My Holy Grail Makeup Brushes

Well, hello there! How has your week been? Today I’m sharing a post that has been years in the making. I know I haven’t been blogging about beauty for years, but I’ve been mad about makeup for years and on the hunt to find the best makeup brushes. I finally have my favourites and I’m going to share them with you today!

This is not a comprehensive list by any means as I’m not a makeup artist and don’t need an entire kit. But out of all my brushes, these are my Holy Grails and I use them every time I apply makeup. I also thought that listing 50 brushes I love would make an incredibly boring post, so I’ve whittled it down to the absolute best makeup brushes in my collection!

I like to keep my brushes on the affordable end. There are a few brushes here that are more expensive, but the Rodial brushes? I got them from TK Maxx, so they were very affordable considering they retail for £30-£40 each!

I don’t have a preference when it comes to synthetic, natural or duo fibre brushes when I’m buying brushes, I will buy any and test them, I am more inclined by shape because I know what shape brushes work for my face/eyes. If they work, they work. I do find natural hair bristles pick up certain eyeshadows better and I know certain products will work better with certain brushes, but I’m not a makeup artist, so I do not know the ins and outs of brushes.

Although I’ve tested almost 100 brushes, I would not consider myself an oracle on different types of bristles. This post is coming from the standpoint of me being an avid makeup enthusiast and having tested many types of brushes! So, let’s get into it!

FACE BRUSHES

Real Techniques Setting Brush – £7.99 from LookFantastic

This brush is the only setting brush I need in my collection! It’s soft, tapered, small enough to fit around your nose and under your eyes and can apply the lightest dusting of powder or a layer to bake with. This is a great brush for those of us who spot powder, rather than powdering your whole face.

Zoeva 110 Face Shape Brush – £12.50 from Beauty Bay

I love how dense this brush is, it makes blending concealer in a cinch. It is small enough to fit around the contours of your face and is the baby version of their 102 Silk Finish Brush which used to be my favourite foundation brush (I still love it, I just love the one I’m about to mention more!). I really like dense brushes for concealer as I like to tap my concealer, rather than swipe. You can also use this brush to buff.

If I’m not wearing foundation, then I use this brush to apply concealer wherever I need it. It can blend tiny dots of concealer, or do big areas of the face.

Sephora PRO Airbrush Detail Brush #57 – €19.99 from Sephora

This brush is a god send for under eye concealer! It’s small, blends things effortlessly and is so easy to use. It does also work great for concealer on the face if you only have one or two blemishes to cover. I just prefer the Zoeva brush for concealer on my face.

Sephora Collection Multi Texture 06 Brush – €14.99 from Sephora

I can’t tell you how much I love this brush. I bought it when we were in France, just to try, loved it so much I went back and bought 3 more the next day. It blends foundation seamlessly and quickly. It’s dense, but soft and picks up product well. It also doesn’t absorb much product either which is great!

It’s the perfect size to blend foundation, it fits everywhere, but is big enough that it only takes a few seconds ot blend larger areas. This brush is just fantastic!!

Rodial The Powder Brush – £40 from LookFantastic

This brush is sometimes available at TK Maxx for about £8, so keep your eyes peeled!

This brush is so soft, but I feel like you still get great control when applying powder. It dusts your whole face in seconds and it’s seamless. I’ve used many powder brushes and this is my absolute favourite. It feels like silk on the skin!

CHEEK BRUSHES

Rodial The Sculpting Brush – £40 from Harvey Nichols

I think Rodial may have changed the bristles on this recently as my bristles are cream coloured with dark tips, yet the only one I can find online has dark bristles with light tips.

Anyway, this brush is fantastic. It would be great for contour, but I use it for blush because it’s the perfect size to fit along my cheekbone. It blends everything so well. I’ve tried using other blush brushes, but half way through I go back to this one or the one below. I just can’t find any other brushes that do my blush as well as these two.

This brush is smaller and more dense than the one below. It depends how I want my blush that day. More concentrated, or more diffused. I love them both equally.

IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe French Boutique Blush Brush – £29 from Boots

This brush name is a tongue twister! I have no idea why it’s so long, but it’s brilliant. It’s not a dense brush, it’s angled and the bristles are quite open, but it makes your blush look airbrushed and diffused. It’s just gorgeous. It picks up every blush I own and makes it look incredible!

Real Techniques Angled Highlighter Brush – Can’t find this anywhere!! The most similar I can find is this one from Luxie

I should have double checked if this was still available, but I assumed it would be as it’s a pretty plain, bog standard brush! Alas, it seems it’s no longer available, so I found an alternative from Luxie.

This brush is small, dense and the perfect size and shape for applying highlighter. You can go as light or heavy as you want, this brush will do it. It’s just brilliant. You can highlight your nose, brow bone and cheek bones with this brush, it fits everywhere. I love it!

EYE BRUSHES

Sigma E25 Blending Brush – £12.50 from Beauty Bay; Sigma E45 brush – £12.50 from Beauty Bay; Sigma E40 – £13.25 from Beauty Bay

If I lost all my eye brushes tomorrow, then I would only need these three Sigma brushes. If you’re just starting out with makeup and want great eye brushes that will do any look, then get these because they are absolutely amazing!

They pick up product so well, blend it effortlessly and wash really well. I’ve had these brushes for years and they look as good as new. I keep the E40 clean and always use it after applying my crease colour to diffuse it and make sure everything is blended well.

I use the E25 to place colour in my crease most of the time (sometimes I use a “normal” tapered crease brush, it depends what look I’m going for). For my eye shape, I feel like this shape applies colour the best as it doesn’t drag it too far out the side of my eye. I think that makes my eyes look messy and heavy.

I use the E45 to apply more concentrated colour to my crease, or to my outer v. It’s got a point and applies product exactly where you want it. It also blends it out easily.

You can sometimes pick these three up in a set, but they are my most used eye brushes and I highly recommend you try them!

Zoeva 228 Luxe Crease Brush – £9.50 from Beauty Bay

I love Zoeva brushes, they were the first “proper” makeup brushes I got when I was getting into makeup. My parents bought my a set of Zoeva brushes and they are all still going strong.

I use this brush to apply colour to the crease and blend it out. It applies eyeshadows incredibly well and blends them perfectly. This, along with the Sigma E25, is my main crease brushes. I love how they make my eyeshadow look. This is a mroe traditional crease brush, it just depends how you like your eyeshadow and your eye shape.

Zoeva 233 Cream Shader Brush – £9.50 from Beauty Bay

This is the only brush I use to apply shimmer shadows! It picks them up so well and is small enough to fit the whole contour of your eye. It’s silky smooth and absolutely brilliant. It also washes well!

Sephora Collection Crease Brush 09 – €8.99 from Sephora

If you haven’t guessed, I’m slightly obsessed with crease brushes! They are the workhorses of my collection, so I want to have them in all shapes and sizes! This brush is the smallest crease brush I have and it’s great for applying colour in a more concentrated area. It’s really soft and I did worry it wouldn’t pick up product well, but it does. I just love the Sephora Collection brushes!

Spectrum A12 brush – £4.99 from Spectrum Collections

This is a small brush, similar to the Sigma E45, but without a thin tip. I also use this to apply colour to my outer v and blend it out. This particular colour is from a set, but you can buy the A12 brush in a different colour.

I’ve found myself using this brush over and over. I pick it over so many of my other brushes which is why it’s reached Holy Grail status for me. It’s so wonderful and easy to use. It’s great at adding detail to looks!

There we have it, all of my Holy Grail makeup brushes! What brushes do you swear by?

DISCLAIMER: NO AFFILIATE LINKS IN THIS POST. ALL PRODUCTS PURCHASED BY ME