The way that fixing your eyebrows can forever change your face (fate din minsan—hello Snooky Serna sa Blusang Itim AND Donita Rose, in general,) using a good set of brushes for make-up application changes the ball game.
Not to say that having the whole series of MAC brushes is a must to achieve the perfect face (though my drool-worthy brush sets are NARS, Japonesque, and Make Up For Ever,) the right tools make it definitely easier to achieve what you want. The more time you spend figuring out how they work—how much pressure give you this much pigmentation, how a flick of this much can blend out—the better you'll be at it.
A brush roll is also just cool. The same way that a chef's set of knives are cool. They're your tools.
Here's the brush set that I use on people who ask me to do their make-up:
[[posterous-content:pid___0]]Majority of the brushes are by bdellium tools. If you've been reading beauty blogs, you may have noticed a few months back when the company started sending out brushes to beauty bloggers. Their major difference is that their brushes are anti-bacterial, and to maintain this anti-bacterial (fungus and mold, too) coating, it's recommended that you do not use alcohol-based cleansers. (I use J&J baby shampoo) If you've ever had a brush go icky green on you, then you're going to be happy with this extra coating of protection.
The brushes are sold individually at pretty decent prices—the face brushes are just below a thousand pesos, the eye brushes can go below PhP600. Except they're not available here so you have to factor in shipping. Try Amazon or even eBay. But a brush set (like a palette) usually makes for a good bargain.
This 12-piece brush roll was just below PhP6,000 at PurBeauty and is from their Maestro series, designed for professional use. And I must say that the selection really is majority of what you need, except for concealer brushes—there weren't any in the kit. Perhaps they think most people apply concealer with their fingers? I have sausage fingers so really.
Though I think the only difference between this line and the studio line is that the ferrules (the metal part that covers how the brush hairs are attached to the handle) are nickel-plated brass and the handles are black. They also have a green bambu line where the hair used is all synthetic and the handles are made from bamboo. And a short-handled travel line.
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The thing about palettes or brush sets though is that you usually end up with one or two bad apples. Tools or shades that you never use. Not in this set though—everything is soft on the face and effective in transferring pigment and blending out color. I'll let the brushes introduce themselves to you. Here are the face brushes:[[posterous-content:pid___2]]
- Large Powder Brush 980: for the application and blending out of powder.
- Duet fiber brush for finishing 955: for polishing and blending out of powder and cream products. This I had to figure out a bit, it's not like the MAC 187 as the bristles are not as stiff.
- Foundation Brush 948: for the application of cream and liquid foundations
- Blush brush 964: for the application and blending out of powder blushes.
- Contour Brush 942: for the application of powder products to contour the face.
I like the weight of the brushes, and the hair is soft.
The eye, eyebrow, and lip brushes are good, too. I especially like their slanted eyebrow brush and the eyeliner is deceptively precise.
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- Large shadow brush 778: application of base color–it gets your lid pretty quickly because of its size.
- Tapered Blending Brush 785: application of crease or medium color, but better used for the blending out of colors. It can be also used to contour the nose and the application of cream/liquid concealer. (Like a midway between MAC 217 and 224)
- Small shader 772: application of eyeshadow, its size allows you to control. (similar but smaller than the MAC 239)
- Pencil brush 780: precise application of eyeshadow, blending out eyeliner (similar to the MAC 209 but with a rounded top)
- Eyeliner brush 710: the precise application of gel, cream or liquid eyeliner. Though it doesn't look as fine as you'd want, the stiffness of the bristles allow you to keep it precise.
- Angled Brow 763: for defining and filling in your eyebrows, can be used damp for a more precise applicaion
My next entry will discuss the other brushes I have in my kit—they're from a brand called Artnet (a professional line from Paris available at Kryolan stores!) and paintbrushes (yup, from the bookstore.)
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