VEGAN MAKEUP BRUSHES 101

I will give a rundown of all the vegan makeup brushes I know of in existence. I'll start with some of the larger companies first. Origins offers a full set of vegan brushes- they're pretty nice, I own the powder and blush brushes and they have lasted me for a couple of years with no shedding so far. However they are pretty stiff and not extremely soft.

Aveda revamped their line of brushes a year or two ago and made them all vegan- named Flax Sticks, they look like high quality but I haven't had the chance to try any of them yet.

The Body Shop also offers a complete line of synthetic brushes, and I own both the powder and blush brush as well as one of the eyeshadow brushes. These brushes are okay, decent quality for the money you pay, but tend to wear out with time. The eyeshadow brush is too stiff for my liking.

Ecco Bella is a natural bodycare and makeup company that also sells vegan brushes. I've been seeing these brushes advertised for years, and personally own two of the eyeshadow brushes and two of the eyeliner brushes. Very nice quality, extremely soft.

Urban Decay is a popular makeup company who are very vegan friendly and clearly advertise on their website which products are suitable for vegans. They also offer a complete line of vegan brushes, which are extremeley fluffy and soft. They actually reformulated their already vegan line a few years ago and I still haven't gotten around to trying the new ones, but I own a blush brush and several eyeshadow brushes from the old collection.

Hard Candy is, if I'm not mistaken, a sister company of Urban Decay and is also very vegan friendly in that they clearly mark all of their vegan products on their website, but offer a more limited range of brushes than Urban Decay. They seem to only offer a few sets of smaller brushes, which look like they'd be nice for travel.

Too Faced offers brushes made of what they call "teddy bear hair", a synthetic vegan material. I have only seen a few sets floating around here and there but they look nice, with cool packaging.

Garden Botanika has had an extensive line of vegan brushes for years, and used to offer a small flattop brush which was much coveted by mineral makeup users. Actually they offered the flattop both in animal hair and also in synthetic vegan hair, before they committed to a line of 100% vegan brushes. Although the flattop brushes have been discontinued, Garden Botanika still offers what looks to be a high-quality line of brushes, and has a travel set which I have been ogling for a few years now. One of these days, when finances permit, I'll try it!

NYC makeup artist Denise Chaplin has her own line of vegan brushes which look very nice though they are pricey. Hourglass Cosmetics also has a more high-end line of vegan brushes- I was ogling and dreaming of the day I could afford their kabuki brush until more affordable vegan kabukis started appearing on the scene.

Many smaller, independent mineral makeup and mineral makeup- related companies have been popping up the last few years. In response to demand, several of these companies are starting to commission their own lines of synthetic, vegan makeup brushes.
Sevi Cosmetics recently came out with one such line, which includes a hard to find vegan flattop
brush. I was particularly anxious to try this brush, and though I was skeptical when I first received my flattop in the mail, as it was not quite as firm or dense as the synthetic Garden Botanika flattop of old, I find that it works even better than any flattop I've used, and applies makeup like a dream. I'm sure I'll be trying out all of Sevi's new brushes eventually- highly recommended!

Alima Cosmetics has also come out with their own line of vegan brushes, and they look extremely interesting. These are on my list to try, as I've heard very good things about them.

I have found other vegan brushes here and there, such as Aromaleigh's Taklon Foundation Brush, and Choice Brush has a lot of vegan options; look for "synthetic hair" in the description of each separate brush. For more vegan options see my post about new vegan kabuki brushes.

new vegan makeup brushes

NEW VEGAN KABUKI BRUSHES

This has been a whirlwind past few months for vegan makeup brushes. A few months ago it was impossible to find a vegan kabuki-style brush apart from the pricey Hourglass Cosmetics No. 7 Finish brush. It looks nice, but the steep price tag has so far kept me from trying it out.

Suddenly, however, vegan kabukis are popping up everywhere I look. I purchased the Ultimate Vegan Kabuki from Forever Female and it is great. Very soft and dense- I highly recommend this brush.

I also purchased the cheaper Red Kabuki from Choice brush, and it's okay. Very soft, but less dense and fluffier than I like in general. Still a great finishing brush, but probably not dense enough to apply your mineral foundation with.

Larenim Mineral Makeup appears to have come out with a vegan kabuki as well, aptly named the Softer-Than-Sable Vegan Kabuki. It looks decent and might be worth a try.