Different Makeup Brushes And Their Uses

Makeup brushes and sponges are a very important part of achieving a flawless makeup look. It can be a very intimidating process, as there are many many different brushes available in the market. Brushes come in all different types of material, length, density, bristle shape and size, etc. Many people still prefer the old tried and tested way of using fingers for makeup application. But, the switch from amateur to pro has proved to have a lot of more improvement in achieving a better, well blended look. 

Investing in a great makeup brush kit is a good idea, as it can really accentuate your look. Looking into each and every brush in the market can be confusing, so we have distilled down the options for you and tried to make it easier in this article, by naming the brush, providing you with knowledge on where it is used and how it is used, along with a brush recommendation to buy for each. 

There are a few main brushes, and a sponge that are needed to achieve a full makeup look: 

1.Sponges 

Sponges are basically your best friends while wearing makeup. You need it throughout the process. It is very easy to use. Make sure to run it under the tap, and then squeeze out the excess water. It is then ready to use to blend your foundation, after application, blend your blush, contour, highlighter, eyeshadow.. Name it and you can blend anything with a sponge. A very important use of a sponge is also to tone down any excess product after it is already applied on the face. Using a wet tissue to remove it is not necessary if you just go over it and dab off the excess product with a sponge. 

2.Foundation Brush

Foundation brushes are flat, with a gentle taper and less full in form. They work best to apply liquid/cream foundations. Before use, make sure to dampen the brush. The foundation should first be applied on the top of your palm, and mixed around with your foundation brush to warm it up with your body heat. The next step is to apply the foundation with the help of the brush on your face, following an upward to downward direction, in even strokes. 

3.Concealer Brush

Concealer brushes are thin brushes with small, flat brush heads. It is used to apply liquid or cream concealer. The brush has to be dipped in the concealer, and then applied to the areas that need to be concealed, like your under eye, blemishes, acne etc.

4.Powder Brush

Thick, full brushes with fluffy and soft bristles. It is used to spread loose powder, or compact powder over the base, so as to keep the base set and intact all day long. The powder brush needs to be dipped into the powder, the excess be tapped off, and swept over your face in circular motions to set your makeup. 

5.Contour Brush

An angled brush, with soft and dense bristles, used to define your cheekbones and make your face look slimmer. It's used with a shade slightly darker than your skin tone, and swept over the areas that you want to slim, like your cheekbones, jaw area and nose. 

6.Blush & Highlighter Brush 

Highlighter brush is a soft, fluffy circular brush, used to apply blush, highlighter and bronzer. Starting in circular strokes on the apple of your cheek, towards the top of your ear, with a colour of your choice, either shades of pink, coral or nudes. 

7.Flat Eyeshadow Brush

A flat, medium sized brush used for application of eyeshadow over your eyelid, in an inward-outward direction.

8.Eyeshadow Blending Brush

Eyeshadow blending Brush.  is a wide brush with bristles that slightly taper towards the end. It is used to blend the layers of eyeshadow on your eyelid. Post applying the first layer of the base eyeshadow, use this blending brush to smoothen out the second layer of eyeshadow and blend it into the first, making sure there are no visible crease lines. 

9.Eyeliner Brush

An Eyeliner brush has a flat tip, with dense and rigid bristles. It is used to apply a neat liner just touching the eyelid. 

10.Lip Brush

A small, thin and fine brush with a squared off tip. Lip brush is used to define the edge of your lips, and also apply colour or gloss. 

In conclusion, these are the brushes you can pull off a great makeup look with. There are of course many many other brushes available in the market, but it gets very intimidating to actually choose and try out all and unnecessarily confusing.