If you have a very small or angular face, you might choose to use makeup brushes that are smaller than is common, since an overly large brush might be harder to work with. Makeup brushes that need to cover a little less space or that need to get into crevices like under the eye or around the nose should be a little smaller, while the smallest brushes should be saved for more detailed work like eyeshadow, eyeliner or lipstick application.
Because of this, makeup brushes used for all-over complexion products like foundation and powder should be the largest in your makeup brush set. The more space a brush needs to cover, the larger it should be. This is easy to understand, so I’ll explain it quickly. When it comes to makeup brushes, size does matter. Brands that used to make animal hair brushes, like MAC, are slowly shifting over to having all-vegan brush lines, while brands like Too Faced, Fenty, and Real Techniques stuck to vegan brushes straight off the bat. These days you can use a synthetic brush for just about anything. This is because the technology for making taklon bristles has seriously improved, with synthetic brushes being just as soft and durable as animal hair ones, if not more so. This was because the animal hair bristles would absorb the cream product, expand, and then break more easily – whether this was true or not is days, however, animal hair brushes are becoming increasingly rare and most makeup brushes are vegan and cruelty-free. In that time, the common advice was that animal hair brushes should only be used for powder products, while synthetic brushes should be used for cream products like foundations or concealers. Cheaper makeup brushes were made of taklon. The common hairs came from horse tails, sables, or squirrels. It used to be that expensive, high-quality makeup brushes had bristles made of animal hair.
By understanding what those elements are, you can learn to get creative with your brush use and really get the most out of your makeup brushes. These include material, size, firmness, and a few other factors.Įach makeup brush is a combination of a few different elements that ultimately make it ideal for doing a specific thing. To make your selection process easier, I want to talk a little bit about some main makeup brush elements that will influence how a specific brush will function. What to Look for in the Best Makeup Brushes for You?