Giorgio Armani Blender Brush

Thursday, July 3, 2014

I'm always attracted to brushes that are unlike the existing ones in my collection (then again, I'm also attracted to brushes that are similar to ones I love in my collection) so I've had an interest in the Giorgio Armani Blender Brush for a while now.

It's a brush intended to work with liquid formulations such as foundation or blushes. It's made from very soft sable shaped into a small dense paddle with the trademark GA aesthetic; matte modern handle. I don't like the flat typical foundation brush very much so I was hoping that this paddle shape would work better for me. Actually, I don't typically use natural hair brushes for base makeup, so that too was a new experience.

There's no doubt about it, the foot print of the brush is small. In fact, it's smaller than the Shiseido Perfect Foundation Brush (show here on the left) so if you already thought that was small and time consuming... well then, the GA Blender is probably not for you. I found that it took quite a few strokes to blend my foundation all in (I'm typically more of the stippling motioning type).

That's me, with just foundation on. I have concealer and primer on underneath, but there's no powder on top. I just wanted to show you the sort of finish that it leaves, which believe it or not looks different from the Shiseido Perfect Foundation. Since I was using more of a paint stroke/blending motion and not a stippling action, it seemed to me that my foundation looked extra luminous. Ok, while it is a luminous foundation (Dolce & Gabbana Perfect Luminous), it looked extra glowy - way more than normal. Since my skin texture isn't super great now, this sort of finish isn't ideal. It seems to through all my lovely hormonal acne into sharp relief. So I definitely prefer my Shu Uemura Perfect Foundation Brush's finish instead, it's just more flattering and more satin.

So is this a waste of a brush for me? No! Not at all. I found that this brush was absolutely superb for contouring with creme products (tutorial here) and also fantastic for more sheer liquid blushes. It's definitely become my preferred tool to use for contouring, over my previous beauty sponge. I'm just not crazy about using it with foundation.

The Giorgio Armani Blender Brush is $49 and can be purchased directly from Giorgio Armani's website or from Saks Fifth Ave.

What's your current foundation brush? I'm thinking of getting a few "dupes" for the Shiseido Perfect Foundation brush because it's not super easy to clean every day (I have to double wash) but the only one I want to reach for. It seems like a lot of Asian brands (Banilla Co, The Face Shop, Missha, etc) all have their own version.

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