My cheap brushes and my super duper cheap brushes.

Most of the good brushes in the high end industry are mostly cost more than 50$. Though, the quality is high, I think there are some alternative out there that have really good quality with a much more reasonable price, for example korean makeup brushes or even some good quality brushes from china. Being in Asian, the high end brushes like sigma brushes is not just expensive but also hard to get.  So I find a good alternative, Korean brushes. After that, I found other option that is makeup brushes on Aliexpress. Both options need some times to experiment to get the good result. I tried a few Korean brand and a few shop on aliexpress. And I can say that I have found some favorite makeup brushes that I would recommend to others.

My most favorite makeup brush is from Missha. It’s a powder brush(link here). The hair is so soft and thred a bit when I first washed it, but that’s all. After that I bought a foundation brush(link here), it is very soft, very to blend everything. The price is very reasonable. All the makeup brushes are below 20$ (yes include shipping). Moreover, I love the packaging, it has golden handle which I adore so much. I have also bought a flat brush for mask application from missha as well but i can't find the link to that. 

Other than Missha, I’ve also tried Nature republic and skin food brushes, it was the very first korean brush I've ever used. I honestly don’t like them as much. I bought a powder brush from Nature republic store in Phonm penh. Nature republic package is ok, very simple white handle and the hair is quite dense but doesn't thred much.

The second korean brush that I bought is Skin food blush brush (link here). Skin food package is such a turn off, it has wooden handle. The hair is even denser than Nature republic brush and it thred a lot in every wash. 

 But if you want to try out some Korean brushes, you can also try VDL, IOPE, these brands are in the high end side of cosmetic so the price is a bit higher than Missha, but the price is still cheaper than western makeup brushes.

left to right: Missha flat brush
Missha powder brush
Missha foundation brush
Skin food blush brush
Nature republic powder brush

For even cheaper brushes, you can also try brushes from china. I mainly use them for contouring or eye makeup. I find the big brushes hair is denser than the smaller brushes. You can save some money by buying cheaper eye makeup brushes and some Korean face brushes. One makeup brush costs about 1$, if you buy a set, it will cost even less. I bought a set of 20 eyeshadow brushes for about 4$ after shipping (link here). And 20$ for a set of 32 brushes (consist of face brushes and eye brushes, though I never use the face brushes). These brushes last me about 3 years now, and I find them a bit torn and old that’s why I bought a new set. One thing to keep in mind when buying from aliexpress is that it will take forever to deliver but if you’re lucky enough, it will arrive in about 3 weeks. 

a set of 20 brushes for about 4$

I also like to buy individual brushes like contour or blush brushes as well.

left to right: powder brush (1.5$)
foundation brush ( about 1$)
contour brush (1.34$ link here)
blush brush (2.99$ link here)
blending brush (0.89$ link here)

powder brush (2.99$ link here)

All in all, I think having high end expensive brushes is great but it’s not the necessary. As long as the quality of the brushes is nice, whether or not it is expensive doesn’t matter. But one important thing to bear in mind is that there are some heavenly made brushes that surely deserve such price like Fluenta Oval 8.