Something that most makeup enthusiasts, particularly those just starting out, either overlook or get overwhelmed by are makeup brushes. There are so many different kinds of out there that it makes it hard to figure out which are the essential makeup brushes. Especially when beauty gurus on YouTube use a dozen brushes for eyes alone. Thing is, those aren’t the essential makeup brushes, not really. You don’t need a million brushes to make a really nice makeup look, you just don’t. But you do need to be strategic with which ones you use to get the best application.
Here’s a short list of the essential makeup brushes that, in my experience, you really benefit from having. Everything else is just gravy.
Face Brushes
First off, I recommend getting some kind of beauty sponge, like the beauty blender or a similar sponge, such as Real Techniques’ version. This can be used for things like powder, concealer, and foundation. It’s mega useful for baking your makeup too! Getting tools that serve multiple purposes is a great way to maximize use and get the most bang for your buck. Makeup tools can often be just as expensive if not more so than the makeup they’re for.
Then, I would recommend getting either a blush brush or (my favorite) an angled blush brush. Especially when angled, these can be used for contour and highlighting, as well as powder, blush, and bronzer. The angle helps you work with the contours of your face, handy for contouring or highlighting.
Something else you could consider using is a fan brush. This is usually used for highlight, as it’s well shaped to dust product lightly, like on the tops of the cheekbones. But it’s also very useful for applying contour, especially on the nose! Its very precise, and its hard to be heavy handed with it.
Eye Brushes
left to right: tapered blending brush, shader brush, fluffy crease brush, pencil brush
Eye brushes are a little trickier, since the eyes are both a smaller area with proportionately more contours, and we tend to put more colors on them. This makes product placement and handling a lot more delicate, since the colors we put on our eyes tend to be far more varied than what we put on our cheeks.
First off, I recommend getting a shader brush. This is for applying concentrated color in a wash (usually) over the lid. They’re dense, and allow you to place pigment precisely. If you’re doing one shade on the lid, or something like a halo effect, this is important. You can use these wet or dry for different effects.
When you work with multiple colors, or even one, you usually need to be able to blend it out. This is where tapered blending brush comes in. It tends to be fluffy, tapered to fit into the contours of the eye, and disperses product easily. This way, you can blend out crease or lid shades easily.
If you plan on using a crease color, a fluffy crease brush is ideal for applying lighter amounts of pigment into your crease. This is a little more dense than the tapered blending brush, but not as dense as a shader brush. Product goes on a little more heavily, but not as harshly. This is great for cat eye eyeshadow looks, cut creases, and more.
Finally, a pencil brush is essential if you do any detail work with eyeshadows. Under the eye, outer corner, carefully applying highlighter. This is also great for halo shadow looks. This is a small, not too dense but not too fluffy brush that lets you get into small areas of the eye that other brushes are too big to get into. I love these for under the eye, and applying highlighter in the inner corner and under the brow bone.
And that’s it! The makeup brushes I think everyone should use. This list should allow you to create most makeup looks, and gives you a good foundation to start your collection or kit.