Wild, Wild World of Makeup Brushes

Do you have a set of brushes? Do you use your fingers? Do you still use those triangle sponges for foundation & Q-tips for eyeshadow?

I went to a trial once for one of my brides and actually forgot my brush set! Oh the horror!!! 

I told her "well if I can pull this off then I guess I've proven my worth!" She laughed but I know she was nervous!  So with q-tips and fingers I did it! She looked awesome and she was as surprised as I was.  I said "How much better are you going to look on your wedding day when I have the right tools!?!" And she did!
So if I can do it with just fingers and few rudimentary tools, why spend the major bucks on those fancy brushes!?
Well, we do and we need them.  You cannot always achieve the right look, blend or finish with a q-tip.
So what's in my tool belt? Well I have a few actual art brushes, a bunch of MAC brushes, a few Prescriptives brushes and a few drugstore brushes!
And I just ordered my first BLUSHED by Tami brushes... I haven't received them yet & will keep you up to date about them and not sure they'll be introduced in the line or not, but we'll see....
So.... great brushes . . . MAC. MAC has the best brushes on the market.  I don't care what anyone else says they are the holy grail.  They work beautifully.  Do what they are suppose to and are high quality.  Meaning they're not going to fall a part on you.  Also they have a huge selection of brushes.  If they don't have it it doesn't exist.
Brushes shed sometimes, whether they are high quality or not.  But it should be a minimum if they're a good brush.  My favorite brush is a MAC 217.

I have 3 of them.  I had 4 but gave one to an artist on my team because it is a necessary brush in your bag and she needed it!  The MAC 217 isn't just a blender brush.  It is made with a mix of natural & synthetic hair which means it works great with creams and powders.
I have had my Prescriptives brushes for 16 years! I haven't lost one.  I love them.  Sturdy wood handles!  I hope to have these brushes for 16 more years!

Prescriptives Powder Brush 

I recently found Real TECHniques in the last year or so.

They are a synthetic brushes made by a wonderful makeup artist "across the pond" Sam Chapman.  Her sister Nicola colabs with her to create and promote these brushes.  These two are almost my favorite makeup artists ever . . . well not almost, they are! Just sweet beautiful girls.  I like them I think because they came from retail & their style translates like that.  Which is similar to mine.

A set of these is like $20-ish. A set! Like 5 brushes!! And although they aren't fancy they are a good brush.  They are cut uniformly and perform as they should.  Soft is an understatement.  Also they're easy to clean because of bristles being synthetic. Cleaning . . . that's another blog!
Real Techniques just came out with a higher end brush.  They cost more and are prettier. But if I'm going to pay $20 plus I'll buy a brush from MAC.
So I have to mention Sigma or I would be remiss.  Sigma is a phenomenal brand of brushes.  They rival MAC.  I would say if you can't drop the money on a MAC brush you could spend a little less and buy Sigma.  But to me I'll just get one at a time and keep working on my MAC collection.

xoxo,
T

PS- all of this is my opinion.  Many would have very different opinions and that's great.  The point being brushes are made differently and every artist must find what works for them!