Battle Of The Brushes

Who's Your Favorite

Makeup brushes oh makeup brushes where do I begin. Long gone is the day of the sponge (unless your talking Beauty Blender), but for as long as I can remember now brushes have been the "It" thing to get that flawless face. However with the ever changing evolution of the brush and just about every brand of cosmetics making them, it can be quit tough just to choose a good quality brush. I personally always battle with "high end" vs. "drug store" and what the REAL difference is. Now I haven't tried every brand but I've tried a few and at this point I know what I like and where not to waste my money. So what I'm going to do is give you the break down on the ones I've personally tried. 

MAC

Okay so the first brush I ever brought was the MAC 129 which retails for $35 (Ouch!!!). Now MAC is great in some areas of cosmetics and their brushes are just as great of quality. They're brushes are typically very soft (I do have some that aren't so soft), easy to clean, and let me tell you the last. I've had the 129 for years and there is still no sign of it falling apart. However MAC brush are on the pricier side, I mean look at the 134 (large powder brush) this thing retails for a whopping $53 (just died). That's a lot of money for ONE single brush. Though you do get great quality I've always wanted to find the cheaper alternative because to own a full set of MAC brushes I might was well hand over a weeks worth a of pay. 

So once I really started getting into makeup I began the hut for good quality brushes because spending MAC prices got a bit old after awhile and wanted to spend a bit more wisely. On to the drug store...I discovered Sonia Kashuk and Elf one day just browsing the cosmetic isle. Well like any normal person when I saw the price of the Elf brushes I was like "No way, these are probably horrible". Here's the deal Elf does make a good brush, they are extremely soft and affordable ranging from $1 to $6. HOWEVER, these brush are good for application but don't expect to get much use of them, after about 3 to 4 washes (or less), these brushes are pretty much dunzo. For the price of Elf however you really can't beat it and I am definitely a repeat buyer to their eye brushes because they are pretty good as far as the application goes. 
Let's talk Sonia Kashuk...Now here is a great drug store buy. These brushes are amazing quality for a drug store brush and guess what...they last. I brought my first Sonia Kashuk a few years ago and that baby is still going strong, lol. These brushes are also very soft and they range from $1.99 to $20 per brush (not bad) and they apply great as well. I favor more of the eye brushes then anything...she makes a great flat shader brush that I swear by. So...you are going to get good quality and application for your money with theses.  

Elf

Sonia Kashuk

Sigma

Okay...so more recently I discovered Sigma and Real Techniques, like most people I know I found out about these two from watching YouTube. Sigma was the first purchase made after I started watching beauty videos on YouTube a few years ago. Sigma ranges from $10 to $42 for a single brush, but the great thing about Sigma is they sell kits that range from $54 to $510 (just died again). So...here's the deal with Sigma, these brushes are fantastic to say the least. They are extremely soft (so serious, lol), amazing quality, and boy looky here they truly make for a great application (I swear by the flat top kabuki for foundation). I currently have 2 of their kits and I'm working on getting a 3rd (can't wait). Sigma is worth every penny they charge you because it really is a great brush but lets be real the prices are to shabby either. 

Real Techniques

Real Techniques is a bit newer and if you an avid YouTube watcher like me then you may have watched the Pixiwoo sisters. Samantha Chapman is 1 half of the sisters and the one who launched the brushes (Thank You Sam). I don't even know where to begin with these brushes beside the fact that they are AMAZING!!! I can't even recall a brush being higher then $20 and most of the brushes come in a kits and still don't think I've seen anything over $20 (SCORE!!!). I have had these brushes since they where launched in the US. They are definitely a low end or "drug store" brush with high end quality, they are super soft and each brush is just great (I own them all). The cleaning process on these brushes is by far the easiest of all my brushes, they have a great long hard barrel that I swear makes it difficult to fall apart, and the synthetic bristles are extremely soft (just try it you'll see)

So what's my verdict? Who is my favorite? I'm pretty sure you can tell, lol, but it is a tie between Sigma and Real Techniques. To me these are both extremely affordable, great quality, and most importantly they uphold the continuous washing making them a great brush that last. I'd say don't waste your money on all they other brushes and give these a whirl if you haven't already. Even though there are some really great brushes out there, these two are the first at basically doing exactly what they were set out to do, which is giving you flawless finish. 

So tell me, who's your favorite and are there any others I need to try?