Koyudo Brushes Part IV

Even more Koyudo brushes!!! Over the holidays my sister gave me her CDJapan points and so I treated myself to some Koyudo. Because, well, it's Koyudo! xD

So as I mentioned in my previous Chikuhodo post, that after the third repeat of the quick notes I'd stop so I'm just going straight to the brushes in this post. 

Brushes in this batch, from left to right: BP014, BP025, BP026, BP027, BP029, and BP046.

- BP014 Goat Hakutotsuho, 2,800JPY: a lovely lovely smaller liquid foundation brush that I use with bb creams as well as cream/liquid/gel blushes. It's very soft and I was hoping it would be firmer, but it actually has more give than expected, probably because it's not too densely packed. However, the relatively thinner shape and perfectly round crown makes up for the give, and thus the brush can do details just fine.



Whereas similar brushes that are much denser and slightly firmer, the Chikuhodo G-10 for example, are also much thicker and as such clumsier with corners and edges. So yeah, you can say I love this brush just a tad more than the G-10 :P In fact, I like this BP014 so much I'm considering the much bigger and denser BP013 also. It's highly unlikely that I'll ever need the BP013 for its intended use - the all over foundation/bb cream application, but a reviewer said she uses her BP013 for powder and not liquid, which totally flipped a light switch in my head. I realized then the BP013 is basically a longer-haired, rounder, and bigger fu-pa02, with the same un-dyed hakutotsuho and all! I do use my fu-pa02 for powder, so why not BP013 too?

- BP025 Gray Squirrel, 3,900JPY: this brush, its wish-listed bigger sister BP018 (the gray squirrel version of the BP016 Saikoho), the BP029 below, as well as Chikuhodo G-03 and G-04 are all the fault of one single brush, the BP033. No, really, I must blame BP033 for being so maddeningly soft that I'm trampling all over my no squirrel rule and bought gray squirrel eyeshadow and cheeks brushes! Like seriously, what the hell? How can a single brush wreck someone's resolve just like that? That said, I'm not buying Chikuhodo squirrel cheek brushes though, because these Koyudo are just so damn soft and so damn well-priced. So while I'll indulge in Chikuhodo squirrel eye shadow brushes, their price for the squirrel cheek brushes repulses me. Thank goodness!



So I'll be up front right now - I can pet this damn brush all day! Squirrel hair does well with sparkly powders, so it's an excellent highlighting brush that will give a light dusting of shimmers exactly where you need some. Or if you have a super pigmented blush, it will pick up just the right amount for a lovely natural application. Koyudo owns my me with this brush, and I just know that when that bigger version BP018 shows up, they'll own my soul too. Gah!

- BP026 Goat Sokoho, 2,500JPY: after being thrusted up the clouds with the BP025 and the BP029 below, I came crashing back down to earth with this BP026. Ouch. What happened? I'll tell you what happened - look at that shape. It's a very slanted but flat crown. Yes, I did buy this brush for the super-slanted shape, but I didn't expect it to be so flat at the top. I was thinking it would be more rounded like the BP020 (more on this brush below) or at least tapering to a point, so that it would be softer. But nope, together the extreme slant and the flat top ensure that this brush would be somewhat pokey on the face and rough to the touch.



So, the BP020, I have this brush and will review it soon. It's sokoho goat hair too and is also a slanted cheek brush. The difference is the milder slope and much rounder crown. This BP026 has a ~15mm slope (rough eyeing) while the BP020 has a ~5mm slope. Yes, a whole 10mm/1cm difference! This BP026 is a lot flatter at the crown than shown in the top right photo in the quad below, almost completely flat, while the BP020 is rounded and slightly tapered, like the front of the BP029 eyeshadow brush below. So I would say the difference between the BP026 and the BP020 is rather significant.

And you know what, you won't believe the difference in softness between them! It's quite shocking that the flatness would deal such a death blow to softness. The moment I touched the BP020, I had to go online to CDJapan and check to make sure I didn't accidentally order another squirrel hair brush. Yes, it's that soft! I just couldn't wrap my head around the fact that both BP020 and this BP026 are of the same sokoho hair! So yes, while this BP026 is great for contouring, thanks to the extreme slant, since I'm not a big contouring fan, it's magic is lost on me and I'm left mourning the lacking softness. I don't regret this brush like I regretted the Chikuhodo Artist 20-4 and 20-5, I find myself skipping over it every time and going for the BP020 instead :(

- BP027 Kolinsky, JPY4,000: this is the bigger sister to the BP034, with the same kolinsky hair, squarish crown, and flat on the sides. Whatever the BP034 does, this one can do much faster, because it covers more area.



And holy cow, an eye shadow brush costing the same as a squirrel hair BP025 highlighter above?! Yes. Because it's kolinsky. Kolinsky hair is soft but firm, has little yield, and is very resilient when it comes to liquid products. You name it, eye bases and primers, and all sorts of cream, gel, liquid eye shadows. Oh, and it's equally good with powder and does pick up quite a bit of color. Take that. This may sound completely hilarious, but I had to stop myself from reaching for this brush every single time. Can you believe that, folks? I have to force myself to use other brushes to give this one a break. So if you want to invest in one bigger eye brush for both liquids and powder, make it this BP027.



Post-wash.

- BP029 Gray Squirrel, JPY3,300: here's the bigger sister of above said evil, BP033. And of course, this means BP029 is just a bigger evil because it's just as deathly soft and I just want to pet it instead of use it. I love all my Koyudo squirrel brushes despite them being glaring tokens of my weak will. Try this brush with a super sparkly eye shadow, like Makemania Sparkle Glitter, or Excel Glossy or Shiny Shadows, or the L'oreal Infallibles and you'll see why I'm so crazy about these brushes.

Post-wash.

- BP046 Badger Parmi, JPY2,000: so ever since the Hakuhodo B162 disappeared from Hakuhodo's website, I sort of panicked because the B162 was my daily brow brush and if I use it to death there would be no replacement. In fact, I now have several brow brushes that I bought in hopes of finding a Hakuhodo B162 equivalent or runner up, but none of them could measure up, or rather measure down quite literally - they're all a tad wider than B162, or have longer hair, or pick up too little color, etc. There are brushes that are smaller than B162, of course, but they would be a flat liner/detail brush and not slanted.



I approached this BP046 with the same hopes and folks, I can finally say my search is over with this brush. This brush is it! It's actually 1mm narrower than the Hakuhodo B162, just about perfect sizing for my sparse brow. Even better is that it picks up just slightly less color than B162, meaning just the perfect amount of color. In short, this brush is just perfect in every way, size and how much color it picks up. I stopped reaching for B162 when this brush showed up, not because I don't like B162 anymore but because this brush is working out even better for me than B162 does. Dreams do come true every once in a while ^.^ If you're a fan of B162, and you have sparse brows like me, you should definitely give Love, love, love this brush!!!



Post-wash.

See my previous posts:
- Koyudo Brushes
- Koyudo Brushes Part II
- Koyudo Brushes Part III