Marks & Spencer Brush Perfection Blend & Enhance Foundation Brush

Author's product rating:   

Quality	Good
Compatibility with Makeup	average

Advantages:	Comparable price to sponges, smooth finish & easy to use .
Disadvantages:	It takes a little longer .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

M&S Brush Perfection Blend & Enhance Foundation Brush... a pat on the back if you can say that in one breath!

From tinted moisturiser to full on war paint, foundation is an essential beauty item. And I'm not one to disagree with that. I don't believe in a natural youthful glowing complexion without a bit of help! Anyone who's ever shopped for foundation will know that it's as hard, if not harder than finding the perfect fitting pair of jeans. Common mistakes include shades that don't match the face tone (leave the David Dickenson look to the man himself) and tell tale tide marks.

Foundation History

Back in the day foundations came in pink or peach but now there's a whole host of yellowy based colours right through the skin colour spectrum to dark brown. And it's not just the colour that's constantly being updated with new cosmetic research. Foundation now comes in stick, liquid, gel, mousse, powder and solid form.

Application Methods

Quite the opposite to the ranges of foundations, application methods are somewhat limited. There's sponges or fingers or a combination of the two. Until recently I was a sponge foundation applier. I didn't like using my fingers to smear foundation over my face. It made my hands messy and I was conscious that I was rubbing any oils or grime on my fingers into the pores of my face. I liked sponges because I could load the sponge, dot foundation on the main areas and use the corner of a triangle sponge to blend and work into the nooks and crannies. I was forever bunging them in the washing machine in an effort to quash the bacteria breeding ground. As a result the integrity of the sponge breaks down after a few washes. When this happens pieces of the sponge come off leaving both lumps of sponge on my mush and uneven pinstripes on the skin. Along with this unsatisfactory application, I was going through sponges rapidly. I also noticed that sponges got foundation coloured very quickly. Likely because I was applying the foundation then wiping the excess off again with the sponge as I was blending. Literally washing foundation down the drain.

On a wander through beauty counters of some department store or other, I passed the Prescriptives stand and having a quick glance at the make-up brushes noticed a 'Foundation Brush.' I hadn't heard of applying foundation with a brush before… other than powder foundation bases. I decided I'd like to try this alternative method of application but didn't want to fork out £24 only to find that I would resort back to my faithful sponges, even with their drawbacks.

Then fighting my way through Marks and Spencer to the pre-packaged sandwich section I temporarily got distracted by the beauty corner. I used to be an addict of the smell of their Martyn Maxi hair care range but they withdrew the range from their collection last year and I like to check occasionally on the off chance that they've brought it back. Then temporally distracted again (it's quite easy to distract me) I wandered over to the applicator side of a gondola. Initially I was looking to see if triangular sponges were cheaper there than in Boots but noticed that they had a foundation brush. I was much happier to part with £8.

Painting it on With a Brush

M&S Accessories collection "Brush Perfection Blend and Enhance Foundation Brush" comes in a small box with a black and metallic lilac background and silver writing. The whole brush is 14cm long with the handle taking up just over 11cm of that and the brush hairs taking up the rest. The matt black handle is nice to hold, not slippery but chunky enough to grip and wield. A silver metal part joins the handle to the brush. It also flattens the brush hairs. The brush end is rounded, flat but wide. The tapered synthetic bristles are very soft and more flexible towards the ends.

The flat edge is best for applying a cream or liquid foundation and smoothing out. I tend to use the tapered part for more precise blending for example round the nose and under the eyes. The bristles are synthetic which gives them a very smooth texture. Natural hairs are more porous and, I would imagine, as a result would absorb liquid foundations like a sponge. The silkiness of the bristles means that the foundation sits on the hairs until they are swept over the skin.

I'll Be a Make-Up Artist Yet

I've found that applying foundation with this brush does take a little longer than using a sponge but with practise I am getting faster. Despite taking a little longer, the result is much more pleasing. The overall aim of foundation is to even out the complexion, hiding those dark circles or blotchy red patches. The brush allows layers to be built up on the areas that need it most with a lighter coating on my more favoured areas. Sponges on the other hand apply the same amount all over. The result with my new brush is an even finish, some might say flawless but I'm not that stuck up, it's still my face after all! Painting on foundation allows you to vary the direction of the strokes so sweeping pinstripe lines are blended away quickly.

Around the edges of the face for example the jaw line and hair line, sponges tend to leave those garish tide marks. They blob foundation round the corner of the jaw and leave more foundation on my hairline than the skin underneath it. The brush bends easily round the jaw so that I can smooth the foundation into the start of my neck. At the hairline, the bristles go between the small wispy hairs to get foundation to the skin underneath. I'm much happier with this result when I use a foundation that's slightly darker than my natural skin tone - a cardinal sin I know but if you can avoid tide marks it does make you look tanned!

As expected, there is very little foundation left on the brush and I've noticed that I'm only using one pump of my pump action foundation as oppose to two when I used sponges. Any foundation that it left can be easily rinsed off under the tap. I spoke to the make-up sales advisor when I bought the brush and she recommended using a small amount of facial wash when rinsing the brush and leaving it to air dry. Doing this hasn't affected the bristles at all and they are still as soft and flexible as when I first bought it. After washing, it dries much quicker than a sponge out of the washing machine so I don't have to rotate two.

Cost & Availability

My old favourite sponges cost £2.50 for 4 and I had to have two in rotation so that one could be washed and dried while I was using the other. They lasted approximately a month each so I'd get about two months from a pack of 4. At £8 for a single brush this might seem more costly. However, I've been using the brush for 5 months now and it's still in as good condition as it was when I bought it. The brush only has to last another month and it's matched the price of sponges. I'm also very satisfied with the improved result, application and ease of cleaning. Of course it is exclusive to M&S and smaller branches don't always hold the full range of beauty products.

I would certainly recommend this foundation brush as it is considerably cheaper than the one I originally saw. In addition, I favour this method of applying foundation. It's changed my beauty regime. Even though it takes a little longer, I can now skip using concealer under my eyes and often just slick on mascara and lipgloss… a much reduced version of the slap I used to apply! For £8 it's worth a try especially if you have trouble blending or smoothing your current foundation and haven't the inclination or the money to buy more foundations to experiment with.