Brushes | Beauty and Fashion Tech

The Best Makeup Brushes and Tools

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

No. 13: Shiseido Eyelash Curler, $19

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.1

Readers call this “the most perfectly designed eyelash curler …”

No. 12: Too Faced Kabuki Brush, $30

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.3

It “provides fuller coverage than the usual brushes that eat up your powder …”

No. 11: Bare Escentuals Maximum Coverage Concealer Brush, $20

TotalBeauty.com average reader rating: 9.3

It is best when you want “skin tone perfection,” as it allows …

Want to see what’s no. 1? Click here!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Contest! Win a Six Piece ecoTOOLS Eye Brush Set.

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!

Popularity: 1% [?]

ecoTOOLS Eye Brush Set

ecoTOOLS, are a line of affordable and eco-friendly makeup brushes, available at some drugstores and big box retailers (I often see them at Target). I will admit to being a bit of a brush snob. I do really like the higher end makeup brushes. However, ecoTOOLS does a good job at competing by making decent makeup brushes at an affordable price. That they are environmentally friendly is a bonus.

EcoTOOLS recently added two new products to their line. The first is a six piece eye brush set packaged in a cute canvas case with a mirror. This is a nice purse size set, but the brushes are not so small that they are difficult to use. In fact, I tend to prefer short handled makeup brushes. The set provides all that you need for creating various eye shadow looks. The second new item is a soft bronzer brush.

EcoTOOLS created a series of videos to demonstrate the new brushes. Below are two videos that show how to make good use of the eye shadow brushes. The first shows how to create a smoky eye using the six piece brush set. The Second shows how to do makeup touch ups using the set.

Next week, I will be showcasing more of the videos and giving away two of the ecoTOOLS six piece eye brush kits. So if you are in the market for some new makeup brushes, stop back next week for a chance to win!

Popularity: 1% [?]

Estee Lauder Holiday Collection

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.

Popularity: 1% [?]

MAC Mineralize Skin Finish Trio

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).

Popularity: 2% [?]

Purely Cosmetics Mineral Foundation

Looking for bismuth free, high quality mineral makeup? Purely Cosmetics is the place to go. I gave several of the foundations a try and found that I got the some of the best coverage and overall look from them that I have ever gotten from a lose powder mineral foundation. The foundations are also actually pure. There are no irritants in them, and in particular, there is no bismuth—an ingredient that is present in a large number of mineral foundations, including many that use words such as “pure” in their name or advertising.

Pure Mineral Foundation provides smooth coverage with some decent oil absorption—it is recommended for normal to oily skin types. I tried the version with silk powder added, which made for great oil absorption, plus some extra sun protection. I sometimes get a bit shiny by the end of the day with some mineral makeup brands, but not with this foundation. Coverage was also lovely. The foundation goes on smooth, sits nicely on the skin, and is buildable. I added extra to cover areas of melasma and pigmentation with great success. The foundation lasted all day.

Purely Cosmetics Skin Smoothing Foundation contains silk for hydration, silica to blur fine lines, jojoba, and boron to reduce pore visibility. It is not recommended for very oily skin. It wore pretty much the same for me as the Pure Mineral foundation and had bit silkier feeling to it. It happened that my skin was being rather oily when testing it though, so the Pure Mineral Foundation worked better for me because it absorbed the oil better, although the skin smoothing foundation still worked pretty darn well for me.

Another Item I really liked was the Silk and Pearl Primer. This interesting powder primer does a bang up job at absorbing oil. I played with it both by using it with mineral makeup and, despite its marketing as a primer, with using it on top of liquid foundation. It worked well for both. Purely Cosmetics also has an interesting looking finishing powder, but I didn’t give that one a try.

Purely Cosmetics also has a nice line of brushes (the flat top foundation brush works great), brush covers ( a great travel accessory), eye shadows, and more. I will discuss the eye shadows in a later review. All products are affordable and of better quality than a number of more expensive brands. Starter kits and samples are also available. I highly recommend them!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Prescriptives Bronzer Brush

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!