Welcome to Make Up Brushes

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Guide to Make Up Brushes

Eyes

Starting with the eyes, there are four types of make up brushes that every girl should have at the ready.  The stiff, flat eye makeup brush is used to pack eyeshadow onto the lid.  It needs to be flat so that it will press eyeshadow directly onto your primer or foundation and it needs to be stiff so that it picks up a high concentration of colour.  The next brush you’re going to need is the stiff, dome brush.  This is useful for smoky eyes.  These cosmetic brushes are perfect for blending the outside edges of your eyelid.  It can also be used to apply colour to the crease of your eyes.  Because it’s a stiff brush, it picks up colour very efficiently.  If you’re aiming for a more natural look, you may want to go for the soft dome instead.  The soft dome brush is great for applying highlighter under your eyebrows giving a natural, airbrushed finish.  Having softer bristles it picks up less colour and therefore gives a great natural look.  Finally, a pencil brush is a fine, pointed brush that can be used to apply powder directly around the lash line and for blending in eyeliner if you’re trying to achieve a smokier look.

Face

Again, there are four basic types of brush that make up artists generally use to achieve that professional, picture perfect look.  The stipple brush is perfect for applying foundations.  It’s a stiffer brush that gives a well blended, air brushed effect.  Blush brushes are used for applying blusher.  These brushes need to be softer to give a natural, gentle glow rather than harsh, cakey lines.  Angled blush brushers are particularly useful in creating a natural look, as the angle of the tip is specially contoured to match the angle of your cheekbones, making it easy to achieve a natural effect.  Contour brushes are smaller than blush brushes.  Again, these can be either flat ended or contoured.  The bristles are firmer than those of the blush brush to help you achieve a stronger line.  These are used under the cheekbone to accentuate.  Finally, dual fibre brushes are great for applying highlighter to the top of the cheekbones for that red carpet look.

So with that, you’ll see that we have eight basic cosmetic brushes that we recommend forms the basis of your kit.  Make up brushes vary greatly in price from less than £1 to £10 or even £20 plus for designer ranges.  When buying make up brushes, unless you’re familiar with the brand and model, it never hurts to do a little research.  The great thing about the world wide web is free, impartial reviews are just a few clicks away.  These can be a huge help to guide you to the right brush for you and you can pick up some great tips from top make up artists on how to get the best out of your brushes, how to care from them and how to achieve show stopping results with your new makeup brushes.  In our opinion, quality beats quantity hands down and we would recommend spending a little more and building up a collection of quality brushes over time rather than cheap job lots.  Not only will high end brushes perform better, but they will actually save you money in the long run because they are built to last.  They won’t shed like cheaper versions (there’s really nothing more annoying) and if cared for properly, will last for decades.

To run through some of the other brushes on the market, brow brushes are excellent for tidy brows (the key to that red carpet look is always perfectly groomed brows).  You can apply an eyebrow powder, pencil or even eyebrow mascara for extra definition, or just give your brows a quick come to put them in place.  A squirt of hairspray on your brow comb and quick comb through will keep your brows perfectly in place.

Concealer brushes are excellent for covering blemishes.  The results far exceed those that can be achieved with fingers alone or, heaven forbid, direct from the tube (this can leave a very cakey unnatural coverage).  A small, fairly firm brush is perfect for applying concealer.  You can then use your foundation brush to gently blend.  If you don’t need heavy coverage, by adding a drop of water to the head of your brush and shaking off, you can achieve a more natural result.

Fan brushes are great for applying loose powder under the eyes.  You should ideally do this prior to applying any heavy eye make up.  It’s inevitable that some of the shadow will drop down to your under eye area when you’re applying it to the lid.  By ensuring you have the under eye area well dusted with powder you prevent the stray shadow from sticking and it can simply be swept away once you have finished your lids.

Kabuki brushes are perfect for applying mineral foundation.  They are large, domed and fairly stiff.  Be careful to apply mineral foundation very sparingly – it can look cakey if used to excess.  We do, however, love mineral foundation when applied correctly.  It gives an airbrushed effect that’s second to none.

Finally, retractable brushes are an absolute God send to avoid an icky, gummed up makeup bag.  We particularly recommend retractable lip and concealer brushes – there’s really nothing worse than getting all these greasy messy smears all over your lovely products.  Designers spend millions making sure your lipstick lid clicks in just the right way and your compact snaps shut just so.  We ultimately pick up the tab with each item we buy.  Let’s do them justice and keep them nice.

We are delighted to bring you a fabulous range of cosmetic brushes available on eBay today, along with some amazing discounts.  We offer mail order delivery and searchable listings.  Please click on the links to the left to view our categories of make up brushes or alternatively use the search facility at the top of the page.  Our listings are updated daily so be sure to bookmark us.  If you can’t find the perfect makeup brushes for you here today, we’re sure to have them tomorrow.