The Best Makeup Brushes (2024)

A lot of makeup brush sets are a racket—tons of brushes you don’t need packaged alongside just a couple you do, for a price that seems too good to be true. At about $16 a brush, the Sigma Most-Wanted Brush Set was the most expensive set we tried. But as we quickly found, it’s worth every penny. Each brush is unique, useful, and well constructed, with expertly cut bristles and smooth, substantial handles. If you’re looking for one set that does it all, with no compromises in quality or performance, this five-brush Sigma set is a standout choice.

The bristles are nuanced and feel expensive. All the sets we tried had synthetic bristles, and their quality and performance varied widely. The Sigma brushes’ fibers are dense, grabby, and smooth, nothing like the plasticky bristles in the BS-Mall 14 Pcs Brush Set we tested or the floppy ones in the E.L.F. Cosmetics Professional Set of 12 Makeup Brushes. On top of that, whereas competitors largely use the same fibers on every brush, each Sigma style has a customized shape and feel. The brown and white bristles on the set’s F80 Flat Kabuki are stiff, wide, and flat, while the black hairs on the F35 Tapered Highlighter are trimmed in a steep, bendy dome.

The handles are heavy and high quality. Heavier handles are easier to maneuver, allowing a more solid purchase and grip. The shiny polymer Sigma brush handles are similarly substantial and pleasantly weighted. The F80 weighs 1.55 ounces, at least a half an ounce more than comparable brushes (BS-Small Face Flat, E.L.F. Total Face, Real Techniques 200) from other sets. Only one foundation brush we tried, the IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Flat Top Buffing Foundation Brush #6, had a similar weight—but at about $50, it’s also three times the price.

It includes a smart mix of brushes. You can easily find sets that offer more brushes for less money. But most people are likely to get the most use out of the five brushes in the Sigma set: foundation (F80), powder/highlighter/contour (F35), eyeshadow (E25), eyeshadow blending (E40), and small detail (E30). Sure, the 14-piece BS-Mall set costs only $10, but it’s filled with a confounding array of redundant options, including seven different eyeshadow brushes and five nearly identical face brushes. Ultimately, we decided that it was better to invest in fewer, more useful, and higher-quality brushes.

The brushes are versatile and effective. All five of the Sigma brushes impressed our panelists with their performance. The dense, tapered F35 deposited powder beautifully on the high points of the face and softly buffed out harsh contour lines; another tester set undereye concealer with powder and that very same brush. The E25 blending brush picked up just enough eyeshadow from the pan and blended out pigment evenly without patchiness. The F80 foundation brush was a treat to use, with sharp edges to reach tricky inner corners and a great bounce for even stippling.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The set lacks a large powder brush, which is essential for many people doing even basic makeup applications. We used the F35 to dust powder in smaller zones of the face, but it wouldn’t work well for larger coverage areas.

The Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation Brush nails our nonnegotiables: The soft, tightly packed bristles pick up just the right amount of product, the slanted brush head effortlessly smooths on makeup, and there’s zero bristle fallout. Although other, cheaper brushes share some of those qualities, this Hourglass brush is worth the splurge, delivering an airbrushed, skinlike finish even for makeup newbies. In our tests, the brush’s most unusual feature—the sloped curve of its bristles, which the company says mimics fingertip application—really was a game-changing attribute and the best we found.

It’s just the right size. The Hourglass brush is shorter than all but one of the six other foundation options our panelists tested, but that gave us more control when blending foundation in creases and divots around the eyes and nose. Its compact and sturdy feel helps you buff out streaks or get into the smaller, trickier areas of the face.

The densely packed bristles are springy and resilient. The fibers on the Hourglass brush are so tight and packed that the brush tip almost bounces off your face, making for a quick, even application. The company says that the brush heads are hand-shaped, not machine cut, and we did find the curve subtle and bespoke. We also tried the BK Beauty 101 Contoured Foundation Brush, which blended nicely, but some testers said the brush head was too large, and Lancôme’s Airbrush #2 had overly long bristles that streaked every time.

The bristles spread cream and liquid foundations equally well. Both putty-like cream and slippery liquid formulas blended out beautifully with the Hourglass brush. One panelist liked how she could spread her thick stick formula seamlessly, getting in nooks and crannies with the brush’s firm edges. Another found the shape perfect for a lightweight liquid: “Because the brush is so easy to control, I can pick and choose where I build up coverage.”

It feels fancy and expensive. The pretty ombre bristles, which the company says mimic goat hair, the cool metal handle, and the elegant angled ferrule are a pleasure to wield. Admittedly, at the time of our testing this brush cost about $10 more than any other foundation brushes our panelists tried, but that was a small price to pay for a joyful little luxury that our testers delighted in using every day.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The short, angled, and tightly packed bristles require a little more effort to wash—they take a good number of rinse-throughs until the water runs clear—but this wasn’t enough of a drawback to bother any of our panelists.

There’s just something lovely about the Patrick Ta Beauty Major Sculpt Dual-Ended Sculpting Brush. In our tests, it turned even the most ambivalent contour users into true believers. Ta is a celebrity makeup artist responsible for the glam of Gigi Hadid, among others, and some people in the industry credit him for popularizing an everyday contour. This brush—one end is thin for sculpting cheeks and jawline, while the other is bigger for blending—certainly demonstrates a mastery of the contour craft.

Its dual heads are especially effective and convenient. This is the only double-ended contour brush that our panelists tried, and it stole the show. Unlike with other dual-ended brushes we tried, such as the Makeup By Mario F4 Dual-Ended Foundation and Face Brush and the IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Complexion Perfection Brush #7, each end of this brush has a distinct shape, firmness, and density. You’re really getting two brushes for the price of one, both of which are essential to get a contour right. For beginners on our panel, the two unique shapes allowed for a lot of quick back-and-forth fiddling and perfecting, with no need to juggle two different brushes. More experienced testers found that the angled side put product right where they wanted it efficiently. “I didn’t want to use any other contour brush after this,” one tester said.

The pinched ferrule on the fanned end flattens the bristles perfectly. The fanned end of this brush applied cream contour better than all the other brushes we tried, as some competitors were too wide, which made makeup lines muddy, and other, too-skinny designs created unblendable stripes. The powder end was likewise awesome: The fluffy, softly sloped bristles made it simple to blend the whole look together, add powder bronzer on top, or apply the finest layer of setting powder to complete the look.

It’s a great investment for the contour-curious. Many staffers shared that they would love to try contouring but weren’t solid on the technique and were hesitant to buy a brush that they might use only a few times. The Patrick Ta brush demystifies the draw-blend-set process. But more important, it’s versatile. Even on days when testers weren’t contouring, they found themselves reaching for this Patrick Ta brush as their go-to powder brush; the flattened end is lovely for buffing out cream blush, too.

The price is fair for two brushes. Although $45 seems pricey for one brush, when you consider that it’s two-in-one, the price per brush ends up being less than that of many of the competitors we tested and didn’t like as much.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Dual-sided brushes are hard to store—if you store them vertically, one end is always getting smooshed or dirty. You may prefer horizontal storage and more frequent brush cleaning.

You can find thousands of fluffy powder brushes out there. After extensive research, we chose four of the top-rated, best-selling, and artist-favorite options to panel-test at home. The Jenny Patinkin Sustainable Luxury Powder/Bronzer Brush won us over, passing our tests with flying colors. The dome head was silky-soft and fluffy, with an elegant taper that still lent true control. The weighted metal handle felt luxurious, even though this brush wasn’t the most expensive option we tested in this category.

The uncoated bristles closely resemble natural fibers. One knock on synthetic bristles is that they can be too shiny and plasticky, repelling powder and product rather than picking it up. In contrast, the bristles of this brush are matte and subtly crimped—in a good way. One tester who regularly made a mess of her vanity with a flurry of loose setting powder found that the problem vanished as soon as she started using the Jenny Patinkin brush and its grippy, grabby bristles.

The dome shape is versatile. The Jenny Patinkin brush is the platonic ideal of a powder brush: poufy and pampering, delivering a diffuse wash of color or translucent powder over the entire face with no sharp lines. It’s just fun to use. And the sharply sculpted dome—the most angled of the powder brushes we tested—also lets you pull off targeted, controlled techniques. One tester found it exceptional for swiping bronzer down her nose and along the highest points of her cheeks. The Real Techniques Ultra Plush Makeup Brush 400 has a similar shape, but two panelists found that its bristles felt too floppy and splayed.

The entire brush is made from recycled materials. For this guide, we considered only brushes with synthetic bristles, which are cruelty-free but not necessarily better for the environment. This Jenny Patinkin brush, however, is made entirely from post-consumer materials—both the bristles and the aluminum handle.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

We can’t ignore that $40 isn’t cheap for one brush and might not be in everyone’s budget. Our affordable runners-up are the Real Techniques Ultra Plush Powder Brush 400 ($10) and the Sigma F11 ($25).

Whether your brows are bushy and beautiful or sad and sparse, you’ll likely want a dedicated brush for them, with both an angled bristle tip and a spoolie end. The Anastasia Beverly Hills Brush 12 deftly serves all brow types, adding precise, hairlike strokes with a sharp angled tip or combing through thick, tangly hairs with a long, grippy spoolie. At $18, it’s the most expensive brow brush we tested, but for a few dollars more than others we tried, it’s far and away more versatile, high-quality, and worth every penny.

The skinny end is stiff and tapered, so it works almost like a pencil. This brush is small but mighty, with nice, stiff bristles that pick up product in one go. The fibers are tightly packed, so they lay down the product without gumming up the brush. In comparison, one tester found the E.L.F. Eyebrow Duo Brush “too bendy and diffuse.”

The bristles create a perfect natural look. Our testers loved this brush and found it the easiest for drawing on the most realistic hairlike strokes with any cream, powder, or pomade. We broke out a protractor, and lo and behold, the Anastasia brow brush boasted the sharpest angle, at 40 degrees. Similar brushes we tested, namely the E.L.F. brow brush, the Sonia Kashuk Professional Angled Eyeliner Makeup Brush, and the , were angled at 33, 35, and 38 degrees, respectively, and they delivered blunter, heavier, and less refined lines.

The spoolie is long, conical, and strong. Although we tried some brow brushes (Sonia Kashuk) that lacked a spoolie, we ultimately agreed that it’s an essential tool for taming hairs, either to shape existing brows or to brush out brow gel. The spoolie on this Anastasia brush is not so long that it becomes unwieldy, nor is it annoyingly short and stubby (as was the case with both the E.L.F. and Tweezerman brow brushes we tested). One tester’s toddler performed an unsanctioned strength test, jamming a few spoolies into the holes of a shower drain. Unlike two other brushes that snapped, the Anastasia spoolie survived in one piece.

It’s great for other eye makeup, too. Yes, you’re spending $18 on a single brush, but our testers found themselves using this brush for makeup applications beyond their brows. The angled end was particularly adept at laying down thin bands of eyeliner and shadow right at the lashline, and the spoolie handily declumped mascara and detangled lash extensions.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Like the Patrick Ta dual-ended brush, this two-fer brush is tricky to stash vertically in a vanity-top container—it doesn’t have a cap, so it always rests on one brush end. If you can’t store the brush flat, rest it on its spoolie end, since that end wipes clean easily.

This bouncy, egg-shaped sponge created the category and rendered old-school powder puffs more or less obsolete. To our eyes, the seemingly unanimous hype around the Beautyblender Original Makeup Sponge seemed too good to be true—especially considering that it costs $20, five times as much as notable competitors. But after testing 10 others, we found that the Beautyblender sponge really is that good. Its signature shape, superior foam, and nuanced elasticity had it springing to the top of our list.

It creates an almost airbrushed finish. The Beautyblender sponge perfectly blends and applies pretty much all your makeup—cream, powder, and liquid. One panelist found that it worked especially well for “baking,” or layering powder over foundation and concealer to set makeup, especially in the undereye area; the sponge handled even the finest powder without causing it to fall or flurry everywhere. Plain and simple: “It finishes a makeup look flawlessly.”

Its curves fit all facial contours. In theory, we liked the faceted shape and flat planes of the AOA Studio Collection Makeup Sponge, the E.L.F. Total Face Blending Sponge, and the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, and we thought they would spread more makeup in less time. In practice, however, they encouraged streaky strokes. The Beautyblender sponge’s narrow end is by far the pointiest, for super-accurate use in small areas of your face. (You also won’t waste any product by dabbing it on your lips or eyelids.)

The foam expands, but not too much. Beautyblender sponges are meant to be used moist, and they visibly expand when wet, though not as much as the Real Techniques sponge, which in our tests got even bigger but not in a good way, feeling mushy and waterlogged compared with the Beautyblender sponge’s yummy, bouncy texture. Even when wet, the Beautyblender sponge’s plumped-up surface area allows you to cover more of your face, without sacrificing nimbleness and gentle precision.

It will help you save makeup. Moistening the Beautyblender sponge creates a barrier that keeps makeup from sinking in and wasting product. One tester, though she couldn’t quantify by the milliliter, said that she used a lot less of her favorite liquid foundation with the Beautyblender sponge. In contrast, the plush, cottony makeup pads we tested (E.L.F. Halo Glow Powder Puff, Real Techniques Miracle 2-in-1 Powder Puff) seemed to sop it right up.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Damp sponges can harbor mold, and at $20 you probably don’t want to keep replacing yours. Cleaning the sponge—lathering it, rinsing it, blotting it repeatedly—is a process, but an essential one.

Cheap makeup brushes are easy to find—and with their plasticky, shedding-prone bristles, chintzy handles, and noxious off-gas fumes, you often get what you pay for. But if budget is your primary concern, or you don’t use makeup brushes often, you can’t do better than almost any brush from Real Techniques. The bristles are matte and grippy, the weighted metallic handles feel high-quality, and the dome shapes are unique and sculptural. We recommend that you buy them individually for your specific needs. If you do want a cheap set, the Real Techniques Artist Essentials Makeup Brush Set is your best bet, with a few caveats.

The sets aren’t great, so buy individual brushes. The two most practical-looking Real Techniques sets—Everyday Essentials and Artist Essentials (pictured)—both left us scratching our heads. The former had redundant brushes and not much variety, and the latter was almost too specialized for most makeup wearers. You’d be better off cherry-picking the exact styles you need, even if the cost per brush ends up slightly higher. We especially like the Ultra Plush Makeup Brush 400 and the Soft Sculpting Makeup Brush 450.

They hold their own against pricier brushes. Because we did not reveal prices to our panelists, we pitted spendy brushes against cheapies. Although Real Techniques never outright won a category over much more expensive options, its brushes always ranked well with our testers. And when we narrowed the focus to affordability, this brand was the runaway winner. “This applies way better than I thought it would, and it’s easy to use,” one tester said of the Real Techniques Ultra Plush Makeup Brush, likening it to our pick from Jenny Patinkin, which is $30 more.

For the quality, the price per brush is impressive. Each brush in the Real Techniques Artist Essentials set is only about $3. In sets we liked from other brands, that price was closer to $15 per piece. Granted, there are cheaper brush options—the E.L.F. set we considered comes out to just $1 a brush. But our panelists found annoying loose bristles, and the handles were too short to hold comfortably.

The bristles are soft and dense. While the Real Techniques bristles aren’t quite as believably natural-seeming as other synthetic fibers we tried, these brushes blow similarly priced rivals (BS-Mall, E.L.F., Sephora Collection) out of the water in that regard. They emit no unpleasant off-gassing, each dome is uniquely shaped and well trimmed, and they’re textured enough to hold on to powder and liquid makeup alike.

The aluminum handles feel substantial. The Real Techniques brushes’ metal handles have a nice weight, putting the heaviness at the base of the handle and nicely balancing the brush when it’s angled upward against the face. It’s the best feel we found for the price. The durable, sturdy feel of the full-size handles also pleased our testers, whereas other budget options we used had stumpier—and less user-friendly—grips.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The bundles include some oddly shaped and redundant tools. Brush for brush, the brushes included in the Sigma Most-Wanted Brush Set are far and away more convenient and useful. But if you are trying to save money and have the inclination to poke around a bit, the Real Techniques individual brushes are great.

I’ve been testing beauty products professionally for print and digital publications since 2010. I spend much of my time, both for work and in my free time, trying the latest launches. During my long career, I’ve interviewed and consulted with dozens of makeup artists and cosmetic chemists, I’ve hobnobbed with founders at events, and I’ve dished with celebrities (on and off the record) about what they actually use.

I have makeup skills that are pretty similar to those of the average makeup lover—not an amateur, not a professional, but pretty darn good. I know what works, and my recommendations aren’t too complicated for those who use everyday application techniques.

To find the best of the best brushes available, I enlisted some folks with expert skills along with some complete newbies. We expected a lot from these tools—beautiful construction, flawless performance, a great value, and an aesthetically pleasing experience.

You can find two primary types of brush bristles: natural and synthetic. The former are made from animal hair, such as goat, sable, and squirrel. The latter are made from cruelty-free materials such as nylon, polyester, Taklon, and micro crystal fiber. Some makeup artists we interviewed said that they stock some natural-bristle brushes in their own kits—and we’ve tried them over the years, too. But in addition to animal-cruelty concerns, natural-bristle brushes are notably more expensive but not notably different in performance. So for this guide, we focused on synthetic brushes only.

For background, I clicked through archives of beauty awards from other publications, such as Allure Best of Beauty and Byrdie, and I tallied up mentions in roundups from CNN Underscored, People, Essence, Forbes Reviewed, Refinery 29, Vogue, and Women’s Wear Daily. I considered only those articles for which the editors or writers had firsthand experience with the products, or makeup artists vouched for them personally. I avoided laundry-list search-bait roundups. I dove into Reddit threads and watched enough brush-themed TikToks that the category took over my algorithm for months.

As a freelance beauty writer, I attend a lot of product-launch events; over the course of my research for this guide, I polled experts in the field, artists, product developers, founders, and writers, and I included their insights in my research.

Then I surveyed 10 working makeup artists and asked them to share their favorite brushes in six categories, which I put into consideration—minus one with goat-hair bristles. Once I had assembled an enormous spreadsheet of contenders, I cross-checked my list with reviews on the websites of Amazon, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Ulta, among individual retailers, to come up with a list of more than 70 brushes worth testing.

I also capped the price at $50 per brush, which eliminated options from luxury brands using rare materials like sustainably sourced birch handles.

Then, we focused on four pillars:

• Quality: We assessed the softness and finish of the varying synthetic fibers, evaluated the density of the bristles, and compared the detail of the sculpted domes. We noted the weight and width of the handles, and whether they were easy to maneuver. When looking at makeup sponges, we compared the density, bounce, and absorption of the varying foams and fabrics.
• Performance: We tried each brush and sponge with a range of appropriate products—creams, powders, liquids—and noted whether they delivered even washes of color with pleasing opacity. We looked for streaks, and we tried a range of techniques, from targeted coverage to more complex layering.
• Durability: The bristles needed to stay put without shedding. We favored tight, shapely metallic ferrules that weren’t loose or shifty. We also washed each tool to confirm that the brushes dried back to their original shape, fluffiness, and softness, and that the handles didn’t chip, peel, or swell.
• Price: Under our $50 cap, we didn’t penalize brushes if they were more expensive. But if a more affordable brush ranked just as well as a pricier competitor, we took note.

For several months, I used the brushes in my daily life, doing a range of makeup looks—the simple face I apply for talking on Zoom and running errands, as well as more extensive looks for going to events like the GLAAD Media Awards. I found four sets and 32 individual brushes notable enough to send to a panel of experienced makeup users for a second round of testing. The panel provided feedback according to the same rubric outlined above. They evaluated expensive brushes alongside cheaper picks, judging them on the same metrics.

Anisa Pinnacle Foundation Brush: This runner-up foundation brush was a favorite of some panelists, who found the quality of the bristles top-notch and the density just right for blending out cream and liquid foundation. The unusual triangular domed brush head was especially good for getting into corners, such as around the nose, but was also wide enough to cover larger areas. The weighted handle was more controversial among our testers: Some loved the tapered, grabbable shape, while others found it too big and bulky.

BK Beauty 101 Contoured Foundation Brush: This TikTok-viral brush sells out often, and we can see why. Some panelists liked how this soft, fluffier brush applied and blended product especially smoothly across the face. They also loved its elegant look, with its ombre bristles. Ultimately, it’s just a runner-up because testers found the head not firm enough, the bristles too “floppy,” and the makeup application not as precise as they wanted.

Alleyoop Multi-Tasker: Our testers particularly liked this four-in-one tool for travel, as it features a blush/bronzer brush on one end and a replaceable sponge on the other that then twist off to reveal, matryoshka-style, smaller brushes for brows/eyeliner and eyeshadow. Thanks to its ingenious compactness and portability, this tool was clutch for our testers, though they were less impressed with the long-term quality of its bristles.

Sets

In the BS-Mall 14 Pcs Brush Set, testers found that the bristles were too rough and not packed densely enough. They also said that several of the brushes in the set served duplicative purposes. All of our testers noted a plasticky off-gas smell upon opening the packaging. We found a better assortment in the E.L.F. Cosmetics Professional Set of 12 Makeup Brushes, but we encountered some loose bristles and improperly cut shapes. Testers also said that the short handles were difficult to control.

The Sonia Kashuk Luminate Collection Complete Brush Set was too chunky, awkward, and inelegant. The Sephora Collection Complete Makeup Brush Set was the exact opposite—so lightweight and insubstantial, one tester likened it to “a kid’s toy set of brushes.”

The EcoTools Core Five Set shed too much, and the Morphe Get Things Started 8-Piece set had crudely shaped brush heads (with the exception of the Morphe Chubby Buffer Concealer Brush).

Foundation brushes

The E.L.F. Cosmetics Buffing Foundation Brush was a nice size, but its bristles were too floppy and sparse, creating a streaky application. Meanwhile, the soft, dense bristles of the IT Cosmetics Heavenly Luxe Flat Top Buffing Foundation Brush #6 had some fans, but its thick handle was awkward to hold. When considering the two-in-one Lancôme Airbrush #2, our testers really liked only the concealer end—the bristles of the larger foundation end were “too squishy” to apply product well.

The NYX Total Control Drop Foundation Brush had an unusual angular brush head, but it’s really designed only for use with liquid foundation. Both the Monika Blunder Hybrid Cream Brush and the M.A.C. 170 Synthetic Rounded Slant Brush felt too insubstantial for their price.

Lastly, the had coarse, poky bristles, and the bristles on the M.A.C. 187S Synthetic Duo Fibre Face Brush were too stiff and not wide enough for an efficient full-face application.

Contour brushes

Even though Kevyn Aucoin’s Contour Brush has a gorgeous handle and a luxurious, heavy feel, our testers said the bristles weren’t angled enough, and the small dome failed to pick up enough product. Similarly, the soft, sparser bristles of the M.A.C. 168 Synthetic Large Angled Contour Brush didn’t grab enough powder, though our testers liked the way it buffed for a finished look.

For something at the top of our price range, the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Brush shed too many bristles. Neither of the two brush ends of IT Cosmetics’s Heavenly Luxe Complexion Perfection Brush #7 was the right size for contouring tasks, and this brush was at the tippy-top of our price range. Many people like Laura Geller’s Angled Blush Brush for contour, and it was our panel’s strongest contender for runner-up for that purpose, but testers ultimately preferred it more for diffuse blush application than for precise contouring.

Our testers thought the was too skinny for all-over bronzer application; they preferred it for more precise work with highlighter and contouring. The Real Techniques Ultra Plush Blush Makeup Brush, on the other hand, was too big, with bristles that were “too sloppy, too splayed out,” as well as a plastic handle that felt a little crude.

The Ulta Bronzer Blush #21 Brush felt flimsy in the hand and shed way too many bristles, and the Róen Everything Powder brush had a lot of the same assets as the winning Jenny Patinkin brush but cost 25% more. Finally, while Jones Road’s The Everything Brush is designed as a multitasker for bronzer, blush, powder, and more, our testers found the bristles too stubby and stiff.

Eyebrow brushes

Our panelists had doubly high standards for dual-ended eyebrow brush-spoolie combos, and many options failed to clear both hurdles. For instance, testers liked the spoolie on the E.L.F. Cosmetics Eyebrow Duo Brush but found the brush too bendy and wide.

The Sonia Kashuk Professional Angled Eyeliner Makeup Brush No. 246 was also too big, and it lacked a spoolie altogether. The Sigma E80 Brow and Lash Brush, on the (literal) flip side, was just a spoolie. The can be hard to come by, and it wasn’t exceptional enough to warrant an in-search-of-Sasquatch–style hunt. Testers loved almost everything about the , but it lost out to the Anastasia model because its brush was a bit too narrow and its spoolie was just a touch too short for those with bushier brows.

Sponges and puffs

A classic flat velour puff, the E.L.F. Cosmetics Halo Glow Powder Puff worked well for applying setting powder and tamping down shine, but our testers much preferred the egg-like sponges. The similarly flat Real Techniques Miracle 2-in-1 Powder Puff was difficult to clean—especially considering that the sponge side sopped up too much product.

Both the Beauty Bakerie Blending Egg Beauty Sponge and the DSMD Swirl Sponges had a nice ovoid form, but neither expanded enough when moistened, and both felt too hard against the face.

As much as our panelists initially liked the shape and facets of the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, the foam was too dense, and the sponge was too large to get into smaller areas such as under the eyes and in the creases around the nose. One tester loved the bounciness—and the $1.50 price tag—of the AOA Studio Collection Makeup Sponge Set but found that the sponge ended up soaking up too much product.

Rory Evans contributed reporting. This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.