Hello!
I have been really wanting to share my feelings on makeup brushes for a while now. The first time I ever bought eye makeup, the makeup artist convinced me to buy brushes as well. I ended up with 3 brushes which I still have to date. It has been 9 years!
As we all know, makeup brushes are crucial to the art of applying makeup. Makeup brushes tend to be very loyal. That is if you take care of your brushes by regularly washing and cleaning them, and they will remain eternally grateful to you and give you the best possible results when you do your makeup. I'm talking about good quality brushes. But this we all know! So why this post? Well, here's why:
My first brushes were MAC ones and I fell in love with them. This compounded with the fact that they were of amazing quality, made me a die hard fan of MAC brushes. However, over the years I started looking at other brands and other brushes and discovered - to my surprise - GASP - there are better brushes out there!!
Now please don't take this as a hater post. I am a fan of MAC and think that they have some absolutely brilliant products. But that does not mean that everything I own is MAC, and neither does it mean that all their products are equally brilliant. But let's not go into that. I just want to share with you the non-MAC brushes that I have found and I think are worth looking at if MAC is too expensive for you, not working out for you or not your cup of tea!
1. ECOTOOLS brushes:
These brushes claim to be 100% cruelty free, with recycled aluminium ferrules and handles made of bamboo. Hey, who does not love eco-friendly brushes! But that is not all!
- The brushes are really good quality and incredibly soft.
- I find myself reaching for their blush brush more often than my MAC one!!
- They are cheaper when compared to high-end brands.
- I would recommend this brand to EVERYONE who does makeup!
Brushes to check out:
-> Blush brush (part of 6 pc brush set): Absolutely brilliant to use, great blending capacity and very soft on the face!
-> Retractable Kabuki: Easy to store and use, great for overall face.
-> Concealer brush (part of 6 pc brush set): Interesting brush that doubles up as concealer & eyeshadow brush. Its shape makes it easy to blend eye shadows as well.
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| Click to enlarge! |
2. Sonia Kashuk brushes:
Sonia Kashuk brushes are produced exclusively for Target (USA) and are very affordable. They are again, worth buying as they are really good brushes which work really well for me. My favorite has to be the dome shaped blending brush. This brush is a fatter and fuller version of the MAC 217! I just love the brush and the way it can work my crease.
Other brushes that I use: Medium eye-shadow brush and the smudge brush. The former is great for applying eye shadow and blending them at the same time. The latter is a bit stiff and I use it for my lower lash line.
3. MUG brushes:
I have two brushes from the makeupgeek(MUG) website and they are def. my favorite brushes. The flat shader brush is comparable to MAC 239 and the outer V brush is comparable to MAC's 219. The outer V brush is small but very potent in picking up a lot of product so be careful with it while using!
They both have very precise application, are completely affordable and work really well for me.
4. Vega eyeliner brush: This small brush, available at Health & Glow is a really good one for applying gel eyeliners. I feel that it does an adequate job and I have not found a reason to invest in an international brand. It is not more than Rs. 30-40 and I think work just fine. For the price - this brush is a steal!
So these are some brands other than MAC that have worked for me. In all honesty, I must admit that now that I have these, I don't really use my MAC ones as much.
The best part is that they are much cheaper than high-end brushes. In India we only have very high end brushes or really cheap ones.So if you have a restricted budget, have all the the MAC ones already, want to try something new or whatever reason, these other brands are definitely worth checking out!
Check out some pics of the above brushes when compared to MAC ones:
Ps: click to enlarge!
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| L-R: MAC 217, MAC 224, Sonia Kashuk Blending brush, MUG outer V brush. |
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| L-R: MUG e/s brush, MAC 252, Ecotools concealer & e/s brush, Sonia Kashuk medium e/s brush. |
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| L-R: Ecotools angled brush, MAC 266, Vega eyeliner brush, Sonia Kashuk smudge brush |
So yes this post is very long, but I hope I have given a small insight into the huge world of makeup brushes! Do let me know if this was helpful!
Happy new year!
