My seven favourite blusher brushes

My seven favourite blusher (and bronzer) brushes

I have probably a silly amount of brushes.

No, I most certainly won't admit that out loud to my OH, who doesn't really read my posts anymore, so I'm more or less safe to admit it here.

My current favourite blusher brushes are the seven above, in order, left-to-right:

• MAC 138 Tapered Face Brush
• Chanel Blush Brush #4
• MAC 129 Powder/Blush Brush
• Hakuhodo Japanese Traditions Yachiyo Medium Pointed Brush
• Bobbi Brown Blush Brush (this link refers to the newer, updated version - I have the older, and far superior IMHO, brush)
• MAC 109 Small Contour Brush
• MAC 116 Blush Brush

Up slightly closer and slightly more personal :-)

As you can see, there is a decent mix of shapes - some rounded (Bobbi Brown, 129), some tapered (Hakuhodo, 138), some slightly flattened (Chanel, 116) and one flat/dense (109).

My favourite for powder bronzer?

My beloved Bobbi Brown brush, before the re-boot and re-shape.  But as I can't get these anymore, I'd go with the MAC 129.

My favourite for powder blusher?

This one is a tie - the Chanel #4 and/or the Hakuhodo medium Yachiyo - both are sooooooo soooooft and beautiful.  The Hakuhodo has a slight edge.  Or for a more strong finish to a powder product - especially a mineralised product that can benefit from a bit of a buff-and-polish into the skin - I'll use the MAC 109.

My go-to cream blush applicator...

Easy - this tends to be simply my fingers, but on occasion I will also reach for the MAC 109 to buff product out.

My favourite all-rounder

Hands down, the Hakuodo above, but as it's slightly harder to get and slightly more expensive, on those occasions where I can only bring one with me, I'll reach for the MAC 138 - it's basically a mop-brush; tapered almost to a point - so it can be used as a soft contour brush and highlighter brush,  it's also big enough to be used as a powder or bronzer brush.  And of course it's great as a blusher brush.  The bristles are nicely soft to boot.  And I don't care if I lose it.

Synthetic v Natural Fibres

In general, I think I've personally found that I tend to favour natural fibre brushes for powder products over synthetic equivlents, and my fingers for cream products.  I do have a bunch of other (including synthetic fibre) brushes that I like - Illamasqua make a gorgeous one in particular.

Other blusher brush options?

I also use dual fibre brushes and fan brushes to apply blusher and bronzer - especially in the summer, I'm loving my Louise Young SY20 Super Fan brush at the moment for everything; bronzer, contour, blusher and highlighter).  The above brushes are simply more or less "standard" shape blusher brushes I have in my personal kit.

Look here for some info on how I clean my brushes - and a review of a lot of different cleaners :-) and here for some information on how I store my brushes.