The Hello Kitty Makeup collection for Sephora is out. This collection of multiple cosmetics, accessories, fragrances, and Hello Kitty nail art has some cute packaging and can be purchased in store or online at  Sephora.com. Below are a few of my favorite items from the Sephora Hello Kitty collection:

This set of Hello Kitty makeup brushes comes in a large metallic silver Hello Kitty makeup container. Included in this set:
- Face Brush
- Eyeshadow Brush
- Shader/Blending Brush
- Angled Eyeliner Brush
- Lip Brush
- Collectible Hello Kitty brush container

This tin pencil box contains a range of high pigment, soft eye liners. The liner contains extracts of strawberry, apple, and grape seed to hydrate and soften skin and fight free radicals.

Hello Kitty Apple Cheeks are wide stick cream blushes. The blushes add a subtle tint of  layerable color. Contains fruit and grape seed extracts. I particularly like the packaging on this one.

Sephora Hello Kitty nail art stickers are fun for creating whimsical nail looks. Grab some fun nail polish, add some stickers and enjoy!

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Your makeup is usually only as good as your brush. This is especially true with cheap makeup or drugstore makeup, which isn’t usually very pigmented to begin with, and is often packed with cheap sponge applicators. The good news is that the best brushes need not cost a fortune. There are some excellent pro makeup brushes out there, which tend to be pricier, but there are also some decent inexpensive makeup brushes available at your local drugstore. I received some brush questions recently, so I thought I would do a post on them as part of the Best Makeup series here on the site.

Here are the primary differences between cheap makeup brushes and professional makeup brushes:

• Professional makeup bushes are normally made of real animal fibers which hold and apply pigment more evenly for the best look. For liquid makeup and the best eye shadow application, pro makeup brushes are often preferable.
• Pro makeup brushes hold up better. They do not lose bristles, which can be rather annoying when applying make up, and they last longer overall.
• Inexpensive makeup  brushes may lose a few bristles, but often, once they are broken in, they work nearly as well as the pro brushes. Some brands are better than others though. For example, Eco Tools tend to hold up pretty well, but the last Sonia Kashuk makeup brush I had lost bristles constantly, to the point where I considered it unusable.
• Price is often the biggest difference.  Drugstore brushes are often under $10, while pro brushes are after over $20-40.  You will replace even the best drugstore makeup brushes more often though.

Below are a look at some of the best makeup brushes across several price ranges.

The Best Cheap Makeup Brushes

Low on money? One of the top cheap makeup brush brands is Eco Tools.  Eco Tools makeup brushes are very affordable, easily found in drugstores and big box retailers, and tend to hold up pretty well. They also are eco friendly, being made of recycled materials with bamboo handles, and are packaged in natural hemp and cotton cases.  For a good inexpensive makeup brush set, the Eco Tools 5 piece makeup brush set is a good way to test out the line. I also love the  Eco Tools 6 piece eye makeup brush set (pictured above).

Another good inexpensive line, which can be found at CVS, are the Essence of Beauty makeup brushes. I find that those tend to wear out a bit quicker, but they are very affordable and apply makeup rather well for their price.

The Best Professional Makeup Brushes

In the pro makeup brush range, there are numerous excellent choices in brushes. But a couple always stand out. First and foremost are MAC Makeup Brushes. MAC makeup brushes are consistently high quality and often carry a bit lower price than some of the other pro brands. For a particularly good deal, watch for the MAC makeup brush sets that come out around the holidays. They are the same high quality brushes, but with shorter handles in order to fit in a makeup kit. Buying a set can be a great way to get a set of quality makeup brushes and save a good deal of money.

Another professional quality favorite of mine are the makeup brushes from Laura Mercier. You can see some Laura Mercier makeup brush sets (limited edition travel brush set  pictured above) along with some other sets at Nordstrom, which also has a pretty nice selection of higher quality items: Shop Nordstrom Makeup Brush Sets. As with the MAC brushes, finding travel sets can be a great way to save money over buying each brush individually. I actually find that I prefer the shorter handles as well.

Shop For Makeup Brushes

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I particularly like this article, syndicated from Total Beauty, on the best makeup brushes and beauty tools. It has a good selection of good makeup brushes and other makeup tools and includes the smashbox eyeliner brush, which is hands down my favorite. I love the angle on it.  It also includes the Shu Uemura Eyelash curler, which is another favorite of mine and is a cult classic. A few MAC makeup brushes, which are also always good, are included as well.

Do you have a favorite makeup brush beauty tool included in the list?

The 13 Best Makeup Tools

See which brushes, tweezers and eyelash curlers Total Beauty Readers love

Even if you use your fingers to apply most things, all of us have a few tools in our makeup arsenal that we wouldn’t want to live without. TotalBeauty.com readers shared their favorite makeup tools, maybe it’s time to add a few to your stash? See tools

What beauty tools can you simply not live without?

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This contest is now closed. Congratulations Erin M and Justine, you are the winners. I have sent you email!

Last week, I wrote about ecoTOOLS, a line of affordable and eco-friendly makeup brushes. Now, you can win a six piece eye brush set. I will be giving away two of these.

How to enter: ecoTOOLS has produced several short videos demonstrating how to use the makeup brushes, which are posted below.  To enter, watch one or more of the videos and leave comment stating your favorite tip or something that you learned from the videos. If you are a blogger, you can earn another entry by posting one or more of the videos to your own blog. If you do so, come back and leave a comment with a link to the post.

The contest will close at noon central time on February 19, 2010. At that time, I will randomly draw the winners and notify them by email. Winners must respond within 5 days or the prize will be redrawn. One entry per household (two if you comment and do a blog post).  Open to residents of the United States and Canada. Good luck!

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I love this straightening brush! The HairArt Duet Brush has ceramic plates that  will retain heat and provide shine while you used the brush and your hair dryer to straighten your hair.

I found that the brush was quite easy to use—easier than a flat iron. Just like using a flat iron, it can get a bit tricky in back, but it was much easier for me to use in back than a flat iron is. I like the look better than that of a straight iron too. The brush allows you to straighten your hair without getting everything so stick straight that the hair is just flat. Basically, you can still have some bounce and body. The brush is also pretty effective for flipping ends up or under.

At $15, it is much cheaper than a flat iron as well!

Note: This review is based on a  product given to me by a representative of the company. For more, please see my disclosure page.

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Estee Lauder has some nice kits out for Christmas 2009. I especially like the brush kit. Estee Lauder brushes are attractive, and hold up well. The addition of a case with the set is rather nice.

Also rather pretty is the eyeshadow palette. It has an attractive holiday case and nice shades. Estee Lauder eye shadows tend to wear quite well, making the palette a nice holiday gift or simply a useful item for yourself.

Finally, the Holiday Blockbuster set is a $340 value that can be bought for $55 with any fragrance purchase.

Note: If you are reading this in the feed, click the title to veiw the post on the site. Then the shopping boxes will show up.

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MAC cosmetics has some new Mineralize Skin Finish items out for summer.  I was sent a MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Trio in Triple Fusion, which works quite well with my fair skin.

The trios consist of a couple of bronzer shades and a pinker blush shade. They are fairly adjustable depending on where you sweep your brush. I mix the three shades together for a light bronzer/blush look. The effect is nice for summer where too much blush can look garish. The skin finish shades have a bit of shimmer to them, but are not overdone. So they work for natural looks and for night and day. My MAC Skin Finish Trio has become my go to bronzer/blush,  which is not surprising since I frequently used a different MAC Skin Finish a lot before my trio arrived. It is a quality product with a fairly decent price.

I use a MAC Duo Fibre Face Brush to apply bronzers, which works wonderfully for either a bronzer or blush. Shopping hint: for a limited time, check out the Nordstrom Exculsives MAC 5 Brush Set which also includes this brush with a shorter handle for almost the same price as the single brush. This is a limited edition set, but they put out similar set again at the Holidays).

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Prescriptives Bronzer Brushwon the 2009 Allure Editors Choice Award for the Best Powder/Bronzer Brush.

I haven’t tried this specific brush, but I can tell you that I love my MAC brush that is quite similar and I have seen the Prescriptives one get generally rave reviews at product review forums or sites. My brush is wearing out, so this might be one I try as a replacement!

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Looking for a good beauty related gift? Consider brushes. During the holidays, a number of nice kits are available.

First off, this  is one of the best times to get MAC brushes at a great value because MAC always puts out holiday travel brush kits with a good price. Take a look at the MAC Cosmetics Adoring Carmine Collection (one kit of several pictured below) for various selections.

For a great value, take a look at what Eco-tools has to offer. These environmentally friendly brushes are affordable, attractive, and good quality (read previous review).  Comparison shop online for Eco Tools or look for them at CVS and Bamboo 5 Piece Brush Set .

I was eyeing this Smashbox Travel Brush Collection in the store the other day. Smashbox makes great brushes and this kit is adorable!

Looking for more choices? Comparison shop for makeup brushes at Shopzilla/Bizrate.

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DHC is a Japanese skin care and cosmetics company. I am a long time fan of DHC skin care products, especially their Olive Oil cleanser (read review) and White Sunscreen (Read Review), but I had not tried any of the DHC makeup. Having read some good things about various DHC makeup items, I decided to change that by ordering some.

My first review is of the DHC Eye Shadow Perfect Pro Palette in topaz, and the DHC Eye Shadow Brush . I am impressed with both. Below is a photo I took of the palette.

The first thing that struck me about the DHC Eyeshadow palette was the packaging. A little door opens up over the applicator, and then a mirrored door opens over the eye shadow. It is unique and attractive.  The shadow itself is fine. The shades are rather light, and sort of remind of some of the Clinque light neutral shades. That is also fine with me, but if you like really dramatic eye shadow, this might not be for you. The shadow also generally wore well for me. I also like how it is packaged, with the largest pan being the base shade and the liner as the smallest. It balances out the use better that way!

DHC also makes a line of synthetic brushes and sells them at a pretty good price, so I added an eye shadow brush to my purchase. This turned out to be one of the best synthetic brushes I have ever used.  Most cheap brushes will have some initial hair loss and might not feel all that soft. But the DHS brush that I bought was quite soft and not a single hair fell out of it. So I was left quite impressed with it, especially considering its $9 price tag.

DHC items are only available online and through mail order. You also get your choice of four samples with every purchase and each mail catalog comes with a sample or two (or sometime three or four) in it. So it is a good mailing list to be on!

Update: The brushes appear to be discontinued.

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