Brush Up

I was raised in a hands on home: we spent many afternoons finger painting, many dinners sans utensils, often licking the delicious corn on the cob seasoning off our fingers after, and baking was often done mixing ingredients with our hands. To this day, I prefer to pick up a drumstick and hold a slice of pizza rather than a fork and knife, but makeup application is one thing I prefer not to use my hands for (after all, they’re often sticky from always eating with them!). Makeup brushes are designed for easier application, a more seamless, flawless result, and allow for precision of how much of the product is going where. These magic wands (ok, brushes) help beautify my face on the daily.

I am a firm believer and big fan of highlighter. Even if I’m running out of the house to grab a coffee I would choose to highlight my face over using mascara, which clearly indicates my true feelings as I am crazy about big, bold lashes (more on that later). I love powder highlighter equally as much as I love a liquid or cream highlighter, and I rotate between the three formulas depending on how apparent I want the highlighting to be. Regardless of formula, I always apply it with Sephora’s own fan brush. It perfectly blends the shimmering streaks into the high planes of my face and allows for subtle accenting.  My better half refers to highlighter as war paint before I whip out the fan brush, and always compliments my glowing complexion after blending. Enough said!

The only makeup that rivals my love of highlighter is my love of bronzer. I am crazy about bronzers (so much so that above mentioned better half doesn’t even ask about the shimmery fingerprints all over the apartment anymore) and always feel instantly refreshed and waaaaaay prettier the instant I brush some on. Contouring the face and giving the complexion some depth and glowiness is achieved, pronto, with bronzers, but the wrong brush can make the skin look muddy and even dull. Bobbi Brown’s Bronzing Brush is an amazingly super soft, rounded, smooth brush ensures even application and a natural, radiant result that will have people guessing if your glow if faux.

Any product that is multi-purpose and helps keep my crammed makeup shelves clutter free wins points for me. When both purposes work superbly, like Stila’s Double Sided Eye Makeup Brush, it earns permanent valuable makeup real estate space. One side of this brush perfectly distributes eyeshadow, with the ability to build coverage, while the other smaller, tapered side is used for accurate eyeliner application, either wet or dry. Love a smudgier, sexier look? Piece of cake – just use the eyeliner brush dry and smudge away. Wink, wink!