Nail Art Brush Collection & Review

Hello! I have been working quite a bit lately, but I've managed to budget my time enough to be able to write a post before I head out to work today. Yay!
For this post, I thought I would share my brush collection, as well as review them for you. If you're just starting out doing nail designs it's always good to invest in a good set of brushes. While some polishes now come with thin nail art brushes built in, they are usually more expensive, or they come in a limited assortment of colors. By having your own set of brushes, you have your choice of any polish to design with! Or, if your into using acrylic paint -I am not, but to each their own.-, you can use them for paint as well.

My brush collection.

Set of 4 brushes from Sally's  - $12

My very first set of brushes I bought were from Sally's beauty supply. They were a bit expensive at $12, but I was running out of time and I needed them for school. I love the floral design on them, but as you can see, the constant cleaning of them has worn the floral decal away.


This set comes with four brushes: Two striping brushes, a detail brush, and a small squared brush.
I would not recommend this set. I am not really a fan of products from Sally's, but as I said, I was in a time crunch. The set was over priced, and frankly low quality. The brushes started to fray out quite quickly after purchase, and the floral decals wore away near the ferrules immediately. I honestly only use these brushes when I'm too lazy to clean my good brushes.

15 piece brush set from Amazon - $2.

It is so funny that I think the $2 set I own is better, and higher quality, than the $12 set from an actual beauty supply company. But it's true!
I love this set, not only because they only cost $2, but also because the brushes are really great to work with.
This set includes:


Three striping brushes in varying lengths. Yes, I didn't get to clean them before their photo shoot, sorry! If there wasn't polish caked on them you would be able to see that they have not frayed quite as much as the Sally's brushes.


Three detail brushes. No I didn't have a Hulk moment and bend that one. It actually comes that way to make it more comfortable when doing fine detail work. It is one of my favorites, as you can tell by how frayed it is becoming. I've had these brushes for almost two years now, so I think I will have to get a new set soon.


The set also includes another two detail brushes, three squared brushes, and an angled clean up brush I use with polish remover to clean up around my cuticles after my designs are finished. I don't use the squared brushes often, that's why they look so neat and clean, but when I do they hold the polish well, and are soft and pliable. As you can see, the white coating on one of them has been eaten away a bit from polish remover. Though not as badly as the other set thanks to the long ferrules.


And finally, the set includes two fan brushes. I haven't used them yet, as you can see by how nice they look. I kind of don't want to, just because they are so pretty! :p Though I think I will have to soon, since I have some feathered looks I would like to try. They are also wicked soft, so when I do use them, I already know they are going to be very nice and pliable.


Another great thing about my white set of brushes is that they came with not only a long, fine dotting tool, but it came with a 4 piece set of different sized dotting tools! I have eight here because I already had a set I bought from Amazon for only a few dollars.



Dotting tools are a great thing to have in your collection! I use them for very fine detail work, and obviously, polka dots and accent dots. The ones I have are actually double sided, so it's like having 16 tools. They also come in varying sizes so you can make different sized dots based on the look your going for. A great thing about dotting tools is that they are way easier to clean than brushes because of the coated plastic and metal.

So that is my brush collection! If your looking for a nice set of brushes I would recommend going to Amazon and picking up the 15 set white handled brushes, and skipping Sally's set. They are not worth the money whats-so-ever. 

If your curious on how I clean my brushes, I use pure acetone polish remover, dip the brushes in a cup of it, then I wipe them off, rinse them in water, and then dry them on their side on a paper towel. Just know that because acetone is so strong, it will eventually erode the brushes, but diluted polish remover is just too weak to really clean them. That's why it is best, if your going to use acetone, to buy brushes that are good quality, but also inexpensive enough to replace easily. Again, I only paid $2 for my white handled brushes and I've had them for almost two years, and they are still going strong!

Thanks for reading!
- Brittany

Do you have a favorite set of brushes? Do you have a favorite brand? Let me know in the comments!