There was a time in my life I used to apply make up with my hands, and use shapeless foam applicators for my eye shadow. I was fifteen and those days are well and truly over.

Discovering make up brushes opened a whole new world of make up for me: they make application even, save product and are the tools that give me precision to create great make up and truly enhance my features. I then became brush-crazy and started slowly building up a collection.

All my brushes are from MAC; after having had bad brushes before, theirs was the first good brush I got that made a difference, so I stuck with them! I have about 17 brushes for face, eye and lip make up, but there are 10 of them I cannot live without and I use on a daily basis:

Face

190 Foundation brush – Really changed my life! Applies evenly, makes a small amount of foundation go a long way!

187 Duo Fibre brush – I love to use it to buff blusher and bronzer, sometimes I use it for foundation too.

129 Powder brush –  I use it for powder application and bronzer – I really love this brush!

168 Large Angled contour brush– I use this one mainly for blusher, applying on the apples of my cheek, but also under the cheekbone, to give contour that makes your face really stand out!

eye and lip

318 Retractable lip brush – I love this brush, I can really see the difference on lipstick applied with a brush, especially if they are red or other dark colour! 

208 Angled brow brush – another one I love, and use it to fill my eyebrows, which have a lovely shape, but are a bit sparse. Its hard bristles really get in there!

231 Small shader brush – Great for shading lines, but also for applying eye shadow as eye liner when a smokey effect is desired!

217 Blending brush – One of my favourites, this brush is made to go in your crease and blend – I love creating smokey eyes with it!!!

263 Small angle brush – Great for liners – super handy for corners!

239 Eye shader brush– I use this everyday, to apply eye shadow evenly on the lid.

Most of them come from brush bags MAC launches every year, mainly around Christmas, others I replaced by the full sized (and full priced!) brush or bought after seeing it being used on me during a make over at MAC. I do prefer the smaller special editions ones, as it is easier to carry them in my make up bag.

I usually clean them with brush cleaner (I’ve been using the MAC one, and I am very happy with it, it lasted a long time!) and warm soapy (or even detergent!) water. A good trick I read about, on my make up bible Make Up: The Ultimate Guide, by Rae Morris, is to use a white plate and rub the brush on it, until you can see the water running clear, so that you know your brush is clean! Good tip!

Some of them have been stained by pigments, others, have seen better days and I am looking forward to buying one of their sets soon to replace the oldies!

What about you? Do you have favourite brushes and brands?