Sephora Collection Classic Must Have Large Powder Brush #30

Towards the end of the last summer, my bronzer brush brought in half, it was still usable enough to get me through the end of the bronzer season.  I use a separate brush for bronzer and it didn't make much sense to me to panic buy a new brush when I would only be using it for about two more weeks.  I was able to finish up the season with it and then threw it away after Labor Day.  I went back to my traditional loose powder and the brush that I use with it but that brush is too tapered to use for powder bronzer.  My first night of self tanning was last night and I ordered a bronzer brush off the Sephora website last week and I first tried it out this morning with my favorite formula of MAC bronzer.

What was I looking for in a bronzer brush?  I wanted a brush that was huge and fluffy, with a small to medium length handle.  I wanted to be able to dust on a light layer on bronzer and have a better amount of control over it than a traditional powder brush.  Making a mistake with bronzer in the morning can push back my entire day and I hate when I have to start my makeup over after I have all my face makeup finished up.  I looked on the Sephora website about a month ago and have been narrowing them down ever since.  On the first round of narrowing them down, I got rid of all the ones that weren't large enough to lightly sweep powder bronzer all over the face.  The second round got rid of the ones that had long handles and might not give me the control that I wanted.  The winner actually was from a brand that I have never used any brushes from before: the Sephora house brand.

I decided on the Classic Must Have Large Powder Brush #30, a huge fluffy face brush with a shorter handle than most.  "A round, full-bodied brush for evenly applying loose or pressed complexion powders.  Perfect for creating an even, matte finish, this brush helps to set makeup quickly without excess powder and without overload.  This brush features synthetic takelon bristles, an aluminum ferrule, and a wooden handle. The brush can also be used for the décolletage with an illuminating brush-on powder."

I have only used this brush for powder bronzer so far and I am very happy with it.  I can easily sweep bronzer all over my face and then dip it again to add an extra layer to cheekbones and then blend all the way down my neck and chest area.  I love that the brush is not made of animal fur, I feel better using vegan brushes even though all reputable companies confirm that no animals are harmed in their fur brushes.  I was originally hoping that Urban Decay would have a great bronzer brush but their brush was too thin and tapered for my liking. 

I have no complaints with this brush, it performs just as I would like a bronzer brush to and I am actually considering using it as a powder brush in the cool weather months.  I would only use it with pressed powder, I think that it might make loose powder fly all over the place.  I will try this one out in a few months and see how it performs in this aspect.

photo courtesy of Sephora

MAC 239 Eye Shader Brush

I really need to give some of my favorite brushes some more love on this blog, a good brush can make any color product work to its maximum potential and not having a way to apply color products can make any product a near failure.  When you really stop and think about, I have had most of my brushes for much longer than I have had any color product and use them on a near daily basis.  It would be interesting for me to calculate the dollar per usage on some of the brushes that I use every single day and to see how little they actually ended up costing me.

Today we are going to look at another one of my favorite eye makeup brushes, this time one from MAC that I use almost daily for applying dense eye shadow color.  The 239 Eye Shader Brush is my choice for applying pigment right to the lid of the eye or along the lash line.  I bought this brush sometime in late 2010 from MAC and it still performs like it is brand new. 

"Soft and dense to shade or blend eye shadow or emollient-based products. This brush has a tapered, rounded edge with smooth, firm, fine fibres. It can be used to build intense colour on the eyelid. M·A·C professional brushes are hand-sculpted and assembled using the finest quality materials. They feature wood handles and nickel-plated brass ferrules."

I use this brush for powder eye shadow formulas only, I have never used it for cream or other types of more emollient formulas as I prefer to apply these with my fingers.  I mostly use this brush for applying dense pigment right onto my eyelid, it is small enough that it can place pigment in the exact area that I desire and I don't end up with eye shadow all over the place.  This is one of the best brushes that I have ever used for getting the eye shadow exactly where I want it, I will only use this brush when I am trying to create a rose gold eye and have to apply different shades very precisely in order to blend into the right gradation.  The other aspects that I love about this brush is that I can use it to apply dry eye shadow right onto the lash line and then turn it on its side to blend and soften the line.  This is a very good brush choice for applying color directly to the eyelid or the lashline.

The bristles are stiff but still soft enough that they don't hurt or irritate the eye area.  The quality and performance of this brush makes me very inclined to see what eyeliner brushes MAC has to offer since I am always looking for one to apply cream or gel eyeliner formulas.  This is one of the best examples of a eyelid brush since it gets the product right where I need and not where I don't!

photo courtesy of MAC

Vincent Longo Large Eye Shadow Brush #22

I have mostly been talking about product themselves lately but today I want to turn the tables and talk about one of the brushes that works to make my makeup great.  After all, makeup only looks as good as the user can apply it and a good brush arsenal is the best way to get a flawless makeup appliction.  Most of you will remember that I tend to rave about NARS Eye Makeup Brushes and these are still my favorites on the market, you can get nothing better than a NARS eye makeup brush.  Today we are going to look a little-known jewel in my collection, the Vincent Longo Large Eye Shadow Brush #22, this is a huge eye shadow blending brush.  This one is even larger than the NARS #3 Eye Shadow Brush,  a Holy Grail of mine.

The Eye Shadow Brush #22 is best used for blending, this is just too large to deposit pigment and it will create a bit of a mess if you insisit on using it in this fashion.  "This eyeshadow brush should be used to apply your lightest shade of eyeshadow across your lid. Its large size and softness facilitates blending all shades of eyeshadow together at the end of your application for a seemless finish." 

Vincent Longo suggests that this brush can used to apply the highlighter shade of eye shadow or to apply your eye shadow if you like a sheer wash of color.  Maybe my eyes are much smaller than the ladies that this was designed for, but I find this brush to be too large to deposit pigment in any organized fashion.  "Dip the brush into the #1, Sun, or Sex shade of your trio shadow. Use small circular motions to apply the color over your lid from the lash line to the brow bone. When all eye color has been applied, gently sweep the brush over the whole lid to blend everything together."  Blending and bringing the look together is where this brush excels and I recommend that you use it in this fashion, one or two sweeps of it will quickly blend all your eye makeup and provide the perfect finishing touch for any eye look. 

How is this brush different from NARS #3 and do you need to own both?  No I don't believe that you MUST own both but it certainly would be helpful to own both sizes.  The NARS brush is slightly more all purpose, this brush is small enough to deposit highlighting shadow but is still a good enough size to blend all your eye makeup after application.  If you can only own one, then I still recommend that you buy the NARS brush, you will get more overall use from it.  The Longo brush is larger and fluffier and I cannot apply eye shadow with it, it works very well to blend but using it to apply pigment can create a huge mess on the eyelid.  This brush is a nice to own but you could get by without it...but I don't recommend it!

I ordered this brush from the Vincent Longo website when I wanted another eye shadow brush for blending.  I have been doing many bronze and gold eye looks and blending is very important to pull these eye makeup looks off.  Also, blending is really important when I try to mix rose and gold shades to create a rose gold gilded eye look, both of the Longo and NARS brushes will provide the result but the Longo brush provides a quicker blending experience and the overall effect is slightly softer.

photo courtesy of Vincent Longo

NARS No. 15 Smudge Eye Shadow Brush

Several weeks ago, I finished trying out all the looks that were provided with the Tarte True Blood Eye Shadow Palette.  When in the process of these reviews, I went through my brush collection to find the best ways to apply the dense pigmented shades the create the more dramatic eye looks.  When working with these shades, I rediscovered an old eye makeup brush of mine, one that I haven't used for quite a while and had almost forgotten about.  One of the best aspects of this palette was that I refound this brush and now know that I can really use it to create the perfect smoky, smudgy eye. 

I have long raved about NARS eye brushes, with the No. 3 being one of my favorite brushes that I have ever bought (and still is to this day) and No. 15 is to exception to this rule.  No. 15 is actually the first NARS brush that I had ever purchased, I bought it to work with the Night Series Eye Shadow shade in Night Clubbing.  I used it several times to work with this shadow but found that I needed a smaller brush to use it as a liner, I pulled it out a few times after I realized this but this brush pretty much fell to the bottom of my traincase as a result.  Until I needed something to create the more dramatic looks in the True Blood palette...

NARS states the following as a description of the brush itself, "The Smudge Brush is perfect for applying eye shadow close to the lash line for a smoky lined look.  It is ideal for smudging or softening pencil lines or placing powder over pencil for added depth and wearability.  Made from Pony Hair, deemed the best hair for depositing dense pigments."

This brush works best when it is tapped straight down into the eye shadow itself, I found that it picks up pigment the easiest this way and doesn't create any mess.  The pigment needs to be deposited right where I want it on the eye and then I can smudge it to soften the line.  One of my favorite aspects of this brush is that the bristles are very stiff and I can easily place the pigment right up to my lash line, creating the perfect line to start a smoky eye.  Personally, I hate when I have a gap between my eye shadow and my lash line and this is the perfect tool to fill in this gap and give my eyes the perfect sooty, smoky look.  I have tried to create a smoky eye without using this brush to smudge my eye shadow and it just never looks right.  When I wasn't working with this brush as much, I often had issues with that look but I was able to pull off the dramatic eye looks from the True Blood palette really easily thanks to this brush.

I recommend having this tool in your traincase if you like to wear a deep smoky eye at night.  This is the best brush to help smudge the shadow and help create the sooty look that I love during the fall and winter months.  There is no downside to this brush, however it is only to be used for smudging shadows so it can't create any other type of look. I have also found that it is a bit too large to really use it to line the eye.  This is not the most versatile eye makeup brush that I have but is one of the best as doing its job very effectively.

photo courtesy of NARS

NARS No. 3 Brush

There are few things I own that I can’t live without. Most of the time I have found that I become obsessed with one product or another, only later to find another one equally fantastic or even better. I have a variety of makeup brushes that I have been suckered into when purchasing makeup. I am always thrilled with my purchase until I get home and open the brush up. Then I usually realize that I already own something very much like it or another brush that can do similar functions or even the exact same job. This is the point that I always get grumpy and swear to myself that I will never by another brush recommended to me by any makeup counter’s sales associate ever again. This usually lasts until the next time that I head to the MAC counter or to Sephora.

However, I have one brush that I use every single day and is completely worth every single cent that I paid for it. When I went to C.O. Bigelow, I had no intention of purchasing this brush and I actually ended up buying it as an afterthought with a NARS eye shadow purchase. The brush that I am talking about is the NARS No. 3 brush. It was used to apply eye shadow on me and I instantly fell in love with it. I was further convinced when the manager told me that this was her favorite eye shadow brush and the most versatile brush that she owned. She also used it everyday to apply her makeup, no matter what look she was going for. So I bought it, hook, line, and sinker. And yes, I had no idea that it was $55 when I said that I would buy it.

I got it home and put it in one of my stash containers and told myself that I would get it the next weekend and test it out. That was true in theory but not in practice, I never actually began using it until about 2 months later. Actually I had forgotten that I even had the brush. I found it when looking for something else and decided that it was a waste of money to just have it sitting in there unused.

I tried it, loved it, and now cannot do my eye makeup without it. The brush is actually called the Eye Shader Brush and is used to provide a smooth eye makeup application and blending. Sephora’s website said that this soft, gentle brush is perfect for applying lighter shades and for blending. I have used this brush to apply pale, shimmery shades (my favorites) and for blending smoky eye looks. The only time that I don’t use it is to apply Vincent Longo Wet Diamond Eye Shadows because they contain so much shimmer that I need to use my fingers so that the shadow is not spread all over my face.

I love this brush so much and I will simply die if it breaks or if I lose it!

photo courtesy of Sephora