Hello everyone! I hope you’ve been well 😀 . Today I bring you a post about my collection of K-Beauty branded brushes. I will be talking about a number of brands, including Etude House, VDL, Aritaum, Innisfree, Missha, Nature Republic, and my personal favourite, Beau-Make!
In my few years of doing makeup I have come to learn that sometimes the makeup products aren’t the issue – it’s your tools. So, I have made it a point to stock up on various types of brushes to ensure that my makeup looks are brought to their full potential!
I will be dividing the brushes by brand, reviewing the quality of each brands’ brushes, and then talk a little about types of brushes and what they’re used for!
This will be a long post, so make some tea, grab a snack, and be prepared to learn all sorts of things about makeup brushes! ヾ(｡･ω･)ｼ
•○ Etude House ○•
Etude House has released a variety of brushes over the years, of which I have tried a few. Personally their old shadow brushes (black packaging) are not great quality (although they’ve recently been revamped, so maybe work better now), and I find myself barely using them. The lip brush is retractable and works great! The 4th brush from the left is a dual-ended brush that came out with the Blending 101 Sticks. I never use the brush end, but the sponge end is useful in blending out cream bases.
The Wonder Fun Park brush line had very soft brushes, and dual-ended shadow brush is quite useful for packing on colour! The highlighting brush, however, is too flimsy and doesn’t really work for any part of the face so I never use it. Having said that, the blush/contour brush is EXCELLENT! It applies product so well to the face and blends it out easily. As for the two foundation brushes, the flat-topped one applies foundation quite well to the face, and I use it on days when I want an easy, sheer application. The gold foundation brush mimics the famous Artis makeup brushes. I personally love using this brush and find it offers an excellent, pore-blurring finish. Sheer, but an extremely easy application. This and the blush brush are the ones I use the most!
•○ Beau-Make ○•
Beau-Make is a line of brushes under Abbamart, a brand that started as an online-exclusive, but is now stocked at the A-Land fashion store. I discovered these after they did a pop-up store in Myeongdong, and since I didn’t know of any K-Beauty brand that focused so heavily on makeup tools I decided to check them out! I first picked up a set of blending brushes, and liked them so much that I bought a few more from their website.
These are hands down my favourite brushes in my whole collection (both Western and Korean)! They are great quality, don’t wear down at all despite me using them almost daily, and are very economical! They sell sets of 4 brushes for less than 15,000 KRW, and the individual brushes are all below 10,000 KRW. (Face brushes tend to be more expensive, but still under 20,000) The only one I’m not a fan of is the fan brush, because I find it doesn’t deposit as much highlight as I’d like. Despite that, I recommend this brand 100% and wish I had picked up a few more blending brushes before I left Korea!
•○ Others ○•
The Aritaum brushes are actually nail art brushes that I got for doing thin details for my Pokemon looks. Despite not being originally for the eyes, they work great and give extremely precise lines! However, the Nature Republic brushes are a NIGHTMARE!! These things stab the life out of your eyes and hurt when using them. The same goes for the Missha brush – very pointy 😦 . I don’t recommend either brand for eyeshadow brushes.
VDL is another company known for having high quality brushes. I got these shadow brushes as part of the limited edition Pantone Color of the Year collection, and I have used them very often since. They blend and apply eyeshadows very well, and are soft to the touch. Their blending brush (I don’t own it) is quite popular so it’s worth checking out!
This Innisfree foundation brush is one I got from a friend, and I don’t love or hate it. Personally I’m not a fan of applying on foundation with this kind of flat brush, but have used it on other people when doing their makeup. It is quite soft and works well to apply foundation! However I wouldn’t use this to blend out your coverage as it can be streaky.
Now I’ll be talking about how to use each brush! If you already know everything you can always skip to the end of the post, or leave here. Thanks for reading up until this point either way! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
•○ Types of Eye Brushes ○•
Thin brushes like nail art brushes (or even very thin, high-quality paintbrushes!) work great for liner/sharp details. The Etude House gel liner brush is just okay. It’s thin so easy to make a sharp wing, but the bristles tend to make my liner jagged so I don’t use it very often. The Beau-Make one is great for those days where you want to define your lash line with some shadow instead of liner!
These are all point-shadow brushes. You can use them to blend out shadow into specific parts, such as your crease or along your lower lash line. I prefer to use a bigger brush to apply shadow to my crease, but these help to deepen specific areas further since they are quite compact and detail-precise.
These are all general lid-application brushes! A compact, flat brush like the Etude House dual-ended brush on the bottom is great for packing on shadow pigments or glitter since the tightly-knit bristles help to hold the pigment onto the brush for more of a concentrated application. The middle Beau-Make brush is HUGE, and great on days when I want to sweep a quick wash of a neutral shadow on my lid when I’m in a hurry. It’s also great to set your lids with powder in one swipe! The VDL brush on the right is great for smudging out your lower lashline due to it being flat on the top and quite compact. It’s soft bristles help to blend out the shadow very nicely.
These two are the kings of my makeup application – blending brushes. I never dip the bottom brush into the eyeshadow directly, and prefer to use it clean to blend out any harsh lines to create a smooth blend. The top brush I like to use with light, neutral colours as a base shade in my crease. Both brushes blend out eyeshadows beautifully due to their soft, loose bristles, and thus are truly the secret to a neatly blended look!
•○ Types of Face Brushes ○•
Above you have several kinds of face brushes. From the left, the first, fourth, and fifth are for applying foundation. There are various styles of applying foundation to your face – some people use the first kind of brush (Innisfree) to apply the product, and then blend it out with a beauty sponge. The fourth and fifth can be used to both apply and blend out product! The third and last brushes are best suited for contour due to their angled shape. You apply in a sweeping motion, using the high end of the brush closest to your ear, and sweeping inwards towards your mouth. The highest part of the brush contains the thickest concentration of bristles, and thus will deposit the most product on the point you place it. The sixth brush is a highlighting fan brush, and is used to lightly sweep product onto the high points of your face. I personally prefer a packing brush for this, but this style applies a light, natural finish.
•○ Others ○•
The top brush is for concealer, and I find it excellent for cleaning up lines, sharpening my eyeliner, and really getting into the inner corner of my eye. Because the bristles are so compact, it applies a thick amount of concealer to each area. I don’t recommend it for blending out concealer because it can make the coverage streaky, but it’s perfect for making the world’s easiest cut crease, and doing other detail work due to its small size! The second brush is a lip brush, which I love for blurring out my lip line (or the opposite – making it perfectly crisp), as well as using it to apply product from lip palettes. A great item to throw in your pouch! The last brush is a bit of a weird one. The left end is supposed to help blend out your cream pencils, but I find it doesn’t work very well, so I never use it. The right end is great for blending out cream eyeshadow bases, but I find it blends out the Blend 101 Pencils a little TOO well (they disappear!) so it’s very situational.
•○ Final Thoughts ○•
For tools, I recommend Beau-Make 100%! Great prices, great variety, and great customer service. Each brush comes in small, medium, and large lengths too so you can buy them in whatever size suits your needs.
And that’s it! I try to avoid writing text-heavy posts like this since I know not everyone has the time or patience to read them, but I hope it was enjoyable regardless!
On another note, some of you may have noticed that I have revamped the layout and theme of my blog! I decided that instead of using pre-made graphics like I used to do, I would draw everything myself. So I hope you look forward to seeing the personalized illustrations I’ll be bringing from here on out! Until then! ٩(♡ε♡ )۶
Jasmineitor & Korea 
I love the illustrations and look forward to seeing more. -Angela
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I’m so glad to hear that, thank you! ❤ I'm really enjoying doing them 😀 😀
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