The Magicians Wand

If you have read my entire blog, you will know what a big role the Harry Potter series has played and continues to play in my life.  I remember in the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone my favourite scene is when the brick wall breaks down to reveal Diagon Alley. And Harry goes to get his wand. “The wand chooses you.” Reading that scene I could feel the goose bumps trickling all over my skin. I knew then that Harry was meant for greatness.

10 years or so later, I found myself in a store where a cruella de villeesk looking lady asked me with her high pitched voice, “is this your first one.” A little embarrassed, meekly I barely said, “Yes, could you please help me?” She told me “Let THEM speak to you.” At that point I knew I was going to leave a changed person, either because this was a defining moment or I would ask her for her dealers’ number and she would oblige.

 That day I left the M.A.C store with my first set of basic professional makeup brushes. I felt like with these I could change faces and fates.

I do not have a lot of brushes in comparison to the other enthusiasts I know. However, I pride myself on the fact that I use every brush, applicator and sponge I own.

 I have been applying makeup with a brush since I was 26 years old (a little late, I know) and even though I have ALOT to learn, one of the biggest tips that I can give anyone who is into makeup application is use brushes as much as you can and wherever u can.

Why?

1. Hygiene. It’s just better to use clean and protected brushes on your beautiful face rather than your fingers.
2. Product wastage is minimized. I recently realised a lot of people were under the impression that if you use a brush, you product gets wasted. In fact, it’s the other way round. Applying with your fingers tends to waste product as it soaks in quite a lot.
3. A lot of us use our fingers while applying makeup, now that maybe convenient, however it might not only make your face breakout but also it contaminates and spoils products. It's due to the oils in your fingers which apparently are corrosive.
4. Control and precision. Speaks for itself.

So let’s talk about brushes and what they are used for.

Now even though the brushes are meant for certain areas and techniques, do whatever that floats your boat. I’m going to tell you what I use and how I use them.

Let’s start with Concealer and Foundation:

I have a think synthetic bristled brush for foundation. This particular brush picks up a good amount of product and when I wet the brush a little and use to apply foundation it does give me a dewey and a good finish. Sometimes you can see stroke marks.

Now I also use the M.A.C 187 stippling duo fibre brush for foundation. It has a flat top and I put one pump of my liquid foundation and apply it all over my face and start buffing with small rounds strokes which makes my skin finish flawless and shiny. You can also do the buffing bit after you apply concealer. I love this brush so much that when my husband gifted me a M.A.C voucher the first thing I did was pick the 187.

I also have a longer and larger stippling brush from Kryolan. It’s the 9742 brush.

For concealer I use the M.A.C 195. Since it's tapered it can easily get into places like the nose crease, under eye and chin crease etc.

Now that I have a flawless foundation and concealer routine I apply setting powder using my Powder brush. Now this is a BIG fluffy brush, rounded and thick. You can also set your makeup after you have applied all your makeup, but I apply the setting powder immediately after I have finished the foundation and concealer routine.

I also tend to use the M.A.C 195 to apply eye shadow on my eye lids if I need to cover a large area.

MAC 239 is also a really good eye shadow brush for application. It picks up a lot of product. It should be used to cover large areas as it’s pretty wide.

M.A.C 231 is also a great eye shadow applicator. It is small slightly tapered so it's gr8 for applying the "V" at the outer corner of your eye.

The Body Shop Eye Shadow brush, these brushes do not have any numbers however with this picture it will be easy to identify. I love the bristles as they are very soft. It also picks a lot of products. It a broad, squarish brush with a thick handle and pretty light to use.  

M.A.C 219 is a blender brush. (I also use it for concealer because its tapered tip helps you cover small spots or blemishes really well) However, I primarily use it as an eye shadow blender. So when you’re applying eye shadow on your lid and crease and you want to blend the harsh lines together this is a perfect brush.

MAC 224 is also a blending brush. This is perfect to blend larger areas as it’s a fluffy brush. I usually use this when I am doing a smokey eye.

Body Shop Eye Shadow blender. This is a thicker and bigger version of the eyeshadow brush. I use this as a blender as well as an applicator.

Eyebrow brushes

M.A.C 266 is my FAVORITE brush of all time. I use this not only to fill in my eye brows however to also apply eye liner. Especially if I want to do a cat eye.

Color bar Angle brush. It’s a nice soft brush. Apt for eye brow filling, however I cannot use it to apply eyeliner as it is too soft.

Color Bar 125 angle brush. It’s a gigantic version of the M.A.C 266. It’s perfect for eyeliner application. Especially if you want to do an Amy Winehouse kinda look.

Blushers

M.A.C 116 is the perfect blush brush. It’s divine. Gives you the control you need to apply blush, bronzer, contour or highlighter. You can never have too many of this brush.

Body Shop Face and Body brush is also perfect. It’s a little large so not as much control as the M.A.C. However, the brush’s quality is the best much better than the M.A.C

Kryolan shader in Art. 1711 I use this brush to contour as well as apply mineral makeup. It gives the right amount of hold and softness you require. It’s perfect for contouring.

Eyeliner brushes
The 2 eyeliner brushes I love are

Maybelline eyeliner brush that you get with the drama gel liner

MAC 209 is a great brush for thick eyeliner applications

M.A.C 210 is great for thin eyeliner application. I tend to use this alot and keep building on the thin liner if i want it a little thicker.

And the M.A.C 266 is great for people who are just learning to apply eyeliner. It helps you get straight lines especially when you use small strokes.

With these gr8 brushes come’s gr8 brush care.

So these are the things I think you should and should not do when using brushes to apply your makeup.

1. Clean your brushes regularly with a brush cleanser. I use the M.A.C brush cleanser. I apply a couple of drops on a folded face tissue and swirl the bristles through it. You will immediately start seeing the brush is getting cleaner. This is useful in case during application you want to clean a brush to use again.
2. Brush Cleansers are gr8! But you need to shampoo and condition you brushes once a week at least if you apply makeup almost every day. If it’s lesser than that, then i leave it up to your better judgement on the frequency. It is tedious; however it is worth the effort. After all those brushes will help keep your face flawless.
3. DO NOT SHARE BRUSHES. It's like sharing a tooth brush. YUCK! Now if you're one of the women in you clique that applies makeup for the rest, invest in brushes (could be cheaper than the ones you use) like the Canadian brand Faces and use those for you friends and clean regularly. Not only are you protecting yourself but you’re also protecting your friends from breakout and infections.

I hope for those who do not use makeup brushes, this encourages you to. And for those of you, who are using brushes, do share tips and tricks. ALWAYS LEARNING!

Do check out my Youtube channel to understand how to clean the makeup brushes.