The best tools often yield the best results. For an expert and artful makeup application, those tools consist of an array of brushes. The array can seem endless—and each brush may seem shockingly expensive.
But you don’t need to buy every brush, and you definitely don’t need to go broke in the process of assembling a collection that will enhance, extend, and elevate the quality of your makeup application. We’ve found that you can truly get by with a handful of versatile options, and that high-quality, high-performance brushes can be had for as little as $3.
To find the best brushes out there, we tested more than 70 over six months, sent more than 30 finalists to a panel of testers, and found our favorites across seven categories, including a useful and luxe set for a great price, a unique foundation brush, and a game-changing contour option. We also found a standout bronzer brush, a nimble and dual-purpose brow brush, the best blender that money can buy, and a jaw-droppingly affordable line that rivals far pricier competitors.
You’re sure to find a few to add to your daily routine.
Sigma Most-Wanted Brush Set

Best brush set
With heavy handles and soft, distinctly trimmed bristles, this five-piece set contains a useful lineup of easy-to-use brushes. It isn’t the cheapest set out there, but it rivals more expensive individual brushes in quality and performance.
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.
Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation Brush

Best foundation brush
With dense bristles and an angled shape that mimics fingertip application, this foundation brush leaves a seamless finish. It’s one of the priciest we tried, but the quality and performance more than justify the price.
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.
Patrick Ta Beauty Major Sculpt Dual-Ended Sculpting Brush

Best contour brush
With a flat, fanned end to cut sharp lines and a fluffy side to blend and finish, this two-in-one brush simplifies the sometimes-complex art of contouring.
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.
Jenny Patinkin Sustainable Luxury Powder/Bronzer Brush

Best bronzer and powder brush
Although it’s made entirely of recycled materials, you wouldn’t know it: This poufy powder brush has sophisticated matte bristles and a pretty metallic handle with a satisfying heft. It performs perfectly whether you want just a whisper of powder or a sharper look.
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.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brush 12

Best eyebrow brush
One end of this dual-ended eyebrow brush features springy but ultrafirm bristles ideal for filling patchy zones and replicating individual strands. On the other is a fibrous, elegant spoolie for expertly combing, blending, and shaping.
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 Tweezerman Angled Brow Brush & Spoolie, 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.
Beautyblender Original Makeup Sponge

Best makeup sponge
With a soft exterior and a flexible, bouncy feel, this makeup sponge is often imitated but never duplicated. You can’t beat the flawless finish the surprisingly luxe foam delivers.
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.

Real Techniques Artist Essentials Makeup Brush Set

Brushes from this brand—which have soft, distinctive bristles, substantial aluminum ferrules, and elegant shapes—are unparalleled for the price. The packaged sets, like this one, sometimes have unnecessary extras, though.
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.
How we picked and tested

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.