Synthetic makeup brushes are, well, made of synthetic bristles — hand-crafted out of materials like polyester and nylon. Sometimes they are dyed to look like natural brushes — to a dark cream or brown color — but they can also look like white plastic. They aren’t quite as soft as natural brushes, but they’re much less expensive and come in many styles and brands. Plus, they’re also much easier to wash because the bristles aren’t coated with anything and don’t shed as much as natural ones.

As far as application goes, synthetic brushes tend to work best with liquid and cream products. Think concealers/foundation, lipsticks, or even cream blushes. If you’re a big fan of using a damp sponge to apply your base, switching to a synthetic brush might be smart because they don't absorb as much product and are super simple to blend with (so say goodbye to that foundation line you always get around your jaw).

This is also the case for any cream-based product used with a natural brush; natural brushes will absorb the cream and, in turn, stain and ruin the brush when synthetic brushes will get the job done — no muss, no fuss. Tom Pecheux told Into The Glossbackstage at a Derek Lam show that you must use synthetic brushes with cream-based products. He noted that synthetic bristles lie flat, where natural bristles may poof and become fluffy, only making it more difficult to apply those cream-based cosmetics.

Because synthetic makeup brushes are completely made of man-made materials, they’re almost always cruelty free and PETA approved. Synthetic brushes promise that, based on the sole materials used to make them, no animals were harmed in the process of their creation — something that is a little murkier when considering natural makeup brushes.

Brands like Real Techniques, Urban Decay, Too Faced, and EcoTools make exclusively synthetic brushes, and some even have cruelty-free, sustainable objectives. On the EcoTools website, they make it clear that their brushes “are beautiful and show respect for the earth.”