Once upon a time there was a 20something year old woman applying her makeup all about her face with a set of lovely brushes her beloved gramma had given her. Shortly after she was done with the face portion she moved on to the eyes. Somewhere between a crooked black winged liner and Wet n Wild mascara application, her cheeks started to itch! Out of nowhere clusters of itchy red bumps appeared all over her cheeks, chin and neck….then down to her chest, a place where she hadn’t even applied her makeup. She had the feels real bad. She didn’t know what to do. This wasn’t anything like her usual cystic acne breakouts. Luckily her gramma was a nurse. Immediately she told her it was allergies, in the tone she usually spoke to her in when she asked silly questions. (You silly girl! You’re allergic to everything else in this world, why wouldn’t you be allergic to animal hair brushes!)

So the young woman went to the dermatologist and had an allergy test done on her arms and back. This test nearly threw her into anaphylactic shock. She was told never to touch furry animals or rub their hair on her face again.

This girl was me. I am she. She I am. To this day 100 years later I only use synthetic brushes on my skin. Before the great brush fiasco I had mostly just used my hands to apply makeup.

I have a very large collection of synthetic brushes. Ridiculously large. Over the years I’ve tried many different brands of synthetic brushes. They were usually terrible. Fast forward many years. I finally found brushes that were legit. Cover Fx brushes! They are 100% vegan and they apply makeup like a dream. I remember the first time I went to Sephora and saw them, I didn’t believe they were synthetic because of the quality. Most all of them are crafted from a fancy thang known as Natrafil. I was sold. I bought them all. I still have my originals. I am a working makeup artist and I keep several of them in my belt. Did you know that synthetic brushes do not hold bacteria the way porous animal hair brushes do? They also don’t absorb as much product, so, you get more use out of your cosmetics. They are super low maintenance, no shedding and non allergen. The pic below is of a newer set I recently purchased online on Their site

The Powder Brush: is soft to the touch and has a rounded shape. The brush isn’t so dense where it packs on a ton of product in one shot. This brush makes it easy to build desired coverage from powder foundation, setting powder, bronzer and blush. I like it to “finish” my look. This retails for $42

The Cream Foundation Brush: This brush is one of my favorite brushes ever. It does everything. I don’t only use it for liquid foundation. If you’re into contouring, this brush is for you. The flat-fluffiness gives a brilliant application of product. It is the jack of all trades in the brush world. I dare you to try this brush and not fall in love. The “hairs” are soft. Like, really soft. It will buff foundation into your skin and have it looking seamless. This retails for $38

The Liquid Foundation Brush: This is the brush clients and colleagues always try to “borrow” from me. I’m always on watch. This flat top brush buffs foundation and concealer into the skin flawlessly. The softness is real. The density is perfection. This one is the go to brush if you like your foundation to still look like your skin. Natural but perfected. Worth very bit of the $38 price tag.

The Concealer Brush: This is a flat domed brush that is for concealing. I personally prefer a fluffy concealer brush, a flat top brush or my fingers to really get it onto my skin. However, this is an excellent brush if you want to get into the tiny hard to reach parts around your eyes and nose. I like to use it to trace my nose contour (whenever I actually take the time to contour my big nose). This brush retails for $20

Some pics of the brushes up close. Not the best quality photos but you get the idea

These brushes are sold on The Cover FX Site and on The Sephora Site

xo yourface