If you were to ask what the three most important elements of makeup are, the answer without hesitation would be: product, technique, and tools. All three are truly indispensable. Therefore, when it comes to makeup items, especially for beginners, choosing the right makeup brushes is crucial. Makeup brushes come in different shapes and materials, which can be confusing for novices. Let's start with the classification of makeup brushes.
In terms of materials, they can be divided into natural animal hair and artificial fiber hair. Generally speaking, the softer the bristles, the weaker the powder grip, making them suitable for blending and applying small amounts of products like blush and highlighter. On the other hand, dense and firm makeup brushes usually have strong gripping power and high color payoff, making them ideal for areas that require more coverage, such as foundation, concealer, eyeshadow, and eyeliner.
Natural hair materials
Wool: characterized by softness and strong elasticity, with good gripping power and color payoff; Horsehair: relatively hard, cannot be used alone as a brush material, and needs to be mixed with artificial materials or other animal hair; Gray squirrel hair: basically the most expensive brush material. The softest, it is the preferred material for blush and powder brushes. However, the price is very high, and the downside is that the bristles are prone to shedding; Yellow wolf hair: can balance softness and elasticity, but the price is also very high and is usually used for eye brushes.
Artificial fiber hair
In fact, in recent years, with the continuous rise in the price of natural hair materials, many good artificial fiber materials have also been developed. At the same time, fiber hair is usually priced relatively affordably, is excellent for blending, and has high cost-performance ratio. Therefore, fiber hair has also become a relatively popular type of brush hair.
Foundation brush
Many people prefer to use their fingers or beauty sponges to apply foundation, but in fact, using a makeup brush for certain foundations can provide better speed and handling of details. Foundation brushes are divided into: flat brush, paddle brush, and round brush.
Eyeshadow brush
Eyeshadow brushes are mainly divided into three types: laying brush, blending brush, and detail brush. Generally speaking, thick and dense bristles have strong powder grip, making them suitable for applying eyeshadow, while looser bristles are more suitable for blending.
Contour brush
Angled brush: the bristles are relatively dense, suitable for shading and blending on the sides of the cheeks and hairline. When using it, remember to apply a small amount multiple times, to avoid applying too much product, as it has strong powder grip; Round brush: the brush head is round and the bristles are soft, very suitable for contouring the nose, with moderate powder grip and not too heavy color payoff; Large round brush: this brush has slightly more bristles than the nose contour brush, but it is not too dense. Very suitable for blending the edges of the contouring shade.
Highlighter brush
Fan brush: the bristles are moderately long and loose. It is very friendly for highlighting. It can precisely cover the cheekbones and brow bones; Round brush: this shape of brush is actually very versatile, as mentioned earlier. The key is that it is relatively soft, suitable for blending eyeshadow, blush, highlighter and other products; Large round brush: this brush is actually a blush brush, but if you use it upright, it can also be used as a highlighter brush.
Blush brush
Makeup blush brushes actually have similar brush heads, all of which are round. The difference lies in the density of the bristles and the length of the bristles, which correspond to different degrees of color payoff for blush.
