The new Magnitone BlendUp Vibra-sonic Makeup Brush carries a bold claim, but does it back it up? We put it to the test
High tech brushes look to be the future with the demand for electric toothbrushes and hot brushes now bigger than ever. But what about electric makeup brushes? Manual variations will never go out of fashion (read our edit of the best makeup brushes here ) however, high-speed alternatives are fast on their heels to provide a potentially more efficient and advanced upgrade that could one day supersede them. A new one that’s caught our eye? The Magnitone Vibra-Sonic BlendUp Makeup Blending Brush that claims to be ‘The world’s most advanced makeup brush.’ Bold promise right there, but does it deliver?
Designed to supply 250 vibra-sonic movements per second, it aims to make tell-tale streaks a thing of the past due to its ability to both blend makeup and gently stimulate the skin at the same time. Developed with guidance from celebrity makeup artist, Paul Herrington, its fast-paced tech looks to mimic his hands-on technique that he’s honed and perfected during his 25 year career. “When I do makeup, my hand sweeps across the skin really fast,” he says. “That’s the key to a diffused airbrushed look.” With two settings available, ‘Blend’ for all bases and ‘Airbrush’ for blushers, shadows, contouring and highlighting, its objective is to make a professional full-face finish available at your fingertips.
Other bonuses it boasts? Its range of brush heads are treated with an antibacterial shield based on natural silver-ion technology to keep cross-product contamination to a minimum plus, it’s charged via USB rather than clunky batteries - a welcome feature for relatively quick power top-ups (a full charge takes 2 hours). It also has a handy Cleaning Mode too with a built-in timer for preventing product build-up from ruining your handiwork.
Easy to set up and fully charged on arrival, it’s straightforward to set up - simply press the button and go, the instructions included are thorough without being overwhelming. Although there are three brush heads in the range, it comes with its ‘all-rounder’ SmoothBlend brush head as standard. Designed to blend, contour, tint, blush and bronze, it does the most out of the trio available. Others to choose from though are the FeatherBlend and BuffBlend brush heads if additionally needed.
When it came to applying my foundation, it spread both liquid and powder formulations extremely evenly when using its ‘Blend’ mode and applied my powder blusher and cream contouring shade very smoothly indeed. I was worried that I wouldn’t achieve the level of precision I look for when contouring my cheeks and jawline in particular, but the results came as a pleasant surprise - the finish was natural and seamless.
For more intricate work though, I preferred using my fingers and specialist manual makeup brushes when it came to products like eyeshadow (the recommended ‘Airbrush’ mode was a little rough for the delicate eye area in my opinion), and concealer. It also comes in at a pretty expensive £70 and for that amount, I would have liked a choice of extra brushes or a replacement one included in the set. The additional heads/replacements are £20 each , so it is an investment. That being said though, it certainly delivered on its claims to provide a finish that’s free of clumping, edge-lines and streaks as far as my base, blush and contouring products were concerned and worked well with both creams and powders alike. So for that, I can certainly report that it delivers. When comparing it to my usual endeavours with manual foundation and blusher brushes, the end result was more even, glowy and professional looking than what my amateur efforts produce and less messy than when using my fingers, so in the battle of machine vs man in my case, it looks as if machine may have beaten me this time around.
The Magnitone Vibra-sonic BlendUp Makeup Brush is £70 and is available to buy online here .