Scope: Makeup Brushes, Sponges & Applicators — hand-held cosmetic application tools: makeup brushes (face/eye/lip/brow), blending sponges, and powder puffs. Excludes eyelash curlers (sibling leaf `eyelash-curlers`) and cleaning solutions/palettes/cases/mirrors (sibling leaf `makeup-tool-cleansers`).

Seed: 1) Equivalent of "weave" here is bristle/sponge material: everyone leads with brush "size" or sponge "shape," but material (synthetic filament vs natural hair; non-latex foam vs latex) is what actually decides powder-vs-liquid performance. 2) A nurse would notice first that these tools sit against skin daily and are rarely washed — the hygiene/bacteria angle, not the cosmetic finish, is the first thing a clinical eye would flag.

Sources:
[wikipedia_makeup_brush] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makeup_brush — brush shapes, synthetic vs natural bristle performance, natural hair species — fetched excerpt (curl)
[wikipedia_powder_puff] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_puff — puff material history, synthetic puffs, intake factors — fetched excerpt (curl)
[wikipedia_sponge_tool] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sponge_(tool) — synthetic sponge materials (polyurethane, polyester, cellulose) — fetched excerpt (curl)
[healthline_brush_hygiene] https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-clean-makeup-brushes — bacteria buildup, wash twice a month, replace every 3 months — fetched excerpt (curl)
[ecotools_about] https://www.ecotools.com/pages/about-us — 100% vegan/cruelty-free (PETA), recycled aluminum/plastic — fetched excerpt (curl)
[realtechniques_sponge] https://www.realtechniques.com/products/miracle-complexion-sponge — latex-free foam, damp use, micro-fine pores, 3-point shape — fetched excerpt (curl)

Branches: applicator_type (brush/sponge_or_blender/powder_puff) routes to each type's own facet set per wikipedia_makeup_brush (brush specs), realtechniques_sponge (sponge specs), wikipedia_powder_puff (puff specs). primary_formula=liquid_or_cream makes natural_hair_species irrelevant per wikipedia_makeup_brush ("avoid liquid or cream products as they will drink up most of the products"). use_area=brows_and_lashes makes bristle_density/ferrule_construction/pore_density/puff_size irrelevant per wikipedia_makeup_brush: brow/lash tools are a spoolie or comb ("the spoolie end of this brush helps to blend in the brow product"), never a dense/fluffy brush head, sponge, or puff. use_area=lips makes bristle_density/pore_density/puff_size/natural_hair_species irrelevant per wikipedia_makeup_brush: lip tools are a small precision brush ("Lip brush - this brush is used to fill in the lips using the lip color of one's choice"), not a sponge, puff, or natural-hair-species-specific tool.

Noise (rows seen but not made facets):
- EcoTools "bath accessories" / loofah-style products — out of scope, covered by sibling `loofahs` leaf.
- Real Techniques "Brush + Sponge Cleansing Gel" / cleaning solution — out of scope, covered by sibling `makeup-tool-cleansers` leaf.
- Price / "everyday price" positioning on both brand pages — price is never a facet.
- Lip gloss doe-foot wand applicators (wikipedia_makeup_brush) — ship bundled with the lip product itself, not sold standalone as a tool in this leaf.
- Brush/sponge set vs single-item packaging — generic retail-bundle attribute, not an expert judgment specific to this category.
- "Stylish"/color/design marketing on EcoTools page — aesthetic marketing claim, not an expert attribute.

Dead ends (fetch attempts that returned nothing usable, not cited): AAD.org cleaning page (404), FDA cosmetics-safety pages (blocked), Cleveland Clinic/WebMD/Self/Byrdie/Wirecutter articles (404 or blocked), Allure best-brushes roundup (404), old.reddit r/MakeupAddiction wiki (empty render), Sigma Beauty collection and Real Techniques materials pages (no descriptive text), Google search fetch (no destination URL recoverable). WebSearch was exhausted for this session per task instructions.

Corrections (2026-10-26):
- ferrule_construction's sole citation (ecotools_about) never mentioned ferrule construction; re-sourced to [bsmallbeauty_ferrule] https://bsmallbeauty.com/makeup-brush-ferrule/ (fetched excerpt, curl), which states crimped/welded-seamless ferrules hold better than glued ones.
- primary_formula's `liquid_or_cream`/`powder` branches fired then_ask (sponge_material/sponge_use_mode, bristle_material) unconditionally, contradicting applicator_type's own routing; removed both then_ask overrides and dropped the now-empty `powder` branch, since applicator_type already owns that routing.
- cruelty_free_vegan_certified's ecotools_about reference overstated "PETA certified" (the word never appears in body text, only in a logo image's alt text); softened the reference's supports line instead of asserting certification.
- sponge_material's wikipedia_sponge_tool citation was a generic dishwashing/bathing-sponge article; replaced with [kosmetech_sponges] https://www.kosmetech.com/more_info.aspx?id=11&sid=1 (fetched excerpt, curl), a cosmetic-sponge manufacturer's own polyurethane/latex material page; wikipedia_sponge_tool reference dropped (no longer cited anywhere).
- Added vocabulary entries for "Flocked" (puff_material), "Crimped" (ferrule_construction), and "Chenille" (puff_material), each previously used undefined.
- Documented use_area's `brows_and_lashes` and `lips` branch legs in this Branches line, citing wikipedia_makeup_brush's spoolie/comb and lip-brush descriptions (previously undocumented here, though the register logic itself was unchanged).