Review: The Brush Guard

We beauty addicts know that makeup can be expensive, even more so with quality cosmetics and tools. In fact, they are more investment items and if you take the time to treat them with love, they will reward you with many years of loving service.

This is especially the case with makeup brushes. Some of the ones I own are over A$100 retail for a single brush (I don’t know what I was thinking when I picked up the MAC #134 brush for US$52/A$105 – I love it but my wallet didn’t).

Although sourcing for brushes online from the US lowers the prices, it is still a significant amount to pay so protecting my investment is a must!

Other than keeping them clean and washing them correctly to maintain their tip-top condition, I generally like to shape the brush hairs after cleaning, and I always try to protect them when I go travelling with me to avoid frayed and damage hairs.

What makes this an easy task are these genius inventions called brush guards – they are truly one of the best beauty innovations out there.

I’ve never seen anything similar in retails stores but thankfully, these are readily available online with worldwide shipping!

Brush Guards

Brush guards are a great way to dry kabuki brushes upside down :)

• Made of flexible plastic netting material that expands and contracts so you can slot the brush head through. 
• Comes in 4 sizes, extra small for fine eye brushes, small for larger eye brushes, small face brushes, medium for small to medium face brushes like blush and foundation brushes and large for large face powder or kabuki brushes. 
• Protects against movements and hair breakages during travels. Also great to slip on if you want to put the brushes into storage. 
• Make sure you always pull the brush guard down from the handle end down to the brush head so the hairs are not caught in the netting that will damage your brush. To remove the brush guard, continue to push the netting down the brush head, rather than up to the brush handle. If you make a mistake and slide it from the wrong direction, gently and slowly pull it back in the other direction to avoid any damage. 
• I usually don’t slip these on after washing my brushes as I find that it slows down the drying process. I would slip it on after a few hours when the brush head had dried about 70% If I don’t have time, I’d put on the guards to reshape them after the brush dries.
• The only exception is the kabuki brush, I would slip the large brush guard on after washing so it acts as a base and dry the brush upside down so water doesn’t fall back into the base of the brush to avoid damaging the glue. 
• Tip: Great way to ensure brush head are compacted and dense for contour work (eg. With the MAC #168 contour blush and MAC #109 contour brush). 

Close up of brush guard netting

If you love your brushes, you must get some of these brush guards. I find the best place to start is the variety pack as it has a few brush guard for every size brush. If you have more of a particular brush size, then get the pack with your desired size only. 

RRP US$5.50 per pack (number of brush guards varies depending on pack chosen) at TheBrushGuard online store. It costs $3 to ship up to 5 packs to Australia so stock up now!