Sunday 20 February 2011

My Makeup Brushes & Homemade Brush Roll

please excuse the few marks - it's in need of a wash

I have chopped and changed several brushes through the years, but thought I'd show you my most used brushes that I keep in my homemade brush roll. I made this a few years back after not finding anything nice to keep my brushes in. I like being able to see them all and I am pleased that my homemade efforts have held up quite well (the tie I initially had around is no more and a few sequins have come off). I wish I had made it slightly taller as some of my brushes don't fit as neatly under the flap but I don't mind too much. It has helped to prevent me from buying anymore brushes as I like to put them in the roll but now there is no space! I still have about 5 or so brushes that I cannot fit into this roll (like my Ecotools kabuki).


L-R: Sonia Kashuk Highlighting Brush, Everyday Minerals Eyebuki, Revlon Eye Contour brush, Ruby & Millie foundation brush, Lancome foundation brush (old style), MAC 130, Shu Uemura 14, No7 Precision Eyeliner Brush, E.L.F. Studio Complexion brush.


Illamasqua (I think this is Blusher brush 1, but it's not labelled so don't know for sure), E.L.F Studio Powder brush, No7 Smoky Eyeliner brush, Illamasqua Blending brush 2, Shu Uemura 20H, MAC 109, Shu Uemura 10, No7 Concealer brush.


Shu Uemura 10, No7 Concealer brush, Sonia Kashuk eye blending brush, MAC 214, Shu Uemura 6M, Shu Uemura 2R, old YSL eye brush, MAC 228, MAC 219, MAC 217, MAC 239, MAC 226, from art shop Pro Arte Ser.60 Prolon Round brush, Sonia Kashuk bent eyeliner brush.

If I only had to pick one brush as a favourite it would be the Illamasqua blusher brush as it is similar in size to MAC 109 but it is soo soft (it makes the MAC feel scratchy, even though that is still quite soft). This applies blush so beautifully and evenly and is fantastic with highlighting powders as well as it seems to apply them more finer. Even though I have had this a while I haven't actually tried it with foundation (I really should remember to try this).

A quick runthrough of my other favourite brushes and use:

Ruby & Millie foundation brush - cream blush as well as obviously foundation, the ends are slightly soft and rounder to blend cream blush out nicer.
Lancome foundation brush (old style)  - only foundation, slightly flatter shape and ends taper a bit more then R&M, but great for quick foundation application. This is one of my older brushes and it's still in good condition.
MAC 130 - great for cream foundation and blush as it blends out product nicely so it looks natural.
E.L.F. Studio Complexion brush - to lightly dust powder. I love their studio line brushes, excellent quality for the price and very soft.
Illamasqua Blending brush 2 - undereye concealer- very soft and blends this really well so I don't get concealer settling into fine lines as much.
Shu Uemura 2R - perfect gel eyeliner brush 
MAC 219, MAC 239, MAC 21- my favourite eye brushes have to be MAC - they are soft and make applying eye shadow much easier - especially the 217 which is the best eye blending brush

2 comments:

  1. Great post, you have reminded me that I had intended to get that particular Illamasqua blusher brush. It sounds wonderful. I love your brush roll too.
    Jane x

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  2. This is a fabulous collection - I love makeup brushes but rarely use them, I still have a good few though. Thanks for describing how you use them as well, you have given me some much needed tips. The roll is great. Jan x

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