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10 best eye make-up brush sets you need in your collection

Perfect your peepers with these tried and tested brushes, from cult classics to new favourites

Chloë James
Wednesday 12 February 2020 13:00 GMT
The main areas a decent kit should cover are blending, buffing and working in the crease of the eye
The main areas a decent kit should cover are blending, buffing and working in the crease of the eye (The Independent/iStock)

Whether you prefer a natural eye look or something a bit more dramatic, you need the right tools to achieve it. With so many make-up brushes out there for every technique imaginable, putting together the perfect collection is more of a battle than the cut crease itself.

For those overwhelmed with the amount of options on offer, your basic eye brush collection should cover blending, buffing and the crease of the eye. While you can also find brushes specifically designed for the inner corner, brow bone, transitional blending and eyeliner, as long as you’ve got these essentials, you can create a wide variety of eye make-up looks.

While you should consider what brushes you really need in your daily make-up kit, it’s also worth thinking about the brushes themselves. Most are synthetic rather than natural bristles made from animal hair.

However, low quality synthetic fibres can shed during use, especially after they’ve been washed a few times. To help you find the right tools, we were looking for durable, dense brushes that saw us through daily make-up looks and beyond.

You can trust our independent reviews. We may earn commission from some of the retailers, but we never allow this to influence selections, which are formed from real-world testing and expert advice. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

The verdict: Eye make-up brush sets

Our favourite was by far the Iconic London complete eye set, which fulfilled all our eyeshadow needs with the brushes showing no signs of shedding. We also loved Zoeva’s rose golden complete eye brush set, but for a kit easier on your purse, we would suggest the Real Techniques enhanced eye set.

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