Some of my friends really got excited by brushes and of course they had bunch of questions: Which brushes are used for foundation application? What is a blush brush? How do you contour? And so on... So I decided to make a series of posts where I'll try to explain what I know and show you which brushes I own.
Disclaimer: I am no expert, nor a make-up artist, I just share things I know. :) So let's start.
In this series, I will start with large brushes and work my way towards small brushes and their usage. Large brushes are used for foundation, blush, contour, powder and bronzer, so let's say face-oriented brushes. They are big and therefore they are meant for larger surfaces.
First big brush I want to mention is a stippling brush. In general, stippling brushes are dual fiber brushes, which means they are made of shorter and longer bristles. Usually the longer (white) bristles are the ones you pick up the product with and you can either use circular "buffing" motion or dotting "stippling" motion to apply the product on your skin.
I would use it for applying liquid foundation, creme blush or any kind of creamy product. Alternatively you can use it for applying powder products if you want lighter coverage.
Stippling brush gives light, airbrushed coverage which means it is quite appropriate for spring and summer time.
I own two of them: Ebelin (Drogerie Markt DM brand) which is between 4-5EUR and Real Techniques for which I paid around 10$ in the US.
On a few photos below you can see the Ebelin stippling brush. The bristles are synthetic, long and soft and because of that they are not very firm. The problem with that is that you cannot buff the product very well if it is very creamy. This brush works very well with a very liquidy products where you can apply the product with a very light pressure (liquid foundations and BB/CC creams).
Now imagine having a very creamy foundation and applying it with this brush. Even if you try to stipple or buff the bristles leave strokes on the skin and you would need to buff it with additional brush. Personally, I like to use it for pigmented powder blushes or bronzers because it gives a light wash of color. I don't use it for foundations as I don't like the final result it gives (unblended strokey look).
I haven't experienced any shedding with this brush (but I've seen it in other Ebelin brushes). Also, it feels sturdy and firm, but it is not of a superb quality (handle is made of a light plastic and ferrule is made of some kind of metal - it looks and feels cheap). I'd recommend this brush if you want to play around as it is not expensive at all.
I should probably mention that the manufacturer recommends to use it for mineral foundation/powder and I can see that working out (I never used mineral foundation so I cannot fully comment on that).
Now, here is another stippling brush, Real Techniques one. It belongs to the same family, but it is completely different. I really wanted to get some RT brushes in the US as they are much cheaper than in Europe and I had my eye on Expert Face Brush (which I ordered later online). They didn't have it in Ulta, so finally I decided to take this one. On my way to a hotel, I was kind of regretting it, since I was not that crazy about stippling brushes.
Boy I was wrong! :) This brush is perfect. It has way firmer bristles than the Ebelin one and they are more densely packed, so you can really buff your foundation on your skin. It doesn't matter if it is creamy or liquid, it looks really natural, gives decent coverage and your face looks airbrushed.
I have to say I really like the packaging - there is a bottom rubberized part on which the brush can stand and the ferrule is made of aluminum. And it is pink! :D You have to love it! It feels very firm and stable and in general looks much better that Ebelin one. The bristles are also synthetic and they seem to be hand-cut and 100% cruelty-free.
Here you can see some side to side photos of both brushes, so you can witness the differences yourselves. You can clearly see that RT is a smaller brush and that bristles are much shorter and more densely packed. As I said, Ebelin brush is more wobbly and I would use it for powder products (for a lighter wash of color or coverage) and RT I would use (and I do use every day) for liquid foundation.
They are both very soft to touch and they feel very pleasant on the skin, there is no shedding what so ever, they are easy to clean with some soap and water. If you ask me honestly, I would recommend them both, but for different things.
With that I conclude my first brush post. Next time I will continue talking about foundation brushes and try to give as many details as possible.
I really hope you'll enjoy this series and I am looking forward to your comments! :*
~Anelei
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