How to Choose Makeup Brushes

Start with a foundation brush. The foundation brush should have a lot of bristles packed into the tip, making it sturdier and stiffer for wet makeup application. This is a brush you can choose to purchase with synthetic fibers, as it will be easier to clean liquid makeup from the brush.

Conceal blemishes and dark circles under you eyes using a concealer brush. This brush can also be synthetic fiber for applying liquid concealer under your eyes or dabbing concealer in small spots to cover blemishes. This brush should also have tightly packed bristles, as well as a pointed tip to allow you to target small blemishes.

Apply both liquid and powdered makeup with a duo fiber brush. A duo fiber brush is useful for multiple purposes. These combine goat and synthetic fibers in a brush with a flat, circular tip to buff or blend.

• This can be used with liquid blush to blend color into your cheeks.
• The duo fiber brush can also work a shimmer powder onto your brows or cheeks.

Pick up a full, soft, rounded brush for applying powder. This brush should be able to work with bronzer and compact powder. The bristles are less packed and able to gather a good deal of powder and hold not out until you apply it to your skin. Look for a large, soft, rounded tip.

• A mineral powder brush is a variation on the powder brush. It is similar, but has more tightly packed bristles to buff the mineral powder into your skin.
• Another variation is the fan powder brush. It is useful to create a light dusting. The tip of this brush splays out into a flat fan for applying very light coverage. It can also be used to dust off any excess powder from your face.

Apply blush with a fine blush brush. The tip should be rounded to allow easy movement across your skin with no drag. The blush brush should have very fine and soft bristles to apply powdered blush to your cheeks.

Create highlights and shading with a face contour brush. This brush has a rounded tip and also a slight slant to match the angles in your cheekbones. You can use this to add shadow under your cheek bones for a more dramatic look, as well as applying highlights above your cheekbones to help them stand out.

Use a trio of brushes for your eye shadow. Often, a lot of time is spent on the eyes when applying makeup, so there are also several brushes with different uses to help you complete the job. Your main eye shadow brush should have a tip a little smaller than the size of your eyelid. You want lots of soft bristles and a rounded tip. It should move smoothly over your eyelid, applying color without dragging your lid.

• Shade your eye socket with an angled eye shadow brush. This brush is slightly smaller than your eye shadow brush and has an angled, pointed tip to help you reach into the depth of your sockets to shade your eyelids.
• The blending eye shadow brush has slightly looser bristles and a rounded tip useful for blending eye shadow colors or brushing a highlight onto your brow.

Choose a fine or flat eyeliner brush. The fine tipped eyeliner brush can help you apply liquid eyeliner in a very precise, fine line and can even apply tiny dots between lashes. If you would like a little more coverage, or a smoky-eyed look, opt for a flat liner brush, which has a flat angled tip.

Contour your brows with eye brow brushes. The spiral eyebrow brush has a tip which resembles a mascara applicator. This is used to comb your eyebrows into place when some of them have gone or grown in different directions. You can also use this brush to pull the eyebrow hairs straight up, then trim the ends to control the shape of your eyebrows.

• Follow up with a slanted eyebrow brush for filling in your brows with powder or cream. This brush should be more rigid and have an angled tip to be able to draw fine lines.