MY FAVOURITE BRUSHES!

I recently put in an order for some more Sigma brushes after I became an affiliate and OH MY GOSH AM I GLAD THAT I DID. That order and my recent love for Real Techniques brushes prompted me to make a blog post about my all time favourite face and eye brushes. I figured photos would be more helpful than a video, anyway.

Here are my favourite eye brushes, consisting of Mac, Real Techniques, Sigma, and one lone Makeup Geek brush. 

L to R: Sigma E40, Sigma E30, Mac 217, MUG Stiff Dome brush (I bought this one when I was looking for a dupe for the 217), RT brow brush, RT eye shader brush.

Now, when I bought the MUG brush, I used it ALL THE TIME. I still use it quite often and it's a great brush for $7. As you can see, it's the same shape as the 217 and it serves the same purpose, but it is considerably smaller and not as soft. The splaying of the bristles could just be because I've used the hell out of it.

I still like both brushes, and I interchange them when one is dirty because I'm lazy and don't wash my brushes often enough. 

Also, as you can see, there really aren't any really dense flat shading brushes here. I don't actually like using those because I find that when applying really pigmented eyeshadow, they don't blend as well if I apply them with the flat brush first. I have a couple brushes like that, I just don't use them a lot. I just like how with fluffier brushes, it takes less effort and less time applying and blending.

Here's a close up for good measure.

The E40 is one of my new purchases and I don't know what I was doing without it because it's wonderful. Sigma brushes are definitely some of the softest I've ever used, and for the price you can't go wrong. The E30 ain't too bad either, and it's definitely better than the Ecotools pencil/liner brush I have been using that's super stiff and a pain to use.

 And my Real Techniques brushes, damn those babies are nice to use. I have been so tempted to buy the Expert Face brush for foundation, but I stopped myself because I honestly didn't need it. The shader brush is such a perfect blend of a flat brush and a blending brush, and while it's synthetic, it holds pigment so well.

 

Now on to my favourite face brushes (I tried to clean them, but some are stained from cream products.

L to R: Sigma F80, Sonia Kashuk Stippling brush, Real Techniques Blush brush, Sigma F40, Mac 109, Sigma P82, Real Techniques Deluxe Crease brush

I'll just start off with how much I love the F80. It's a perfect match for my Face Atelier Ultra Foundation. It takes no time at all to apply foundation and it makes everything so even. Love this brush? Oh boy do I! The Sonia Kashuk brush is quite an old brush to be honest (at least a few years old), but it has been very trustworthy in my cream brush application. I used to use it for regular powder blush before I discovered other ones and it worked nicely for it. It's just dense enough (denser than the Elf stippling brush, which I also own) to not be useless. And it's not too dense to where it is easy to apply pigmented cream products with. I don't even know if they make this brush anymore either, which is kind of depressing.

I've already discussed the RT brushes, so I don't need to go into more detail, but this blush brush is so soft and wonderful to use that I always look forward to using it. That's not weird, right?

The Sigma F40 has replaced my Mac 109 for contouring, hands down. I still love my 109 for different reasons, but it's so round that it doesn't make my contour look that natural, if you know what I mean. But the F40 does exactly that - it makes it look natural, and it's so easy to use. 

AND IT'S SO DAMN SOFT.

For the 109, I love using it for highlighter - it's what I've been using it most for lately. But I also like it for loose powder when I'm using a powder sample container because it's just small enough to fit. And it does apply the powder in more concentrated areas than if I was using a big powder brush, so that's always nice. I only get shedding when cleaning it, but because I use it strictly for powder products, it never sheds on my face.

The last two brushes in this set are another couple of interchangeable brushes. I owned the Sigma P82 before the RT one, but I use them both for concealer. I hate using tiny concealer brushes, so I prefer these denser round brushes. The Sigma one is considerably denser, so it's better for blemishes, and the RT is best for under the eyes.

 

It's the one that Pixiwoo uses for concealer a lot, and I can see why! The Sigma one is stained from a video that I made with Andy a LONG time ago. He felt the need to use my concealer brush for green eyeshadow. Thanks, hun.

So yeah, those are my favourite brushes! I have a few other posts in the works, so be ready for them!

Also I highly recommend Sigma brushes, and not just because I am an affiliate, but because so many brushes are overpriced. Sigma has the quality for the right price. If you want to purchase any Sigma brushes, you can click the link HERE, or the banner on the side of the blog.

 These are all my Sigma brushes together!

Other than that, you can find Real Techniques brushes at Ulta, Fred Meyer, Bartell's, and I don't really know of any other places. And if you want to check out Makeup Geek Brushes, you can click through HERE. They have a bunch of other Mac brush dupes if you don't want to spend a lot on brushes.

Best wishes!

-Abby

FTC disclaimer: The Sigma Beauty links above are affiliate links, but this is not a sponsored post and these are my own opinions. I like to keep it real with you guys.