An experiment was carried out: high end vs. low end brushes.

Jan 6, 2015

Jenny A.

So after yesterday's eyeshadow tips for beginners turned into a debate about high end versus low end brushes, I went home and did a little science.

I took my $6 synthetic blush brush from UP and UP and my $54 Wayne Goss #12 brush and put them side by side for a test. Both brushes are dense, soft and a domed chisel shape, though the cheap brush is more chiseled than the expensive brush. Both are brushes I use for blush, one for crème and the other for powder. When I first got the Up&UP brush I was impressed with it’s softness, denseness, the straightness of the cut and the way it has performed. I even went so far as to take it on a trip with me because I didn’t want to risk messing up my more expensive Goss brush.

I used a highly pigmented loose powder blush (Geekgasm from Geek Chic Cosmetics, which is very stainy and tough to apply with a light hand). I dipped both brushes in the powder , swirled and tapped them to get as much extra powder off as possible and applied them to my wrists. The difference was pretty staggering. The cheap brush sprayed out a splatter of blush, Jackson Pollock style and that smeared into a pathetic narrow streak. The Goss brush laid down a wide swath of beautifully blended blush. There was literally nothing else to do with the Goss brush. I had even used my left hand for the Goss brush, and it’s a good thing because the cheap brush side required my right hand and a great deal of blending and then most of the color was knocked off. To reach the same level of pigmentation as the Goss side, I needed to go back for another dip, swirl, tap and then try to blend the whole thing again. UGH.
Yesterday Sandra said she thought a good brush could blend in half the time. I doubted her. She’s just trying to justify her fancy brushes, I said to myself. Now, I think she was right, but maybe could have gone further and said, less than half the time. Honestly it was a very stark difference.
I will still keep the cheap brush because I mainly use it for crème products that I can’t use with my Goss brush, but you can bet I’m looking around for a better quality brush that I can use with crème blushes.

(Sorry no photos of experiment, I am just a lousy photographer and tried to take pictures of my arms but then it was time to make dinner and my husband was wondering why I had blush on my arms!)

I also did a couple of other tests. I compared by eco tools tapered blending brush to my Kashuk Tools tapered blending brush (sadly discontinued). I laid out stripes of eye shadow on my wrist, one heavily applied, the other applied more moderately. The Kashuk tools brush blended perfectly, taking down the over applied shadow without wiping out the moderate shadow. The ecotools splashed eye shadow up the side of my hand a good two inches away! It completely obliterated the moderately applied shadow with the more heavily applied one. I promptly took that ecotools brush and put it in my unloved makeup box. It’s not even worth using as a back-up.

The last test I did was in smoking out liner. I used my Wayne Goss 8 brush, versus applying pencil and smoking it out with an ecotools pencil brush I’m very fond of. The Goss brush drew a line that was fine, but perfectly blended and smoked looking. Again, literally nothing else to do. The pencil brush required the additional step of drawing the line and then smoking it with shadow over the top and even then the results were just not as good. I do sometimes use the Goss brush to back over a wonky line and smoke that out, and in this case, the cheap brush performed the task better because it’s a pencil brush and it’s shape is more suited to that task, than the flat brush. I have no doubt that a better quality, more precise pencil brush would be better at performing this task as well and am currently searching for one.

My conclusion: cheap brushes still have a place on my makeup table, for doing wet pigments and shadows. I keep them in a separate container and I’m going to go through that and really thin them out though, and keep only the ones I like the best and can’t duplicate just yet with a more expensive brush.

Oh also yesterday, Parian spirit came into the mix and I mentioned that when I used it, it can take hours to dry. That is my dense face brush, and the only way I can get it clean is to dip it into the jar, rather than spot clean with the spray bottle. For a shadow brush, you can spot clean it with the spray brush and it’s ready to use again in about a half an hour. Fast, but most days I’m half way to work in a half an hour from when I do my eye shadow.

One thing that is another check in the column for expensive brushes, you can clean them superficially by wiping them over a tissue. My Goss cheek brush was cleaned this way and was clean enough to apply translucent powder this morning with no trace of that highly pigmented blush. After the blush experiment, the cheap synthetic brush had to go into the Parian jar.

Jan 6, 2015

Shelley W.

Awesome testing and detailed review!! I completely agree with you. I bought a Real Techniques airbrush foundation brush and it did such a piss poor job blending out a majority of my various foundation formulas...it ate a lot of product and it just didn't give me the same finish as my pricier Japanese brushes. I have one RT stippling brush that actually does a decent job at blending out cream blushes but other than that its a brand I just can't go in 110% when I've had experienced with brushes that give me awesome results with less work.

Jan 6, 2015

Logan C.

What do you think as far as liquid foundation brushes or brushes for setting powder? I know you didn't test these but you seem to know what your talking about and I don't lol so I'm just wondering if you think it makes a difference/ get a better finish if you use higher end brushes for this. Recommendation would be good too please! :) btw I agree with the last part about cleaning I've noticed my cheAper brushes are much harder to cleAn!

Jan 6, 2015

Raylene I.

I remember Jackie mentioned in a post specifically about brushes that synthetic are for wet products and real hair is for powder. And that always stuck with me so to say the least I'm not surprised by your findings. But thanks for the detailed experiments :)

Jan 6, 2015

Hannah K.

This is really awesome to see, Jenny, thanks so much for a your incredibly detailed tests and reviews :) I concur as well. I don't have any extremely high end brushes, but the brushes I do have (Smashbox and Sephora) are 400X better than my Elf brush (which I use for glitter and once made the mistake of using for eyeshadow, that was a disaster.), the one RT brush that I tried that was the worst blending brush I've ever used, and the Ecotools brush I used to use daily for blush. Of course I do still use each of these brushes (with the exception of the RT which went straight into the garbage) because lower end brushes do have their uses :)

Jan 6, 2015

Lauren G.

If only I could afford nice brushes 😐

Jan 6, 2015

Shanae J.

I'm with Lauren. ^

Jan 6, 2015

Jenny A.

Oh God, Logan, I so don't know what I'm talking about! Ha! But for what it's worth I've had good luck with the Sonia Kashuk #4 brush which is a flat top brush. I use it for all my liquid foundations and LOVE it. I use liquid foundation in a tube or pump and put it right on the brush and then stiple it on and buff it in with circular motions, super fast and pefect application every time. Sandra did report that she didn't like how her Kashuk #4 brush worked over time, and now really likes the Cover FX brush. So your mileage may vary. Most people I've seen really like the Kashuk #4.

For powder there are two ways to go. One is to get a cheap powder puff and a cheap powder brush. Apply powder by pressing and rolling into your face with the puff, then knock off excess with the powder brush.
The other is to get a very, very soft high end powder brush that won't disturb the foundation underneath. The Goss Holiday brush (or the #12 brush works as well) for example and just apply the powder in one step. You shouldn't have excess to knock off. I started out doing that first method and it worked, with a total investment of less than $10 (powder puffs 3 for $5 at Walgreens, and an Ecotools $8 powder brush). That ecotools brush is very handy if I over apply blush, it will do a good job of knocking it down.

Jan 6, 2015

Jenny A.

Jacqueline: How often do you change the Parian in the jar? I do it when the stuff in the jar seems saturated and won't pull pigment out any more. Maybe I need to do it more frequently because it's usually foundation I'm washing out and that has a lot of oils and stuff in it and I wonder if maybe some residue is increasing the dry time.

Jan 6, 2015

Jenny A.

Thanks for the nice comments guys. I am kind of insanely long winded, I know.

Jan 6, 2015

CPT- Lili R.

Pictures would have been helpful just saying, that being said, yesterday you did not mention all this, experiment or not you should have known this, and now it seems like your getting what we were trying to say, your singling sandra out saying she could have said better and said it cuts blending out in more then half the time, I'm sorry but your no one to say this cuz its obvious now that you didnt know what you were talking about to begin with.

Jan 6, 2015

Jenny A.

Raylene: yes, I think the difference must be synthetic versus real hair. I was kind of amazed because the synthetic brush looked and felt good. I thought it was doing fine for powder when I used it on my trip, but clearly I could be doing better with a natural hair brush.

Jan 6, 2015

Bella L.

I really appreciate your experiment it puts into perspective how different brushes really do give different finishes :D

Jan 6, 2015

Shanae J.

I agree with Lili, pictures would have made a big difference, we could actually see what you're talking about. & somewhat on the rest, as you said none of this yesterday.

Jan 6, 2015

Kathryn R.

CPT- Lili R perhaps you need to read the rules of this site again. There is no need to be rude or insulting. If you don't like what's said, move on. That comment was unecessary and plain rude

Jan 6, 2015

Shanae J.

There was a big ordeal yesterday over this, Lili was simply stating her opinion, she did it in the nicest way possible if you ask me. This entire post was basically a big bash on people who disagreed with Jenny and she felt the need to carry it on into the next day. As this post was helpful in a way, it was also very unnecessary itself.

Jan 6, 2015

Raylene I.

Miss Jackie said this all way better than I can even paraphrase this so please take with a grain of salt, and after I can find the link to that post if you'd like, but..

Basically a synthetic bristle is just a smooth shaft down. It'll pick up the powders, but as soon as it hits surface it all this falls out of the brush. Hence why it's good for cream, being a smooth shaft it'll let go of the wet product and smooth it nicely.

Real hair- when you look at hair under a microscope it was so many layers (I don't know what they layers are called sorry) and it'll pick up and hold the powder in them and distribute the powder in instalments so to say as you release the powder from the different grooves. (Again Jackie's explanation is soo much smoother!) but that is why it isn't good for liquids, creams or anything wet because it holds onto the wet product. I'll look for the link to the post I have in mind.

Jan 6, 2015

Ella B.

I'm looking to buy brushes a set and I'm unsure who to go with...ELF/Eco Tools. elf has a set of 25pc I believe for 75 while Eco I'd have to buy brushes separately. advise are welcome. thanks ladies.

Jan 6, 2015

Rebecca J.

I agree with Hannah about rt eye brushes. I got the deluxe dome brush or whatever its called and its so bad at blending! its rough and scratchy and too dense :( mac 217 is my best friend :) interesting thread! makes me want to buy some more high quality brushes :)

Jan 6, 2015

Raylene I.

Well I can't find the thread because I apparently wasn't following it. But in sure other girls here have seen what I'm talking about. It was posted synthetic vs real hair. And miss Jackie went through and described the difference between each brush shape as well as real hair verses synthetic bristles. If was really informative if anyone is interested in searching for it.

Jan 6, 2015

Kathryn R.

I didn't read the post yesterday so I must have totally misunderstood. I thought she was just bashing Jenny. My apologies. I'll be more careful in the future.

Jan 6, 2015

CPT- Lili R.

Kathryn I have read the rules and I know them, I was stating my oppinion like shanae said if you had read yesterdays thread you would know what I'm talking about, in yesterdays thread jenny never stated all of this yesteday and like shanae said there was no need for this, if jenny wants to keep the ball rolling I'm sure jenny wouldnt take offense cuz thats why she started this thread, you must have not read what jenny said right if you notice she singled out sandra saying she didnt say things right, I don't belive thats part of the rules either so stop being a hypocrite and singling me out and take the time to read the rules your self.

Jan 6, 2015

Kathryn R.

Please read my above post. I did apologize for posting without knowing the full situation. Excuse me for the offense.

Jan 6, 2015

Kathryn R.

However I stand by the fact that there is no need for rude and condescending talk from anyone on this site. There is a classy and mature way to speak and I believe that all of us as women should speak that way. Anger and hate and our speech is unnecessary. We are all here to support each other. As I stated, I apologize for posting without knowing the full situation. I still believe there is a better way to say things to people.

Jan 6, 2015

CPT- Lili R.

I didnt read your post we posted at the same time sorry, like you said there's better ways to say things to someone, BUT that depends on who your saying it to, I was directing my self strickly at jenny not at the rest of the girls so I don't know why you would take offense to it, you talk to someone the way your directing your self at them, speeking in generally is a whole different thing if I talk to you that way I would understand you getting upset but there's a reason I was directing my post to her, I don't know if you get what I'm saying or if I'm even making scense