Make up brushes make the news in NYC
Dear brush lovers !
Just a tiny post to share a wonderful article that appeared recently in the New York Times about Chikuhodo and Mr Takemori.
This link has been sent to me by Malin, she knows how much I love Chikuhodo and Kumano and since not many of us have access to this newspaper, I thought I will link it here for you.
I think many of you are interested to learn a bit more about the origins of the brand that makes so many wonderful brushes. Below is an example of some of the brushes they manufacture but they are also responsible for Kanebo, Etreindre, La Donna and possibly many more.
Needless to say that since I will be in Kumano very shortly, I will share many pictures with you during my trip.
Have a wonderful rest of the week ! 
My HG brushes and more
My reason fails me when it comes to makeup brushes, I have this unrestrained curiosity to discover more and more and I don’t think I will ever have enough of them. The worst part is that it’s not going to end soon and due to the newest acquisitions that keep on coming my favorites may change on a regular basis.
When I finally calm down and my wallet gets some peace and quiet you then send me new links and trigger my inner beast again ! I don’t know if I have to thank you or blame you, probably both, but I do enjoy it, a lot.
I am creating this post due to high demand, I received a few emails recently about brushes and thought that it was time for a new post on that topic, it will certainly help me address these questions a little bit more in detail.
Your questions were related to my favorite brushes: whatever the price, whatever the brand. After a few days, weeks actually, of deliberation I came to the conclusion that it would not be easy to answer and the result would involve a lot of them, more than 140 actually, 140 is not the total amount of brushes I have, it’s just the number of brushes that made it into my very top favorites. I did my best to narrow it down to just a very few by category but still, too many.
These are most of my HG brushes :
My 2012 brush awards
I thought it could be a fun idea to start the year with some pictures of the most exceptional brushes I have come across during 2012. I have tried to narrow down the list to the minimum but there are still so many of them !
I wanted to pick the most exceptional and unique, the ones that have surprised me the most, not exactly the most necessary. I will make sure I share at least one link where you can find them in order to get more details on the brushes. They are not in preference order, just brand by brand. You will see the picture of the brush(es) and below the picture a small comment on each.
The most lovable brush !
Koyudo designed the most creative and tempting brushes I have seen this year, I am nearly scared when they release new brushes because I know there is a big chance than an order will follow. This macaron has been released in 3 colors, there is also an orange and a purple, it’s adorable, incredibly soft, tiny, very densely packed and firm, not the most necessary brush I admit but I have to say that this one is one of the most beautiful brushes to look at.
I use it to apply powder or blush, the surface covers approx 4cm and it’s only 5cm tall.
Chikuhodo Z-1, Z-9 and MK-2 … more pictures !
I first got the Z-1, then the MK-2 and I could not stay away from the Z-9 anymore… I had to get it too.
These three brushes being all home now, I thought I could take some pictures and show you how they compared side by side, maybe you are already thinking of your Christmas wish list :)
Although the hair quality (grey squirrel) is the same on all these brushes, the shape and density differs.
| Hair length | Base of ferrule | Thickness (at the widest point) | Price | |
| Z-1 | 4.5cm | 2.5cm | 3.5cm | 15,750 yen |
| MK-2 | 5cm | 2.5cm | 4.5cm | 15,750 yen |
| Z-9 | 5cm | 2.6cm | 5.5cm | 15,750 yen |
A review of three Chikuhodo big sisters : BL12-6, Special G-3 and M-4
I call them “the three sisters”, they are so similar they must share the same DNA:
If you like big soft brushes, these are seriously good candidates, unfortunately when you try one, there is a risk you’ll want more of them …
The Chikuhodo Z Series
I am actually very excited to write this little post about the Chikuhodo Z Series, I discovered them not that long ago, I started with the Z-8, Z-5 and Z-10 and today, the Z-1, Z-2 and Z-4 also joined my collection, I also have the intention to get the rest of the Z-Series, some day. I know, I clearly don’t need that many eye or face brushes since I only have 2 eyes and 2 cheeks, but I am a crazy brush fan and collector and I actually do use them all.
It’s good to know that Chikuhodo is the manufacturer of Suqqu, RMK, Lunasol and many other great Japanese brands, then you understand even better where the quality and handcraft of these brands comes from.
When I tried these Chikuhodo Z Series for the first time, I was wondering how I could still give some love to my older brushes. There are only a few makeup related items that make me feel like a Gollum, not only because they are so hard to get your hands on, but these Z Series are the best quality brushes I have ever had. I am preparing a new “favorite brushes” post since my collection has dramatically changed from last year, these Chikuhodo will all figure on my favorite brushes post.
They are all grey squirrel and are meant for powder products. I am not going to repeat myself under each brush description, but, they all are HG to me and they all are worth their price tag.
Holiday post – Beauty items packed lightly…
I used to pack too much makeup in the past but I am getting better, this time I really have to pack even lighter, I don’t have the choice since we are leaving on our motorbikes. Not my favorite means of transport but next year I will do something more “me”, maybe New York or the Maldives ?
I started packing, even though I could absolutely leave home only with my moisturizer, my mascara and my lip balm, I decided to pack some more things, still too many but let’s see what I can do…, so far it sums up to :
Rouge Bunny Rouge – Face makeup brushes
I was finally able to get my hands on the Rouge Bunny Rouge 012 Contour brush, every time I wanted to order it, it happened to be sold out… is that because it’s really that good ?
So here it is now and since I have the other two RBR face brushes, I take this opportunity to briefly review the three Rouge Bunny Rouge face brushes together.
If you don’t know it already, RBR make wonderful eyeshadows and blushes, expensive, but you’ll love them. Their makeup brushes are not bad at all but if you had the possibility to try Japanese brands like Hakuhodo, Koyudo, Chikuhodo, Suqqu, you’ll find that it’s quite difficult to find better elsewhere.
Face powder 001 – Goat hair
Base of the ferrule : 2,5cm, hair length : 5cm
Chikuhodo – review of some amazing brushes
Good news, I have finally tried Chikuhodo brushes and they are really good.
Bad news, they are very difficult to get unless you live in Japan or have a friend or colleague traveling or working in Japan.
The Company
This is copied from their website :
CHIKUHODO Co., Ltd. is a makeup brush manufacturer, which adopts traditional Japanese brush making style and is located in Kumano, Hiroshima prefecture. Receiving orders from many domestic and overseas client companies, CHIKUHODO has been engaging in manufacturing of all types of high-quality makeup brushes. Today CHIKUHODO has grown into the No.1 companyin original equipment manufacturing (OEM) of makeup brushes in Japan.We feel so grateful to many top-ranking makeup artists both inside and outside of Japan for giving us precious opinions and knowledge, which we feel has lead us to come so far as a high-quality makeup brush manufacturer.
The reason why I quoted their site Company description is because there is something I don’t understand…
Why can they “receive order from overseas client companies” and not ship worldwide to clients like us ?
I am not aware of their company regulations but Hakuhodo for example do ship worldwide to anyone.
Chikuhodo say in their site that they are the manufacturers of Suqqu and RMK brushes, just to say a few.
First I will talk about the Chikuhodo brushes I received, then, if you are interested in the order experience I had to go through, you can have a look at the bottom of this post for some details.
The Chikuhodo website is in japanese, you have some pages in english. The online shop is only in Japanese.
They have the Chikuhodo Z series, the SV, the GS, the G, the BP, the K, the Artist … and many others, this page will help you understand their range : Chikuhodo Cosmetic Brush Series
I found this page really useful to navigate and check out their type of brushes : Choose from the type of brush If you check out the brushes via this page, you will have the description of the brushes, size and hair. If you install Google Chrome as a web navigator, it will translate you the brush descriptions in english !
The brushes
What I was trying to do when I selected these brushes, is order some brushes that would allow me to do my full face make up, and achieve it only with Chikuhodo brushes.
Most of the brushes are goat and grey squirrel. I am still trying to translate what they are made of and will update this review with the detailed hair description. I still did not manage to get a correct translation… sorry.
This picture has been taken before I washed the new brushes :
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