Makeup Tools You're Using Wrong & How To Fix It

Makeup tools you're using wrong and how to fix it. I'm going to be showing you exactly how you should not be using your makeup tools and exactly how you should be using your makeup tools.

A lot of the time we have so many tutorials around, but we don't actually get to see a really in-depth tutorial to really show us like, okay, how is that person blending? How is that person buffing? What do they mean by buffing? Are they bouncing? Are they slightly flicking? Like, there's so much information that you could actually do with. So, I decided to really focus on the technique of how you use your tools rather than the products that you're using. So, this is not about the products we're using today. This is purely about the technique.

Now, I am not going to go into any of the products in terms of like what I'm using. I'm just going to be going into how you are actually buffing, how you're blending, all of those things. We are primarily going to be working on the base today. As you can see, I have a bit of mascara on, a little bit of concealer on my lids, and I also have my brows done, and a bit of kind of balm on, but I haven't got anything on my face in terms of my base. So, that's what we're going to be working on.

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Firstly, what we do want to do is get our foundation on. Now, I know you always see me using a brush, and that's what I'm going to be showing you. I know that some people like using a sponge, but I am going to be showing you how to use a sponge with a concealer 'cause that's how I like to use a sponge. So, I'm going through my general kind of base application with you today in in a lot of detail.

So, the brush that I like to use is actually the BK Beauty 106 brush. Now, this is a great brush. By the way, you can get a discount off BK Beauty using Nenina 10. That's my discount code. These brushes are pretty amazing. I've been using them for quite a while now. I'd say roughly around a year and they have not failed me. They've been really, really good quality. You don't get any of the brush hairs kind of coming out the brushes. Yeah, they're very good quality. In fact, it's actually quite shocking that there are some very well-known expensive brands that are out there that are made by pro makeup artists who I love, by the way, but no shade. But some of them, the hair does actually come out of their brushes and not all of them, but the odd one here or there. Yeah, it's quite shocking. So, it just goes to show that it's not just about how expensive the brand is. It is also about like the thought that has gone into the actual products. It's not been mass-produced. It is, you know, a brand which I think BK Beauty is that kind of brand. Like it's a very kind of it's, I believe from what I know, has been created by a creator initially. I feel like there's a lot of thought that's been gone like put into these products and they do have a couple of collaborations. Like I know they've done a collaboration with Nicola Rose and I do have some of her brushes here too, which is the collaborative brush set that she has with BK Beauty and I love Nicola Rose as well. I love her tutorials, but I love BK Beauty. I just want to be honest with you about the products that work for me when it comes to tools.

So, this is a foundation brush that I would highly recommend to anyone to get because it genuinely is a great buffing foundation brush. And I know when you think of a buffing foundation brush, you tend to think of the flat ones. Those are generally called buffing brushes, but I actually really love this as a buffing brush. So, let me explain to you how not to use this brush. We're going to go in with some foundation. I'm just going to use a liquid foundation here. I'm going to put this on to the back of the hand. Now, the wrong way to use this brush, I personally feel, to apply foundation is to just kind of sweep up all of the foundation off your hand or even go onto the skin directly and then just start kind of brushing. Like, I just think you're going to get brush marks. It doesn't matter what brush you use, but you're also going to get like a hell of a lot of foundation onto the face. We are doing a side by side here, and it tends to be quite messy and you do get a lot of product on the face.

Now, I know you hear a lot of people saying like, you always hear this kind of thing thrown around in the industry where it's like, "Oh, but you don't want to use this tool because it soaks up soaks up so much of the product, but if you use this tool, you get all of the product." And I understand that, but, you know, it's one of those things where it's really kind of like a bit of a blurred line because on one hand, you don't really want to waste product, but on the other hand, you also don't want a whole load of product on your face. Like, for example, the Beauty Blender. I actually love that it does soak up a bit of product because it stops you from applying so much, you know? So, it really depends how you look at it.

Now, I am going to go in with a small amount of foundation on the back of my hand. I have it here. And first off, I'm going to wipe off this brush 'cause I don't want whatever kind of foundation residue that's already on there. So, we're really just making sure that this is nice and clean or just not excess product. Now, what we're going to do here is we're going to drag some of that product to the side. We're not taking all of it. And we're really getting it into the brush. So, really push the product into the brush. And the way I do that is I just really bounce the brush onto the back of the hand, not onto the area that has all that foundation. I've dragged a bit of that foundation to the side and then I've really buffed it into the brush. Now, this is where I'm going to now bounce the brush over the skin and you will see you will get the most ultra-thin layer and yet you're still going to get amazing coverage and a flawless finish. It doesn't look like you've just painted it all on. Because granted, when you paint it on this way, yes, you're going to get that opaque finish, but that's not really what you want from a foundation. On camera, it may look amazing, but face to face, that's going to look very thick and heavy. And what you want is for your skin to look like skin, but just better. And this is the way to do it. This is the way you're going to get that really nice skin-like finish with, you know, you don't have too much product all over. Like, look at that nice flawless finish we've got. And it doesn't look as opaque as this side. You don't really want a fully opaque finish with your foundation. The reason being is because a foundation should look like it's kind of part of your skin as opposed to something separate that's sitting on top of your skin. So hopefully that's made sense. We're really bouncing the brush over. We're never dragging back and forth. We are always bouncing this brush over the skin.

Next up, we have concealer. Now, you're going to use whatever your usual concealer is. There are two ways to actually, well, there's quite a few ways to apply concealer. I'm going to apply it in the standard way that I generally apply it and I feel like a lot of people do apply it in this way and if, if you've been watching my channel for quite a while, then you probably do apply it yourself like this. The only difference will be is the amount you apply will differ from what I apply because obviously you have a different face to me. You have a different kind of requirement when it comes to how much coverage you want. You probably use a different concealer to me maybe. So, it doesn't mean that this is the way you apply it in terms of the amount of product, but, you know, apply it how you want. I'm just telling you about the tools, you know. I'm going to apply it in my usual way. And I am going to apply this here and here. So, we'll do the other side in a bit.

Now, first off, we're going to use our sponge. And this is dry, right? It's not damp. It's dry. And you can usually tell that 'cause it's quite small. It's not doubled in size or anything. And it, you don't always have to have it double in size, but I will explain this to you in a moment, the correct way to use this. So, what we're doing is going straight in. And we're also dragging. So, I'm not actually bouncing. I'm actually kind of like going like that. Right. I had to, I had to kind of like not correct myself, but do it in the wrong way for a minute 'cause I'm so used to doing it the right way. I was like, "Hold on. You're doing that right." So, there you go. We've applied this by dragging like that. That is so wrong because you're not actually going to get the right kind of coverage. You're going to get a very kind of uneven finish to the skin and you're also kind of soaking up most of it to be honest. And I'll explain why that's different to the way that I'm going to end up using it. But this way, you are soaking up a lot more, right? And the reason being is because your sponge is completely dry as well. You are getting more of a patchy finish because it just almost kind of clings on to dry like dry areas a bit more. So, you've really got to be careful with how you use this particular product.

Okay, let's move in on the other side so I can show you how you can properly utilize your tool. Same thing. Right now, the difference here is we are going to get a setting spray. I'm using my Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray. Now, it doesn't have to be a setting spray. I personally really do love this one. A couple of the ones that I love is this one by Charlotte Tilbury. I also love the Makeup by Mario Surreal Skin Soft Setting Spray. I love that one, too. And I also do love, oh my god, this is like stuck to my table now because my husband accidentally knocked this over and it's got a little crack on it. And now it's leaking and I've put it on a tissue and it just keeps leaking. But the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray Matte Blur. That's great if you have oily skin and if you just want more of a matte finish. They all three of these work really well. You can use a hydrating spray as well if you want to, but I really love these three.

So, what I do here is I actually spray this all over it like so. Right. Then I will bounce this either on the back of my hand just to take that excess spray off or on a tissue. And then I will start bouncing. Not dragging. Bouncing. Now, what you're going to get from this damp sponge now that we've got is more of a skin-like finish. It's also not going to kind of like soak it all up and make it feel and look really dry. Can you see the difference there? Like, I honestly immediately can see the difference in how this is applying. I just want to add there, I am never dragging. I'm literally going, I really hope we can zoom in here just so you can see. This is how I'm going and this is how fast I'm going. Right. So, as I need to go from here to here, I basically keep doing this and then gradually as I lift, I move to the next section every time I lift. But the thing is, as I'm moving across, I'm moving very slightly. It's like literally, honestly, the smallest amount I'm moving. Can you see the difference? I really can see the difference. Like here, I can still see the kind of groove and everything. And I feel like here, I've got more of that lift. It's just applied better. It's more of a kind of, how do I put this? Like a skin-like finish with that lit-from-within glow. That nice radiant finish to it which doesn't look drying. Like I feel like in this application here, the way that I've used the tools, it's very kind of like it's almost like enhanced texture that I have, whereas here, it's already started blurring the texture.

Next up is I would apply my cream blush. So, I'm going to apply just a normal cream blush that I have here. And this is in a palette. So, I'm going to use the brush that I would always use. Now, this is my Hourglass 15 brush. This is an amazing brush for using like for applying a cream or liquid blush to your skin because it is a stipple brush. Now, what that means is that this brush has short and long hairs in here. So, you have, it's kind of like you don't have all one length. It's kind of short, long, short, long, and they're all clustered and kind of like bunched together. And that's why you get that slight spiky effect, but the hairs are so fine that you're getting that kind of almost airbrush-like, airbrushed finish to your application.

Now, the wrong way to use this brush because you can end up getting severe brush marks with this because of the fact it is a stipple brush. There is a way to use this. Now, if you want, if you're going to get severe brush marks, this is how you're going to do it. You're going to go into the cream blush and you're going to drag. And the problem with that is you will also get an intense amount of pigment that transfers, as you can see. And I'm not actually using any more than what I will do on the other side. So, here, I don't know if you will be able to see, but you do have a very uneven finish to it. Let me clean off this brush now so I can get a nice clean brush for the next. So, I'm going to go into this. Now, the way that I want to apply this is I'm almost, this is not even like buffing the way we did with the sponge. This is kind of like touching and flicking off, but almost like you're skimming the skin. That's the way to use this. So, you're kind of like, let me slow this down for you. So, see that? That's what I'm doing, but faster. So, I'm actually not touching the entire brush all over like we did here. I'm actually just skimming it like almost like flicking it, but I'm only using the kind of top part of the brush, I would say. And that's how you're going to get that nice airbrushed finish. Finished finish. Such a difference in the application and the finish. It's honestly incredible the difference you can get from the way that you use your brushes.

Next up is using a cream contour. And I'm also going to be using a bronzer after, but that's because I really just want to show you how to use the brush. So, with this, I'm going to use a liquid stroke cream contour. I'm going to get my Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit brush. And let me just explain before I even put this contour on what this is. Now, Hourglass have the most amazing brushes. I do feel like they are one of the luxury brands that actually have got it spot on with the quality of their brushes. The brush quality is impeccable. It is worth the money. And I know brushes are generally expensive these days, especially by luxury brands, but this particular brand has honestly killed it when it comes to the quality of the brushes. Absolutely amazing, top-tier brushes. I feel like there's this misconception with people that makeup artists only use, you know, brands that you can't really access that much or you wouldn't know where to get, you know, like that there are certain brands that, that, you know, like Japanese brushes and yes, they're amazing, right? But there are still brands that are accessible to the everyday person such as yourself, which are amazing as well. And this is one of them, I would say.

So, the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit brush is basically a dual-ended brush, and you have one side, which is kind of like this very nice oval shape, and it's quite a, I would say, semi-dense brush. The bristles are very soft, and it's very perfectly kind of rounded in terms of the shape of it. So, it's an oval shape, but it's like it's, it's tapered down so nicely the way it's been cut. It's, it's a very soft brush as well. If you look at the other side, it's a little bit more of a almost powder brush, but it's smaller than a powder brush. And again, it is probably semi-dense, I would say, but super, super soft and just a little bit kind of like less tapered on the side. So, it goes a little bit wider and it's round. It's not oval. This, I would say, really depends on the type of face that you have and the kind of contouring you're doing. If you feel, if I, if you feel that you have quite a big area to work on in terms of the cheek space when you're contouring, I would say use the rounder brush side. Now, if you are going for a softer finish of your contour, go for the rounder side. But if you are looking for more of a defined finish with your contour and a bit more sculpted, then I would go with the oval shape. Let me explain the difference. With the round side, which is kind of just like a round brush, you're going to get more of a diffused finish because of the shape, because it's a bit wider on all, all parts of it and it's round and it's just a larger surface area. So, you'll get more of a diffused finish there. So, you're going to spread out the product a bit more as you're buffing. If you were to use the oval side, you're getting more of a precise application and blending. So, you are going to get more definition there. It's very precise.

Let's talk about what I'm going to do here. Now, I want more of a kind of, yeah, I would say more of a soft finish, not so much of a sculpted finish. So, I'm going to go with the rounder side. Now, I'm going to apply my contour. And I'm applying the same amount that I'm actually going to apply on both sides. Just two dots there. Right. Now, the wrong way to do this is to basically just swipe and that's it. Right? You're going to get a little bit of a kind of like sculpt there, but not a lot because what's happened is the brush has just basically picked up the product and that's it. It's just left the faintest kind of slightly muddy line because you've just dragged it and pressed it hard on the skin. That's not what you want to do. Let's take off the excess from this brush to make sure we've got a nice clean brush. On the other side, we're going to use the same shape, the round one, the larger surface area. Now, we're going to get the same amount of product on. There you go. What I'm going to do is bounce this brush. Now, I'm going to stay in this area here because what I need you to understand is when you first touch that liquid contour, there's a lot of product there, right? So, you want to keep most of it on the perimeter of the face because everything should fade in. The way to fade in is to make sure you keep most of the product here and then gradually as you keep buffing, you're going to be left with a very faint amount on the brush and that's what you can slowly buff in to the main area of the face. So, let's do this. Let's bounce. Right. Now, that's enough there because we've blended it. Can you see? Now, we're going to go in because most of it has kind of like stayed on the perimeter. And let me explain what I was doing there, 'cause there's two very subtle movements that I did there. The first one was I was kind of doing what I did with the Hourglass 15 brush where I'm kind of pressing and then like almost this, the flick is very slight pressing and then kind of a very tiny flick. So, it's kind of like that, right? And then as I managed to get that done, then I started to just bounce straight. It's just a straight bounce, right? And that's why you're not going to get a precise finish because we didn't use the other side of the brush. We've got a much softer like kind of sculpt there. It's not as defined as what it would be if you were to use this smaller side.

Okay. Now, next step is to actually set everything and apply powder. So, let me show you what I'm going to use here. I have my Makeup by Mario Master Pro Puff. I would say this along with the Laura Mercier powder puff are two of the best quality powder puffs that I have used that are easily accessible to the everyday consumer. There's a difference in the material compared to like other puffs that you get. You get, I believe this is velour. I may be wrong. I think maybe the Laura Mercier one is velour. I'm not too sure what this one is, but it's a very good quality puff. Now, what happens sometimes is with some puffs when you wash them, you'll feel the inside almost like how you get padding in a bra and when you wash it, it like just crumples together and you've got to sort the padding out. That kind of happens to these puffs sometimes. But with the Makeup by Mario one and the Laura Mercier one, I feel like that doesn't necessarily happen. And you do get a really nice kind of like it, it goes back to its original shape. Obviously, if you make sure that you dry it in the normal way as well, like flatten it out, but there are some that just go really wrong once you wash it. So, these are really good quality puffs, and I do feel like they transfer the powder really nicely into the skin.

Now, there is another one I would say if you're looking for something maybe a little bit cheaper. I'm not even too sure if you can buy them. I'm pretty sure you can actually, but these are the Huda Beauty puffs, which I've only recently started using, and I actually find they are pretty good as well. So, that's another one. I'm going to be honest with you about like what I feel is is good. So, I'm going to use my Makeup by Mario Pro Puff today. Now, I am going to get my powder. So, I'm just going to get my powder onto a tissue here. I'm going to get this powder puff. I'm going to really get the powder on. And I've really got the powder on there. Now, first thing I'm going to do is just kind of like pat it on. Feel like I just breathed in a whole load of that. Now, the mistake I made there. And I'm going to just go ahead and actually get the rest on the puff and just apply it on that side. There you go. The mistake I made there was I actually just dipped into the powder and dipped right onto the skin. And that's wrong. Right.

Now, what you want to do is dip into the powder. Same thing, but you want to really rub it into the palm of the hand. Press it a couple of times so that you get it right into that puff. What you want to do is basically bounce it onto the skin. See the difference there? We have not got all of that powder on. Such a difference. And we've also made sure we've bit by bit bounced it on. And I want to go into the rest of the powder. Same thing here. And we're still getting the powder on the skin. It's just not a whole load.

Okay. Now, we're going to get a brush. I'm going to dust away this powder on this side. This is my Real Techniques brush. And I'm going to show you what's wrong with how I'm doing this. I'm pressing quite hard. And I'm just going back and forth. Right, that was very wrong what I did there. Now, what was wrong there was that I was pressing very hard and I was just dragging it on the skin and you're just moving everything around. The way to use this brush is to skim over the skin. So, you are barely just about touching the skin. The pressure you need is no pressure. So, you're skimming the skin so that if you were to move across, your skin doesn't move with it. There's no change in your expression or the movement of your skin. So, you are literally pressing that hard that nothing moves on your face. Here, I can feel it. You can see my skin moving up and down. Here, it's very soft. That's how you should be skimming the skin with this brush to take the product off.

Next, we have bronzer. So, we're using a powder bronzer. And let me show you the wrong way. Now I'm using a veil brush here from Hourglass and this again is another amazing brush. I've been using this for years. It's again dual-ended. Now on one side you have an oval-shaped brush similar to the Ambient Lighting brush that we have. But the difference between these two is this is firmer and this is softer. This is way softer in terms of the bristles and how many like the actual brush. The Ambient Lighting Edit brush is a lot denser. This is a lot softer. So, with this one, what we're doing is using the oval side for bronzing, but I'm going to explain what the larger side is for shortly. So, what I'm doing is going into my powder bronzer. And on this side, what's wrong is I'm just going to press really hard. See how that brush is really flattening on my face. You are not really focusing on what you're doing here. You're pressing way too hard. You're disturbing the makeup underneath and you're actually probably ruining this brush 'cause it's so expensive. I just do not want, you know, you don't want to really ruin your brushes either and that can be done.

So, what we're going to do, let me take off whatever's on this brush. We're going to go into this bronzer like we did before. Now, what we're going to do is press, bounce the brush. Again, we stay on the perimeter because that's where most of the product should be and then it slightly fades out. So, once you've kind of got that product there, that's enough. See what I mean? Then if you do want to go back and forth, you can. But look at the difference with the shape of the brush. Now it's much softer on my skin. I'm pressing very lightly. Not even really pressing. It's kind of very, very light movements. And even here, we're kind of like pressing and flicking. So, we're going into the hairline to get that nice kind of bronze sun-kissed look underneath for a little bit of a sculpt. And it's very soft, very different to what we did on this side. That is how you use your brushes when it comes to your base.

Now, I did, sorry, I did say to you, I'm going to explain to you what that larger side is for. Now, I like to actually use the larger side to dust away the powder on the larger part of my face. You know when you apply your setting powder? I used this all over just purely because I wanted to explain to you how to use it. I would usually only use that on the under-eye area because it's the right size. That was my Real Techniques brush. And by the way, best brush ever. I don't think I actually went into that, but it's such an amazing brush and it's so soft and it's cheap and it's amazing. So, that's the brush that I would use for my under-eye area. This side is what I would use to lightly dust away the powder from the rest of the face.

So, I really hope that that's been beneficial to you and it's been like really helpful in terms of how to use your brushes. Let me know if you want to see a similar video to this, maybe focused on the eyes or brows or some, like not brows really, but, you know, anything else. I would really love to know how you found this video. Don't forget to subscribe to the Beauty Breakfast Club, which is my online platform all about beauty, wellness, mindset, and fashion and over 40 stuff. You're going to absolutely love it. There's a new newsletter every 2 days. Everything is very kind of like informative, educational. You've got reviews, you've got product kind of new product releases, you've got tips and tricks, you've got actual tutorials as well. You're going to love it over there. If you subscribe to the free version, you get access to most of the site. But if you actually go for the paid option, which costs you the same as getting yourself one coffee a month, that unlocks the entire site. But better still, it gives you access to the group chat where you can actually ask me any questions directly. So, head on over there and subscribe. It would really mean the world to me and I'd love to actually kind of like meet you guys on there because I've met so many of you guys over on the community there. We've got, I think, 7,000 now. Pretty amazing, I know. So, I'd love to see you over there and don't forget everything's listed in my description. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments and I will see you on the next video.