Expensive brushes are luxurious; beautiful to look at, feather-soft and often reassuringly weighty in your hand; but most of the time there are cheaper brushes that perform just as well, if not better. A good brush is not scratchy and needs to be shaped just right to perform the intended task.
Sure, if you have the money to splurge, go ahead, but I thought I'd run through my favourite affordable brushes. I have a few higher end brushes and I reach for these ones just as often.
Read on to see the brushes I rate highly.
Face Brushes
The Real Techniques Expert Face brush will probably be well-known to most of you. It's very dense so great for quick, even application of liquid and cream foundations. I particularly like it for applying cream contour products; it's the perfect shape to swipe down the hollows of my cheeks and then I turn it sideways to blend it out.
£9.99 here
The Sculpting Brush from Real Techniques is one of their newest brushes. It's a similar size and shape to the Expert Face brush but is on an angle and isn't as dense so works well with powders. This is now my favourite contouring brush, it works well with pressed and loose contour products.
£9.99 here
The Real Techniques Setting Brush is another fan favourite so I'm sure lots of you are already familiar with it. It's a small face brush so it is good for lots of things. I actually have three of these; one for setting my under eye area, one for blending out concealer and one for applying intense highlight.
£7.99 here
I bought the E.L.F. Studio Blush brush when there was an E.L.F. store in Cardiff (amazing!) That has since gone but I read somewhere recently that they will have a UK online store again sometime soon.
It's quite small for a blush brush so good for precise application; it is small enough to also use for highlighter. It's not too dense so blends out strong colour well.
In the mean time, it can be bought for £2.96 here
Eye brushes
This is the smallest of brushes I have for eyeliner and I LOVE it for really detailed work, as well as for the perfect wing. It's actually a paintbrush intended for painting miniatures which I first picked up in Hobbycraft but now buy online. It's the Pro Arte Series MP Fine Detail brush in the size 5/0.
£3.86 here
This brow-grooming brush is perfect. The Royal And Langnickel S.I.L.K. Brow/Lash Groom brush has a spoolie on one end, great for brushing your eyebrows in the right direction before filling them in and I use it every time I trim my eyebrows. The other end has a great metal-tooth comb for either applying mascara or for brushing through your lashes to get rid of any clumps (do this when the mascara is still wet). I'll be honest, I don't use the brush part of it.
Currently on sale at £5.59 (from £7.99) here
Bdellium can't really do any wrong, I don't think I've ever seen a negative review for their brushes. I can remember I was seeing them all over the blogosphere and really wanted to try them; I bought this one just because it was one of their cheapest brushes. It's the 714 Flat Liner Brush. It's incredibly thin so great for tightlining your eyes; literally pushing liner into the roots of your lashes. It's a great technique if you have small lids or hooded lids as the liner is very thin so doesn't take up all your lid space.
£6.99 here
Zoeva do angled brushes very well; the Soft paint Liner brush and Winged Liner brush are great but my favourite is the Brow Line brush. It's very thin and firm so gives the pressure needed to create precise lines in your brows. Works just as well with powder as with gel/pomade.
£5.95 here
I'd never heard of the brand Fancy Witch before a few weeks ago when I was browsing Beauty Crowd. I was intrigued so purchased just the one brush; the Tapered Eye Crease brush. It has a very long handle and is surprisingly heavy, which is a good thing as it feels balanced in your hand. Because it's tapered you can apply colour on the tip and then the rest of the brush will blend it out for you. The point is small enough that I can use it under my eyes too. Looking forwards to trying more from this brand.
£6.95 here
Another Zoeva hit. This is one of the brushes in the Rose Golden Complete Eye Set and I'm SO glad it was included. It has since become my go-to blending brush because it's very soft and makes blending effortless. As I've said before, I have really sensitive eyes and any brushes that are remotely spikey can irritate the skin there but no problems with this one, great for the price!
£6.95 here
So those are my favourite brushes for under £10. They span the whole range of brush types and you could create a whole look using them. Good powder brushes are usually the most expensive brush from any brand and so I had none that I could recommend for under £10. The E.L.F. Blush brush could be used for powder if you were patient, as it would take slightly longer than with a big Powder brush.
I'd love to know if you have any of these brushes and also love them. Or do you have any other must-haves for under £10?
Keep your eyes peeled, I'll have a giveaway on my blog very soon.
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