How - Face

Blend like a pro

July 26, 2009

The #217 Blending brush is an ESSENTIAL tool for creating a professional looking blended eye.  Check out the M.A.C artists’ brush belts in-store (it’s always the best way to know what brushes are essentials) and you’ll see that they always have an abundance of the #217 brush on hand. So how do you use this?

The #217 is great for washing light shades of eye shadow over the eyelids for a sheer application that, because the natural hair that the brush is made from is so soft, won’t deposit too much colour at once.  The short fluffy bundle is also amazing for defining the crease of your eyes: dip the tip of the brush into the eye shadow that you want to use and starting on the outer corner of the crease, move the brush back and forth following the eye socket adding more colour to achieve a stronger effect.  I love using M.A.C Kid eyeshadow in the crease for a natural eye look.

If I’m doing a smokey dark eye I usually apply the darkest shade (like M.A.C Embark or Carbon eyeshadows) to the outer corner of the eye using a firmer flat brush (like the #239 Shader brush) so I can easily control the placement of the colour then, using the #217, I brush over the edges of the colour so to give the eye a perfect blended look and adding more if I need to.  It’s always much easier to add more and slowly get darker than to start with too much product.

Amber Dreadon.  Senior Artist for MAC New Zealand