My Cruelty Free Makeup Brush Collection

I have seen in the community that makeup brush blog posts are quite popular, so I have decided to create a post sharing my brush collection. All of my brushes are synthetic and cruelty free.

The everydays

I keep my every day brushes in a bamboo makeup brush holder that I got in Tiger for £6. It is made from solid bamboo and it has one big hole and six little ones in the front, and six medium holes at the back. It also has an indentation in the front which I keep my spoolie brush in because it’s flat.

In there I have eight Real Techniques brushes, my favourite of which is the Expert Face Brush which I use for buffing foundation, it gives a smooth finish and doesn’t leave any brush lines. I also have a Deluxe Crease Brush and a Base Shadow Brush for eyes which are really soft and blend shadows really well. For my eyebrows I use the Brow Brush – I like this one particularly because it is not too thin and not too soft. The three purple brushes are all from the Real Techniques Starter Kit. (PS. I’m sure it comes with two other brushes but I’ve misplaced them – forever ditsy).

Also from Real Techniques, I have the Setting Brush, Sculpting Brush and Fan Brush, these are all pink and from the Sculpting Set. The Fan Brush is so soft and great for highlighting, the sculpting brush is made for contouring and it’s angled for an easier application. However, I generally plump for the Real Techniques Contour Brush from the Core Collection. Also from this collection, I use the Buffing Brush everyday to sweep powder over liquid makeup such as foundation and concealer.

I keep two Lottie London brushes in this holder, the yellow one which is a concealer brush, good for pin point concealing, and the pink one which is an eye liner brush. It’s good to apply gel liner or smoking out pencil. Lastly I have a Boots No7 synthetic hair Directional Powder Brush which I use for blusher, and a Smokey Eyeliner Brush which is good for smudging eye pencil. My brow brush and comb is also from Boots, it’s a really cheap one and sometimes the top falls off so I’m thinking of switching it out for the Real Techniques Lash and Brow Groomer.

Also in here I have the Ecotools Airbrush Concealer brush which I love, it’s soft but not too soft and the perfect size for undereye concealer. I picked it up in TK Maxx recently and I’ve been using it everyday since!

The ovals

The oval brushes are really exciting because they’re oval! I really enjoy using them, my ones are from Primark (I must say a bargain compared to Artis) and they blend foundation and concealer really, really well! I have three of them, the one not pictured here is the smallest one it’s very handy but a little bit bent out of shape which may not be so aesthetically pleasing.

The one thing that stops me from using these brushes as much as I would like is that they are harder to clean that ordinary brushes. I just can’t seem to tell when all of the product is out, and it’s really hard to squeeze the excess water out because you can’t get a good grip across all the bristles.

A few more Lotties

I also have a few more brushes from Lottie London that I don’t use regularly enough to keep them in my brush holder but I still really like them.

I have a flat green foundation brush, it’s very soft and I love the colour but it can leave brush marks if you are not taking your time to blend it out really well. I have a large powder brush in blue which is nice for bronzer but I’m a bit lazy and don’t always use it. It’s not really great for setting powder because it’s just to big and therefore not very precise. Lastly is a red flat concealer brush which I used to use a lot for under eye concealing but I’m now using the Ecotools Airbrush Concealer brush.

You can never have too many Ecotools!

Lastly, we have moved on to the Ecotools. First up we have the Duo Eye Enhancing Set, I was really excited when I first got these because it’s double the brush, a four in two if you will, then it occurred to me how do you store them? If you put them in a pot or brush holder one end is also getting squished. They basically have to lay flat all the time unless you are able to suspend them mid air.

They are good brushes but because they have to be flat, I put them in the beauty draw and they don’t really come out much. However, you can still smudge, define, shade, and blend with just two brushes which is very desirable. These brushes are still available but they are now light brown and dark silver.

The brushes above are from the Lovely Looks Set: The Glamorous Glow Look, they came in a little cardboard box which had a look on it you could recreate with the brushes. I promptly threw this away because I just don’t like being told what to do, especially not by cardboard thank you very much!

I bought these brushes because they are so tiny and cute, and the turquoise ferrule (yes, I did have to google what the metal part in the middle of a makeup brush is called) is sooo pretty. These are great for overnight or weekend trips because they are small but still functional, they also blend really nicely.

I’m a big fan of Ecotools, all of their brushes are made from recycled materials, they are PETA certified cruelty free and their packaging is made with Tree-Free paper! The handles are all natural, renewable bamboo which is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet. I also have the retractable brush which is great for trips away too!

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