The Best Brush For Blending Eyeshadow

My three favourite blending brushes

For applying eyeshadow I like a densely packed brush that holds it shape well.  For blending, however, I much prefer a softer fluffy type brush of which I have several.

Close up of Smashbox Crease Brush #10 bristles

The first one I’m going to write about is Smashbox Crease Brush #10.  At £19.50 this is an average priced professional brush.  Its bristles are quite long and therefore, for me not very easy to control.  It’s also very soft so would require a bit longer to nicely blend any eyeshadow.  This is a good brush to have in your kit but it’s not my favourite.  I only tend to use it when the others are dirty.

Close up of MAC Tapered Blending Brush 224 bristles.

The next blending brush I use is MAC Tapered Blending Brush 224. At £22 it’s more expensive than Smashbox, but not really by much. Again, the bristles on this are relatively long and so less precision control.  I received this brush as part of a set which I have decided to keep for personal use, rather than keeping in my kit.  As with the Smashbox brush, this is good for blending if you have quite a large eyelid and brow bone area.  Also, these two brushes, although not designed for this use, are excellent at blending under eye concealer.  For this reason alone, they are worth having in your kit.

Close up of MAC Blending Brush 217 bristles.

And now to my favourite – MAC Blending Brush 217.  At £17 it’s the cheapest of the three yet still, to my mind the best.  Its bristles are slightly shorter giving more precise control and also meaning that it blends quicker than the others.  I’ve had mine for nearly 5 years and it may well be my favourite brush in my entire kit.  It’s excellent at blending anything – powder or cream, hasn’t stained too much and has kept its shape well.  This is always the first brush I use for blending and I can’t see it being surpassed anytime soon.

Rigid Collodion

Mehron Rigid Collodion scars with and without colour underneath

Rigid collodion is a cheap and effective way to produce scarring. The brand I generally use is Mehron. Collodion is applied straight to the skin and then it gently constricts as it dries, tightening the surrounding skin, producing an indented scar. It can be applied to clean skin, or over a colour depending on the desired effect.

Heath Ledger’s Joker scars

In recent years, collodion has been used by many make up artists as a cheap way of reproducing the Joker’s scars (Mehron Rigid Collodion is £3.66 for 25fl.oz.) However, on closer inspection, the Joker’s scars are a mixture of hypertrophic (raised) and atrophic (indented) scars. Collodion can only do atrophic. A minor point perhaps, but I like to be a bit geeky sometimes.

As effective as rigid collodion is, it does have a downside. It’s extremely flammable and can also irritate skin. I have personally experienced this irritation after dressing as the Corpse Bride for a Halloween party. The next day my skin was itchy and red and I still had marks around my mouth, despite peeling the collodion off several hours earlier.

Mehron Rigid Collodion Scaring Liquid

Despite this, I haven’t been put off using it again; my skin is extremely sensitive anyway. I have used it on various different people, skin types etc. and I’m the only one I know who has reacted from it. Perhaps I’m just unlucky.

MAC Cine-matics All-Over Brush Set from Nordstom

Mac Nordstrom Cine-Matics Brush Set

Last year I was very kindly given this brush set and have been meaning to write about it ever since. I’m a massive fan of MAC brushes and try to add them to my kit whenever financially possible. I was extra excited to learn that this set is limited edition (childish I know, but I like stuff like that.) This set is exclusive to Nordstrom (upmarket US fashion retail store) as is the rest of MACs Cine-Matics range. The kit contains 5 brushes which are:

MACs wonderful fluff and powder brushes.

129SE - powder brush (purple/plum). This is a lovely soft feeling brush and, like any powder brush, will always be useful.

227SE – fluff brush (blue). I’m not sure what you would call this brush. It’s too big for eyeshadow but too small for blush/powder. At first I was unsure what to use it for until I discovered it’s amazing as a highlighting brush – just the perfect size and density. I didn’t realize I needed this brush until I got it. It’s definitely my new favourite.

A great selection of eye brushes. Apologies for not cleaning them before taking this photo…Oops.

219SE - pencil brush (yellow). This brush is great for either placing eyeshadow in the crease of the socket or smudging eye pencil for a more smoky look. Its dome shape is quite firm and so is easy to control.

224SE – tapered blending brush (red). This eyeshadow brush is much softer and as such is great for blending. It could also be used for highlighting, but I’d rather use 227.

266SE - small angle brush (green). This is ideal for eyebrows. It could also be used for eyeliner, but I think there are better brushes for that (see here). This is one of, if not the best brush I’ve used for eyebrows. Since I’ve been using it, it’s held its shape brilliantly and hasn’t splayed.

Rather selfishly I’ve only used these brushes on myself so far. They haven’t quite made it into my kit yet, nor are they likely too any time soon. For years I’ve put all my good brushes into my kit and just used cheap ones on myself. However, these are travel size and came in a lovely denim pencil case-sized make up bag which just so happens to be the perfect size for my own portable personal make up kit. And besides that, they’re really pretty, really useful and I just want to keep them all to myself. There’s nothing wrong with that is there?

Dystopian Futures – February 2013

Aaron from Titus Andronicus.

February started off with a theatre production of ‘Titus Andronicus’ (PurpleCoat Productions). I’ve never seen this play and I didn’t know anything about the storyline except it’s supposed to be Shakespeare’s most violent work. Well, our brief as make up artists certainly confirmed this. There were bleeding stumps where hands had been cut off, a mouth full of blood due to the tongue being cut out, facial deformities, rape, a crying clown and a team of Goths. Defo not a comedy then, eh Will?!

Dolly Parton wig styling

I had the privilege of working with an excellent prosthetics artist on this production, and I learned lots from her. Hopefully I’ll get to do some more prosthetics work in the not too distant future.

Also in February I began my wig training. You know me, if there’s an available course; I’m going to book myself on it. I’d quite happily continue studying/training forever I think. I’ve had a little experience with wigs in the past, but it’s important to have these skills as a working MUA and so any additional training is very welcome.

Towards the end of the month I had a couple of messages asking me to work on two different short films. The first,’ Exam Results Day’ (Gosh Productions) was set in the not-too-distant future and looked at what would happen if the State decided every aspect of your life according to your school exam results.

A still from Exam Results Day

The second short, ‘Madira’ was filmed the next day in Media City. Once again, this was set in the future (2094) when the Earth has been scorched by the sun and humans have gone underground, living in domes in the ocean beds. The film was done on green screen and was produced on request for a couple of universities, including Salford and Huddersfield I believe. The idea is that no background will be put into this film, but the universities will give it to their animation students as a project, to see how each one interprets the script and the descriptions of the new domed world.It’s a shame for me that there will be hundreds of versions of ‘Madira’ made, but in all likelihood I will never see any of them. Still, it was a fun project to work on and an interesting concept for a film.

February’s film work contained a lot of dark themes, which I do enjoy working on, but as I also spent Feb reading the Hunger Games trilogy, I’m certainly ready for a bit of utopia in March.

One Night In Istanbul

One Night In Istanbul was my first collaboration with Bang On Top Productions. It follows four Liverpool fans as they prepare to watch the legendary Champions League Final in Istanbul in 2005. Upon arriving in Turkey they encounter criminals, a flirty chambermaid and a bizarre conspiracy involving Hitler’s cufflinks.

Rafa Benitez dancing during the finale. Photograph by John Johnson

However, the plot is really secondary in this play. The real appeal is the football; with various clips of Liverpool’s footballing past being displayed on big screens and the final penalty shoot out being shown in its entirety. This play serves so well as ‘theatre for people who don’t like theatre’. The Liverpool Empire was packed out every night with football fans, bringing banners and flags with them. The atmosphere was more like being at a game than in the theatre, which was a real positive and the grand finale consisted of LFC legends bringing out the 5 cups.

2009 cast including John Bishop (with grey hair) and John McArdle. Photograph by Brian Roberts.

From a make up perspective our job (there was a team of about 4-5 of us each night) was to design make up that could be quickly changed throughout the night as most of the cast played both English and Turkish parts. We initially tried cream paint, but found it was too thick and melted under the stage lights and so settled on Grimas cake foundation which worked more like a face paint. Offstage, even in their ‘English’ guise the cast looked orange, but once on stage, their skin looked natural and healthy.

We also had to age one of the lead actors every night, (John Bishop in 2009 and Neil Fitzmaurice in 2010) which meant spraying their hair grey. Any make up aging wouldn’t have been seen in such a large theatre so we decided ageing the hair was enough.

The last thing we were responsible for was the microphones. Over the first few dress rehearsals we tried many different techniques. Firstly we created hair elastics, with the mics entwined to wrap around the head. These were quite effective but were too visible. We then tried kirby grips, but this was no good when the actors had such short hair.

2010 cast including Anthony Godfrey and Neil Fitzmaurice (with grey hair).

In the end it was decided that tape would be best so the mics could be accurately placed against the face. The biggest problem was to find the best tape. Under hot stage lights most of the cast got sweaty so that no tape would stick. We tried waterproof plasters, surgical tape, toupee tape, mastix. We probably even tried gaffer tape in desperation! In the end we discovered some cheap fabric plasters that were much stickier than anything else. This solved all our problems until one cast member informed us he was allergic to plasters. Great. Happily he had enough hair that we could use the elastics on him and just hope the mic stayed in place.

The play was such a hit it returned for a second run before being shown over in Dublin. It was also filmed and the DVD can be purchased here.

Magazine Freebies

This weeks freebies

Every so often I find myself browsing the magazine aisles in my local newsagents. I never really read magazines. I’d like to, but I don’t seem to be able to find time somehow. The reason I end up browsing is to see what freebies are on offer.

I’d like to have the money to buy expensive products all the time, to test whether or not I like them. I sometimes ask for testers at the beauty counters but not every brand is willing to give them out. This is why magazine freebies are so great – they make expensive products accessible.

Last Sunday I bought 4 magazines – Cosmopolitan, which had a free Elemis Softly Softly Moisturiser in it, Marie Claire, with a free Neal’s Yard Bee Lovely Hand Cream and two copies of Glamour, one with a Percy and Reed No Oil Oil and one with Percy and Reed Finishing Polish. The grand total of these magazines was £11.40. If I had bought the products by themselves they would have cost over £50. (The day before, I very nearly bought the Bee Lovely hand cream – I’m so pleased I didn’t!)

As a make up artist, hairdresser and girl who like faffing, I want to keep up to date with the latest ranges. With the best will in the world, I can’t afford everything. These freebies are good products too, none of your cheap junk. I haven’t tried any of the Percy and Reed stuff yet, but the Elemis moisturiser is gorgeous, even on my dry skin (check which magazine you buy – some have cleanser, some have moisturiser for oily skin, some for dry). The Neal’s Yard hand cream is also amazing, as I said, I was prepared to pay a tenner for it.

There’s some particularly good beauty products on the magazine shelves at the moment, if you find any other treasures, give me shout. I’ll be here, turning the pages of my magazines with beautifully soft hands.

L’Oreal Color Riche Diamantissime in Feeric Fuschia

L’Oreal Color Riche Diamantissime in Feeric Fuschia

This lipstick was not something I would normally have bought. Sure, it’s a lovely shade and very much my sort of colour, but I already have loads of similar products and so wouldn’t normally choose this. However, L’Oreal and Boots had a great offer over Christmas 2012 in which if you spent over £15 on L’Oreal cosmetics you received a gift box with mascara, nail varnish, lipstick and two sachets of skin products. Excellent for me, as I was going to be spending at least £15 anyway.

Sadly, my gift box, though sealed, had no sachets inside (come on L’Oreal, buck up your ideas!) The mascara is great and I may well write a review in the future about that, the nail varnish is also pretty, but here I’m going to focus on the lipstick.

Colour swatch – check them sparkles!

The shade itself is 325 Feeric Fuschia – a deep pinkly red which, as we’ve already established, is just the kind of colour I like. (Slight digression – I googled feeric to see what it means and all I can find is that it means ‘fairy-like or enchanting in Romanian.) What sets this one apart is the sparkly ingredient, giving a luscious eye-catching gloss to your lips.

How it looks on

I’ve worn it several times now and I must say it has great staying power. For this reason, it has joined the collection of about 7 lipsticks which I always carry everywhere with me(hmmm, maybe this collection will form the basis of a future post…) This is normally a problem with bright colours, they fade away, especially if you’re having a few drinks, leaving only a horrible, cheap looking line around the lips, bleurghh!

This lipstick doesn’t do that, hurrah! It stays put, exactly as it should. So I would definitely recommend this lippy for those days when you just need a bit of extra sparkle in your life.