MAC 159 Duo Fibre Face Brush review

MAC 159 Duo Fibre Face Brush

Another collection, another new brush from MAC.  On the other hand, it looks like this one is going to be permanent line, rather than limited edition, so that makes a nice change!

Released as part of the Tropical Taboo collection at the start of the month (July), this one, the 159, is gorgeous, and to be honest, the only thing I was bothered with from this collection.  Don't get me wrong, there were some beautiful Mineralised Skinfinishes (all LE) released but as I've got more shiny sparkly highlightery things than you can shake a very long stick at, I demurred.  New brushes, however, that's always  where my interest lies.

MAC calls it a "double-chiseled paddle-shaped brush" and that's pretty much bang on what it is.  It's duo fibre, containing the usual blend of both natural (black) and synthetic (white) fibres.  Here it is together with the MAC 130 and MAC 188 for reference:

T -> B: MAC 159, MAC 130, MAC 188

It's a different shape to the two of these of course, and it is about the same amount of fluffiness as the 188 (the 188 has a larger proportion of synthetic bristles).  It's not as dense as the 130 - in fact it's nowhere near comparable to the 130, it's just shown here for size comparison (and because I'm using these other two brushes a lot with my summer makeup).  It's a similar shape to my beloved Chanel #5 blusher brush (look here for my seven favourite blusher brushes), but less dense, and more "frothy" (that'd be the dual fibre aspect):

L ->  R: Chanel #5, MAC 159, Japonesque 234

L ->  R: Chanel #5, MAC 159, Japonesque 234

Yep - definitely paddle-shaped brushes are my favourite shaped brushes it would seem!  (Here's some more information on the Japonesque 234 also photographed above).

In terms of usability, I've been using this for applying foundation (liquid).  Blusher.  Highlighter.  Contour.  It handles them all with ease, in particular it's fabulous for mineralised- or baked- highlighters.  It's a little bit smaller than I like to use for bronzer and it's not quite dense enough to handle buffing-in powder, but great for a light powder dusting.  The overall impression is of a quite soft and fluffy brush.

The three Tropical Taboo brushes

The other two brushes (both duo fibre) released in this collection are the 187 (a re-promote of a permanent line brush) and the 287 (reviewed here).

Look here for more information on the 159.  Me likey a lot.