Before my official Koyudo review, please let me introduce you to the Koyudo Fu-Pa family and the Koyudo White Mushroom… just a few pictures to prepare you to the upcoming review.
The final review will be uploaded shortly, a few sweet followers will also send me their Koyudo pictures and their comments and I will attach all the info in the same post, I thought it could be different and very useful to have several experiences shared in the same review.
In the meantime, let me show you some pictures and just tell you that if you are looking for a brush that has this kind of shape, I totally and highly recommend you these Koyudo.
You can get them in Japan, either in the Koyudo website or the CDJapan website, but be careful with the incoming tax surcharge if that applies to your country.
The Fu-Pa family
- DEKA Fu-Pa : I believe it’s also baby goat chest hair, to be confirmed
- Fu-Pa 01 : baby goat chest hair, meant for blush or powder foundation
- Fu-Pa 02 : baby goat chest hair, meant for cream / liquid foundation
- Fu-Pa 03 : Polybutylene Terephthalate, mineral foundation
They also have some of them with the pink handles, I could not resist these pink handles, so cute and since I wanted a second Fu-Pa 02 I thought it could be interesting to have both versions.
Compared to the Shiseido, it’s of course much bigger but the material seems exactly the same.
The DEKA Fu-Pa is just a bigger version of the Fu-Pa 01 :
Compared to the Shu Uemura and the Tom Ford, the Fu-Pa 02 is much bigger and denser :
They are totally worth the price, incredible soft and beautiful brushes, perfectly well made. These are so different from any other brushes in the market, the handles are thicker and shorter and the hair are extremely densely packed. Absolute zero quality issues.
Now, last but not least, the White Mushroom…
Not even in your wildest brush dreams could you wish of a softer brush, the ultimate powder brush … nothing else.
It is meant for powder foundation or to brush off excess powder. Made of baby goat chest hair, the handle is cherry tree.
I will use this White Mushroom for powder, for hightlighter for an all-over type of glow and also for bronzer. I will also use this brush as a stress ball… touching this brush feels better than Heaven…
I wonder how it will look once washed, this is a picture before the wash :
Update : this is a picture of the White Mushroom being washed, you can see that the hair is densely packed at the base
Being washed
The big question is …. is it softer than the Tom Ford bronzer ? …..YES.
I wonder how this can even be possible… but it is.
I haven’t washed it yet, I haven’t tried it yet, but I can tell that this is going to be in my very top favorite brushes. Costs around 130$. Worth the price, worth the wait.
I will upload the final review in the following days but I needed to show you these pictures today and tell the world that this White Mushroom is a unicorn.
Update August 26th, 2012
Just adding a few pictures of the packaging, this is how they came, and they were also bubble-wrapped twice :
49 comments
These are so beautyful, I wish taxes weren’t so high. I wonder if the fu-pa03 isn’t too floppy for liquid foundation ? I prefer dense brushes as you now 🙂 I have several koyudo now and except the stippling, all the others are little gems, really unique. The big deca-fupa seems a nice alternative to hakuhodo buffing brush (don’t remember the number) and it is softer, right ? Pink handles are really cute. Question is : do I need another fupa 02 🙂
Nikoleta, see what you made me do ??? it’s all your fault for speaking about Koyudo… 😛
The FuPa 03 is the same density as the Shiseido, but larger surface but I haven’t tried it yet, very soon though.
Yes the Deka is softer than the Hakuhodo shown in the picture.
You do need another Fupa 02 if you use it often 😉
Thank you again for allowing me (and us) to discover this beautiful brand ! They are gems indeed …
I love your family Sonia!!!! I think everyone need two of fu-pa 1 and 2!! 🙂 I NEED the deka NOW!
Nikoleta hello! Yes, thank you for the introduction to Koyudo!! You have the mushroom right? I know I should go back and re-read your comments but I can’t at the moment…
If you do have the mushroom, what are you using yours for?
Stacy
So cute, aren’t they ? 🙂
I have uploaded pics of the packaging since you asked me how the Mushroom was packed…
No, Stacy, I have a kabuki (H004) and it seems quite similar in shape (head only as the handle is bigger and longer http://www.koyudo.co.jp/product/other/h004.html) to the mushroom but is mix of goat and squirrel. I use it for everything : powder, finishing and bronzer. It wasn’t love at first site though, I thought it will be denser but after using it, I really like it, it applies powder products very well, I’ve never had such a flawless bronzer application. If you have the chance not to pay taxes, it is quite reasonably priced.
Funny thing is that I had only fu-pa02 and Sonia created a huge lemming afterwords, so I bought some other brushes from Koyudo, I(de like to take the fu-pa03 but really don’t want to pay taxes right now. Oh, well, we’ll see, I know myself, I can’t resist to a good brush 🙂
What a perfectly lovely large Koyudo family you have:)
The mushroom looks quite perfect! I enlarged the pre-wash pic & I can clearly see how fine the hair is. I can’t wait for customs to finally release mine!!
My favourite Fu Pa remains the #3 which I use for liquid foundation. Just as I do with the Shiseido, I get perfect results – just in a shorter time:)
I sometimes still use the Shiseido for areas where I need a smaller brush, but it’s not really necessary. All in all the brand Koyudo is brush quality at it’s best!!
Now that I have washed the White Mushroom it’s even better 😮 … you are going to love it I think…
I’m on the Koyudo site, and can’t locate the white mushroom brush. Do you know if it is still available? You are my brush hero!
Hi Deb, I actually did not get it directly from Koyudo but from CDJapan. 🙂
These brushes are so beautiful! Especially the white mushroom… Seriously, I want it! Not sure I can justify using that amount of money on a make up brush though, but it is just so gorgeous! (I also saw the black haired mushroom brush on the CDJapan website, and the handle on that looked soo pretty). Have you tried it wth mineral foundation? I use my Inika mineral foundation every day, and I only use liquid foundation for nights out. So if I really want to, I can probably talk myself into getting it if I would use it every day, haha! Do you use these brushes for the type of products (liquid/powder) they were intented to, or can they be used for other products as well? I am still learning about different types of hair for make up brushes, I am only used to thinking of brushes as either synthetic or natural. Maybe the Fu-Pa 03 is the best bet for mineral foundation for me.
Also loved your recent favourite brushes post btw! 🙂
Hi Hanne,
I am actually writing a post on brushes and material, it might give you some more info on this particular subject, it will be uploaded very soon, probably during the weekend. I still have to try the Fupa03 with mineral foundation. I have plans for it during the weekend then I will be able to tell you. Not easy to experiment during the week at this moment but I will come back to you soon 🙂
Sounds great 🙂
Hi! Just thought I’d share some information that I found out too 🙂 I was talking with the person I’ll be getting my Chikuhodo brushes off. She is based in Japan and ships internationally. We were talking about the Koyudo brushes and she told me that she believes the Koyudo brushes may be made in China, and she knows for a fact that quite a few Japanese brands actually order them from China as well (not Chikuhodo or Hakuhodo which obviously make their own). She linked me to a company listing, which incidentally, is called Koyudo Brushes, but is based in China. I read the company profile and it basically says they export to Japan, South Korea and some European countries. Thought I’d share with you!
Hi Bonnie, is it this one ?
Yup, I linked her to the Fu-pa 02 from that site, and she said she believes the company’s brushes are manufactured in China. They had the same Chinese characters and hiragana. The heart and flower brushes from Koyudo are also really popular in China from what I can see when I was there for a year on exchange. But I’m not sure, if they are the same Koyudo, perhaps it may be two branches?
Oh, the link I just linked you, the Chinese characters isn’t the same as the hiragana for Koyudo – it’s Ai Ai Lang, but it’s so similar that I think the Koyudo (China) might be OEM. I wish I’d gotten into brushes when I was overseas as it would have been easier and cheaper to buy things from Japan than now that I’m back in Australia!
Just did a little research. From what I gather, the Chinese Koyudo is a wholly-owned foreign investment of the Japanese koyudo, which makes brushes for export to Koyudo Japan, alongside others like Kihitsu. I’m sorry for being all over the place with all of that information 🙂
Thanks so much with all your posts so far, they’ve been so informative!
Yes I saw a few very look-alike pictures on the web, I don’t know who makes them though, it’s a bit confusing…
please let me know which brushes you received and how you liked them 🙂
The translation here is not terrific but it basically boils down to a hefty price increase of the Koyudo squirrel hair brushes ! Those with a thing for goat hair brushes can sit back & relax because there’s no mention of an increase there.
2012/10/22
■ Notice of price changes
Thank you for your patronage bestowed on product堂Yu Akira patronage.
Well, soaring raw material prices overall has continued in recent years, we have postponed our Toshimashite the commodity price increases by companies such as cost-cutting efforts.
However, the rising price of squirrel hair only measures devaluation severely cost has become a situation that can not support more than the imagination mainly. With will be carried out to revise the price of the product, including hair squirrel from November 24, 2010.
In the future, since the party is committed to striving to improve product development and high-quality services, I would like to ask for your understanding. ※ Estimated approximate price revision are as follows … +30% Kanadarisu product … +10% (including mix) Gray squirrel
I had to smile at this google chrome translation of some brush descriptions on Koyudos site.
Content (hair length / length)
Faith · · · 155mm/55mm (Large)
Faith · · · 138mm/43mm (small)
Cheek · · · 132mm/35mm
Aishado~u (Large)
—115Mm/17mm
Aishado~u (Small)
… · 113mm/14mm
Hihihi…..I’m thinking maybe:-
Faith = face??
Aishado = eyeshadow ( eye brush ??? )
Thanks Buggsiebee ! well, I understand …
I got most of my Hakuhodo before they increased their price and I think I heard they would slightly lower their prices now… I will try to find out more info on that.
The translations are so weird ! when I was trying to get info on some Koyudo I just could not find out what material they were exactly, this one for example : Wool polyester pile (Peak light crude) is how it’s translated by google, I believe it’s polyester and goat.. but it’s still kind of a mystery to me… does anyone have more details by any chance ?
Faith and aishado u ooooh 😛 cute !
It’s a mix of goat and synthetic, I think
I believe for the brush you just linked, the materials are Goat (sokoho) and polyester! I compared it to the characters for the Hakuhodo S110, which has the official English material on their website, to the Japanese characters on that Koyudo.
山羊毛 = goat
粗光峰 = sokoho
I thought goat = sokoho. Why do the words have different characters? So complicated!
How anyone manages to learn all the characters is a mystery to me.
Nikoletta and Bonnie : thank you so much for your update 🙂 I finally know for sure 🙂
Can I ask what the widths are for the Deka-fupa01 and fupa-01 brushes? The site only gives the length of the hair (I am assuming it’s the hair length) and the full length of the brush. I want to order the fupa-01 in the pink handle like yours. Did you just specify “pink” in the order form? Not sure if you got it thru the Koyudo site or CDJapan. Thank you!
I will let you know as soon as I can 🙂
You can get them on either site, I don’t remember where I got mine but if you send an email to cdjapan they send it to you, you can write the name of the brush and mention you want the pink one, I think it’s what I did actually. I will check that out for you.
so, DEKAfu-pa : full length 10cm, hair length 2.5cm, hair width (at the widest point) 4.3cm, surface of hair 4cm diameter, base of ferrule : 3cm.
Fu-pa01 (pink) : full length 10.5cm, hair length 2.8cm, hair width (at the widest point) 3.5cm, surface of hair 3.3cm diameter, base of ferrule : 2.5cm.
there you go 🙂
Thank you so much for the info! I really appreciate it. I did an order for the Fu-pa 01 in pink thru CDJapan since that’s really the only one I wanted from there. I will do another order for the DEKAfu-pa and Fu-pa07 thru the Koyudo website. I am so looking forward to getting these brushes 😀
hello, first of all thank you for your very interesting blog.Recently I was thinking of purchasing something similar to my shiseido but bigger or should I say covering wider skin zone brush, have you been able to try the fu pa 03, seems a purfect complement to the shiseido one, it would be very interesting to have your opinion. Also do you have mor einformation now about whether kuyodo are made in china? do you think it is still worth it to spend so much money on their brushes rather then Hakuhodo that are made in japan? best from PAris, Sofia
Hi Sofia,
Difficult to believe but I havent yet properly tried this Fu-pa3… it’s so big that to be honest I don’t know how to use it or if I am using it properly… The Shiseido is nice but too small for me. I will try to play with them this week and will let you know.
I understand they are made in Kumano (Japan).
http://cooljapannow.jp/shop.html/17
I’ve ordered some time ago the esprique foundation brush and while it is not the most nicely made brush, it is very functional, very soft, bigger than shiseido and doesn’t suck product, in fact, I’m using it more and more with thicker foundation as it blends them with no effort, it is priced at app. 18 dollars.
Thank you for replying, I use the shiseido for mineral foundation (Lily lolo one, much better then bare minerals in my opinion) and it works perfectly and gives an airbrush look but as it is so small I wanted to try something new and bigger, thanks to you I ordered the red squirrel brush, can’t wait to finally receive it and use it with my narcissist from TF. Thanks again for this blog that allowed me to discover so many brushes and is very very helpful especially for Hakuhodo purchases, all the brushes I bought are heaven especially the duo fibers stipplings. Sofiya
Thank you Sofiya 🙂 I am happy it helped you discover new amazing brushes, we are not done yet 😛
Ah, you ordered the red squirrel? I’m looking forward to reading your reactions to it when it arrives.
Hello, just wanted to update about the red squirel limited edition cheek brush that I received today and …:-) Oh my GOD it is soooooo soft, I received a phone call while I just unpacked the brush, and noticed that the whole conversation I was just brushing my face with it …ridiculous but it’s just heaven on my skin. Thank you for making us discover all these beautiful brushes. I was wondering is the white mushroom as soft or even softer? because I cannot even imagine how softer can exist, also would like to ask you what do you finally use the H Series H011 Finishing Brush with , I am hesitating between buying it in goat or H008 grey sqeerel one….As for my red sqeerel cheek brush I was wondering is it softer then the suqqu? I have no suqqu yet and am hesitating to buy also the cheek and powder brush as a friend of mine is goint to London soon. Thank you again and have a nice upcoming week end:), best from Paris and looking forward for new posts about your discoveries and reviews
so, do any of you know how much the taxes to USA are from the cooljapannow website? My brush list keeps growing daily from everyone’s input! Now, if budgeting for 2 foundation brushes, what brushes would you say get first? I’ve written down 2 Hakuhodo, the J544 and G5556 along with a Koyudo Fu-pa. HELP!!!!!! :O
I’ve ordered a couple of times from cdj and no taxes were added to my order. I live in the US. it was super easy and fast. Can’t help too much with foundation brushes as I am waiting to order the Radiance and Houkodou. I have the Fu-pa12p that I prefer over the Fu-pa8p. I am currently in love with the application of foundation with the Beauty blender and quite sad about it since I do love my brushes, but I’ll lightly buff in the foundation with the Fu-pa after using the blender sponge. My skin can get flaky since I use a retinoid and the sponge doesn’t cause micro-exfoliation. I think the Fu-pa 14 will be my next purchase from cdj.
thanks Carlyn. yes, i have a brush list that keeps growing and gets re-prioritized on a daily basis. all the info. here is makeup/brush Nirvana! 🙂
By the way, do these koyudo brushes on the site that you recommend to purchase them ship to the USA???
Hi Diana,
either Koyudo or cdjapan (cooljapannow) deliver internationally, may take longer than other brands since they make them sometimes on demand but at least when they ship, it’s fast.
you are welcome ! wishing lots of fun with them 😀
Hi Sonia,
I have a question that I hope you (or someone else reading this) could help me find an answer to.
I am looking for a nice dense brush to use for buffing out cream bronzer. I really like the shape and size of the Fu-pa 01, which is supposed to be used for powder products. The Fu-pa 02 could be an option, as it’s supposed to be used for cream/liquid products, but I am afraid that it would be too big. However, the Fu-pa 01 and 02 are both made of ‘baby goat chest hair’. What is then the difference between these brushes that makes one perfect for powder, and the other for cream products? Could I perhaps use the Fu-pa 01 for cream bronzer, you think?
Also, thank you for providing us with such helpful information!
Hi C. 🙂
First of all, baby goat chest hair that is black, is most certainly dyed, therefore if you use cream or liquid products with these brushes, it will ruin them. With any cream or liquid product you just should use brushes that haven’t any dye.
If you are talking about the Fu-pa01 that is white (because now there is a white and a black), then you can use it to buff cream products but this white fu-pa01 is very soft, directional and very dense, for an application of cream bronzer it may apply a very directional finish and alter any foundation you have underneath. The Koyudo BP013 would be a better option to apply cream bronzer in a diffused finish and you can gently buff without altering any base makeup you may have underneath. The BP013 is dense, the bristles are thicker (still very soft) and flexible and fluffy enough to blend and perfectly diffuse the product. I know you may think it’s too big for that but it’s still very appropriate for bronzer. Hope this helps 🙂
Thanks Sonia, for replying so quickly! And thanks for the information on the dyed vs un-dyed goat hair! I never knew that.
It make sense what you state about the Fu-pa 01, that it would alter my foundation on days that I wear foundation underneath. I actually more often than not only wear a bit of bronzer, but I’m looking for 1 brush to do the job – wether I wear foundation or not.
I actually don’t own that many brushes. I really only want to own a few that I can be really happy about. And your blog has really been a lot of help in that regard! Your reviews of Japanese brushes are the best! But well…it sounds stupid, but I’m not a fan of the white handle of the BP013. Do you perhaps have any other recommendation for a brush that would be good for applying cream bronzer? I don’t mind spending a bit more, as I plan on having a small collection of brushes.
Thanks so much!!
Hi again,
what cream bronzer are you using ?
I was thinking of stippling Hakuhodo brush but maybe it won’t be strong enough to blend… for products like Chanel Bronzer universel or the Givenchy Croisière I use the S4001 or J4001 http://www.hakuhodousa.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_3&products_id=449
the bp013 is quite unique and I don’t have anything like it with another handle, if I think of something I let you know 🙂
Hi C,
I’d say that you could probably use most of the brushes recommended for liquid foundation in Sonia’s amazing post on finding the right brush for foundation: http://sweetmakeuptemptations.com/2013/08/20/foundation-brushes-finding-the-one/
Which one do you prefer between fu-pa 02 and fu-pa 02 pink? I just wonder whether you noticed any difference between the two in terms of quality..
it’s the same quality, in terms of head I don’t see any difference…
I prefer the black because now it’s more unique 🙂
Hi Sonia! I don’t know if you will read this comment after all this time but do you think that the DEKA fu pa can also be used dor liquid or cream products? Or it would be damaged?
Thanks