Face Brushes Review and Comparison 2: MAC 188, Stila #24 and Body Shop Blush Brush

OK, so we had a nice diversion with Bourjois Brun Nylon. Now back to brushes: here's Part 2 of my face brushes review!

So in this previous post, I talked about the MAC 187 and 189, and how they were nice, but not really must-haves for me. Today, I will review and compare The Body Shop's synthetic blush brush, and the Stila #24. Just like how last post's brushes were all for face and foundation, today's brushes are all blush brushes!

The Body Shop has a really nice and soft range of synthetic brushes, comparable to the Too Faced ones in feel and quality, and I really like them for the face. I don't like them so much for eyes because sythetic brushes by their nature tend to pick up less pigment than natural hair brushes - this isn't so annoying when applying face powder or blush, when you want a sheerer application, but can be a pain if you're trying to put on eye colour, and you want the colour to show up. Thus, I tend to buy synthetic brushes for face use only. That said, I really like The Body Shop's version, for what it's worth. It has a nice dome shape, which fits into your cheek nicely, and it's nice to hold and use. I use this pretty often, especially for my more pigmented blushes, because like I said, the synthetic bristles pick up less pigment than, say the Stila #24, which is all natural hair. Although of course, if I reallly want a very sheer wash, I'd use my MAC #188 for that, because of its smaller size and it's sparse bristles. The only minor gripe I have with this is that the distribution of powder that it puts on your face isn't totally even. For some reason (I think it's because the dome shape ends abruptly at the sides - does that make sense? I can't think of a better way of putting it), it tends to put a greater amount of color in some areas than in others. It's not a big deal, because I just blend it out and it works well, but it's something I thought I'd just note. Like I said, it's a minor gripe.

The MAC 188 is of course, the little sister of the MAC 187, except, much better due to its smaller size. Here, like I mentioned above, it works reallly well for the most pigmented of blushes, like for example, your NARS Exhibit A. It also works fantastically for highlighters, especially for MSFs, because the sparse bristles work to prevent glitter overload. Very useful indeed. I like this one, and there's not much else to be said for this.

Last of all, the Stila #24 is a must-have for anyone who loves blush, but has a stash of mostly moderate-to-lightly pigmented blushes. Like the MAC 188, the Stila #24 is made out of natural hair, but the bristles are denser on both ends (duh!), and the larger end has a dome shape. If you look at the picture above you'll see that the larger domed end is actually just the right shape for blush - meaning that the brush itself isn't big, and the other end (which resembles a mini Stila #21), is really, really tiny. A lot of people ask me if the Stila #24 can be used for the entire face, like for face powder application, because they have been woefully misled by pictures on the Stila website, which somehow always seem to make the Stila #24 look a lot bigger than it is. You defintely won't be able to use this to powder your face, unless you're a pixie or something....Although it COULD double up as a powder blush if you want to squeeze one into your makeup bag, since its bristles are just the right type and density. It just would take a lot longer than using an actual powder brush, such as the Stila #8. Despite its smallness, I really like this brush! I love the rounded, domed end for powder blushes that aren't too pigmented, as it picks up just the right amount, deposits it evenly, and is just the right size for fitting on my cheek! And as for the other mini end? Wellllll....I'm not really sure what to do with it, and to be frankly honest, I rarely, if ever, use that tiny end. I do guess it would probably be good for powder highlighters, for spot highlighting. Otherwise, I can't think of a use for this - suggestions anyone? I do think the tiny end makes this brush a pity, since it is so expensive. I do love the bigger end, but I kind of think for USD$50, it isn't really worth the cost if you're not going to use the smaller end at all. The fact that I have it in my stash shows that I'm a sucker, I guess..

Anyway, that concludes Part 2 of my review and comparisons of face brushes for today. In Part 3, we will deal with the remaining brushes, which are all on my can't-live-without list, and you'll see why! :)

Face Brushes Review and Comparison: Part 1 MAC 187 and 189

So I said in this post that I should do a post on my face brushes. And here you go! Over the next few days/weeks/however long it takes (with interruptions), I'll be doing reviews of my favourite brushes in my stash! Here they are. Not all of them are here, of course, but these are my favourites, my must-haves, and the ones I use the most often. Just a disclaimer: None of these brushes are free samples etc. I bought every single one of these with my own hard-earned money! I'm just reviewing them because...well they're in my stash, and well, a HG powder or blush brush can be the hardest thing to find sometimes, and it doesn't help that brushes tend to cost a lot of money:



L - R: Flirt! Feather Dust-Her, Body Shop blush brush, MAC 188, MAC 187, MAC 189, Stila #21, Stila #8, Stila #24

So here they are, after being washed, mostly dry. I thought it would be a good idea to take all the face brushes together, to give an idea of scale and relative size, so you can get a good idea of how big/small one brush is next to another. Sadly, the Stila #8 has been discontinued, much to my chagrin, because it was one of the best powder brushes I've ever had (and this is after trying the MAC 134 and the Shu Uemura 18R). *Shakes fist* When I contacted Stila Customer Service about it, the jokers at CS told me to go and look at the Stila #31, which is NOT AT ALL like the #8. The #8 is much better in quality than the #31, but then again I have a thing against retractable brushes in general (except my Too Faced Kabuki - wait, why is it not in the picture? Nevermind, it gets it's own review, then I guess).

Anyway, today I will kick off my Face Brushes Series with a review of the MAC 189, and the MAC 187, because I don't have much to say about them. To be honest, they're the least used and the least favourite in the bunch, but that's probably just me.

The MAC 187 brush has reached cult status across makeupdom, and is the HG brush of many a liquid foundation user. Which herein lies why I don't like the MAC 187 as much as other people do - I don't use liquid foundation. I did use it to try to blend out my Kevin Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer, but somehow it didn't quite look 'right' even then. For blush application this is pretty good though - I like how the shape of the 187 fits just right onto my cheek area, not too small, and not too big. However, I tend to prefer the either the 188, the Stila #24, or the Body Shop blush brush, depending on what blushes I'm using (more on that in later reviews). So as a result, my 187 suffers from neglect. I do think this is a good quality brush though, it's just that the fact that I don't wear liquid foundation - coupled with the fact that I tend to use my other blush brushes over it - makes it rarely used.

The MAC 189 brush was first launched together with the MSF Naturals, and was touted as a blush that can be used for BOTH powder and cream. Now of course this flies against the face of all my makeup training and knowledge - traditional makeup theory says that synthetic brushes are best for cream, and natural brushes are best for powder, although of course in recent years the boundary has been blurred with the advent of better synthetic bristles etc etc. Anyway, I was curious to see how this worked for both powder and cream, and I have to say....I'm a bit ambivalent when it comes to poweder. Sure it applied face powder fairly well, but it just felt weird using a paddle synthetic brush to put on powder, if you know what I mean. I felt the finish was acceptable - it wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't le suckage either. I also tried using it for powder blush, but the effect wasn't as great as using an actualy blush brush, as the blending was a bit hard to do with the brush. I tried using this baby for cream blushes too, and once again, I found it a bit hard to blend out the cream blushes, as it tended to leave a hard line where the edges of the bristles were. Maybe I'm spoiled by all the skunk brushes out there, but this was just a meh for me. Not impressed.

So that's it for this brush post. I've no idea what brushes I'll cover for the next brush post, so feel free to comment and leave any suggestions :) I'll cover all of them eventually though :)