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Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki & #126 Medium Powder Brushes Reviews & Photos

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush ($48.00) is a tapered kabuki brush, and the tapered edge definitely separates it from my other kabuki brushes. The brush head measures 40mm in length, 30mm in width, and 30mm in thickness. It has a short handle (as you’d expect for a kabuki) with a total brush length of 3 inches or 7.5 centimeters.

The brush is incredibly dense, soft and silky against the skin, but it’s flexible enough to easily allow the tapered edge to curve around the nose and underneath the eye. Make Up For Ever recommends this for cream and liquid foundations, first and foremost, though it is also recommended for loose and pressed powders. I liked it best with liquid foundation, and it does tend to apply with heavier coverage, so if you tend to prefer a very sheer or light foundation application, it won’t be a go-to for you. I also used it to blend out edges of powder blush/bronzer, and it works, but I’m more inclined to reach for a buffer brush (like the #126 below) for that.

Make Up For Ever has five kabuki brushes in their range; the #102 is a smaller version of the #110, while the #124 has the more traditional dome-shape. There is also the #132, which is a flattened version, and the #414, which is a body brush. If you actually wanted to really buff and blend using the top of the brush, I would steer you away from this, as the tapered tip is tapered and firm enough that it works better for sweeping at an angle, not straight-on like many kabuki brushes are used.

#126 Medium Powder Brush ($55.00) is a large, dense, dome-shaped brush designed to be used for loose and pressed powder application with “moderate-to-high coverage.” It’s incredibly dense, thick, and very lush. The brush fibers are soft, silky, and glide across the skin almost as if they were one. The brush head is 40mm long, 40mm wide, and 40mm thick. The weight is more concentrated towards the brush head, and I would have preferred a better weight distribution to give the handle more heft. The handle is particular thick–about 3/4 of an inch in diameter at its thickest point. The total length of the brush is just over 7 inches or 18 centimeters. The ferrule is particularly long, even for a face brush, and is an open/round ferrule (no pinching).

This brush actually reminded me of a kabuki or buffer brush–in fact, the shape and size of MAC 182 is almost a dead-ringer, except for the handle. If you’ve always loved the shape of a kabuki brush but wanted a longer handle, this brush will definitely give you that. I loved it for blending and buffing out powder blush and bronzer, and it also worked for applying loose powder all-over. It tends to pick up powder a bit more than a fluffier brush, so for setting and finishing powders, I think it ends up yielding a too powdery finish. For powder foundation, though, it works to give light to medium coverage fairly easily.

One downside to both of these was that they take forever to dry (at least a full 24 hours) if you’ve done a full wash of them. On the plus side, I really didn’t feel like I had much in the way of similar brushes in my stash. The tapered shape of the #110 definitely makes it more unique compared to other kabuki brushes, while the fullness and denseness of the #126 make it different from other long-handled powder brushes I have (which tend to be less dense and fluffier), but it is comparable to the more traditional kabuki brush shape and density.

See more photos!

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush
Make Up For Ever #110 Medium Foundation Kabuki Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush
Make Up For Ever #126 Medium Powder Brush

13 Comments

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Comments on this post are closed.
Liz Avatar

I’m not too interested in either of these brushes. But maybe I’ll find one from the line that I will get. It’s nothing against the line. It’s just that over the last year and a half I’ve bought a lot of brushes and don’t have too much of a need for anything else.

I’m not surprised that the brushes take so long to dry. The few synthetic brushes that I have to seem to take almost an entire day to dry.

Stacey Avatar

Wayne Goss has created an original brush set that comes out on September 12th. THATS the brushes that Im coveting, they look interesting and beautiful.

Krista Dior Avatar

Yeah.. I own the tapered kabuki. Not too impressed with the hairs of this synthetic brush. I use this mostly with powder highlighting products and the pointed end fits below the eye area just right for patting a matte white or shimmer powder. I just find that it sops up oil from my skin and makes the brush wet feeling. Can’t really describe it, but it creeps me out a little.

Christine Avatar

Very interesting to hear! I’m actually surprised a little, given that these are synthetics so they really shouldn’t be absorbing much. I don’t have oily skin and tended to use this with liquid products, so maybe that’s why I didn’t get any creepy wet feeling, LOL!

Diane Avatar

I own the #110 and I love it. Worth the buy. I actually use it for my everyday powder foundation brush. I’ll definitely try it with liquid foundation.

LU Avatar

Thanks for this review Christine, I always find the details and size comparisons helpful. The 126 is exactly what I’m looking for (kabuki on a stick, haha), but I couldn’t find one in the hakuhodo range.

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