Brush-a, Brush-a, Brush-a!

In my early product slut-dom, I used whatever tools came with my cosmetics. If they didn't come with a brush, I used cotton swabs or my fingers. While I still rely on both of those tools, I have ditched the teeny travel brushes and too small blush brushes for the Real Deal. Now, my brush roll is as necessary to me as my small Chanel make-up bag (the current Desert Island collection, if you will).

As promised, here's the dirt on my new NARS brushes. First up is the large dome eye brush. It's good for doing a soft wash of color over my whole eye lid or you can load it up with dark shadow for a serious evening eye - one my friend Matt Brown refers to as "Hey, goth girl!" I love using this brush to blend after I do a multiple color application. It breaks up that powdery finish and gets any excess off before it migrates to your cheeks.

NARS has a new collection of Kabuki Artisan brushes. I saw the Yachiyo brush and had to have it, if only for the aesthetics of it. The handle is wrapped in black wisteria and the bristles are deeply rounded. I love the way it feels in my hand and on my face. I use it to apply powder blush mostly, but it's also good for highlighting, bronzing and blending. The $50 price tag may put most people off adding this brush to their collection, especially since I can't say this is better than every powder brush I've ever used, but it's SO pretty and it does grab color nicely while remaining soft on my skin.

I've saved the best for last- the smudge brush. Up until recently I had assumed that smudge brushes were all foam/sponge based. As I get older, I find those types of applicators drag on my lids - and we all know tugging on your eyelids is bad for them (at least I hope we all know that). This brush looks like a normal eye shadow brush, but the bristles are very short and rounded. It is so easy to use and allows me to get liner shadow really close to my lash line. It never skips across my lid or leaves blank spots in the teeny wrinkles. It's great for both precise application and for its intended purpose of smudging. Since I bought mine, I have seen that other companies make similar brushes (Smashbox comes to mind), so if you only purchase one makeup brush this year, get one like this!*

*Unless you're opposed to using animal fur in any form. These brushes are made of squirrel, goat and horse hair respectively. NARS cosmetics say they don't test their products on animals, but the jury is still out if the hair on their brushes is harvested humanely. If you're looking for good synthetic brushes, check with Urban Decay or Aveda. The Body Shop also makes synthetic hair brushes, but I find the bristles too smooth to grab color properly.