What makes me think I have any business in purchasing a makeup brush for the same amount that could be spent on a very nice and pleasant dinner for two?

Pure panic, that’s what. In a bleak effort to distract myself from one thing I veered into a segment of the internet that made me think I had to have this brush, which, to be fair, promised to be everything I could ever need in life.

So here we are.

⌊ THE BRUSH ⌉

You may have seen these if you’re a regular on the Instagram contest circuit. I’m not, but I also obsessively watch YouTube beauty gurus and have seem them in passing videos.

I purchased a $60 Oval 7 Artis brush from the Elite Mirror collection [here]. It’s claimed to be “the perfect size face brush” and can apply foundation, blush, highlighting, bronzing, skincare and setting powders. All of their brushes are made with CosmeFibre, whatever the hell that may be. After browsing through the somewhat difficult-to-navigate site, I landed on this once since it seemed to cover a lot of bases. One brush for everything? All right.

The list of benefits that the brand says users will experience through using their brushes is overwhelming, to say the least. From uniform application to their versatility to being chemically and UV resistant to improved ergonomics — do you see now why I thought I’d found the answer to everything that is wrong in my life?

Weeding out all of the noise and extraneous details, it’s basically just a dense-ass brush. Artis brushes have, on average, 3-10 times as many individual fibers as conventional brushes so it makes sense as to why they perform so well vs. the brushes we generally use.

Plus it just looks real good.

⌊ THE APPLICATION ⌉

Previous to acquiring this brush a few weeks ago, I almost exclusively used a Beauty Blender to apply my foundation. Beauty Blenders seem great — they’re little sponges you dampen (what a terrible word), squeeze out the excess and then use to pat liquid foundation on your face. The theory is that the product stays on the sponge’s exterior so it isn’t getting soaked up and lost and also blends nicely on the skin. Also, in researching this, their tagline is “wet.squeeze.bounce” which actually induced a full-body cringe.

I didn’t use the Beauty Blender because it was the best way to apply foundation. I used it because I’d previously always bought terrible brushes that applied makeup so streaky that I didn’t know what other options were available besides my fingers. If I had plans after work, I found myself removing all my makeup once home only to reapply the entire look again because the Beauty Blender didn’t create a base that lasted.

Blessed be the day I impulse-purchased this brush because it honestly applies both my cheap and high-end foundations flaw-less-ly.

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL FACE.

[My face consists of: Hour Glass Veil Mineral Primer, CoverGirl Outlast 3-in-1 foundation, Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Cover Concealer, MAC blush in Gingerly, Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector (pressed) in Opal, a few eye shadows from Tarte’s Tartelette 2 In Bloom palette, Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper, benefit’s They’re Real! mascara, and Sephora Cream Lip Stain in a color whose name escapes me right now]

I will say that, on my first try, I attempted to use the brush to apply primer, foundation, concealer and even blush and bronzer. This didn’t go over well – you maybe need to spot-clean it in between, but I don’t have the time nor patience. The mix of liquids and powders on the same fibers wasn’t offering a great result.

In the video I watched of the brush in use before purchasing [here], a woman uses it to do all of her makeup look steps, but I’m skeptical she is using the same one for each.

That aside, while not as life-altering as I’d hoped, this brush speeds up the time it takes to put on foundation and concealer vs. using the irritating wet.squeeze.bounce method of a Beauty Blender and ends up looking a heckuvalot better, too. Dotting foundation on my face and blending it out with the brush is my preferred method of application!

⌊ IN SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION ⌉

This is worth the splurge. It’s something you’ll use every day for years. Even if the regular brushes you use start out somewhat dense, they break down and shed over a short amount of time, which makes products apply more splotchy and requires extra time to work with before reaching an end result that you’re happy about.

For how often you use brushes to apply foundation and concealer, you’ll likely spend more in the end repurchasing the same junky brush than purchasing just one from Artis.

Also, I bought a small version of their foam brush cleanser as well and used my Sigma cleaning glove [here] to clean it the other day and it worked really well. No fibers were lost in the process and it returned to its fluffy denseness by the time I reached for it the next morning. Win/win.

While I’m not completely convinced I need another one to apply other face products, I may venture into some of the eye shadow/liner options next.

— andrea

p.s. not sponsored, wish it was though!