10 best eye make-up brush sets you need in your collection

With seven brushes covering tapered blending, shading and eyeliner, this kit is as easy to use as it is on the eye. We loved the black brush case, which was more durable than the packaging you normally find with these kinds of kits. Each brush is super soft and picks up product with ease, especially the large shader (our favourite for quickly sweeping one shade over the eyelid on a simple make-up day). However, the highlight of this set was the small angle brush, which managed the impossible and helped us apply gel eyeliner with ease.

Everything from Too Faced is a pastel dream, including this mint-coloured brush set. It covers all the basics, with a shading brush, blender, small shader, smudger and multi-tasking liner and brow brush. An effective form of the latter is always tough to find, but we loved how versatile it was for applying all kinds of brow products. The fibres are all synthetic, vegan-friendly and just dense enough to pick up pigment without wasting too much product.

Like most basic eye brush sets, this Skinny Dip offering features five brushes. We found the tips slightly more delicate than other brushes, which is ideal for those who prefer precise application. The “embase-it” brush (designed for creating the perfect base) stood out the most, packing on colour with minimal effort. Each handle is decorated with Skinny Dip’s trademark marble pattern and, as if that isn’t enough to convince you, they’re currently on sale.

As the name suggests, this BH Cosmetics kit is designed for the essentials – blending, shading, eyeliner and brows. This brow brush was our favourite from any kits tested, dense enough to apply fine, hair-like strokes. We also liked the angled blending brush, which is ideal for pushing product into the crease of hooded or deep set eyes. While they did shed upon their first wash, this stopped in all subsequent rinses and each brush stayed dense and fluffy.

For those who take their eye make-up seriously, this Morphe kit is everything you’ll ever need. While the 15 brushes may seem overwhelming to a novice, each is inscribed with a handy code to cross-reference its function on the Morphe website. However, the brand also encourages the “sisters not twins” philosophy, using whichever brush you feel works best for the task at hand. We were blown away by the quality of this set and its value for money, especially considering it offers three times the amount of brushes that most basic sets do. However vegans will want to steer clear as they are made from a combination of natural and synthetic bristles.

Designed specifically to create an Insta-ready cut crease, this kit has five brushes. We found that the eyeshadow, detail crease, contour, flat eyeshadow and small precision brushes were just as good for creating basic looks as they were the complicated, with our tester using the eyeshadow C brush to sweep over a natural shade on a daily basis. Like all of e.l.f.’s products, they are also cruelty-free and 100 per cent vegan.

It’s tough to go wrong with a Real Techniques brush set. Despite their low prices, each collection is consistently high in quality. This particular offering features a shadow, crease, fine liner, shading and lash separator brush. While every tool is soft and easy to use, we especially appreciated the inclusion of a lash separator, which is too commonly omitted from these kits despite its usefulness. A great basic set, but those favouring dramatic cut creases might find it too simplistic.

We’re huge fans of Zoeva brushes, which always manage to find the right balance between quality and aesthetic. This kit might just be the brand’s prettiest yet, with peach-pink wooden handles and rose gold coating. Composed of 12 brushes, it not only covers all your eyeshadow needs but also concealer, brows and eyeliner. While we loved all of the shading brushes, our tester was disappointed by the concealer buffer, which felt stiff and scratchy on the delicate skin around the eye. The quality of the rest of the kit, however, more than made up for it, and we didn’t notice any shedding, even after several thorough washes.

Those who like to do their make-up on the go (or, in our case, rushed on their daily commute) this kit doubles up as a storage tray for easy organisation. As for the brushes themselves, the five options help shade, define, accent, line and diffuse your chosen products across the lid. Each one does the trick and is made from 100 per cent cruelty-free synthetic taklon bristles with sustainable bamboo handles.