Lets Talk: Makeup Brushes

Hey guys! Sorry for going quiet, I've been away with my boyfriend so blogging was put to one side but I'm home now, so back to doing what I love to do the most! On to the second most important things in my life (!?) Lets talk Makeup Brushes.

I credit a lot to makeup brushes for my obsession with makeup, it all started about 4 years ago when my sister got me a Real Techniques Expert Face Brush for christmas and I thought "what the heck is this??" having never bothered really with that sort of thing before. The result of that christmas present is a serious expansion of my makeup draw and me writing this blog, so thank you sister. Saying that though, until recently I've been using the same 3 or 4 brushes for every makeup task as I didn't realise just how important your tools are to makeup application, so I thought it was time to expand this area of my beauty cuboard too and I'm so glad I did because I've found some real gems. Here is the low down on my recent finds and trusty favourites -

 BLANK CANVAS

I've been using Real Techniques almost exclusively because they've always been so easily available and often on offer at the drugstore and I've always been impressed by them so why bother mixing it up? That was until I found these bad boys. The face brushes are £10.61 and the eyes are £5.66 (it's a european company so I assume the exchange rates make the numbers a bit weird?) and I got the F03 which is a stippling brush, the F15 which is a small contour/highlight brush and the F20 which is a flat buffer brush. I have to say these brushes are the softest things I've ever felt, the stippling brush is unbelievably flexible and silky soft and I keep running it over my face because it feels so good! The perfect brush for powder and heavier duty highlighting, I love it! The contouring brush is also so lovely and petite which means you can apply things really easily without over doing it too much and is awesome for highlighting. Finally is the buffing brush and oh my gawwwsh it's beautiful. Again I've religiously used the Real Techniques Buffing Brush for my liquid foundations because I didn't think it could get any better but it can! My makeup went on the best it has ever been applied with this brush, it's so springy and soft and I can't say much more, it's just amazing! Oh and the best bit is that with delivery all the brushes came with brush protectors which I've been meaning to get for travelling purposes anyway, so another win. Check out the rest of their range here.

EBAY

I read about this set whilst browsing Bloglovin' and although I wasn't expecting amazing things this set is actually pretty great! When they arrived they were really creased and rubbish so I had to wash them first so their natural shape took form. The set works out at 50p a brush (£4.95 for the 10 set) and there are some good picks amongst them. It claims that the brushes are all pretty different and are designed for different things but really the 4 face brushes (on the left) are basically the same, a bit of taper here and a little slant there. I used one for buffing in a cream highlighter and contour, and will probably use them for different cream products as they're seriously dense. Very useful though! The one in the middle I have no idea what the use is for, it's aiming to be a highlight brush but is far too dense to do anything with but one can't really complain for such a low price tag. The eyeshadow brushes (on the right) again are all pretty similar but I find that when doing my eyeshadow you can never have enough clean fluffy brushes to blend the outside so these are very useful to have around. All in all this set is a handy bit of kit to own but not on their own, yet for under a fiver it's a winner! Get them here and you're welcome in advance. 

REAL TECHNIQUES

And finally, on to the afore mentioned trusty favourites. It seems silly to bother writing another post on how awesome these brushes are as they seem to be the go to brush for beauty bloggers everywhere. They really are worth the hype though, as I said, I've used the buffing brush has been used basically every day ever? The setting brush is wonderful for highlighting and I've also used it for powder contour as it's just small enough to chisel away but big enough to be able to buff it in nicely. The multi task brush is another staple for my bronzer, I find it a bit dense for blusher and powder but it's been well loved in other regards. I've also been using the Miracle Complexion Sponge for under eye concealer and general blending and it's so so lovely, it makes things nice and even and doesn't remove too much product in the doing so. Love it! All in all these brushes are fab fab fab and if you live under a rock and don't know where you can get them, find them here.

So there we go! My favourite picks from my brush collection, I hope you enjoyed reading and that I've maybe inspired you to try some new ones to mix things up a bit

kloveyabye x