is the ideal format for people like me: highlighters, blush, shadows - applied, shaded with a finger, went. I can make up without brushes, but I can not without a blender. Going to some important events, I remember that I am a makeup artist, and I take up the brush. Here I can use from two tools to infinity at once - it all depends on how much makeup I do and how much time I have.
The difference between mass market brushes and premium brushes is that the latter are much easier to work with: better brushes are better applied and shaded. Of course, a good make-up artist, who knows how to paint, will do the makeup with any brushes. Here the question is rather that there is no need to suffer if you can take a tool that will save time and will be pleasant for both the master and the client. I choose brushes depending on what I need: sometimes I look for a certain shape, sometimes I need a good natural bristle, sometimes, on the contrary, I need synthetics. The most expensive tools in my case are the Annbeauty brush brushes.
My opinion is this: if it is more convenient for a person to paint with his hands, then why take up his hands and torture himself? Usually for those who do not use brushes, but want to buy them, I advise you to take a small quality set so that freedom for experiments will appear. This is a pair of brushes for the face (powder, correction), brushes for eyes (flat and fluffy), a brush for lips. Brushes - an individual story, each with a time appear their favorites.
Personally, I can not do without a neat synthetic lipstick brush, because I hate curved contour. It does not have to be expensive: I love to go to art stores and look for "tongues" of different forms there. Lips can make up any such reed brush, and yet it is suitable for shooters, cream shadows, and in extreme cases - for eyebrows. In general, I usually only paint the eyelashes and correct the tone, so I have enough palms and cotton buds.
If you believe that there are visagiste-graphics and makeup artists-flowers, then I am the first and do not like feathering a hundred shadows on the eye. Therefore, I do not have a collection of feathering brushes, and for myself I use only one, Mizuho CMP527. It is very soft and does what I can not do with my finger, namely, it distributes dry shadows very carefully and evenly. Although usually I paint creamy, which are easy to apply with fingers.
Any brush should be strong, be it a professional, luxury or mass market. That is, the pile should not fall out, and the handle should not be flimsy. Synthetic brushes can be bought cheap, they are distinguished from expensive brushes only by the shape (and not always) and the richness of the packaging. However, sometimes the desired shape can be found only among the brushes for nail art or in the same art store. It is more difficult to find good natural and cheap brushes, I'm not trying. They have a pile should be exactly matched and should not be pricked; The type, softness of the pile, its length, the shape and density of the assembly also matter. I won’t talk about beauty brand and MAC brushes, everyone already knows about them.
I notice that not everyone tried Japonesque brushes, although they are very high quality. The pile is tenacious, and there are cool shapes - I recently bought a large flat brush for a tone like that of Becca (funny, these brushes were used by Kabuki actors, which are inspired by the creators of Japonesque). More new synthetic Pudra turned out good. Shaquda is also excellent, but because of the cost, I can only watch and test them at master classes.
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