Hakuhodo Haul

Welcome to yet another post on brushes. This one’s a bit different though, as these are brand new from my little Hakuhodo pop up store visit visits. So today I will be sharing first impressions and doing a few comparisons with my existing Hakuhodo brushes.

 

So first off let’s start with new cheek and contour brushes,

 

 

The H2282 from the premium Kokutan series is a true masterpiece! I adore the wooden handle with it’s soft curves and the beautiful Japanese lettering, such an esthetically pleasing design. Looks aside, the brush feels luxurious to the touch. This is without a doubt the softest brush I own (softer than my Chikuhodo Z4!). Crafted with a mix of blue squirrel and synthetic fiber the brush is of a flat paddle shape, with tapered head leading to a soft curved edge. This helps with applying blush with no visible edges. The medium density of bristles picks up just enough blush to create a soft flush.

Although the J4003 brush is listed for highlighting on the Hakuhodo site, I was recommended using it for contour as it’s small enough to work well with my face shape.  Bristles are somewhat tightly packed and aid with good control and resistance while you carve out chiseled cheek bones. J4003 is crafted with goat Hair.

G5552 finally filled the void in my collection for a cream blush brush. It’s crafted with a blend of Goat and synthetic fiber and the polyester bristles that extend a little higher than the goat hair is said to give the brush a more springy feel and aids in stippling and buffing cream/liquid products without over applying.

 

Now onto eye brushes. Below are a selection of blending brushes that I picked up.

 

As you would have probably guessed, my favourites from the Hakuhodo brushes are the J series. To me the biggest selling point is that the bristles used to craft these are pure and have not been dyed. And what’s not to love about the contrast of pretty white bristles against the glossy black handles! Looks so elegant and professional.

So I picked up 2 more of the J5523 which is one of my favourite Hakuhodo brushes. You can read more about this brush over here.

I then picked up the J142. A slimmer and longer blending brush (compared to J5523) with soft tapered bristles that lead to a slight point. This one looks like a scaled down version of my Tom ford eyeshadow blend brush. And since I love my TF brush so much, I decided to pick this up to see how it measured up against it.

My last pick, the J5533 was an impulse buy. When I stroked it (for lack of a better word) I realized this brush had more resistance than the J142. The tapering of the end was very very slight leading to the brush head looking almost flat when view from above. Not sure as to what this shape is ideal for, but I am guessing it would be great for blending.

Here’s a look at the brush tips for size and shape comparison.

J142 has the smallest tip and is rounded, great for defining crease and blending. The J5533 is slightly larger and suitable for larger eyes. J5523 is a flatter brush.

For a quick comparison I also snapped a few of these blender brushes with my Hakuhodo S142 .

*On a side note, as you may have noticed, when the numbers remain the same (in this case J142 and S142) with only the series changing, the shape of the brush stays identical. Only difference being the type of hair used to craft it or the handle.

Now let’s move onto some interesting brushes I picked up.

 

First one is this very unusually shaped fan brush J4006. There is a bit of a story behind this, so I thought i’d share.

So the first time the Hakuhodo pop up stall made an appearance in Takashimaya I spotted this little brush. It’s possibly the smallest fan brush I had ever seen, out of curiosity I asked one of the Hakuhodo representitives that were present as to what it’s uses were. Apparently it’s for taking off excess mascara and clumps and also separating the lashes! I walked away as it was not a brush I needed but then as always, I went back a few day’s later to find they were all sold out! >.< Anyhow glad I found it again! And this time, wasn’t going home without it!

B5549 is a very stiff brow brush made of water badger hair. It’s a much larger brow brush than what I am used to and I feel this would be ideal to map out the initial outline of the brow as it would give a nice clean finish! And if I am not mistaken, I think I’ve seen my friend Sophia use this same one 🙂

The third brush was a bit of an indulgence.. G5523. This is the softer version of my J5523 and is made of blue squirrel hair. Due to it’s softer bristles it gives less resistance than the J5523 and also note that the bristles lie much closer together. Here’s a close up of the two for a quick comparison. 

 

 

The last brush B133, is one of the few Canadian squirrel hair brushes that Hakuhodo makes. Canadian squirrel hair is rare and expensive,  and it’s said to be very elastic and yet soft to the touch. It’s one of those luxury brushes that are nice to own 😀 And according to the Hakuhodo site, I read that this brush was highly prized by makeup artists for it’s uniform body and control. So I am excited to give this a spin! 

 

And there you have it! Everything you needed to know about my hauling session and then some! Hope I didn’t overload you with info 🙂 And please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions about these brushes.

 

Wishing you a great weekend!

Michelle.