Hey Everyone!
I have to admit, a stippling brush looks a bit odd. It’s a bunch of animal hair bristles and poking through that bush is a bunch of taller white synthetic bristles. But this brush is basically a miracle worker because there are just so many ways to use them! It’s one of my first face brushes and it’s one of my favourites because you can basically use one brush to do your whole face. It’s not totally suggested because you don’t want to mix your liquid foundation with your powder blush but at least it’s the thought that counts.
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Yet, too many people complain that this baby streaks during application but little do they know that they’re just not using it properly! That’s what I’m here for. Today I’ll be showing you all you need to know about Stippling brushes – including how to use them, what they’re best for and giving a little review of the few ones that I own. There are four things that a stippling brush can do for you – it’s great for liquid foundation, powder, blush and bronzer. We’ll see how.
1. How to Use a Stippling Brush for Liquid Foundation
This is probably the biggest trouble spot. Many of you say that applying your foundation with a stippling brush causes streaking but chances are – you’re using it wrong! That or you have a really silly one and you need to go buy a new one. What you do is squeeze a little bit of foundation onto the back of your hand and then using a stippling brush get a bit of the foundation onto the white bristles. Then, start by lightly patting the brush and foundation onto your skin. This is called stippling. It’s like when you zoom into a picture and you see the little squares? Yeah, those are pixels, you’re basically creating those first all over your face. Then, swirl the brush lightly to blend everything together.
And I mean lightly! The only bristles that should be moving is the white bristles, independently of the black ones. That means no pressing hard, just lightly swirling and you’ll find that doing this gives you a natural and flawless complexion that looks like skin. It’s for those days when you want to look natural and you don’t need that much coverage. It’s applying a thin layer that covers just enough.
2. How to Use a Stippling Brush for Powder
Don’t you hate it when you fluff over your make-up to set it with a powder and some of your concealer or foundation comes off because of your brush? Well a stippling brush can help solve that and I love using my stippling brush to sweep powder on because the white bristles are so delicate that it can’t rub off any of the concealer or foundation. It sets it beautifully without taking any of the make-up that you put on before! You might want to pat it onto the concealed spots before gently sweeping the rest of your parts over with your favourite powder.
3. How to Use a Stippling Brush for Blush
We all have that super pigmented blush we have no idea how to use, much less why we bought it in the first place. A stippling brush can fly in yet again to save the day in all it’s black and white splendour. If you love that sheer, buildable blush on your cheeks, you can make any pigmented blush have a smaller ego by simply patting it with the color and blending it onto your face. You can then build up the color to your desired finish!
4. How to Use a Stippling Brush for Bronzer
Same story goes for bronzer! I find it a lot easier to use a stippling brush sometimes because I don’t have to worry about piling it up. You can use a smaller one if you’re not comfortable with contouring with such a large surface area but seriously, it’s just the same as if you’re using a smaller one anyway. You get dispersed color with a lighter wash of color that sometimes is a welcome change.
Now that we’ve covered what it can do for you, what makes a good stippling brush? Make sure to get a brush that is reasonably stiff. You do not want a long floppy stippling brush because that will be absolutely useless. You need it so that when you pat it on yourself, the white bristles stay where they are and they don’t bend. Besides necessary shedding or even bleeding, it should be good to use. I also thought it would be useful for you to get to know the stippling brushes that I won – the M.A.C 197, the Sigma F50 and the Artiste Professional Duo Fibre Stippling Brush. They have loads of names too like – duo fibre brush, skunk brush etc!
M.A.C 187 Review
This is one of my first M.A.C brushes and I remembered thinking ever so hard whether I should get it or not. It is expensive, believe me, but I like it and I like it a lot. It’s the best stippling brush that I have no doubt and it should be for the price I paid but I reckon since it does so many things, it would be worth it. It does shed a little bit when you get it but at least it doesn’t bleed (black dye). It’s the perfect stiffness, it keeps it shape very well if you take care of it and there are really no complaints.
Sigma F50 Brush Review:
This brush does it’s job but I wouldn’t say it’s absolute perfection. You can see already that the white fibers tend to go or disperse outwards which means that they aren’t stiff enough to hold the pressure when you lightly apply your make-up. I can’t complain though, it does its job well but again, you can already see it isn’t as great a quality as the M.A.C 187.
Artiste Professional Stippling Brush Review
The last one is something you can purchase at the drugstore. It’s the artiste professional stippling brush. Again, it does the job but be careful about ample shedding and bleeding when you first get it and a bit of a smell that isn’t great. After many uses, all of that eventually fades away and I’ve had this one for a while. It’s great for blush and bronzer because it has a shorter handle and the diameter of the brush of the bristles is slightly smaller than the latter. At least it keeps its shape better than the Sigma brush!
And there you have it. Is the MAC 187 worth it? If you’re going to see yourself using it daily, then yes. If you’re still experimenting, always experiment with something lower end and figure if you need to move upwards later. I know that cleaning the M.A.C 187 or any stippling brush can be a chore. I love using my Daiso detergent that is two bucks – the only thing that can eliminate all foundation and color from ANY brush. It’s two bucks, go and get it now.
I hope you like this post and if you thought it was pure awesomeness, don’t forget to click the FB like button, share it with your friends on Google+ or tweet it!
Love,
Roseanne