Of Toys and Co: Koyudo Brushes Part III

Yes, more Koyudo brushes ^.^ I love them!

Quick notes for this batch:

1. As usual, all brushes were photographed pre-wash. Unlike the Hakuhodo brushes, the smaller Koyudo eye shadow brushes are starched, which means measurements are totally off for those. I did take post-wash pictures for those.

2. Despite some brushes being starched in the pre-wash photos, for visual folks like me a seeing is still better than nothing. CD Japan isn't too great about pictures and measurements of the Koyudo brushes.

3. Again, cameras don't have the same depth-perception as our eyes. Measurements are only estimates and not so much engineer-precise, plus the starching of the brushes.

4. Brushes are listed by collection, then model number.

Brushes in this batch, from left to right: BP002, BP034, fu-pa10-p, fu-pa11-p, Pr004, and Pr005.

- BP002 Goat Saikoho, 7,000JPY: As I absolutely adore my Hakuhodo J531, I was super curious to see how this BP002 would compare, after all they're the same angled shape and both are made of Goat Saikoho.

Well, this BP002 has longer hair length and is wider at the base of the ferrule than the Hakuhodo J531, but the Hakuhodo J531 is a lot more densely packed with a lot more hair. Hakuhodo J531's density resulted in it being thicker at the ferrule, and after washing it poofed out a lot more. They both feel equally soft, but BP002's less dense hair makes it "floppy" when shaken, and thus the brush is more suitable for finishing and/or to remove excess powder. Whereas Hakuhodo J531 has less give and provides more coverage that's natural and even, so I still use it to set my bb cream with translucent powder.

I guess I really should be comparing this BP002 with the Hakuhodo J100 instead, since the J100 seems to have longer hair length and flatter on the sides as well. Very tempted to buy this J100, but how many angled powder brushes do I need?!?

- BP034 Kolinsky, 3,000JPY: I think CD Japan's online picture for this brush is totally misleading. In their picture, the brush head is rounded whereas you can see below, the actual shape is definitely squarish and not rounded.

But aside from the unexpected difference in shape, this brush is fantastic for eye base application as well as cream shadows washes. The kolinsky hair is firm and resilient for liquid products, at the same time it's soft and heavenly. So glad I bought this brush!

Post wash

- fu-pa10-p S Goat & Synthetic, 2800JPY: this brush shape comes in 3 types of hair, each with 2 sizes (S or L), for a total of 6 brushes in the same shape. Also, note the suffix "-b" for black handle and/or hair and "-p" for pink handle and/or hair. The fu-pa05 S and the fu-pa06 L are dual-fiber but are "half and half," as in one side of the brush is full goat hair and the other side synthetic. The fu-pa07 S and fu-pa08 L are both full goat hair. The fu-pa09 and fu-pa10 are also dual-fiber, but the goat and synthetic hair are evenly mixed and not so clearly divided into halves like fu-pa05 S and the fu-pa06 L.

Sonia from Sweet Makeup Temptation has all 6 of these, and she has lots of great things to say about the half-n-half fu-pa05 S and the fu-pa06 in particular. Since I don't use powder foundation and only use bb cream as highlighter/concealer, I opted for the evenly mixed goat and synthetic one instead, and the smaller version too, because, well, I don't use bb cream all over my face, only in specific areas. And the brush delivers exactly what I needed, the synthetic hairs provides a firm but soft brush, and the size offers great precision and control. Having been using this brush for a few months now, I'm totally lemming the full goat angled versions fu-pa12 and fu-pa13 for powder and blush, and especially now that the smaller version fu-pa13 has a blue handle! ^.^

- fu-pa11-p Goat & Synthetic, 2,200JPY: I was looking towards chubby little brush the most! It's dual fiber for use with liquids, and it has a rounded ferrule but with a flat and angled brush crown. When I did receive it though, I realized the hair is just a touch longer than I'd like, because longer hair means the brush will be less firm despite being decently dense.

That said, even though I wish the hair is a bit shorter, I still like this brush a lot, because it's so so so versatile! Let's see, I use it for bb creams where it offers excellent precision and control, for eye base/primer or for dusting on a sparkling top wash where it gets the job done in one sweep, for highlighting with powder where it fits the ridge of my nose perfectly, and even for pigmented cream blush!

- Pr004 Goat Sokoho & Synthetic, 2,200JPY: this particular brush comes in 2 sizes, this is the large and the Pr005 below is the small. I bought both for their unique shape, and because they're dual fiber for versatility.

Don't let the starched pre-wash pictures fool you and check out the post wash ones below instead! On the front and back, these brushes look like any other tapered eye shadow brushes. But look on the side and you'll see that they're actually shaped like a hand with thumb and fingers pressing together, with one side slightly convex (like the back of the hand) and other side slightly concave (like the palm). CD Japan has a good stock photo showing the shape of the brush from the side.

***Stock photo from CD Japan flipped along the horizontal plane.

However, what CD Japan does not tell you is that the convex and concave sides of the brush have different firmness: the convex side (back of the hand) is firmer and has less give, and the concave side (the palm) is less firm and has more give. This is freakin' awesome if you ask me! I can use the convex or firmer side for liquids like eye bases and cream eye shadows, and the concave or less firm side for powder shadows or sparkling top washes!

Post wash. Look at the right picture, see how the left side slightly convex (back of the hand) and the right side slightly concave (palm side)?

- Pr005 Goat Sokoho & Synthetic, 1,800JPY: the smaller version of the same brush shape above.

In addition to doing all the above, this smaller version also has an added benefit of being able to smudge shadows or liners using the sides, whereas the large version above is too soft and fluffy on the side for this function.