How to Find a Good Mascara Fan Brush

WHERE TO BUY A GOOD MASCARA FAN BRUSH

Here is our round up of the good and the bad when it comes to Mascara Fan Brushes. There is a wide variety of quality and prices when it comes to finding a good Mascara Fan Brush. Here are a few we have tried:

The most popular mascara fan brushes are both around $20. These are the Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush, and the Paula Dorf Perfect Mascara Fan Brush.

• The Paula Dorf is one of my favorites because it is the widest and longest, the right combo of soft enough to maneuver around lashes while stiff enough to “paint” and the easiest to wield. Found mostly on eBay.
  

  Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush

• Mac 205 Mascara Fan Brush. Frequently used by bridal makeup artists, the MAC 205 brush is probably 40% smaller, but has tiny soft wispy guard bristles that make it easier to remove clumps. The MAC is:
  • Easier for those with the steady hands of a true makeup artist than a regular makeup fanatic like myself to use. But a little practice went a long way.
  • When using the MAC 205, try to load the mascara onto the shorter fan bristles, not the longer guard bristles. Do this by bending and holding the longer guard bristles away from the shorter bristles with your finger while only coating the short bristles with mascara.
    • At eBay
    • On Amazon, third party seller
    • The Mac Cosmetics 205 Mascara Fan Brush is generally available at Mac, $20.

Other Mascara fan brushes:

• SEPHORA COLLECTION: Pro Lash Fan #34, $21. Not very fan-like, but quality bristles, good shape for a beginner to load mascara onto the lash, doesn’t have the ability to create wispy lashes like the Paula Dorf, Claudio Riaz or Mac 205. But, this brush can do cream and cake mascara much easier than the other fan brushes.

Surprisingly, there was only one kind of Mascara Fan brush at Sephora at this time. That seems weird. Does anyone else think that is weird?

• Claudio Riaz Lash Touch Brush, at Barneys, for $65.
  • The Mercedes Benz/Rolls Royce/Jaguar of Mascara Fan Brushes.
  • A bit steep, but a VERY good brush with nice heft and ease of handling, which is good for klutzes like myself. Nice width to the fan which covers about half the lash line.
  • Bristles are high quality and easy to work with, easy to get fluttery, wispy lashes with this one. I could argue buying a cheaper mascara or not being loyal to any one mascara or in a mascara emergency, using a drugstore brand (gasp!) and still getting a nice high-end look with the ease of use on getting a nice, clump-free look with this brush.
• Royal and Langnickel BX-145 Revolution Fan Mascara Brush
  • hard to find stateside, but ships to North America
  • reasonably priced
  • nice gentle guide feature on the bristles
  • Easier to de-clump with, harder to get wispy lashes.
• Ben Nye also makes a Mascara fan brush, it is around $8, haven’t tried it yet.

So far, I have not found a drugstore/beauty chain store version of a Mascara fan brush that I like. Most are too stiff to apply mascara or to wiggle it into the root of the lash line, and it is not really a fan shape, more like an eyeliner push brush.

For this reason we cannot recommend the Bdellium Tools Makeup Cosmetic Beauty Brush Travel Line – Mascara Fan Brush 731. Most drugstore and beauty supply store fan brushes seemed a variant of this overly rigid push liner brush style, but I would be happy to find a good basic mascara fan brush if anyone knows of a good one.