A good eyeliner brush is just as important as the eyeliner itself, to create precise lines and give your eyes that extra edge. This guide covers all you need to know about buying eyeliner brushes!
What Is Eyeliner?
Instead of just jumping right into the nitty gritty of things, it’s a good idea to first review the purpose of eyeliner. You may have taken it for granted, but eyeliner actually achieves a very particular effect on the eyes - it gives your eyes shape, and definition.
Generally, when one looks at another person’s eyes, they associate dark lines above the eyes to be eyelashes. Natural eyelashes can vary in thickness and size, however, and not everybody’s born with thick and curled lashes. Eyeliner is one of the few ways makeup artists add life to your eyes. They add more of that “dark line” that the brain naturally looks for, so it results in the impression that your eyes are bigger.
Aside from this, eyeliner can also change the shape of your eyes. By applying eyeliner over and around the sides of your eyes, you can make your eyes look larger and more curved or straight than they really are.
Finally, eyeliner also makes your eyes pop out more. It draws attention to the eyes, so having ample eyeliner on can help make eye contact with someone you’re interested in fairly easy.
Types of Eyeliner Brushes
There are two types of eyeliner brushes - disposable and reusable. There are benefits and disadvantages to either type, as you’ll see below.
Disposable brushes
Disposable brushes can be used once or twice and thrown away after you’re done with them. These brushes are generally made out of affordable material so that you won’t have to spend all that much money on a pack of them. Disposable brushes usually come in packs of 10 or more, depending on who’s selling them.
The appeal of disposable brushes is easy to see - you can bring eyeliner brushes wherever you go without worry. Bringing an expensive brush to work, for example, may not be a good idea, as it’s possible you may damage it while on the way to work, when bumping into people, and so on.
Another reason why disposables are fairly efficient is that you can share brushes with others. This is especially useful if you’re doing makeup with other people. Having multiple brushes can make it easy for you and others to apply eyeliner in the same way, too, and will also ensure personal hygiene is maintained.
However, disposable brushes aren’t perfect. For one, they’re limited - once you’ve used all of them, you need to buy more, or else you can’t apply any more eyeliner. They are also bad for the environment, as you’re buying and throwing away more waste than you would with a single reusable brush.
Reusable brushes
Reusable brushes are the de-facto choice for many women and men. These brushes can be used for months or even years at a time, and because you’re using the same brush, you’ll achieve the same results every single time. Since they’re reusable, you can get plenty of uses out of a single brush, and you won’t be harming the environment by disposing of them after a single use.
However, reusable brushes don’t stay perfect forever. Over time, the bristles will fall off or degrade in quality, and this can affect the overall look of your eyeliner. Reusable brushes can also be pretty expensive, so not only do you have to invest a bit of money on a good one, but you also have the risk of wasting said money by damaging or breaking the brush by accident.
What to choose?
Since both types of brushes have their own pros and cons, the answer is that the best type of brush is the one that suits your needs and preferences. If you’re environmentally conscious and you want to have a single brush to rely on, then reusables are the way to go. On the other hand, disposable brushes can be very handy in the right scenarios, so be sure to look out for those situations should the need arise.
Eyeliner Brushes vs Eyeliner Pencils
When choosing between eyeliner brushes or eyeliner pencils, it all boils down to personal preference, much like with the disposables vs reusables argument. Pencils are fairly easy to work with, whereas brushes can allow you to use both gel and liquid-based formulae. Pick whatever type of eyeliner product you find to be the handiest.
How We Chose the Top Eyeliner Brushes
The eyeliner brushes on our product list were carefully chosen based on a number of factors. These include the needs of the user, the type of brush provided, whether or not it came as a kit, the quality of the materials, and the brand that produced said brushes.
