I don’t know about you but I’ve always been a bit confused over which makeup brush to use for what and end up just using whatever kinda works.

Now, please don’t get me wrong, I am not completely clueless but I do have a huge collection of brushes that I have ‘invested’ in over the years and I only know what half of them are for….ok, maybe a little clueless.

This whole thing of wanting to know more about what my brushes are for came about a few weeks back, I went to MAC to purchase a new concealer brush as I lost mine whilst on a recent business trip. Now I asked the lady at Mac for a small concealer brush that is works best around the eyes and the nose area to hide my end of year tiredness. I was given a brush that I was told was a concealer brush and hurriedly paid and left the store only to get home and find that it was a terrible concealer brush. I wasn’t very impressed and went online to see what I had indeed bought.

So here is the thing, when I go to a speciality store I expect the ladies there to be experts, hell isn’t that why we pay a premium….ok ok, I’m still ticked off I paid for something I didn’t want but I’ve got a bug and I’m not happy with life today….so the end of the story is I bought a brush, didn’t ask questions, didn’t look at it properly and ended up with a blending brush!

So I am sitting here, sitting at home a doing some research into what is what and which brush is used with what products, etc… and as I am doing this I thought I would share my little research journey with you BB ladies – so here we go!
Now I am going to go through the ones I have no idea what they are for or only just found out what its main use is and not what I was using it for plus a few of the “duh you should know” ones.
Let’s start simple with the general application ones:

Foundation brushes – It’s what you use to apply your foundation, sorry to point out the obvious. Now I have both the classic foundation brush (can have slightly pointed or flat/square headed) and the MAC Duo Fibre Brush (you get different sizes) but I must admit I prefer to use the Duo Fibre Brush. When you use the Duo Fibre Brush you use less foundation and gives much better even coverage. You don’t paint your face with this product but use a stippling process by lightly patting the face with the brush and then swilling it over the face to get it all even. It can be used for more than just foundation – bronzes, blush, etc.

Now I bought this one on a recommendation from a MAC girl and that time it did pay off. It’s not the cheapest of brushes, actually they all are pricey, but I believe brushes are an investment and the duo fibre was one of my first.
Concealer Brushes – Use this brush to put on your concealer that covers those spots are areas that the foundation didn’t disguise. This brush is usually quite small and can have a round or pointy tip. Perfect to add concealer around the nose, eyes and cover that beacon that sprouted on your forehead, no? Just me then….

Powder Brush – I use these for blending and setting my make-up. They come in different sizes. I recently lost my Kabuki Brush (big fat one with a short handle) and need to go get a replacement.

Blush Brush – Nice big and round, like the size of the apples of your cheeks. It must be fluffy and round. You can use one of the powder blushes that you have, I normally do, or I know my friend uses one of her kabuki brushes but I find it too big for this.

Contour Brush – thick brush with an angles tip. I love this brush! I use it to define my cheek bones and highlight areas on my face. It is really soft

Lash Brush – Looks like a mascara brush. Great for separating your lashes after applying mascara (get rid of the globs) and for grooming your eyebrows.

MAC Angled Brow Brush – use to shape and fill in your brows. I am not very good at this

Angled Brush – Can use this for your brows or as an eyeliner brush, perfect small brush that you can be precise with.
Fluff Brush – This is a very soft brush for your blending powders on eyes and, if you have a larger one, highlighting on the face.

Shader Brush – This you use on your eyes to shade the eye shadows. It’s slightly fluffy with a rounded tip. You can also get angled ones of these.

MAC Blender Brush – This is more oval shaped and also fluffy. You use this to blend the eye shadows together to give a softer look. You can also get a tapered blending brush with is extra soft for softer shading; I use this to shade into my crease line of my eye.

MAC Eyeliner Brush – I have a few. One is the normal one and the other is angled (the top of the handle is angled). The normal one is just thinner and slightly firmer. I don’t know why I have both because they both work well. These are perfect for my gel eye liners. The angled one is better for the inner eye lines.

MAC Lip Brush – I don’t use mine often as I tend to use gloss that has a wand in the tube. It has a small flat tapered brush and is very firm, great for outlining the lips.

Fan brush – looks like a fan and comes in different sizes. I use mine to dust away excess powder. Apparently it is used to diffuse blusher or highlighters over the face (large arrears) and blend powders.
Smudge Brush – I know MAC calls theirs a short blender brush but I feel the name isn’t describing it properly. Basically it is a small short brush or even a foam tip that is used to create a smoky eye. I use it to smudge my bottom eyeliner or shadow to create the effect. My Inglot eyeliner has a smudge brush/tip at the end to help to easily complete the perfect smoky eye.

Eyebrow Brush – This has two sides, one a comb and the other a hard brush. This helps to style your brows and shape them.

Below are some of my make-up brushes. Please note that I had just done my morning make-up and rushed out of there but needed to take a quite photo, hence why you can see some brushes have make-up on them. Also, I have just returned from being away on business (I was away most of the weekend) and I have naughtily not washed my brushes since I left. This isn’t my whole collection but rather what was in my make-up travel case that I just unpacked to put on make-up this morning. Most of my brushes are from MAC and Smashbox but I also have a few from Woolies that I love.

Now comes the important bit, how to wash these brushes and maintain them after spending a small fortune acquiring them?

People often neglect cleaning their brushes, I’m no angle either, and you need to remember why we do this even though it’s a chore. Your brushes are an investment to the better you look after them, the better they last. When you clean your brushes you return them to their amazing softness – I find if I don’t, the make-up makes it scratchy from build up and the make-up doesn’t go on evenly. But the main reason…..your make-up brush holds your bacteria, skin oils, dead skin cells, collects dirt easily, etc….it’s kinda nasty when you think about it.

I don’t know how often you should clean your brushes but I clean the ones I used during the week over the weekend. I know a lot of cosmetic companies sell brush cleaners and detergents but I like to stick to good old baby shampoo and for some conditioner, it’s cheap and smells great – good for the brush as well.

To wash them: Wet your brush with lukewarm water and squeeze a little amount of baby shampoo onto the bottom of your bathroom sink to make sure it is clean . Some people use a clean sponge instead of their sink, but this works for me. Now swirl your wet brush over the shampoo to work up a lather and then rinse with lukewarm water. Make sure you rinse out all the shampoo, squeeze out the excess water and then lay flat on a clean towel to dry (mine dries overnight). I also wash the handles quite thoroughly as this can get very dirty as well. Another thing I use after the shampoo of my brushes is conditioner as I find sometimes the softer brushes need to have it to maintain their silkiness. Apply this after the shampoo and rinse with lukewarm water then lay flat to dry.

Article by: Hayley Vann http://www.beautybulletin.com/blog-directory/our-bloggers/hayley-vann

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