Every blogger has his own personal reasons and motivations to blog, my initial and only motivation is “you” who are reading this right now and who made this little blog evolve and live day after day.

The most amazing consequence of blogging is who you meet along the way, the “community” that you bring together. When you start such an adventure you can trigger joyful insanity and make everyone else feel much less lonely in their own little universe. If you are familiar with the “SMuT” Forum then, you already know what I mean.

Sharing this serious and absolutely reasonable interest for brushes doesn’t only go one way, I learn a lot from you and I have so much fun reading your comments that I believe I am now officially desperately addicted to our interaction…

But… I am still crazy busy with the brushroom renovation so I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of our dedicated SMuT members, they will reveal to us their most beloved brushes, their preferences and their profile so that it helps you too.

Today I would like to introduce you to the gorgeous and brave Tesla who has the difficult task of going first 😀  Tesla and I both live in Switzerland and although we haven’t met in person yet, we chat a lot behind the SMuT scenes. I leave you now in her company and thank you for reading, commenting, asking her anything you want! 😀

A huge thank you to Jeanette for the wonderful guest post idea and a huge thank you to Tesla for this post and for being such an amazing friend! <3

*TESLA – MidniteDesire*

Hello there gorgeous! First off I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Sonia! Really, I’m super excited to be doing my first ever guest post for our beautiful SMUT – president and her fabulous blog, you know that feeling you get when your words get all mixed up, sentence comes out all jumbled and nothing you write sounds nice or good enough, so please go easy on me, this would normally be out of my comfort zone. 😀

Oh heck, I forgot to introduce myself, guess I should introduce myself, right? I’m Tesla (MidniteDesire) from Smutville(http://forum.sweetmakeuptemptations.com/index.php) ,I think we all know that Smutville is known to be a very dangerous place and potentially fatal for brush addicts lol and I’m addicted to beautiful things, particularly for makeup brushes… NO way to avoid it.

Okay, let’s start with take a minute to get to know a little bit about my beauty profile , this might help you out to make a decision.

Age: I was born in 1980

SKIN

Skin Type: Combination – Normal or slightly dry on cheeks (time of year, climate, age, etc.)
Skin Tone: Medium-Tan/ NC30-40( about NC35-37 at the moment) , I do use self tanners from time to time
Skin Undertone: Warm
Skin Concerns: Fine lines ,dark spots and occasional breakouts

SKINCARE ROUTINE

I truly believe that my skin has benefitted from regular facials exfoliation ,using a product with at least SPF 30 and a proper nights sleep help to keep skin soft and healthy

So basically, as long as I can cleanse, tone , moisturise , gently exfoliate and getting enough rest ,my skin is happy

HAIR

Hair Type: Not straight and not quite wavy
Hair Texture: Medium
Hair Color: I’m naturally a brunette but my current hair color is honey chocolate
Hair Concerns: Dry and frizzy *crying*

EYES

I’d say I have brown-hazel eyes because a lot of times they look brown but if my eyes are in some lights or makeup they appear more honey with a hint of green in them. I have thin, medium length eyelashes and I’m short sighted, I do wear glasses or contacts, I should wear them all the time but I don’t

MAKEUP

I do wear makeup almost everyday, personally I think that wearing even a little bit of makeup to *work* makes you look more awake, polished and professional, otherwise it looks like you just drag your butt out of bed in the morning, seems lazy, disrespectful and not a sexy one. well, I also find that I touch my face way to much when I’m not wearing makeup 🙂

FAVORITE COSMETIC BRANDS

I’m all over the place hmm….Burberry, Dior, Suqqu, Chanel, Charlotte Tilbury, Ellis Faas, Guerlain, Chantecaille, Giorgio Armani, Mac, Tom Ford, D&G , Yves Saint Laurent, just to name a few. Ooh oh and I have just ventured down the rabbit hole of Gucci, once I get it will see how it turns out! lol

FAVORITE SKINCARE BRANDS

Kanebo, Lancôme, Dermalogica, Kiehl’s, Chanel, Laura Mercier, Origins, Caudalie, Rodial, Liz Earle

Since I’ve already admitted to having an addiction to beauty products and brushes, while I’m at it I might as well mention my current foundation routine and you know, this is not going to be like to determine a specific skin tone or specific skin concerns or something like that but I just wanted to share my own personal preference, my experience with some products and I’ll also show you some of the brushes that I use

So let’s get this party started  right before I’m going to bore you guys to death and truth be told, there’s a lot of blend, blend, blend, blend and blend again! Anyways, I’m just going to stick to a basic routine and leaving out my typical skincare products and lip balm which is prior to the foundation mainly because it’s depending on your skin’s needs, skin type and your personal preferences and while there’s no right or wrong way to apply foundation: fingers, sponge or brush, each method has its pros and cons, so this generally depends on your personal preferences and what makes you most comfortable, personally I like to use brushes and sometimes clean fingers but if I need a full coverage or for a night time look, I sometimes use a damp Beautyblender when applying foundation (In my opinion, makeup sponges should be cleaned after every use, but if I’m in a hurry to get things done, that being said sponge was never my first choice )

Well recently I have switched my routine a bit, so here are six of my autumn must-haves right now:

• Laura Mercier Foundation Primer SPF 30 : Besides making my foundation application easier, it felt more like a moisturizer than a primer, I’ve tried a few Laura Mercier primers but so far I like this formula best!
• Ellis Faas Skin Veil (S104): I bought this because of the rave reviews and it is certainly well credited, I’m actually about to finish my second bottle. I would say it offers light to medium coverage, it really looks like my skin but better and gives a luminous glow when applied.
• Nars Sheer Glow (Stromboli , Barcelona): It’s definitely one of the great foundations that I’ve tried, the formula of this foundation is awesome. The color range really is great and I was surprised that it didn’t irritate my skin in the slightest
• Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk (No. 6.5): I’ve been using this foundation for several years now, I like the way this foundation makes my skin look, the coverage is medium but I’m sure you could build it up to a more full coverage
• Chanel Correcteur Perfection Long Lasting Concealer (30 Beige Petale) : This is my favorite concealer to use under my eyes. It’s very creamy, it doesn’t settle into fine lines, doesn’t dry out the eye area and has good longevity.
• Mac Studio Finish Spf 35 Concealer (NC 35) : It gives good coverage and easily conceals my marks and blemishes but I prefer to use a liquid concealer under the eyes, this product is thick making it rather difficult to blend and make fine lines and wrinkles look worse

Flat Paddle Foundation brushes

Foundation brushes

Personally I don’t use this type of brush for apply foundation with them but I love them for blend and buff everything together. Strange but true, I have found I can use less foundation when I apply it with flat foundation brush than my fingers or dip these brushes straight into the foundation

BeautyBlender Sponge

Concealer Brushes (Medium And Large)

Concealer Brushes (Small)

First, I’m going to start by applying primer, I apply and blend primer with my fingers. and what I like to do is put a little bit of foundations by combine together a small pump of Ellis Faas Skin Veil and shake out a dab of Nars Sheer Glow on the top of the hand, use a flat foundation brush to mix the two foundations together, just starting out with a small amount, if necessary you can add more later. I find it is easy to start applying from the outer side of the cheeks to the other, but that’s just me and I’m comfortable doing it, the chin, the nose and the forehead and work downwards the jaw line and onto the neck ,then it’s serious blending time… I use the white goat hair foundation brush to blend the foundation into my skin, around the edges of my face, around the hairline and down into my neck.

Once my liquid foundation is finished, I generally dab 3 dots of Chanel long lasting concealer under the eye and blend them with one of my large-size/ medium size concealer brush and with leftover product on the brush lightly blend the concealer into my t-zone area. If I have spots, blemishes on my face that I want to cover it, I usually use the Mac studio finish and apply my concealer with my small size concealer brush, then if I don’t wear the cream blush or cream bronzer, I would go ahead and apply powder to set the concealer around my eyes and using a powder brush ,tap that brush or swirl around to pick up the powder, then gently tap the brush into my face.

Hakuhodo G5554, G5557, G544, J544, MAC 187, Rae Morris #23, Koyudo Fu-pa 03, Rae Morris #21, Koyudo Purin FPr001,Koyudo Fu-pa 01,Koyudo Fu-pa 14, Chikuhodo Z-1, Koyudo Hairisu, Koyudo Macaron, Koyudo Kumamon

I also use my Hakuhodo G5554 and Rae Morris #23 ones as my cream-blush brush and it is by far my favorite brushes I own.

BUT IF I don’t feel like putting on a full face and went for a minimal look, I usually wear:

• Moisturizer
• Sunscreen
• Lip balm
• Tinted moisturiser (I tend to switch between a stippling brush and my fingers with this) or a powder foundation (I usually apply it with Z-1 ,Koyudo Fu-pa , Kabuki )
• A quick sweep of one neutral eyeshadow or paint pot
• Mascara (curl my lashes beforehand) then maybe blush and lip gloss or lip stain.

And that’s it, they might sound a bit long but when I do this it takes me like only 5-10 minutes to get ready

And lastly my favorite eye and face brush picks, uuuugh…why would you ask me such a difficult question, Sonia? well, after a great deal of thoughtful deliberation, I think you were right about this and the list could be helpful to some of you guys, even though this changes from time to time but still some of these brushes are really my all-time favorites 🙂

My favorite Eye Brushes : Hakuhdo G5515* Specail (Tamage),Koyudo vivid, Hakuhdo G5548, Wayne Goss 20, BiFudeDo Pencil, Kyureido KK-004,Suqqu M, Kokutan T, Chikuhodo Z-10,Suqqu F, Hakuhodo Kokutan SC, Hakuhodo S134, MAC 239, Tanseido YCQ12S , Hakuhodo J004G, Hakuhodo B133, Houkodou G-S2 , Shu 10, TanseidoYWQ10,Tom Ford 11, FU-Shikaden, Houkodou G-S1 ,Chikuhodo Z-5, Hakuhodo S121

My Favorite Blush Brushes:Koyudo canadian squirrel cheek,Suqqu Cheek, Chikuhodo Z-4, Chikuhodo Z-8, Chikuhodo SV cheek,LSY 902,Tom Ford 06, Hakuhodo J110, Hakuhodo G5536

My Favorite Bronzer Brushes : Hakuhodo J210, Hakuhodo J5543, Hakuhodo G5542,Houkodou G-F1, Hakuhodo J531,Koyudo Fu-pa 12, Kyureido KK-001, Rae Morris 3

My Favorite Under Eye Powder Brushes : Kyureido KK-002, Tanseido YAQ 17, Koyudo red squirrel cheek, FU-Shikaden cheek ,Koyudo LE30, Chikuhodo Z-2

My Favorite Powder Brushes : Suqqu Face, Houkodou G-F2, Chikuhodo MK-1, Chikuhodo Z-9, LSY 901, Kyuka Sangyo Face, Chikuhodo P-8

For now though, my little piece of paradise, I just got the Lam Sam Yick 901 not too long ago but it quickly became one of my TOP favorite powder brushes, the gold ferrule, the red handle, maki-e and the salt and pepper hair practically begged me to buy it. So I did. it’s just AAAA-mazing! And I think this baby go perfectly with my Koyudo and the red-gold little ones. This brush really spoke to me, is this becoming something that I should be worried about? makeup brush is speaking to me???

Bahaha… as long as I don’t talk back, maybe I’m safe. 😀

Have a wonderful day all you adorable people and thanks again, Sonia!

Love,Tesla xx