I love eye brushes, and I’m always searching for the next, best great eye brush.  Here are my current favorites!

For eyeshadow laydown, I use the MAC 219 and the Hakuhodo K005; the 219 is great for the lid, and the K005 is great for getting in to the inner corners of my eyes.

Hakuhodo K005, Mac 219

My favorite detail brushes are the Shu Uemura 5r and the Hakuhodo  G5529 BkSL; since I don’t have much lid space, both are great for crease work.  I also can use either to highlight the inner corner of the eye.  For a comparison of these two brushes, please see this post.

Shu 5r, Hakuhodo G5529 BkSL

My favorite eyeliner brushes are the Hakuhodo K007 – which has the finest tip I’ve seen – and the Benefit Get Bent eyeliner brush, which I love because it’s, well, bent – which makes it super easy to use.  It’s discontinued, but Sonia Kashuk has a similar bent eyeliner brush.

Benefit Get Bent, Hakuhodo K007

Surprisingly, I really love the little eyeliner brush that comes with the L’Oreal Infallible gel liners.  I don’t use it to apply eyeliner, but it’s the perfect size and shape for apply eyeshadow on top of eyeliner to either set the liner or smudge it out.

L’oreal liner brush

I had to put the last two brushes in a separate photo because the writing went in the other direction, which was driving me crazy!

I received the Smashbox brush in a swap a long time ago. I never use the white flat-tipped side, but the rounded size is absolutely fantastic for a base shade all over the lid/browbone, or to use a highlight shade on the browbone; I use it almost every time I do my makeup. I have no idea where it came from, and it’s not on Smashbox’s website, so I assume it’s discontinued.

Unknown but awesome Smashbox brush

The final brush is Laura Mercier’s finishing eye brush, a duo-fiber brush. It is a really great blending brush – it works beautiful, but never overblends.  It’s also smaller than brushes like MAC’s 217, which works well on my smaller lids.  Sorry that it’s dirty – didn’t realize how bad it was until I saw the close up photo!

Laura Mercier Finishing Eye Brush

Some other brushes I occasionally use – but that didn’t quite make the cut as absolute favorites – are the MAC 217, MAC 219 ELF studio eye contour brush, and ELF studio eyeshadow C brush.  I use the 217 and contour brush for cream eyeshadow, and the C brush as an all purpose brush, especially when my favorite brushes are dirty! I used to use the 219 pencil brush for crease work and as a detail brush, but it’s been replaced by the brushes above.

I do realize these are not cheap brushes – though the Hakuhodo brushes may be less expensive than you expect; the three in this post are $15 – 24.  I personally find that it’s worth it to splurge for the brushes I love, as it makes applying my makeup, which is something I really enjoy, even more fun for me.  But, for those on a budget, I have a some posts coming up with some inexpensive brushes!

 Do you use any of my favorite brushes?  What are go-to brushes?