Are they really necessary?
The ever so often controversial topic is sanitation in the beauty world, meaning, things that salon professionals do that might not be healthy for your skin, such as getting nails done with unsterile tools causing fungi, outbreaks, and irritations or getting haircuts and brows tweezed in an unclean room without proper safety measures.
What’s most important about makeup is your skin care routine; good skin guarantees good makeup. Otherwise, it would be called cover up, quite the contrary to the purpose of makeup. Its supposed to be expressive, decorative, and decadent. It’s an organized process that should move with the skin. It’s not an element of disguise, it’s an alter ego.
Because makeup is organic, the best tools to use are actually your hands, your fingers. One beauty writer describes hands as the ultimate lo-fi beauty tool.

Here 5 major reasons why you should ditch brushes:
1. It’s sexy to use your hands while applying makeup. Women applying makeup is just as appealing to a man as perhaps a man doing construction work is appealing to women. Watching a woman pout as she taps her lipstick in place. There is a certain je ne sais qua about it.
2. Makeup, especially cream formulas, blend well when applied with fingers. The warmth of the skin helps to loosen the product creating a smoother natural appearance. It also garners more control since it allows enough leverage to sense and measure the viscosity of the product. Since the fingertips have many nerves endings, it can easily sense texture, moisture and fluidity much better than a sponge or brush could. It allows you more control with mixing formulas and blending colours.
3. It’s actually more sanitary to use your hands. You know how clean your hands are; you can wash, wipe and sanitize your hands as you go. There is a myth that consumers and clients have that it’s unsanitary for a makeup artist to use their hands. Consider it debunked, and let’s just blame ignorance and disaccustomacy. There’s is no perfectly sanitized area or room. Hospitals carry the most germs and bacteria and they are cleaned often. It’s imperative that people understand that, especially new makeup artists. Instead of following hearsay, seek the facts.

4. Think of it this way, they are some people, take men for example, who have never used makeup or any skin care or proper grooming regiments. They still end up with break outs, discoloration, premature aging, and other damaging effects. The environment can do far more harm than makeup itself.
5. Easy clean up. Keeping brushes and sponges clean is often a daunting tedious task. All you have to do with hands is wipe, wash, and remove. It’s fast and easy. I often take pleasure in using my hands to apply makeup, everything from eyeshadow to foundation and blush. Especially eye makeup, eye shadows apply richer and blend easier when applied with fingers, there’s no applying then using a blending bulrushes, it’s just touch and go, since blending and applying is a two in one process with fingers. As a makeup artist I’m forced to wash brushes every day, since I have work often, so it’s much of an ease to use my hands when applying my own makeup, especially, and just use a makeup wipe to clean my hands when I’m finished.