Of all my brushes, I've spent the most on my foundation brushes.  Like I said earlier, I'm not spending 100s, but in comparison to my $1-10 brushes, plopping down $30 for one brush can seem high.  Since I wear foundation every day I appear in public, it's an important tool.

Clockwise from the left: Lancome Foundation Brush #2; Bare Escentuals Concealer Brush; Giorgio Armani Blender Brush (travel size); Eco Tools Concealer Brush

The Lancome foundation brush gets the most use - anytime I'm using liquid foundation, it's used.  I can't tell what's it's made from, but I"m 99% sure it's synthetic. I should wash my foundation brush more often than I do, which is about 1x a month.  Should really be 1x a week. Bad girl.  You'll know that it needs washing when the foundation doesn't spread smoothly, or becomes streaky.  Otherwise, it does a great job of helping the foundation blend into my face. It retails for $33.

The Armani brush is limited to just the Armani Foundation I have (Luminous Silk, review coming).  The SA told me that the Luminous Silk Foundation (LSF) has some micro-fil tthing that necessitates the use of a brush, which I'm all for; plus I'd heard good things about the foundation, thus I thought I'd give it a try.  Also, because of the foundation's ingredients, it's recommended that you wash it dishwashing liquid!  Who knew?  While unconventional, dishwashing liquid is readily available and it's cheap.  The full size brush is $47, but I got mine in a set with the foundation, and it's travel sized.

I don't use the concealer brushes that often.  If I'm going to a special event and want to get the red areas by my nose, I'll use a concealer brush, but it's not a staple in my arsenal.  The BE brush is $20, Eco Tools comes in with set of 5 brushes for $14.99

Clockwise from left: BE Flawless Application Brush; Lancome Brush; BE Handy Buki Brush
For mineral foundations, these are the three brushes I use. The BE brushes came in the starter kit, along with the concealer brush mentioned above and the Bare Minerals foundations.  I think the brushes are good for the money, although they seem to shed a couple hairs every time I wash them. Supposedly, the Handy Buki brush is for "smaller areas", but I find it works fine all over the face; maybe it takes a little longer for the 'swirl, tap, buff' to happen, but what's a couple extra seconds.  The Flawless Application Brush is used primarily for BE's Mineral Veil, though I suspect it would be fine for other powders.  It's hard to swirlp, tap, buff with this brush, but I find it's not as important with powder as foundation.
Mineral foundation is more popular than ever, so for all my drugstore purchases of mineral foundations, I use the Lancome Brush at the top.  Honestly, I have no idea how much this brush costs, or what it's intended for, since it was part of a gift with purchase.  It's closest to this brush on the Lancome website.  $56? I'll take free.  And yes, it does work with mineral foundations.  Not to soft, not too hard, just right.

All right, enough of the goldilocks references.

Catch up on other posts about brushes:
Natural vs. Synethic
My Personal Collection

A little math for you. 
No money + no job + drawers of makeup + lots of time = MAKEUP REDISCOVERY

If you're anything like me, even though you have a lot of makeup, do you reach for the same products day after day?  Honestly, I don't know why we women do that.  It's the same thing with clothes and why, I can stare at my closet full of clothes and say "I have nothing to wear".  So anyways, given my current predicament, it's time to rediscover my makeup collection.

This look is based around this eyeshadow duo from the L'Oreal HIP line.  I remember I got 2 duos for about 5 bucks - not bad at all!  This duo, Sassy, contains a brown and a teal.  The colors are highly wearable and the pigmentation is good.  It's not too intense, although with a heavier hand, it could be stronger.  I meant for the teal to be more evident, but oh wells.

I also applied more eyeliner than usual, using MAC's Feline.  Since I have small eyes, lining the lower lash liine is always tricky for me, so I usually stick to the upper. I didn't realize it until I saw the photograph, that I needed to get closer to my lash line.  More practice!  Overall, the whole look turned out better than I anticipated. What makeup treasures do you have hidden?

I"m not sure what's up with the suspicious look.

Foundation: Bare Escentuals Bare Minerals, Mineral Veil
Blush: MAC's Enough Said
Eyes: Bobbi Brown in Bone, L'oreal HIP in Sassy, MAC Feline Eyeliner
Lipstick: Lancome Juicy Tubes in Ginger Palace.

One of the most disturbing trends in Hollywood to me is the idea that injecting toxins into the body is somehow more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.  Yes, i'm talking about Botox and plumpers.  While I am still young, I can't help but notice this fixation on a youthful appearance and well, it frigthens me to think about aging.  God forbid that I look my age!  Actually, what does looking one's age mean?  That's another post.  Okay, so back to the point.  I admit that I want fuller lips.  If I was 100% confident that lip injections were 100% safe and that I wouldn't look like some sort of freak, I'd get them.  But until then, I'll try a less invasive method, mainly lip gloss.  Personally though, I actually don't think they work.  I just like the colors and maybe the reflection of light makes them look just a little fuller.

Thanks to the Sephora Beauty Insider's program, I scored this pretty good sized sample of Bare Escentual's Buxom Lips gloss in Daily.  It has that slight tingly feeling in the lips when it's applied, but it didn't hurt or anything.  Now, I usually layer lipsticks and lip glosses, but for the purposes of this blog, the pictures will always be of the colors by themselves, unless otherwise noted. I actually do like this color, it's neutral enough to wear err..Daily...sorry, I couldn't resist.  I would probably layer it over a richer lipstick and use this to tone it down or add some glossiness.

What do you think, Buxom or Bust?