Looking for a makeup brush guide? With so many different makeup brushes out now, it’s hard to know which ones are worth using, and how to use them. Here, we’ve narrowed it down to our 18 favorites, (all in one neatly wrapped package so you can access it too!) Wondering what each brush in our recommended makeup kit is used for? We’ll break it down for you below.
Makeup Brush Guide
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Makeup brushes can be such a tedious thing to look at especially when you don’t know how and when to use them, so I created this makeup brush guide to keep you up to speed with your beauty arsenal. Take note that even though you’ll hear me say “it depends on the artist what brush he’d like to use”, there are still some technicalities to it, that’s why they are called tools, for them to perform and to be used for a certain task. Are you ready to find out how you can use your brushes more effectively? Go ahead and read on.
1. Large Fan Brush
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A large fan brush is typically used to brush off excess product on the skin, it’s made up of long bristles shaped into a fan for a minimum disturbance on the product. Allowing you to brush off excess powder without moving the makeup around. To use hold lightly and fan around the perimeters of your face, slightly brushing away excess powder or highlight, this is a must for a flawless finish!
2. Powder Brush
Powder Brushes are brushes that are packed together loose enough to allow you to blend product better but dense enough to pick up pigments for coverage, much like your foundation powder. To use this brush, dip on to the compact, give it a little swirl and tap off. Apply to your face carefully blending out the product. The powder brush is a must have in your beauty tool.
3. Angled Brush
Angled brushes are meant to be used on the corners of your face, so the hollows of your cheeks, your jaw line, and the temple area are places that will benefit the use of an angled brush. You can use this for sculpting the face, and to do that dip the brush on a contour powder and apply to the hollows of your cheeks, your jaw linee and places where you would normally contour. Although, I would recommend a smaller angled brush to contour the nose. This is the proper brush to use to create that contoured and highlighted face that’s been very trendy for a while now.
4. Foundation Brush
A flat foundation brush is used for applying liquid foundation. It picks up liquid or cream foundation effectively and lays it on the skin with the least amount of streaks because of how it is cut and shaped. In order to use this, put a small amount of liquid foundation on a palette or directly on the brush and swipe the brush on your face until you achieve your desired coverage. This is another makeup essential you need to have.
5. Kabuki Brush or Flat Top Brush
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Kabuki brushes are usually flat, round brushes used to apply liquid foundation or powder foundation on the skin. Because it is densely packed, it is soft and is able to blend out products a lot better than a flat foundation brush, many times after applying foundation using a flat foundation brush, makeup artists go in with a kabuki brush to blend the product. Personally, though, it’s okay to use a kabuki brush to apply foundation directly from the tube to your skin. For me, this is one of the most versatile brush, and I would definitely recommend this to everyone.
6. Small Fan Brush
A small fan brush is used to brush off the excess product in small areas of your face like the corners or your nose, or your chin. It can also double as a brush for applying highlights to your cheekbones! To keep you looking glowy and fresh!
7. Large Shadow Brush
This type of brush is used to lay down the base color for eyeshadow, this is another brush you need to have in your kit because you can create different eye makeup looks using this brush alone.
8. Small Eyeshadow Brush
A small eyeshadow brush is usually for putting a highlight color on the eye. So, a shimmery shade or a pale color right in the center of the lid.
9. Eyeshadow Blender Brush
Another brush that you need to have in your kit is the blender brush is used exactly for just that, to blend eyeshadow. Normally, you don’t use a blending brush to put colors on your eye, because for a blending brush to be effective it has to be clean sans any color to efficiently blend out the color that’s already on the eye. If you use a dirty blending brush, then it might appear murky or dirty depending on what color is on the brush itself.
10. Small Concealer Brush
A concealer brush is effective in blending and applying a heavier base product to the skin, like a concealer. The small size also allows for the brush to be used on small areas like under the eye or pimple marks.
11. Small Powder Liner
The small powder liner is a straight brush with really short bristles, it gives you the control you need in order to apply eyeshadow on the lower lash line. Using the same brush, you can also apply a highlight color on the lower lash line close to the inner corner of your eye, perfect for creating that beautiful glam look!
12. Angled Brow Brush
Angled brow brushes are best used to apply eyebrow colors to fill in your eyebrows. Depending on the bristles, softer bristles are better at applying gel or pomade type of brushes, whereas harder bristles tend to apply powdered eyebrow pigments better. Create eyebrows that are on fleek using this brush!
13. Lip Brush
The lip brush is a tool that allows you to pick up color from your lipstick tube or palette to your lips. This application process gets rid of clumpy lipstick, it also lessens the possibility of color bleeding because you tend to apply thinner coats when using a lip brush.
14. Detailer Brush
A detailer brush is used for detailed application, like glitter application on an area of your eyes or face, or it can also be used to contour your eyes to create that deep-seated eye look. Definitely, a must-have if you ask me, in fact, I have more than a couple of this in my kit.
15. Eyeliner Brush
An eyeliner brush is used to apply gel liner close to the lash line, it is also designed to help you create a beautiful winged liner look, easier and more effectively.
16. Smudge Brush
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Sometimes, you will want to create a smudged eyeliner look and the brush you can use for that is the smudge brush. It’s short and soft enough to be able to smudge eyeliner pencil or gel on your lash line very useful when creating that smokey eye effect.
17. Mascara Brush
The mascara brush is used to groom mascara and eyebrows as well. Personally, this is one tool I cannot leave without, I use my mascara wand on all clients and on myself all the time because I groom my eyebrows with it.
18. Lash and Brow Comb
The lash and brow comb is used mainly for grooming and shaping your eyebrows, I like to use the comb to trim hair that has grown out longer than most by combing the hair upward and trimming the excess with scissors. When filling in the brows with tint on some occasion, the bristled side is a good tool to brush the eyebrows for a more natural effect.
There are many different makeup brush sets that you can check out, I even have a separate blog post for professional makeup brushes. Just take note that when choosing which makeup brush set you’d like to own, you consider a few things like your budget, the quality of the product, and the value you’re getting for the brush set.
Like what you see? Shop our recommended 18 Piece Makeup Brush Kit HERE
Let us know which brush you think is absolutely necessary for your kit by sounding off in the comments section below.
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