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I must admit that I wasn’t too knowledgeable with eye makeup before I went to makeup school. Up to now, I am still an eager learner for more eye makeup techniques, and envy and admire those who are such fast learners who produce amazing output on their beauty blogs ( hello! you know who you are! )! ( even if they are needed. sheesh! haha! ) . Blending is an important part of eye makeup application to make it look natural, and look like some artsy “vanishing effect”! After all, makeup is art!
Well, let me make a run-through on the blending brushes, or magic wands, as I call them!
My Sonia Kashuk Blending Brush has the biggest brush head amongst my blending brushes. It is great for blending lid color, and crease color. Take note that the bigger the brush head, the more scattered the blending would be, the more the color would really fade away to the background. So if you really want the eyeshadow to be not too noticeable, and just “fade away” without any intensity, this blending brush is best. I think this works best for natural eye makeup looks ( blending the lid color or crease ), and the outside part of the smoky eyes. This is also great for those who have big eyes and big lid areas to apply eye makeup on!
Next, is my MAC 224 Tapered Blending Brush. This is one of my favorite blending brushes. It has a smaller brush head ( and a narrower diameter ) as compared to the Sonia Kashuk Blending Brush, and I must say that this is a very very versatile brush. Aside from blending, I sometimes apply my lid color by getting eye makeup using this brush. The blending here is less scattered and more concentrated than the Sonia Kashuk Brush, even if this is the second biggest blending brush from MAC ( the biggest one , the 225 is REALLY BIG ). But if you are a MAC makeup brush loyalist, this serves as your default biggest eye blending brush and would use this to blend in a less concentrated and more scattered technique.
Next, is the MAC 217 Blending Brush. This, as compared to MAC 224, has shorter brush bristles, and if you are in a budget and could only choose one blending brush, this could be it because this moderately scatters and blends eye makeup, and you can always blend more ( exerting more strokes ) to scatter more product across the lids to blend. This does a more concentrated job in blending as compare to the big MAC 224, and is considered to be the “must-have” blending brush out there. It is also the most inexpensive among the MAC blending brushes.
The MAC 222 Tapered Blending Brush is my favorite eye blending brush amongst them all. The bristles are long, but it’s not too packed. It’s perfect for concentrated blending, when I don’t want to scatter the eye makeup too much and produce a perfect, progressive gradient. This works great specially if you want to blend vivid colors, and not ruin their “packed-ness” ( being “packed” in a certain area ) and just blending on the outside. I use this alot for creating smoky eyes wherein the intense area is “packed with pigment” but you still need to produce a “fading gradient” to fade off the color of the smoky eye. It also creates a pretty, “more defined” crease as you use this to blend the crease color.
Last, but not the least, is the blending brush very close to my heart. It’s my darling Charm Crease Blending Brush. Now, this is the smallest eye blending brush that I own, and let me just say that this is perfect for small eyes, because sometimes, eye blending brushes too big would not be able to work well with small eyes with smaller areas to blend on ( might get messy! ) . This is what I use on chinita eyes to either blend generously/scatteredly, or just do a more concentrated blending on both small or big eyes. I love this to bits. My friend Brigitte has something similar to this, a NARS eye blending brush which is slightly bigger than this, that I was also eyeing before. ( Sigh, the lemmings never end! )
Overall, I love my eye blending brushes to bits, and I don’t think I can live without them! Everytime I come home from doing makeup, I make sure to check my brush belt that these are all still with me, and wash these first amongst all my makeup brushes! Haha!
Tip : There are various ways of blending. You can blend up, blend to the side, or blend using a circular motion, or in a wiper ( left to right ) motion. Experiments, and adapt the techniques you are comfortable with, and like the output of!
Enjoy the weekend my lovelies!
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I love your post Sophie! I am a blending brush lover too! I always use my blending brush when i do my own eye make up, and sometimes, i use blending brush for the whole eye make up!!!
Thanks for sharing. I tend to get confused with the MAC blending brushes 
And this is really clear info!!! Thanks sis!
Very informative! Thanks for this, Sophie!
Nikki and Patty : Glad you found the entry informative! I reread it and had to edit, I didn’t think it would understandable coz I was grappling for words! haha!
very helpful post indeed! and fab collection of blending brushes if i may add.
They remind me of watercolor brushes
By the way, I hope you continue on with this brush series. Looking at the catalogs of different brush companies, I discovered that there are many kinds of brushes and I don’t know how to use most of them
Mhean : Thanks!
I wanted to add in the Smashbox blending brush but I don’t like it anymore 
Candice : Yknow I give in to your requests!
I will try my best to come up with a brush 101 post on a weekly basis:)
do teach us more make-up techniques sophie!
Can I play with your brushes, Soph?
Therese : I’ll do my best!
Sasha : During the shoot! lol!
weeeee…addict na sa eye makeup ikaw! lol…paturo nga ng blending for chinitas, darleng!
[...] Blending Brushes Oh, my biggest revelation this 2008. Blending brushes, when used with patience, can do wonders on your eye makeup application! [...]