Your Ultimate Guide to Eye Brushes

Great eye looks start with tools! To create your dream eye look, here’s a comprehensive guide to eye brushes for every need: blending, shading, detail.

*We’re committed to transparency. Products marked with an asterisk were given to us to try by the brand. As always, all thoughts expressed on Rouge18 are our honest opinions.

Blending

1. The shape of the Sigma Beauty E25 Blending Brush is its shining feature. This bush is fluffy, but the ferrule is pinched so that the brush is a bit flat. The E25 is perfect for blending shadow in the crease.

2. For detail blending, the Sigma Beauty E36 Blending Brush is your best bet. The E36 is a tiny, fluffy blending brush that is great for blending out the edges of a look or for diffuse application in a small area.

3. You can’t go wrong with the Sigma Beauty E35 Tapered Blending Brush. This large, fluffy brush blends shadow like a dream.

4. For something smaller than the E35, try the Morphe M514 Detail Round Blender Brush. This blending brush is well suited for denser, more precise blending or for people with less eyelid space.

5. The uses for the Sigma Beauty E30 Pencil Brush are endless! This small, dense, pointed brush is great for smoking out liner, applying shadow to the inner corner or lower lash line, and much more.

Shading – Powder

1. True to its name, the *Sigma Beauty E54 Medium Sweeper Brush is a medium-sized shader brush. You can use it to pack on shadow as well as to blend.

2. The Sigma Beauty E55 Eye Shading Brush is my absolute favorite shader brush of all time. It is my go-to for applying mattes, especially mattes that are hard to apply. The E55 just does such a great job of picking up color and depositing it on the eyelid without patchiness. Note: Sigma’s new *Disney Cinderella Fairytale Brush Set includes both the E55 and the previously mentioned E30.

3. When it comes to applying loose pigments and sparkly pressed shimmers, the *Luxie 213 Eye Shading Brush is perfect for the job because it is a fluffy (rather than flat) shader brush. The fluffiness allows the brush to hold product well and disperse it on the eye for a more sparkly, soft look as opposed to the metallic, foiled look you get when using your finger or a denser / flatter brush.

4. I absolutely love how flat and stiff the Peaches & Cream PC40 Oval Precision Brush is. It’s amazing for liquid shadows and loose pigments (especially pigments mixed with a mixing medium). The sharp, oval edge of the brush makes it ideal for creating sharp lines (e.g., for a cut crease look).

5. The *Luxie 249 Detail Smudging from the Flawless Blending Set is small, flat, and stiff, which makes it perfect for applying shadow precisely to small, harder to reach areas.

Shading – Cream

1. I start off every eye look by applying eyeshadow primer to the lid for long-lasting, vibrant color. My favorite brush for eye primer is the *Real Techniques #308 brush from the *Everyday Eye Essentials Kit. This brush is the perfect blend of flat and fluffy; it allows you to apply cream primer to the lid opaquely enough while still being able to blend out the edges.

2. Sigma Beauty E58 Cream Color is a good flat, dense brush for swiping on cream shadows or creamy shimmer/metallic shades.

3. The Peaches & Cream PC55 Lip Brush is amazing to apply eye base for a crisp cut crease. The brush is wonderfully flat and pointed for creating precise lines.

Detail Brushes

1. Having small brushes is especially important when doing detail work. For a precise inner corner highlight, I especially love the Zoeva 240 Luxe Petit Pencil Brush. This is the smallest pencil brush I have ever seen. I’ve purchased two to make sure I always have a backup.

2. For a super thin, precise graphic liner look, the By Melolops C2 Eyeliner Brush is your best friend. This brush is medium length and is fine enough to create thin liner strokes.

3. For a thicker liner stroke, I love the Suva Beauty Six Twenty Brush. Suva Beauty makes four liner brushes of varying length and I love them all for various purposes.

4. The Zoeva 312 Detail Liner Brush is the sharpest angle brush I have ever used. You can get a wonderfully thin line for liner with it. I particularly love using it with brow powder to create hair-like strokes for a more natural-looking brow.

—Obianuju Enworom

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