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Rant & Rave: Doe-Foot Applicators

This Week’s Topic: Doe-Foot Applicators!

Your Mission: Tell us what you love, hate, or are otherwise indifferent to about doe-foot applicators. What drives you bananas? What makes them necessary?

my answer: The only time I’ve had a problem with them is if it’s a cheaper one, so it tends to be harder/sharper and less comfortable to use. For the most part, they work well!

32 Comments

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xamyx Avatar

I much prefer a brush applicator; the doe-foot applicators just seem less sanitary, IMO. I apply lip products & primer with a separate brush anyway, so it doesn’t really matter too much to me.

Kiss & Make-up Avatar

Hmm, I’ve never really thought about it. I don’t particularly like or dislike them 🙂 They’re not great for detail work, but with gloss you can afford to be a bit ‘messier’ so I don’t mind 🙂

mirian Avatar

I don’t mind them at all. I’ve only found a few brands that the packaging might be off and you can’t get enough product of the applicator as you pull it out. that tends to be annoying. I kinda like the hourglass applicators. Like a flexi-doe-foot

Melody Avatar

I usually prefer doe foot applicators because I sometimes find that brushes are difficult to manipulate. Some of them splay out too much or are not stiff enough, and others are too stiff.

Evelyn Avatar

I do like both but depends on size and quality. I stopped using Bobbi Brown glosses long ago because I hated the quality of the brush. My friend gave me a Smashbox kit that has a gloss with a doe-foot applicator that is bigger than my lips! lol Then the applicator of the Anastasia glosses for me is absurd – an unruly plastic paddle. eh.

Evelyn Avatar

I can see how that’s useful. I just don’t apply lip gloss well with that type. It doesn’t quite get everywhere I’d like it to go the way I want it. Now those Nars brushes…they are precise but a bit too much so and it takes so much work to cover your lip with the bitty brush. lol

blueraccoon Avatar

I prefer them to brushes, to be honest; I think they’re more comfortable and easier to use. Most of my glosses have doe-foot applicators, and while I wouldn’t not buy a gloss with a brush applicator, I do tend to look for doe-foot when I buy gloss.

Lark Avatar

Hate doe foots. I haven’t had a good one in years and they’re filthy. No way to clean them, they get lipstick or pencil in the gloss, icky. I like a brush, I can clean it.

Glosses don’t require huge precision so a good doe foot – with cleaning advice!- would be OK, but I haven’t seen one in ages.

Nesita Avatar

I like them for sheerer glosses but not for opaque lip products. I also like them for eyeshadow primers or eyeshadow creams, since I’m gonna blend them out anyway.

Veronica Avatar

I like them. I feel like I have more control when I use them, since I don’t have a steady hand. I’m not entirely thrilled about how they pull off product and dump it in the gloss, but I consider gloss one of those products I expect to dump every two years or so, anyway, so it doesn’t bother me excessively.

XoKg Avatar

I have been waiting for this moment for a long, long time. I hate doe-foot applicators with a burning passion. They barely pick up any product and they get filthy. My stupid primer potion cannot go directly to my eye-lids because foundation tends to rub off onto the applicator. I also hate the jagged doe-foot applicators that I tend to get. They are simply awful.

Kim Avatar

Love them. The brush splay and irritate me! As for them being dirty- the lipgloss multiplies bacteria, so anything you put in is pretty gross anyway, unless of course you use a new applicator each time.

xamyx Avatar

Or, you can sanitize a brush applicator much more easily than a doe-foot before sticking it back in the tube. I, personally, take the gloss off the applicator with a clean, sanitized brush each time, and I find the brush applicators are better for that.

Jill Avatar

I prefer the doe foot applicators over the brushes. But , when you talk about sanitation, it is being applied to one of, if not the most, dirtiest places on your body! LOL.

Quinctia Avatar

I don’t mind them, and find them perfectly adequate for concealer and eye shadow primer… But I love brush applicators for gloss. It’s so much easier for me to apply precisely with a brush.

Jessica Avatar

I actually love them. They apply lipgloss so evenly and quickly compared to a brush which is really streaky and uneven. Doe foots for me are the easiest and simplest way to go.

Wwendalynne Avatar

I live on a farm. There are far more disgusting things around me than a doe foot applicator. I’m ambivalent. I hate Illamasqua’s wonky brush with hard bristles even more. I like NARS’ tiny little brush that everyone else seems to hate.

Sarah Avatar

I prefer doe-foot applicators. The problem I have with brushes is that sometimes I’ll snag them on the edge of the opening while reinserting and the bristles will get splayed out awkwardly.

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