Makeup Brushes 101 With M.A.C Cosmetics

M.A.C Professional Makeup brushes to the rescue...

We consider ourselves novice and learner when it comes to makeup, more so with makeup brushes! So we thought what better way to learn than to enlist help from professional makeup brand which is well-known for its makeup artistry and great quality brushes, right? We approached M.A.C Malaysia some time back and asked them if they would kindly show us the way and give us some clues as to the purposes of the makeup brushes and what they do. So, bear with us, the information we will be sharing here may bored the nuts out of you who are really good with your knowledge on makeup brushes already *_^

Haritha Shan, the M.A.C Senior Artist of Malaysia met up with us and was more than happy to share her know-how. First up, she explained that the M.A.C Professional Makeup Brushes are fairly easy to use and identify, in terms of their purpose and functions as they are numerically coded based on just that. 100 series are brushes for the face, 200 series brushes are for the eyes and 300 series for the application of the lips. Any brush that starts with the number 1 would be for face application, so on an so forth. Now, that makes it so much easier already, right?

M.A.C makeup brushes can be categorized into two types - natural and synthetic. Brushes that are made of natural hair are good for any powder applications, like blushers, eyeshadows and what not. Haritha reminded that one should not use natural-hair brushes for cream formulas. It is a big no-no as cream formula will spoil the natural hair of the brushes. She further explained that synthetic brushes, on the other hand, are great for applying liquid or cream formulas, due to its synthetic textures. That is why Naritha revealed that it is a good idea to separate your natural hair brushes from the synthetic ones when you are storing your makeup brushes. **note to self**

M.A.C also has the other type of brushes which is called Duo-Fibre, a combination of natural and synthetic hair brushes. This type of brushes is awesome for liquid and cream application as well. Rule of thumb, the bigger the brush (or looser the hair), the sheerer the finishing of your makeup. Conversely, the smaller size brushes or more denser/compact hair in the brushes will give you more intensity in terms of finishing because with more hair or fiber in this kind of brushes, they "grab" or pick up more makeup products and more products will be transferred onto your face.

Kabuki brushes are not like the rest of the normal stapled brushes. M.A.C 182 Kabuki brush or they called it the Buffer Brush is handmade, the hair is glued together strand by strand, hence it explains the high price tag but it will give you a very polished and luxurious look after. Good for morning rush when you are short of time, it gets the work done beautifully in a jiffy.

When it comes to lip brushes, M.A.C has two - 316 Lip Brush and 318 Retractable Lip, they are synthetic ones.  For a softer lip kind of look, 316 does the job well as it is softer and fills in the lines of your lips better. If you would like more coverage and intensity to the colour of your lips, 318 would be your pick as the hair is harder and this brush is tapered. The same idea goes to the eyeshadow brushes like M.A.C 286 Duo Fibre Tapered Blending and 217 Blending Brush. The former is great for cream eyeshadow like the M.A.C paint pots, superb blending ability, while the latter, 217 is more for intensity purposes. M.A.C 215 Medium Shader is awesome for shading, like at the side of the nose or even highlight below your brow bone. M.A.C 219 Pencil Brush is one of Haritha's favourite brushes to use. This is especially great for people who has small eyes. It can also be used to go into specific areas like under the eyes or even the crease of the eyes for darker shades of the eyeshadow to achieve definition. An extremely versatile brush, according to her.

M.A.C 227 Large Fluff to Haritha, is her "multi-purpose" brush. She usually uses it to highlight, to blend and many more. Highlight can be achieved really fast with this brush and gives a really sheer finish, she explained while applying the makeup on our face to show her point. She pointed out that which makeup brushes to use is also very much depend on your facial features and shapes, at times, personal preference too *_^ 

Haritha advised that brushes need to be taken care of really well, like how you would for your own hair. Clean them once a week with a mild baby shampoo would be ideal. She also told us her new favourite, as well as new to the M.A.C Professional Makeup Brushes collection is the 163 Flat Contour. She loves the versatility of this supposedly stumpy looking brush, it gives a very polished finishing and the coverage is actually buildable to a full coverage with the foundation you apply with. Super gorgeous base makeup can be achieved with this brush.

Since M.A.C has more than 35 makeup brushes, we asked her this question: if one is a beginner and would like to start off with some basics, how many brushes or what type of brushes should one own? Haritha streamlined it down to 7 must-have brushes to get the work done. 

The 7 Essential M.A.C brushes :

Face

1. M.A.C 190 Foundation (synthetic)

2. M.A.C 109 Small Contour

3. M.A.C 129 Powder/Blush 

Eyes

4. M.A.C 195 Concealer

5. M.A.C 208 Angled Brow

6. M.A.C 239 Eye Shader

7. M.A.C 224 Tapered Blending

Most of us would probably apply lipstick straight from the bullet. Lip brush can always be added later, that was Haritha's explanation to us when we noticed there was not a lip brush included. 

We hope that you have learnt a thing or two about makeup brushes and we would love to thank Haritha and M.A.C Malaysia for the great support in our makeup learning endeavour. More details on each individual brushes and their functions here if you are keen. Discover more about M.A.C Cosmetics here.

So, what would be your favourite makeup brushes? Would love to hear your thoughts. As always, have a luminous and happy week, lovelies *_^

With love, 

Jeann