Favorite Brushes - April 2014 | Makeup Withdrawal

Favorite Brushes - April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Last year I showed you my brush collection. Since then the collection has grown by quite a few brushes so perhaps its time to write an addendum. However reading through the post, it struck me that such a post might be overwhelming and it can be hard to really let my favorite brushes get the recognition they deserve. Today I want to talk about my absolute favorite brushes, the ones that I would buy first if say, some terrible accident befell my whole collection. Great. Now I'm plagued by images of my makeup burning down. Good going, Mimi.

Eye/small brushes

Left to right:

Japanesque Concealer Brush, Hakuhodo J125R, Sephora Collection #21 Pro Lash Comb, Smashbox #12 Angle Brow Brush, Sephora #22 Pro Angled Liner Brush, Hakuhodo J146, MAC 217, Hakuhodo G5522BkSL, Hakuhodo G5510BkSL, Sephora Medium Shadow Brush (set), Unknown brush, Hakuhodo B533BkSL

The Japanesque Concealer Brush is fantastic, thin yet pliable with a precise clean edge. I use this for shaping brows and for blemishes. Hakuhodo J125R is fantastic for undereye concealer (and much more) reviewed here. The Sephora comb isn't exactly exciting but it is a very well made metal comb for lashes with an excellent stiff bristled side for brow grooming. The two angled brushes are my favorites for creating neat brows (covered extensively in this post). Hakuhodo J146 is the soft but pliable but resilient rounded blender that I've been looking for my life, it deserves a post of its own and I swear to you that one day I'll write it. MAC 217 is the classic crease blending brush. Mine is rather old and I've heard that the newer ones aren't as soft so I'd recommend the Hakuhodo J5523 instead (Compared here. Also I just really, really like Hakuhodo). Skip past the three flat round brushes (details below) and the last brush is Hakuhodo B533BkSL, a pointed pencil brush that is good for small socket work, adding an inner corner highlighter or just smudging a dark shade into the lash (review here).

These are the same flat, mop shaped brushes as above, with greater detail. Two of them aren't really available (lot of good that does you reader, amirite? I mainly just wanted to show you what I prefer; dense, round, resilient) but the (left) Hakuhodo G5510BkSL is. It's a great smudge brush and if you have smaller eye lid space, it makes for a great laydown brush too (read this post for more details).

Not pictured above with the others is my eyeliner brush, the 1/8th Loew Cornell La Cornielle Angled Brush from a craft store (Michaels).

Face brushes:

Left to right: Shiseido Perfect Foundation Brush, Hakuhodo J214, Hakuhodo J5521, Hakuhodo 210, Laura Mercier Cheek Colour Brush, MAC 188, Hakuhodo B103BkSL and Borghese Large Powder Brush (set).

The Shiseido Perfect Foundation Brush is hands down my favorite and fool proof way to apply foundation (reviewed here). The Hakuhodo J214 is a multitasker, I can use it for many things but most commonly I use it to contour my nose (full post here). Same thing goes for the Hakuhodo J5521 only I use that on my cheeks (same post here). The Hakuhodo 210 is a great blush brush for working blush right into the apples of the cheeks, it is really dense (here). Perhaps the silkiest brush I own, the Laura Mercier Cheek Colour Brush is divinely soft and great for sweeping light layers of color (reviewed here). The MAC 188 has a very small head, but offers much more control than its larger sibling, the 187. Perhaps I would really like the 130 as well. The tulip shaped Hakuhodo B103BkSL is another brush that will get its own post, it is without a doubt my favorite brush. Lastly, this synthetic old Borghese Powder Brush is my favorite powder brush but I am on the lookout for something new that isn't so... bedazzled.

As you can tell by the million of links in this post, I've written quite a bit about most of these brushes before. Since its been a while since I wrote the reviews, I just wanted to show you which brushes end up being my most cherished and most reached for tools. I've linked where to buy most of the brushes right below the pictures and the rest that are Hakuhodo can be purchased here.

I've also linked some of the easily accessible brushes below. Hope that this post was helpful! I'm always on the prowl for new brush brands, especially more good "packing" eye brushes as well as sculpting brushes (MAC 163, I need you) so feel free to tell me which ones are your favorites.

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