Face Makeup Brushes Must-Haves

One advice I would give anyone who’s just getting into makeup: invest in the brushes. They make all the difference in how your products perform. Having said that, I didn’t quite appreciate them for a while and ended up buying a few useless ones. I think it’s because they just don’t look as exciting as a new lipstick or blusher but does it work out in the long term.

Louise Young Super Foundation – foundation

Yup, this brush is huge – the bristles and the handle – which can be a bit of a drawback as it takes up quite a lot of space but once you get over that, it does live up to the Super Foundation brush name. It blends the product in so quickly and flawlessly and I do enjoy it for concealer as well which is unheard of. It might take a bit of getting used to but in the end, the size just allows you to spread the product on the whole face and yet it’s not too bulky to the point where you can’t use it. I always ponder a little what’s the point of using those huge powder brush if not to get the powder in the air and not on your face but onto powder…

Charlotte Tilbury Powder & Sculpt – powder/contour

I fell head over heels for this brush. Isn’t it a beaut? The rose gold, the way it doesn’t slide of your table, the perfect length for holding it in your hand, the tapered bristles. All those little details. It just picks up a light amount of product which insures that you never end up with an overly powdery complexion or a harsh contour. And again the shape hugs both the hollows of your cheeks and the under eye area.

Real Techniques Setting – highlight/concealer

My first choice is to use this brush for highlighter as it’s the perfect size for the tops of your cheeks, the bridge of your nose and whichever small area you decide to highlight. It deposits the product evenly and if you go a bit overboard, it’ll help to blend away. Lily Pebbles also loves to use it for blending in concealer. It does work great and the brush doesn’t soak up the liquid at all but if you have deep-set eyes like me, it feels itsy bit odd. Go figure how I think LY34 actually fits better under my eyes being five times the size.

Nars Yachiyo – bronzer

This one is a newer purchase and I think it’s generally meant to be a blusher brush (a darn good one there) but I love it for bronzing up the complexion. The medium size makes it so that you don’t up with product all over. I mean sometimes I just fancy bronzing up the perimeter of my face without getting it all up in my hair or the centre of my forehead. And this shape, which is more rounded than the mentioned Charlotte Tilbury brush, caters to these needs of mine. I feel like I’ve said about each and every brush in this post but it applies powder in a non-powdery way.

Bobbi Brown Blush – blush

Nothing groundbreaking here. A classic blush brush shape. It’s fairly large so it makes blusher application a breeze. No harsh lines or overly rosy apples of the cheeks. One thing I will say is that for some reason, it’s ridiculously long but otherwise, it’s a no brainer. I’m guessing it would work for a light dusting of powder or bronzer as well but I prefer a more precise application.

So here’s my face brush line-up. All the brushes you need to do your whole face. It makes my makeup application smoother and the effect is more polished as well. Now, assuming I was going away and lacking space in my make-up bag, I could probably even downsize it to Louise Young LY34 and Nars Yachiyo but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What are your must-have brushes?