Don’t Just Brush It Off

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So, you splurged at the beauty store, and now you’re eyeing your loot, wondering how you must use it to Insta-perfect effect. The answer lies in a small, but worthy, battery of brushes. Here’s the lowdown on the absolutely essential brushes and sponges you need to get the most out of your beauty products.

Foundation
It’s true that some of the best makeup artists use the warmth of their fingers to apply high-end foundations on celebrity faces. But depending on your skill and the consistency and coverage of your foundation, a brush might be imperative to eliminate patchy streaks for a flawless finish. A good foundation brush has densely packed bristles, that are either flat or rounded.

Smart Girl Hack: Go over applied foundation in circular motions with a rounded brush for an airbrushed result, not forgetting the neck.

Eyeshadow Shader and Crease
The multipurpose shader is a small, flat brush to pack colour on evenly over the entire lid and also to blend colours at the outer corners. The Crease brush is small and pointed at the tip, to apply and blend out colour in the crease.

A Kabuki Brush is named after Japanese theatre, originally used by actors to cake the face with white rice powder. The large, dense brush head is ideal for buffing out foundation, layering on powder and dusting on bronzer, blush or body shimmer.

Beauty Sponge
It’s not just used to apply product. Bouncing a damp beauty blender after covering and concealing gives heavy foundation a more sheer look or use to remove excess powder after setting your makeup.

Setting Powder
You don’t want harsh bristles to undo all the work you put into giving yourself great coverage. A powder brush has fluffy, dome-shaped bristles, for a feather-light touch on the skin. Lightly ‘dust’ on the powder, as opposed to making heavy strokes.
Lazy Girl Hack: Double it up as a blush or bronzer brush, making sure to clean between uses.

Concealer
A smaller version of the foundation brush, it zeroes in on spots, blemishes and the delicate undereye area. Not directly using the little sponge attached to the concealer bottle is more hygienic and allows you to control the amount of product used. Small bristles enable you to pat the product over zits and dark circles, blending out to the surrounding area to avoid a dotty, splotchy result.

Highlighter
We’ll be honest, do you need a fan brush to bring out the high planes of your face? No. Does it look super cool in your vanity kit? Yes! These delicate creations swing between being called super functional and pointlessly frivolous; so just follow your inner diva heart here.

Brow Brush
A brush with a spoolie at one end and flat, synthetic fibres at the other is useful for filling, defining and styling brows in a jiffy. Tapered bristles give the brush a precision edge, making it easier to create hair-like strokes.

Contouring
Looking vavavoom starts with making a duck face. Contouring may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but a slanted brush head does the trick. The blunt bristles arranged to make a tapering edge make it easier to attain the chiseled look.