Makeup Brushes: Tools of the Trade

The Essential Makeup Brushes for Everyday Use | Life Gloss Podcast

In this episode of Life Gloss, a beauty podcast for seasoned women, hosts Hillary and Susan discuss their favorite makeup brushes. 

Both share personal anecdotes, insights on the evolution of makeup brushes, and their top three brushes and tools that they use daily. Highlighting brands like BK Beauty, Surrat, and Youngblood, they emphasize the importance of quality over quantity in makeup tools. 

They also provide practical advice on affordable yet high-quality brushes, making this episode a must-watch for beauty enthusiasts. 

Stay tuned for the next episode featuring Dr. Anne Beatty on the psychology of beauty.
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00:00 Introduction to Life Gloss Podcast
01:09 The Evolution of Makeup Brushes
05:01 Favorite Everyday Brushes
05:32 Affordable Brush Recommendations
08:39 Versatile Brushes for Multiple Uses
09:50 Personal Brush Preferences
16:29 Final Thoughts on Brush Essentials
21:35 Upcoming Episode Teaser
22:41 Closing Remarks and Subscription Reminder

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Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Life Gloss, a beauty podcast for sassy and seasoned women who have lived life and have a drawer full of lip gloss to prove it..

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:09

Hey Hill, Susan, brush off. No, I'm just kidding. What, when you think about brushes, what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about brushes that you love? Brushes that you no longer use? I went to my vanity today and grabbed all my brushes and I thought to myself, you know, I feel like I have a lot of brushes, but there's only out of this whole pot-o brush, there's only a certain amount that I use. So I wanted to come on here with you and be honest with all of our listeners and kind of think about what are the three That you grab every day and you use the most because I don't think anyone's using every brush in the pot, every tool in the chest, shall we say, but I do think there's at least three brushes that we use every day. Yes, definitely. You know, well, we've both been in the industry long enough that I have Tupperware buckets. that go back 25 years. I mean, I still have blue squirrel, natural hair brushes. Remember when they used to tell us, Oh, we're totally cruelty free. We just brush the squirrels. And we're like, we take the squirrels to a day spa and give them a little bit of caviar and bellinis and cut their hair. And we eshare the goats and the horses and they live on a farm and they're very happy. No, people. No, no. This is, this is, this is a murder in a brush, but yes. Um, yeah, it's changed though. You know, I'm sitting here looking at my pot-o brushes and I have ones like you do. From makeup forever back in the day, you know, and a little bit of a history lesson for some of our listeners as professionals. We know the brushes that I use for professional use sometimes different than the ones I use for myself. It depends on. What we're doing, what we want, you know, what the look you want to achieve. But it is funny how you bring up like, you know, the blue squirrels of the day and the real hair versus synthetic. And so much has changed, but the one that hasn't changed is, you know, quality brushes are the best. Make the difference. You can have worst cheapest makeup in the world, but if you have good quality brushes, you can make anything look great. I mean, that is the honest truth. I do think though, that so much has changed. Um, back in the day, I would only use real hair. They had wooden, um, you know, and it, it's, it's changed. Now we're seeing these gorgeous synthetics that are absolutely beautiful that work quite frankly a thousand times better with cream based and liquid based products than real hair does. Yeah. Do you remember the first telcon brushes? They were like, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was like fishing wire. Yeah, and then they started like giving them split ends to give them a little more, make them more porous. It was terrible for a long time. But now they're laser cut. We have new materials. They're great. I know my brushes that are in my kit and I still have them. I should grab my brush roll and show it. But, um. Maybe we'll do our pro kits one day. Yeah, we should do our pro ones another day. Um. But I know some of my favorite ones are from Chu Moura, of course. Oh, my car was broken into, and a whole set of Chu Moura brushes was stolen. Oh my God. In 2000, 2003. Those brushes are irreplaceable. When I tried to file the insurance claim, they thought that I was committing insurance fraud when I was the price of the brushes. Literally, they tried to like come at me for committing insurance fraud, and I was like, go check. It's so true, though. It's, it's, I mean, the Japanese really know how to make brushes. Um, but my Shu Uemuras, my Make Up For Ever's, Trish McAvoy. Oh, I still have the Lucite handled Trish McAvoy's. Honestly. Made some of the best brushes out there. Mac also, when they first started brushes, brushes in different countries and their brushes were exceptional. Um, I have vintage Chanel brushes here that are me too. I love them. I still use them. Yeah, but then I brought some new guys into the fold. Well, we have to, cause we can't, we can't make everybody upset about us talking about things that we have that they can't get. So, yeah. And I think we want to talk about the three brushes that we each use every day. Um, and these are brushes that our listeners can purchase. We're not going to sit here and talk about yesteryear and Oh, this is the best brush ever. And you can't have it and you can't get it. That's not fun. That's not fun. That's not fun. And we can all use a little joy in our life right now. So let's, um, let's talk about the brushes that we use every day and that we really are companies that we think are doing an exceptional job. I'm going to start with probably what I think are the most affordable. most reasonable and best brushes for your bang a buck right now. And that's BK beauty. I know everybody loves them. Everybody talks about them, but honestly if you're not even someone that's great at doing makeup or you're new to this world of makeup, these are the easiest consumer friendly brushes that you can use. I really applaud her for making a brand. That professionals can use and do use and are proud to use and they're exceptional, but that the general human being out there that is not a professional that doesn't know much about brushes can use these brushes and get quality product at a great price and quality payoff. Oh yeah. They're great. Yeah, those ones are good. You know, the other ones that are really good for the price. If you go to namies, like namies. com, they have the B delium. Yes. B D E L L I U M the B delium. They're yellow. Brilliant brushes. Great price. Like a slanted faux goat that we love for the cheap. 22 bucks? That's great. They're incredible. Namie's is a pro makeup store, but all of us can shop there. Yeah. Civilians can shop there too. I love it. really do like these brushes. I think of the BK, the one that I grabbed the most. Yeah. Um, every day, just if I'm doing, if I'm wearing any foundation or if I want to wear a little makeup or just a little bronzer, I love the one on one. It's just, it's easy. It's great. It does the fricking job. It's, it's spectacular. I also really do like the, um, the others too. Um, I'm loving the, the uniqueness of the one 12. I think you and I talked about this. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Because if you have a small face, um, or you just want to do blush in a very specific area or highlight, or even shadow, or even a little bit of shading, The one 12 is really good too. I mean, I like them all. I like them all, but I tend to grab every day, even my tinted moisturizer, even my sunscreen, I'll just put on with a one on one and I like it. Cause it feels good. It's a little slant. Um, she's got a nice real, you know, she does not scrimp on the amount of hair that goes into this brush. So We like the BK and we like the 101. Love them. I love those as well. We also love another brand that's I think even, even less expensive. Maybe that's a Sigma. Oh yeah. You can get them on Amazon if you're looking for them. Um, I love this F79 because I can For me, I don't often wear foundation all over, as you know. So if I'm just doing my concealer or if I'm just doing little areas, or if I want a shade, or if you want to put a little powder on, this little guy does concealer, foundation, bronzer, powder, blush. If there was one brush to do your whole face, I would say it's this one. I agree. I would, I definitely would call on that one too. I'm naming, you know, three different tools because you're naming those ones, but if I were to weigh in, if we were to duplicate anywhere, we'd probably duplicate that one. I love that one. Yeah. The F 79 is just good. Yeah. Like if you own one brush, one brush to do all your makeup with. The Sigma F 79 sold. Boom. You could do it all and then do your, I put it in our Amazon shop. Yeah. Let's put it in the Amazon shop. So we will put it in there. So it's easy. And then the third one. That I kind of grab if I'm doing anything with my eye area. Um, I will grab the Chanel. Um, now this one is a few years old. It's the number three pencil brush and I can use it for a smoky eye. I can use it to shade. I can use it for contour. I can use it for concealer. I can use it. To spot. I can really do anything on the face and eyes with this pencil brush. It's called Pencil brush for those that don't know is a brush that's fluffy but goes into a nice little tip So you can get that detail work done that you want to Um, And I love this for face and eyes. So that's it because I do, I really don't do much on the eyes. And if they're all multipurpose, I think that's the biggest message to, to our audience is, is it, is it lovely to have a full brush set? Yes, but when you get a brush set, do you ever use every brush in it? No, it's kind of like a palette. So build your own. If you haven't ever had a full brush set and you're treating yourself, go ahead, don't let us talk you out of it. But, at the end of the day, you don't need a whole brush set. You don't need all those brushes. Every TikTok, every YouTube, everything, everybody that's telling you that you need two fistfuls full of brushes, guaranteed you don't. Trust us, we're old. We've been around the block, we know. So we're going to save you some time and money here. I use three. I use three too. Out of my pot. You want to see my three? My Pato brushes. I use three. Yeah, that's it. So I know, I know. What are yours? I'll show you my three. I wanted to get fancy and show you my little tiny fan brush, but who knows where that thing is run off to goes to show you, I don't wear it every day. So I figured it doesn't need to be here, but the little tiny baby fan brush for getting into your lashes. Is really lovely, especially as you start to get older and you don't want to get mascara everywhere. Um, but it also gets that waterline. I just love that little fan brush. Yeah. I like the fan brush too, but it goes. And just goes to show how often I'm getting all dolled up. Yeah. One of my favorite it's kind of an, it's a cross between like a pencil brush and the Sigma F 79, because I like this one cause it's heartier and it's bigger. So I can, I actually have a couple of these, but I also will always just have a wipe on the side. So I'll start, you know, I'll do like, I can go in and do like an eye. I can do a smoky eye shadow, whatever. Wipe it off. And then I can come in, it fits right in here for my concealer. It goes around my nose. Cause like you, I don't wear a lot of foundation every day. So this one I can spot check and like flirt and feather where I need it. This is, this is by crown brushes and other like pro, but it's the crown C 4 56. Okay. I need that. You do need this. I need that. And I would suggest getting two or three because you'll, you'll just, so you don't have to wipe it off. You, I use it for everything. I love that. And it's great because that's like the Sigma, but it's, but it's tighter. It's tighter and a little smaller. So it gets into all the little nooks and crannies without getting messy. But if you need to, you can get it to, to, you know, Articulate a larger area too. So that's one. I like that. The next one is it's called a Y B three. And it's by Youngblood. And this one I use for everything. It's got like this little domed, it feels like a little teddy bear, like a little kitten's paw. And I will use this, you know, like I'll dot on my Maxine's Revenge, and then I can go in and move it around. Now you can, even because it's firm enough, you can turn it on its side. You can get a little contour action with it. Yes, yes. So you can do, you, it's just, and it just really buffs, powders, liquid. I could see that being really good with the Maxine's Revenge because that's a serum concealer, so that would blend really nice. And it doesn't absorb too much, but it moves it around and really pushes it into the skin. I'm going to, I'm going to see if I can send you one of these. Yeah, I like that. You're going to love it. Yes, Susan and I do send each other little care packages all the time. We have for decades, right? We've always sharing is caring. That's right. I'm not a friend. You're not a friend if you don't want your friend to look as good as you. And if you get something great, you have to tell them. So here's the other thing. This might make people giggle, but this little thing I absolutely love. So this is like a beauty blender. I'm telling you, she probably invented these because they had like wonky beauty blenders and like somehow something got sliced up in production. And she was like, wait a minute. I can use this. Like, I don't know that for a fact. I'm just guessing my manufacturing brain is like, how did this come to be? But it's like a beauty blender, super thin. So now that I'm a little older, I like, you know, a more hydrating foundation, but sometimes it's a little too dewy, but I don't want to pack powder on top of it because then it's going to be So I'll put on, you know, a glowy fat, really hydrating foundation or a tinted moisturizer or an SPF, and then I'll just come in. I'll let it sit for a minute. So I'm not lifting it off the skin. And then I'll just come in and I'll blot it. And it just gives me like a diffused, like, powdered look without the powder. And then if I want to powder, I can go in and it won't grab so much. So it just lifts any additional moisture off the skin without disturbing the makeup. So those are my three. Okay. And I can use it here if I'm doing a crazy eye. I can do whatever I want. And it's just great. It's one of those things that I love to touch up. I don't ever just touch up with powder. You know, I'll first go in and do this, because sometimes you can move the things around on your face, and if you just lift a little, or just zhuzh a little, you're in good shape, so. Yeah. That's it. I love it. Yeah. I think those are perfect. Simple, simple. Yeah, I think that's what we want everybody to understand about brushes. We can do another episode where we get a lot more in depth if everybody wants that you want us to we can go through Even more specific uses if you want us to break down the eyes Um, or even the lips because I do love a good lip brush when I have time Yeah, but you know, I think generally speaking Most people can do an entire face with three brushes. Like you really don't need a lot more than that. And it's just nice to know that there's so many choices out there and so many different price points. We used to spend, I mean, I would think nothing of spending 200 on one brush and it was so hard to get a hold of them and they weren't available and they were so expensive. And now, you know, You know with so many of these brands that are out there, um, and they were hand ferreled, they were handmade. Oh yeah, they're hand ferreled, and I mean, and there is an art, and I, believe me, I love those brushes, I still love those brushes, there's an art to those brushes, um, and I have complete respect for them. For the brushes that are made by hand, and I'm proud to own some, but just for every day knocking around, I don't think you can really go wrong with some of the brushes that we've mentioned today. They're easy to get easy to order. A lot of them have sales, uh, which is terrific, but please, you know, if the one thing I can say, if you're someone who just plays around with makeup or just wants to wear a makeup look every day, Don't go out and be spending all this money on these huge sets of brushes. You're not going to use all of them. Invest in a few good ones. Exactly. We're not saying go out and get cheap brushes because you don't want to spend dollars. No. So spend a little more on just two or three. Exactly. And these also make great holiday gifts. If you're looking. You know, for yourself or for your friends, um, because I don't, I think it's sort of an unexpected thing to give someone a brush, you know? Yeah. And if you guys have questions about like, which is the best eyeliner angled brush or which is the best eye shadow brush, we can dive into that more with you. And we can do like an eye tech or something like that because we have them, but you know, what do we use every single day? I'm using my hands for my eyes and this brush All the time for eyes, you know, your best tool in makeup is your fingers. Hands down. Um, not on other people, if they're not clean, but on yourself, your hands and your fingers are your best tool for the most natural makeup. But when in doubt, it's good to know three brushes, quick and easy. Great brands, easily accessible. Just go for it. You know, if you need help picking a brush, reach out to us on Instagram, reach out to us on Tik TOK, send us a message. We will help you if you need help in deciding on brushes or finding something for your face because different faces, different sizes, you know, that is the one thing I will say about. You know, BK Beauty, what they did was she did make different sizes. Um, some people don't need as big a brush for their face. You know, she made mini versions of everything. Very smart, very smart. Maybe we should have her on the podcast because I really think, you know, what she's been doing with her, with the brushes, um, making professional tools accessible to the masses. My hat's off to her because I think she really nailed it and did a great job. You know, um, and if anybody has any questions, don't hesitate to ask us. We are here to help you, but please don't feel you have to spend thousands of dollars on makeup brushes. You don't. No, you don't. That's sometimes that's just a lot of, you know, that's a lot of temptation and a lot of marketing. And it's a lot of the psychology of, Oh, you're only living a luxury life. If you have all of these luxury brushes, that's just not the case. I mean, come on. So many of us can go to the art supply store and you can buy great brushes there. But you know, I was going to say that's so funny. You said that Hill, because I still have a couple of brushes in my pro role. Um, I used to back in the day in the eighties when I was studying makeup, um, and I was in college, um, we had to go buy makeup brushes. And back then there really were not any professional makeup brushes for sale. Okay. Like it was really hard to find them or get them. And we all went to the art supply store. And bought a lot of our makeup brushes from the art supply store. And I still have a few in my roll that I use that I love that the hair is so incredible. A couple of them are handmade. Um, just wonderful, wonderful brushes. And, um, that's how we used to get our brushes, the art supply store. But speaking of the psychology, we are going to do our next episode with Dr. Anne Beatty and we're going to be talking about the psychology of beauty. You guys do not want to miss this. If you don't already follow or subscribe, please do. Follow and subscribe. So you get notifications of when we go live, she's on for our one year anniversary, we have been with you for an entire year. She's our anniversary gift to everyone. We're sharing Dr. Anne Beatty, um, and the psychology of beauty and her thoughts on beauty and what, what it all means, how we think about beauty, how we think about ourselves. It was such a great episode to record. It was so much fun. It was so informative and you know, on birthdays you often get gifts, but we really felt that it was important to give a gift to all of our listeners, to thank everybody for tuning in, for listening to us on life gloss, for being so supportive, we appreciate it. And. Just share the love it's our gift to you. Dr. Anne Beatty is our gift to you Um and pass it along share the gift of our podcast to others because that's really what it's all about Yes, you you can follow us on at life gloss podcast, which is on all social So it's life gloss podcast and then you can stream us and you can also Watch us if you want to see our faces and you're just hearing us You We have turned the cameras on for good or bad. Sometimes you get us all gussied up and sometimes my head's in a towel. You never know. I still don't know how I feel about the cameras on thing. But, you know, it is a beauty podcast. So I guess people want to know what we're up to. But we are going to get more. We can show things now. Yeah, we can show things. And, you know, we're probably going to get more into actually demonstrating Some things, um, and show what it's about. Cause it really is a visual world too, isn't it? The world of beauty. So a hundred percent, a hundred percent. Well, stay well, stay glossy, Susan. I'm going to see you and we're going to talk the psychology of beauty next. Can't wait stay glossy friends. Stay, glossy.