MAC brushes are the bomb I love the 187 its the best! I think though as long as you have the right tools (good quality brushes such as bobbie brown, ect) You can work magic!
I thought my makeup, especially eye makeup was pretty good with the cheap brushes that I was using.. Then my boyfriend bought me one of the brush sets from the holiday collection and wow! Everything is so much easier and looks so much better than before! And these are the brushes that aren't even the same quality as the full sized brushes..
MAC brushes are amazing. My shadow application looks neater (I hope). The hold a lot of color but they don't waste it. I hope that makes sense. I have a lot of brushes but I want them all hehe.
i used to use sponge applicators because i always thought brushes were harder to work with but then when i saw how popular MAC brushes were (thanks to specktra ^_~) i had to give them a try.. so i went and got my first brushes: #239 & #224 and my MU application improved 180 degrees! i would always get really harsh lines around the edges of my eyeshadow when i used sponge applicators but with the #224 the blending was amazing and made my eyeshadows look so much better =)
I started off with with Sephora brushes, which I liked, but the MAC equivalents are so much better. The 219 creates the perfect smokey liner for your eyes. It's so much better than the Sephora "pencil brush".
they are much softer than others and they make blending a breeze! i noticed a big difference in how much better my makeup, esp my eyes, looked when using MAC brushes! however i still loves sponges for concealing!