barrym pinks

Typically after showing you my foundation routine, I have to go and buy new brushes, huh! Not that I don't do the same technique but anyway, I thought I would treat myself to a few new brushes as I haven't for a while. :)


Real Techniques
I ordered these from Iherb.com, shipping was very reasonable at $12 for next day shipping or $4 for the usual waiting time. I received mine in a week which I think is the best shipping time I've ever had! Plus you cannot beat the prices online to instore at priceline!




Face Core Collection kit- Buffing Brush
Here is the buffing brush compared to my old foundation brush, E.L.F Flat Top Powder brush. The difference's are in the handle lengths & the buffing brush is more rounded and not as dense as the E.L.F. It somehow leaves my fdtn feeling wet while the E.L.F one made it feel dry & completely buffed into the skin. Does that make sense?

Contour Brush
 If I knew I was going to order RT brushes I wouldn't have ordered the sigma, but they are both good anyway. The RT contour brush is more rounded while the Sigma one has more of a flat head. As the RT one is synthetic you can also use it for liquids, too.
Pointed Foundation & Detailer Brushes (top & bottom, respectively)
When I first saw the sizes of these (compared to my eco tools concealer brush) I thought how one could use it for their purposes without taking a lifetime!? However I've found the foundation brush is perfect for under eye & around the nose concealer. The precise detailer is indeed good for precise application for small blemishes & for correcting around the lip line & eyebrows.

Eye Starter Kit- Deluxe Crease Brush
 Seriously let me tell you now, unless you have eyes the size of saucepans you do not want this for your crease. In comparison to the 217 brush you can hopefully see that it is huuuge. It would be good for under the eyes as how pixiwoo use it but I quite like it for cream eyeshadows that you blend over the lid & into the crease. It is quite round & dense so it's ok for anything unless you want precision.

Base Eyeshadow brush
 This is nice for a wash of colour over the lid, but as it is quite floppy it isn't good for packing on colour. It is however good for blending in the crease or highlighting.
Pixel Perfect Eyeliner brush
Yeahh um please don't take notice of this name either, because I could not imagining getting perfect eyeliner out of this. I think it would be good for drawing roughly into the crease & the outer v. You can see compared to my Sigma E05 that the tip is not as precise therefore winged eyeliner would be impossible. As the hairs are so long it would be too flimsy, too.

Brow Brush

Once again I think this brush is too big if you like very defined eyebrows but its nice for a more natural look. It's compared here to my old random brow brush & hopefully you can see how much more thicker the hairs are & the size difference. It would be good for smoking colours onto the lash line & blending out the crease slightly.

Accent Brush
This is pretty good for well, precision detailing as it is small & good for the lower lashline if you don't want colour every where. You could also use it for smudging although it's probably too thin for that.

Setting Brush

Loove this, perfect for setting under/ on the eyes, around the nose & lips, and it would also be perfect for highlighting. And its so soft! Compared to the sigma tapered highlighter it is much more smaller but both sizes are good.


Notes
-Wish I also ordered the lash & brow groomer as it has metal bristles on the comb side & also comes with a protection cover.
-Ordering from iherb the first time gives you 10% discount woohoo! I also have a voucher for you: HKD726 that you can enter before checkout for 10% off (However I am not sure if these expire or not, huge apologies if it has!).
-Click here to view my review on the RT Blush Brush

Sigma
Some of you may or may not have noticed that I am now a Sigma Affiliate! Although I haven't done too much about it apart from adding a couple of pictures links. All that means is if you do buy from my page I get 10% profit from what you buy (don't worry it doesn't mean you have to pay more!) So if you'd like to support me I'd really appreciate it but I'm not forcing anyone to. :) Just to let you know I paid for these with my own money & was not sent them to review etc etc.
You can purchase sigma here 
 Tapered Highlighter F35- To replace using my fan brush for highlighter. Love this brush and it's shape, it applies powder highlighters perfectly.
Small Contour F05- I have been wanting a contour brush like this for ages, and I love it for contouring my cheek bones & nose. As you can see in the pic below it has quite a square shape which fits in the hollows nicely. However if I knew I was going to order the RT face kit I probably wouldn't have bothered with this... just to save some $.

 Pencil E30- I bought this more on the wanting & not needing side- I don't think it's really much of a necessity as I have plenty of smaller brushes that do the same job. But it is good for very precise highlighting & crease & lower lashline work.
Short Shader E20- Another type of brush I have needed for ages that I use similarly to the pencil brush & to smudge liner/shader or whatevers. Good brush to have on hand.

Compared to my MAC 217 brush so you can see the size differences in the handle & brush head.

Lip L05- A really nice basic lip brush that comes with a cover so it's great for travelling or keeping in your handbag. In the closeup I've compared it to the RT Precision brush and its smaller than that so it's really good to use to line your lips with lipstick, too.



I also got this along with my brushes- the brow powder was my free gift which matches quite nicely, I will save that for traveling so I don't always need to lug my Sleek Storm palette around. I also got a fall look book which will be hand for next year for inspiration.


Brush Storage
So finally I have an almost completed storage for my brushes. My eye ones used to be in a smaller container & my face ones were lying on their sides in a makeup bag which was annoying to find them in. I bought these pots from Red Dot (discount store) between $5-$10 depending on the size & they fit in nicely! However the big pot is too big for some of my shorter face brushes. I did try them in the smaller one too & they fit so I might get another one & use it for them.
But does anyone know where I can buy some small plastic beads preferably on eBay with international shipping to fit in the bottom of the pot to hold the brushes in place (if I can't find them anywhere I will try popcorn kernels as I've seen on youtube lol). ATM I have some small earring beads in the small pot but not enough for height.

Thanks for looking I hope this helps if you plan on purchasing any brushes from RT & Sigma.
XX

This is something which I think I will keep changing as I try new products & brushes but it's always nice to have an established base routine. Last year I posted this and while most of the products & techniques are the same but I like the results better.(wow I didn't realize how many things are *actually* the same! Most of the things used today are from my Project Empty.)
Please note: I had my eyebrows tinted the day before although one of them looks filled in :S I also pretty much always do my eye makeup first but because I was doing a neutral eye today I decided to do foundation first so you can see the effect properly.

(not my pic.. forgot to take my own.)

1. Start with your primer. I use Face of Australia Face Base. It makes everything go on so smoothly!

Eek naked! Yuck! So much more redness than usual.

5. Using your skin-toned concealer & brush, apply to any blemishes. If you have light blemishes you can skip this step. However if you have really bad scarring or cystic acne I'd recommend to do this now, it's also good for if your concealer doesn't exactly match your skintone. Use a heavier concealer in stick or cream form for better coverage, save liquids for after foundation.

The concealer is so light on first glance it blends into everything else, sort of. Don't forget around your nose!

6. Blend really well into the skin with the Sigma f82 brush or any flat top brush. To blend mainly push the concealer into the skin to avoid rubbing it away. My trick is to do as many layers as you need - remember that foundation counts as one-but be careful to use little product each time & blend well to avoid cakey-ness. Chucking one big pile of coverup will just turn cakey once powder is applied.

This is a post that is hopefully helpful to the beginners out there who cannot decide what type of brushes they should be looking for. Don't get me wrong, my brush collection has taken a loong time to slowly build up, but as long as you start with the basics you can keep adding to it later on. You also don't need to buy the most expensive brushes for a great result.
However today I will not be focusing on the brands, simply on the type of brushes. I hope that makes sense lol.



 Lid brushes
*Apologies for the brushes not being in the same order, D'oh!*
Top: Synthetic Flat brush: This is not absolutely essential, but it is good for applying primer & cream eyeshadows to the eyelids. Synthetic is best for creams as it will not soak up all the product, making it easier to clean.
Middle: Large Stiff Shader brush: This is good for packing a whole lotta colour onto the lid.
Bottom: Small Shader Brush: Simply used for the same method as the larger one, however it is better for precise application of different colours to the lid.
Stiff shader brushes are also good for using the very tip to apply eyeshadow to the lower lash line.

 Eyeliner
Eyeliner brushes come in different shapes depending on the look you want to achieve.
Angled liner brushes: In this picture these are the same type of eyeliner brushes, however I use the top one for eyeliner and the bottom one for my eyebrows. That way I don't have to worry about cleaning them all the time & getting black on my eyebrows, lol. You can use this with Gel Eyeliner but I prefer to use it to pack on eyeshadow on top of my eyeliner for longevity.

The top 2 are thin brushes great for Gel & liquid eyeliner. You can see the only difference to the bottom ones are that the handles are shaped normally.
The bottom 2 are Bent Eyeliner brushes. I simply have 2 for light & dark colours. These are great because you can easily do your eyeliner without worrying about the handle getting in the way. Please note you do not need to own all of these. Whatever your preference is fine. Once again these are good for cream & gel eyeliner. You can even dip it into your liquid eyeliner if you wish.

 Crease Brushes
These are a few different types of brushes which are good for applying colour to the crease & outer v.
Top: Fluffy crease brush: This is good for applying & blending colours to the crease.
2nd: Pencil Brush: Good for precise application to the crease & outer v. Also good for the lower lash line if you have larger eyes or for smudging out eyeliner.
3rd: Pointed crease: (I had washed this the night before so its a bit out of shape). Really good for precise crease work e.g. for cut creases
Bottom: Pointed crease & Outer v: (again lol) Same concept as the one above, but especially good for the outer v because of the size.

Blending
Top & 2nd: Stiff dome blending brushes: TMakeup Geekhese are really versatile for applying a wash of colour over the lid & crease, blending colours on the lid & crease while depositing colours.. I recently purchased a second one because it doesn't take long for them to get dirty lol.
3rd: Soft Dome : This one is slightly pointed however because it's not stiff it's great for blending colours together on the lid or blending out in the crease. You can live without it if you have a stiff blending brush.
4th & 5th: These are just a couple of other different brush shapes good for blending. Once again they are not needed,but I think the more the better, especially if you are doing a look where you need a clean brush to blend out & one with colour to add more colour on at the same time. Hope that makes sense ;)

Other Eye Brushes
Top: Brow & Lash brush: Just any run of the mill brush like this should do, good for combing through your brows & lashes to get rid of clumps.
2nd & 3rd: Highlighting Brushes: These are good for highlighting on the brow bone & tear duct. The 2nd brush is good for blending it out as it's applied & the 3rd, because of the angle & being stiff, is good for precision.

Lips
The top brush is good for applying your lip colour all over, the bottom is good for precise application right around the lip line. If you use a pencil lip liner first you don't exactly need the 2nd brush.

I hope this is helpful & not confusing. All in all you do not have to have everyone of these brushes especially if your starting out, you can use certain brushes for different things. You also don't need to spend the big bucks for great brushes. I'll post some websites for great affordable brushes (all are non affiliated).

Makeup Geek As far as I know these are crown brushes that have been repackaged (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but they are so affordable & offer worldwide shipping.

Sigma They offer a great selection on many different types of brushes, duping the famous MAC 217 brush (Sigma E25, one I bought not too long ago)

Eco Tools The 6 piece brush set is great for starting out (I love the eyeliner brush)

Tip: DO NOT buy MAC brushes (or really MAC anything) on eBay. Most of the stuff on there is fake. You cannot buy a whole set for the price of one brush, haha. Just a warning!