Don’t you love when your big fat ladies mag shows up in the mail! What treats inside! Spring is coming! Spring is coming! Anyway …
InStyle dedicated FIVE pages to makeup brushes in its March issue, featuring the lovely Nicole Kidman on the cover.
Highlights:
Page One
Beauty Shot of brushes – no real information. But this sure promises we’re in for something special!
Page Two
InStyle’s 6 Must-Have Brushes list.
The Sonia Kashuk Flat Top Multipurpose Brush (which is in the My Brush Betty Hall of Fame) made the list!
Also on the list: The Laura Mercier Finishing Eye Brush ($32), which is listed as a “pro fav.”
While that’s a good choice, we think the others are not all that special, but the point of their choices is to recommend where to splurge and save.
We’d actually go with a different concealer brush and pass on a lip brush as essential, but to each his own.
Page Three
Explains the difference between natural and synthetic brushes. Here, we have issues.
We take issue with the statement that natural hairs have a “follicle” that cling to powder pigments. Technically, the correct word is cuticle, as the follicle is actually the whole hair gland (science, ladies!).
But, okay, you/we get the point: Natural hair has a cuticle with a microscopically rough surface structure made of up tiny scales. This allows the hair to pick up tiny makeup particles.
Of course, synthetic hair is actually designed to mimic this textured microscopic structure — or not, depending on the application — so there really is no “BIG DIFF” as the article says.
The article also says that synthetic brushes can get stained. Of course, if you know how to clean them properly, you can un-stain them …
Overall, we give this page an F for science and B for boring. Don’t go thinking you necessarily need a natural brush made with hair from an animal, which may not be humanely gathered. In many cases, synthetics have even better pickup and payoff characteristics! Moving on!
Page Four
Two brush set recommendations, one for $48 from Shany (not $40 as the article says) with 18 brushes and the other for $429 from Sigma Beauty with 29 brushes that feature pretty copper ferrules.
Overall, we think brush sets generally contain brushes you won’t use, but that’s your financial decision. We think there are usually better ways to spend your money.
Ultimately, we can’t take issue with anything on this page, except the advice to “clean your tools once a month.” If you have acne or are even prone to acne — trust us — you’re going to want to clean them every week.
FBI Photomicrograph of goat hair, which makes up the majority of fiber used in cosmetic brushes worldwide. Science!
That’s because the same characteristics that make makeup brushes good at picking up and depositing makeup particles — the microscopically rough surface structure — is also what makes them evil when it comes to harboring and spreading bacteria. Don’t believe us? Check out this magnified photo of goat hair … Seriously, you want to get the crud out of those crevices!
Page Five
This appears to be the weird — or cool? — new brushes page.
There’s the new MAC Masterclass Oval No. 6, a Stila silicone-tipped Magnificent Metals Foil Finish Eye Shadow Aplicator ($18) and a mascara fan brush, a type of brush that we honestly don’t think applies mascara all that well. We’ll be posting proof of that here shortly.
Less weird: EcoTools Face and Body Sculpting Brush ($12) and Japonesque 150 Degree Eye Shadow Crease Brush ($15).
All in all, an interesting spread! Now, is it the “Ultimate User’s Guide,” as promised on the cover? … We’ll leave that up to you.
Even More Information
InStyle didn’t have any great makeup brush videos to go with this article, so enjoy this fun cover shoot with awesome actor Jennifer Lawrence instead, because her makeup looks Da Bomb!