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What was the last beauty tool that you discovered?
Smith Cosmetics 253 is my new favorite eyeshadow brush! I love the triangular shape and tapered bristles.
— Christine
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The Wayne Goss Air Brush. I like how easily it picks up and applies product (and how it performs as a buffing brush). I was wowed when it picked up a highlighter not easily picked up by the brand’s ‘designated’ brush. I have 2 blush palettes that include a highlighter that I thought was poorly pigmented. The Air Brush picked up the product and the applied highlighter shades are beautiful!
A big fluffy blending brush from Smashbox! Not sure what it’s called… But I love it.
The Tarte bamboo airbrush finish foundation brush. Just used it for the first time this morning!
A really diffuse and “floppy” blush brush- in my case, the Wayne Goss 14. I love pigmented blush but I can be a bit heavy handed. This makes a huge difference!it applies so gently ?
That’s big on my wish list. The air brush is excellent. One weird feature of it is that it’s almost as self cleaning as a Samoyed. You can go fro CCB to powder, to another powder, without more than a ploof on your hand. The colors beneath never get disturbed, unless you intend to blend them. Amazing.
Also, not new, but I like the swoon tool from Sephora. Designed to get out the last bit of gloss, but it can apply masc to a mascara fan, pull out lipstick nubs to a brush, get the last bit of skincare… anything that would normally get disposed without a true finish of product.
oh I’ve seen the Swoon! I think it’s such a smart idea, but if I’m being honest with myself I almost never run that low on a gloss so I don’t know if I’d actually use it, ha!
The perfect drugstore dupe for the Beautyblender by ebelin.
Linda, where can I purchase ebelin in stateside?
I don’t think you can. It is the own brand of a German drugstore called DM, and they don´t ship internationally (wouldn´t be sensible with the price). Maybe try eBay? I get it for around 3 € here in stores.
Thank you Linda! I searched on ebay but they only had ebelin hair brushes. I will try again.
Oooh, I’m hoping the smith small crease brushes I ordered work perfectly for my small eyes.. should have them today or tomorrow 🙂
My pick is a brush as well. MAC 287 is definitely a key tool for strategic corrector placement under my eyes. The wide flat duo fibre helps diffuse and produce a super light application and yet is also precise enough to apply exactly where I need it. It is even soft enough to use in the deeper grooves without over-applying as well.
Do tell us small eyes how the Smith works. Did you get the Wayne little crease and find it sub par?
Hey there 🙂 You’re talking brush Wayner’s 04, right? I don’t find it sub-par at all.. it’s more about the anatomy of my small hooded eyes. I use traditional long flexible crease brushes for highlighting inside corner work rather than crease.
I love MAC 217 which are total workhorses for me, but it is a bit too wide for my crease work. I gleaned from Aly Art and Alyssa Ashley (both who have great hooded eye toots) that you need a crease brush which fits exactly at the halfway point between your crease line (mine is a skinfold instead) and your eyebrow for a balanced eye look. It made sense to me. I have a MAC 221 which is like a skinny 217 and very VERY similar to the Smith small crease brush 230. The difference is the Smith is slightly bigger (poofier), the length is exactly the same as the 221, but the brush has slightly less flex and the very end of the hairs is more diffused (softer because of differing lengths). I used the Smith 230 for the first time today as it arrived just before I was going to do my makeup. Yay!!!! Anyhow, it is a PERFECT crease brush for me. I wear at least 2 crease colours, and this brush is ideal for laying down my lightest, or first, crease colour. I tend to lay down a thin base concealer and then powder lightly and then move right to crease work. If you have hooded eyes, particularly the folded over kind like mine, you spend the vast majority of time on crease work and outer corner to build structure and dimension where none exists or in my case, where stuff it pushing out and you want to recede it. My eyes are not easy to work with and have some texture issues although my retinol eye cream is helping. A traditional bendy soft crease brush doesn’t cut it for me. It’s not precise enough, not stiff enough to plow through all that extra skin, and if I push the brush under the fold of skin to get to my real crease, eyeshadow will not show when I open my eyes because my real crease is buried. I have to work with my eyes open and fake a crease then my eyes closed to fill in the areas that disappear under that nasty eye fold. I need brushes that can deliver greater precision because the area I am working with is small. Anyhooooo…totes digresssssing here… and hoodie peeps will totally get what I am saying here. This brush is the perfect size for me to create my fake crease. I like it better than the MAC 221 because it diffuses naturally and the size is spot on for my eye structure. As my eyeshadow game gets better and better, I’m finding I can better select the size and style of tools which will work. I also have a much better understanding of why I struggled with eyeshadow looks for so long and why tools and techniques others used were completely wasted on me. This is a great brush for me. Double Win!…I bought 2 on a hunch
Smiths Cosmetics 256, perfect for me! And the flat quill crease brush (235) from the same brand: where has this been all of my makeup life! It makes blending stuff in the crease so much easier.
MUFE 242 Large Blender Brush. I LOVE IT. The blending is great, and I also really like just using it for application. It was pricey but having nice brushes that feel good on my skin is an important part of what makes makeup enjoyable to me and I expect to have it for a long time.
Cosmocube Mixing Palette, ITEM 1831429 at Sephora. It’s the bomb! Clear acrylic that’s sturdy and easy to clean. I use it every day to mix my foundation with lightening drops, another color of foundation, a touch of liquid highlighter, whatever. At $6 or $9, it’s the best tool I’ve bought in a long, long, long time.
I was loving my beauty blender until I bought a really cheap set of flat and angled kabuki brushes from eBay and — my BB has been on vacation all summer and I’ve been rotating these exclusively. I’ve used very dense kabuki brushes before but these are soooo soft and blend/buff so well, a very happy surprise – and easier to travel with than the beauty blender.
Ipsy sends me some great brushes. The last one being the Luxie 215, a small angled eyeliner brush that at *first*, I took one dismissive look at saying to myself: “this? How am I supposed to do a wing with this itty bitty thing???” Until my MJ Blacquer Highliner was retracted to the max, but still had a bit of product left. So in desperation, I used that 215 to use up the last of the Blacquer. Used MUCH less product than swiping it on! So now, when I get around to buying another Blacquer, I will be applying it with this brush instead from now on.
The highlighting brush from Elf is amazing! It blends out your highlighter effortlessly. I need more!
A Beauty Evolved angled liner brush! I don’t ever wear wings, just liner, so I wasn’t expecting much use from this brush. Wrong! With cream shadows and gel liners, it glides beautifully all over the lid. It’s short enough to stamp liner against the lashes but flexible enough to really get a smooth lid color. Cuts the crease amazingly well. I don’t know if it’s readily available because it was in a gift set but I love it!
The Marc Jacobs Face III foundation brush – I can’t believe how flawless and air brushed my normally not so great complexion is with it. When I have a spare $55 I’m going to pick up a backup.
The last really new concept I got was the Color Switch that I do love and it’s easy to clean.
The Wayne Goss Air Brush is the last tool i got and ut’s divine and easy to work with. I’d love to get another one but i do use other brushes for a similar purpose.
Well, I was thing along the lines of electrical products and thought of my T3 hair dryers. I have the regular size and travel size. Both are super quiet and still dry my hair quickly with no obvious damage. My hair is long with highlights.
I haven’t purchased any brushes recently but plan to buy the Canadian SMITH brushes soon.
I bought my first MAC brush, the 221, a small crease brush, and it’s truly superb at detail work, cut creases, and working with smaller lids on big eyes if you can imagine how my eye shape is, a bit of a pain. Beautiful quality, I was really impressed. I also just bought the Kevyn Aucoin Small Eyeshadow Soft Round Tip, and wow, does that little brush perform. It’s what the Charlotte Tilbury eye smudger should be, which I also have and is a great disappointment, both performance wise and aesthetically.
Looking into epilators for rogue hairs I can’t see
Also a brush- C436 Mini Duo Fibre Blender from Crown- I received months ago in a beauty box and I have started using it only a few weeks ago. It helps my real techniques buffing brush to get to the small parts around the eyes.
Also testing rotating hair brushes/dryers but not a definitive one yet.
Wayne Goss 14. I love it! I am on a mission to get his whole collection! ?It might be awhile before I have them all. Lol
I am always late to the beauty tools party because I think a lot of them are pointless minus a good brush but i recently just got into the beauty blenders but I can’t love them due to the bacterial issues I forsee. Everytime I put it to my skin I thought about all the hidden microorganisms that were growing. I tried washing them and that worked for a bit until that fear of bacteria touching my face kicked in.
Safe to say that it may be a few years until I ever use something like that. Instead I am back to my triangle disposable wedges.
I have a serious issue with bacteria…..unfortunately 🙁
Same here! I’m maniacal about keeping my makeup clean and I mostly shop directly from a brands website because the thought of someone poking around in my compact or even opening my lippie creeps me out.
I have to force myself to shop Sephora because of their liberal return policy. And disposable wedges work as well if not better than a Beauty Blender sponge.
I’m so glad I’m not alone. LOL
I get all anti-bacterial with my makeup mainly because I broke out once, BAD, like ER visit to help explain why my eyes looked 80 yrs older than me. It was when I discovered that my makeup was the problem. It was years ago but I’ve never looked back. Beauty Blenders just scream bacteria, those and lip brushes.
I just discovered some cute little tools that help you get the last little bit out of your lippies bottles. Love them.
Hi Ruth what is the tool and where did u find it?
Every Drop Spatula lips on eBay.
There are 2 styles. I think they are both called Every Drop Spatula.
Precision foundation brush n58 from Sephora,want it for aplly my concealer…I use it since few days and im still not happy.
Usually i love to use a tapered brush (dupe from sigma) but its a little too big,so when i saw the Sephora brush with 70% off with the same shape but smaller i was exciting
But now im just thinking that the brush just drink the concealer and its like the brush dont want to aplly the product against my skin,hard to explain and weird to live 😉
I’m all about the skincare and keeping those fine wrinkles away!
I recently purchased a JADE ROLLER that is supposed to help with getting rid of your negative Qi…and I love my Chanel Le Lift massage gizmo that works awesome with their Lift series of skincare.
Trust me, that extra work with face tools pays off!
I haven’t tried anything new that I loved in a while. I really want to try the new Real Techniques micro mini sponges that are coming out.
I recently started using a beauty blender. While it sheers out the foundation it really helps with dry skin so it looks less dry!
I’m awaiting some Koyudo brushes that’re en route, including the infamous Fuwafuwa. Very hyped for baby’s first Japanese brushes, they’re major upgrades to a lot of RT brushes I got when I was just starting out.
Sigma E65, though, I got that for eyeliner but it turns out it’s my new favorite thing to apply ABH Dipbrow with. More control than what I used to be using (ye olde Sephora Classic #90, also a liner brush), and sops up less product.
A secret beauty tool: the Tweezerman Smooth Finish Facial Hair Remover. That U-shaped thing with coils. This has saved my skin – really. It’s let me cut down on waxing and threading (to maybe 1x/month), so my face doesn’t look so abused and I don’t need so much exfoliating. Plus I can take it anywhere and just whip it out for random hairs. It takes about 1-2 tries to figure out how to make it work and then it’s a breeze. Whoever invented it deserves the Nobel Prize.
Eye shadow brushes for blending. I use an Estee Lauder one I received in a GWP. Great brush.
The Prize Fighter brush sold by Elea Blake Cosmetics. Very good for laying down color in crease area on hooded lids.
The blush brush by Besame Cosmetics, I love it so much I purchased a backup & the Earth Therapeutics Precisso cosmetic blending sponges that I purchased from Kohl’s.
I’d have to say the beuaty blender minis, and before that, the beauty blender. I’m very close to “discovoering” new brushes, but since I haven’t bought one based on my recent researches, I can’t claim it yet.
A 12x Prestige mirror I purchased recently at TH. Max. Saw it once and they were running out of it fast so I decided to pick it up on a second visit. Great for tweeding eyebrows and I’m trying not to pluck too much actually. Also, been trying different high liters live a swoop after blush. Been thinking about using a brush for my foundation but actually my sponges do a really god job at blending so I won’t!
The Marc Jacobs Face Brush 2; it’s so soft but still dense enough to blend foundations perfectly.
Me too with the Smith 253, as well as the 256 and the pointed quill. Between those, the Hakuhodo J5523/5533 and the Chikuhodo Z10 I am in brush heaven!
I’m very happy and proud about my discovery… In an art and hobby store, while I was shopping something for my children, I accidentally fell onto a watercolor brush, the Raphael Mop Brush series 803 no3 made from pure Kazan squirrel hair for 20 euro. It is soft as air, with pointed tip, excellent for fine powders under the eyes or highlighters. The softness reminds me Suqqu blush brush.