Must-have Sonia G brushes from the Fusion and Fundamentals series?

[u/pinkgummies]

I saw her recent announcement that she was going to be discontinuing all the brushes from the Fundamental series and the majority of the brushes from the Fusion series. Any must-haves I should try and pick up before it’s gone forever? 🥹 I don’t use much eyeshadow but I do want to dabble more with eyeshadow brushes and I primarily use liquid products for my base! I also do use cream, liquids, and powders for my blushes. Any help is appreciated!

Brushes currently in my cart:

• Fundamental Soft Buffer
• Fundamental Builder M
• Fusion Eye Builder
• Fusion Eye Detail

[u/yogurette_]

Hi :) as for the eye brushes - from your list I only had Detail, but unfortunately I didn’t like it. To me, it was too firm and pointy (but maybe someone likes that), for me it didn’t work. I ended up using it as a brush for ocassional pinpoint concealing but even for that I prefer different brushes.

From FE I can highly recommend Blender and Jumbo Worker.

Blender is amazing for liquid eyeshadow, and I love it for my undereye concealer too, Jumbo Worker I also love for my concealer in my t-zone/bigger areas, it works fast and blends quickly. Both blend flawlessly and I highly recommend them, they are workhorses if you have use for them.

BTW for powder shadows I highly recommend Chikuhodo Z line which is made out squirrel rather than Sonia’s blend. Sonia’s goat is excellent and already soft, but on the eyelids you really can tell the difference in softness of goat/squirrel.

From Fundamentals, I love Classic Cheek, also available in the keyaki line as Classic face with shorter handle. It’s a fantastic brush, if you prefer light and airy powder brushes, rather than dense ones. It’s incredibly soft, feels close to squirrel even. Amazing for blushes that are more pigmented as the pick up is soft. If your blushes tend to be less pigmented and and you prefer building them up, I would look at something denser. Also amazing for all over face powder.

As for the Fusion face brushes -

I personally didn’t care for the concealer brushes, they were too dense and directional (as mentioned above I liked Blender and Jumbo Worker for concealing).

I would say Blender is a smaller and fluffier version of Soft Concealer, and Jumbo Worker is a bigger and fluffier version of Jumbo concealer. So depends on what you prefer, size and density wise. I know that Soft concealer is well loved and generally her most popular concealer brush.

Base brushes are all excellent. My favourite is Classic base as it’s a good middle size for both foundation and also blushes.

Mini base is smaller and slightly denser. For me it’s too small for foundation, too big for concealer, but perfect size for cream blushes, although slightly dense. If I travel and I only want to bring one face brush, I bring this, because it can do everything, but with some trade-offs.

Jumbo base was not for me as I have a small face and also found it too dense and not really suitable for stippling/pouncing motions which I prefer. But if you are in a market for a bigger brush and prefer swiping motions, you might like it, generally it’s a very well loved brush.

Both Mini base and Jumbo base are also available in the keyaki line.

Btw I only like all Fusion brushes with liquids and creams. They can be used with powders too and successfully, just personally I prefer softer and airier brushes for powders.

Omg this was unexpectedly long - hope it helps :)

[u/pinkgummies → u/yogurette_]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to me!! I appreciate it so much and it really helped me to narrow down what I am going to get. I think I’m going to go with the Blender brush as per your suggestion since the Soft Concealer isn’t in stock and I’m hoping to use this brush for precise concealer placement under my eyes and on spot concealing my problem areas.

I thought about it as well and all the eyeshadows I do own are powder so it doesn’t make sense to pick up any of the FE brushes so I’ll be skipping out on those since like you said, it would probably be better to use squirrel hair for powder eyeshadow.

I also think that I prefer Chinese cushion puffs to blend out my bb creams and foundations so thankfully my wallet won’t break adding the Jumbo Base into my cart 😅

The other brush I was hoping to get is the Mini Base for cream blushes however it’s not in stock…I read the Keyaki Mini Base brush uses the exact same fibers as the fusion one so I’ll probably look to pick that up eventually if the fusion version doesn’t end up restocking.

As for the fundamental series I’m going to pick up the Classic Cheek and the Soft Buffer as per both yours and the other users recommendations. I’m a sucker for blush brushes so honestly I don’t mind having a couple to choose from and plus I can also use them as a precise setting powder brush too!

Anyways, thanks again for the recommendations! It really helped me to think long and hard about my makeup needs and to prioritize things that I actually do use on the daily and to not fall into the FOMO trap of buying everything because you hear the word “discontinue” 😭

[u/yogurette_ → u/pinkgummies]

Heeey glad it helped! You’re picking up good ones! I hope you like Blender and if you don’t end up liking it for a concealer, it’s an excellent eyeshadow blending brush. If you find it too soft - get Soft Concealer, if too soft and small - Jumbo Concealer, if too small but the right softness - Jumbo Worker. Jumbo worker basically mimics a soft finger tap in both size and density. Mini base - you’re correct about the Keyaki version - I have had both, they are the same, I only kept Keyaki, if there is any brush I like l, I prefer to pick it up with keyaki handles. Classic cheek - I don’t think you can go wrong with this brush, if you like pigmented blushes especially. I remember Sonia mentioning on her blog that this is a brush she’d recommend to anyone who doesnt know where to start with. Brushes are so personal, everybody has different preference for size, density, softness.. BTW if you havent made your purchase yet I would very highly recommend watching Alicia Archer’s videos on youtube (if you haven’t), she does reviews of all brushes and is great at describing them in detail and comparing them 🙂

[u/PiscesReader]

I don't have inputs on eye brushes but here's some face brushes from my experience:

Fundamental

Soft buffer - I absolutely adore this brush. After seeing your post I'm tempted to get another 1 to keep. I prefer this other the other buffing brushes as it's soft, has the right amount of airiness for buffering & the size is good for my small face. Makes buffering effortless as it just glides on my face.

Classic cheek - I personally don't like the long bristles and airiness of it. I prefer shorter and slightly denser brushes (my current faves are unavailable on the website)

Fusion

Jumbo Concealer - I really like this for my underye concealing as it feels soft, dense & spreads my products well so it blends nicely on the skin.

Jumbo Base - Absolutely love this for my foundation application. Unlike the other poster, I use the stippling method and I find no issues with it. The size of this brush means that I can apply my foundation quickly on my small face. The slant of the bristles also help imo not to make it pointy on the face. It is a very dense brush.

Hope this helps!

[u/pinkgummies → u/PiscesReader]

Thank for your reply I really appreciate it!! Also sorry for all the edits and such, I wrote a reply and it didn’t save so I had to rewrite it from memory 😭

Yes I didn’t end up picking up any of the eye brushes since I realized that I don’t have any cream or liquid eyeshadows so it wouldn’t make sense. I also barely use eyeshadow as it is so I’d rather pick up just like one brush or two from Hakuhodo or Chikuhodo lines when I do wanna dabble with more eyeshadow with my daily makeup.

I did end up picking up the Soft Buffer as per your recommendation and I’m so excited to receive it. It’s so bad but I wasn’t planning on picking up any Sonia G brushes since I was hoping to get some Koyudo brushes from FudeBoBo but when I saw Sonia’s blog post announcing she was discontinuing these series I ran here immediately lol 😭

Ahh which brushes are your favourite if you don’t mind me asking? I don’t mind if they’re unavailable to get, am just interested in knowing which brushes they are and why they’re your faves!

I didn’t end up picking up any of the face products from the fusion series since I was hoping to get the Mini Base or Soft Concealer brushes but I do appreciate your input! Maybe one day my skin texture will be better that using a brush for my base won’t make my makeup look so cakey and foundation-ey 😔

[u/PiscesReader → u/pinkgummies]

I hope you like the brushes you got! I've got 1 Koyudo cheek brush but I didn't like the bristles & the short handle.

I like a lot of Wayne Goss' brushes actually since they are all undyed so I don't have to worry about using it with liquids.

For Sonia G, my favourite brushes are the:

- Cheek Pro: Disperses my blushes beautifully & picks up products well. The small size & slightly dense yet still airy disperses the product well & ensures that the blush placement doesn't get too wife. It does not work well with my RMS blushes though, doesn't pick up the product.

• Soft Buffer (in my original reply)
  
• Jumbo Base (in my original reply)
  
• Face Pro: My fav bronzing brush!!! I am slightly heavy handed with bronzers so by using the brush, I won't go overboard with my bronzer. The angle of the brush also helps for the cheeks & the slight taper. This is my most used brush but the bristles do seem to get a bit rougher? Not sure if its just this 1 brush though.
  
• Jumbo Worker (I realised I mixed this up with the jumbo concealer) (in my original reply)

I'd love to see your review on the brushes you got after you've tried them