Review: MAC 217 Blending Brush

PRICE

The 217 blending brush by MAC costs 25€. I know this sounds a lot for a brush, but you have to consider you're going to keep this brush for a very long time.

THE PRODUCT

The brush has, in my opinion, the perfect lenght with its 17cm. The bristles are made of natural, uncoloured hair. Since the hair is left in its initital state, it brings a certain roughness. This roughness allows you to get a good amount of product on your brush. However, I don't think I have ever ended up with too much product on it. The hair is quite resistant, but not too much. It has the perfect structure due to the bristles' oval arrangement. MAC describes the fibres as "densely packed" (which I really couldn't rewrite any better). Just like all the MAC brushes, the 217 is hand-sculpted.

USES

I personally think that you can use this brush for literally anything.

First of all, you can use it to blend your eye makeup. What I also like to do, is to go directly into the product and put it into my crease. Also, you can use it to put the highligt under your brow or put a base colour on your lid(which I don't really do often). Basically, you could do an entire eye makeup look with this brush if you used it in the right order (from light to dark colours).

Then, you can use it for cream eyeshadows, as for instance the paintpots by MAC.

Furthermore, you could use the brush to set your concealer with some setting powder. I feel like concealer always needs an extra setting, since you tend to layer it, if you have really dark circles. Also, a bigger face brush might not get into all the little wrinkles around your eye.

In addition, you can use your 217 for small contour work on your nose, or highlighting on the bridge of your nose and your chin.

FINAL WORD

In conclusion, this brush is an all-rounder. It is definitely one of the most precious pieces of my makeup collection. Even though it is a little pricey, this is a really loyal tool which can be used in so many ways. The brush is definitely worth the investment.

I've had mine for a year now, and I'm really thinking about getting a second one, so that I can use one for everything shimmery, and the other one for the mattes.