My Current Brushes

It's been a little while. Actually, I'm totally exhausted right now because I've had mentor training all day and had to wake up at 7:30. The wake up was definitely far from pleasant, but the fact that I saw some familiar faces made it worth it, somewhat. I'm trying to convince myself of that, anyway. I had a weird dream. I was eating really big raspberries, or mulberries or some sort of berries with room-temperature milk. In another dream, I was in Korea negotiating the price of ribbons. Like, those bows that you put in your hair. It was like 4 for $15 and then I decided to look on eBay and it was around $10 for 25. Then my alarm went off. Charming.

So today I'm here to show you a few brushes that I have. I only use about 4, but my collection will increase as I find good and reasonably priced ones along the way. There are some on the way to my bathroom up here, but obviously I don't have them yet, so these will have to do for demonstration.

I brought some of my makeup up North and I thought I might just show you how I've organised it. It was a rushed job, but I've made things sort of easy to locate and I'm lazy so I'll deal with it later.

I might just introduce my 4 most commonly used brushes. As I said, it's not all of them, but they're the only ones I could carry with me.

The first one is this foundation brush that I picked up from a Nature Republic in Korea (about $7). It's actually a decent brush - it's a bit streaky but that's to be expected from most paddle-shaped brushes. The only slight problem I have with it is that it snapped in two as soon as I took it out of the plastic. Slight problem, that. It's made it really hard to use it and I haven't been bothered to glue it back together. I like using it as an everyday brush because it dries very quickly in comparison to the MAC 190, which takes literally f o r e v e r to dry.

This one is small, light and pretty easy to use and I like it, but the whole breaking she-bang has just put me off, really.

Will I repurchase? Probably not. It does the job, but there are literally about a million other brushes I want to try.

Like, seriously?

Anyway, to the next brush. The MAC 190. It's synthetic, made of taklon, which is a standard plastic used in synthetic brushes. I was really excited to use this brush and again it does the job, but it has actually turned out to be a little disappointing. It's annoyingly streaky - not at such a distance, but up close it's quite noticeable. I'm constantly having to buff it out with a kabuki and although I do it anyway, I'd rather save a little time with my foundation. As I said before, the drying time is very long but it's also a lot denser than the other foundation brush I use.

For blush, I use the RMK Cheek Brush (it's the bigger one, not the S). It's made of grey squirrel hair and it's really, really soft. Probably not as soft as the Suqqu brushes, but hey, they only sell Suqqu in the UK and Japan. The smaller Cheek Brush S is a blend of grey squirrel and goat hair. I imagine that it deposits colour a lot stronger than the one I have because of the goat hair, which is much coarser than squirrel hair. I bought it for about $40 at Incheon International Airport in Korea.

I love this brush. I think it's fantastic because being Asian, I honestly don't need much colour at all on my cheeks when I apply blush. I use it with my Nars blush in Gilda and it goes on so evenly and it blends it really well.  It's quite dense to deposit good colouration on my cheeks with bounce, and is incredibly soft. It pretty much feels like I'm getting a face massage whenever I use it.

It's a very high quality brush. I have had no problems with shedding or running dyes post-washing, and it maintains shape really nicely. It comes with a guard for the bristles which is handy for travelling. The handle is shorter than most other cheeks brushes, so if you're wondering whether it's the travel size, it's not. It's the full size. Personally, I like the lightness because I find it easier to manoeuvre the circular motions. The only problem is that it smells a little after washing, but I guess it's natural and to be expected. Plus, the smell goes completely after washing.

The last main brush that I use is a Nude by Nature blush brush. I use it more for powder because it's way too big for a blush brush. I set my foundation with Natio Mineral Pressed Powder in medium. It's excellent because my usual foundation is a tad yellow, and the powder offsets the undertone really nicely. It also mattefies my skin which I love. Love love love. I hate dewy foundations because it makes my skin feel really oily. Pet hate. This brush is just an average, everyday brush.

I bought the set for $30 from Priceline and I still use a lot of them just because they're there. I buff everything out with the kabuki brush that was included with the set, but I prefer the Sigma F80 flat top kabuki because the handle is longer. Although, I use it more with foundation. Its purpose depends on the day and the availability of my other brushes.

I find that it's a little harsh and splayed because it's a synthetic brush. I'm going to invest in a better powder brush.

*Edit: I read over this and thought that it sounded unfinished. Probably because it's totally unfinished. I don't know what came over me.. but I guess I was too eager to press the publish button.

Good brushes are essential tools. They're expensive, but if you look after them well, it's well worth the investment because they will last. As I've said before, it's useless to have beautiful products unless you know how to use them properly. It's like a camera - the camera is the product, and the lens is the brush. If you have a top-of-the-range camera but a poor quality lens, then it's useless. The vice versa is also true, but less so. You can make an average product look wonderful if you use the right brush. It also helps if you know how to apply it too.

Lots of love! <3