My Favourite Foundation Brushes - Sigma F80 and Real Techniques Review

I absolutely despise traditional foundation brushes. I think they are too small, rough, and make foundation application ridiculously time consuming. I also find that most of them leave brutal bristle marks which you need to really smooth out to get rid of. I have owed a couple of these over the years and I never used them more than once or twice. I rather use my fingers - it's faster and looks more smooth and even. The downside is that you have to wash all of that foundation off of your hands - yuck!

Enter the Sigma makeup F80 Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki foundation brush and the Real Techniques Foundation Brush. I have acquired both of these over the past year. The Sigma brush has firm but not scratchy bristles and is a flat top kabuki. It is wonderful for dabbing and swirling your foundation onto your skin in record time. I like the ease of this brush and hey, no messy hands. This brush gives you a nice, smooth look. It's super easy to use and it is fast, even faster than the Real Techniques brush. The only drawback to the Sigma brush is that it takes a little extra effort to get around the nose and eyes due to the brush shape. With a little bit of practice, that is not a big deal. This brush costs $16 U.S. + shipping from Sigma Beauty.

The other brush that I have discovered is the Real Techniques (RT) Foundation Brush. Because the brush is angled, it gets it into those tight areas around the nose and eyes with ease. This brush also stands upright. How cool is that? The bristles are not scratchy, unlike traditional foundation brushes. This brush glides around you face and gives you a wonderful smooth and pixel-perfect look. The only drawback to this brush over the Sigma one is that because the brush is smaller, it takes a tad longer to do your foundation routine. However, it does get in the corners really easily and in some ways gives you a better overall finish. This brush is $7.99 U.S. at Ulta in the States which is where I got mine. You can also order them from amazon.com or from the Real Techniques website for more $$$. Shipping to Canada is very expensive if you order from their U.K. retail distributors. With the exchange rate and shipping you end up paying double or triple what you would at Ulta. Real Techinques themselves do not ship to Canada as yet. Bummer. So this brush is a little hard to get your hands on if you don't live in the U.S. or the U.K. I think they will likely start shipping to Canada soon as they are expanding at a rapid pace.

I am happy to have both of these brushes in my collection. If I am in a rush I reach for the F80 and if I have more time I grab the RT one. The truth is, I often reach for whichever brush is clean! Obviously, the RT brush is the better deal if you can get your hands on it in the U.S. When I bought mine for $7.99, it was buy one RT brush get the second one 50% off. So I bought some other brushes which I will review in good time. A definite bargain!

Rating: 9/10 Sigma F80 Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki
Rating: 9.5/10 Real Techniques Foundation Brush