Hakuhodo Kinoko and Koyudo Mushrooms – a battle of Titans

Today I have to show you some extraordinary kabukis, since the day I received the Koyudo White “mushroom” my interest for kabukis has become so much stronger, I can barely control myself when I see how beautiful they look on the websites, they are so tempting !

I don’t know if  “mushroom”  is a Koyudo interpretation of “kabuki” or if they call their kabukis mushrooms on purpose, doesn’t really matter, what matters is what you get, however they want to call them 🙂

This is what I call the 3 titans, the Hakuhodo Kokutan Saikoho Kinoko brush – large, the Koyudo H005 and the Koyudo White Mushroom :

I love the three of them so much that it’s a mental fight in the morning ! The three are so different and so efficient that  it’s really amazing to be able to use them all.

The Hakuhodo Kokutan Saikoho Kinoko brush – large

It took me a few times to get the name right  !  Kokutan is the name of the series with the ebony wood handles, Saikoho is the type of hair, Kinoko is the type of brush.

I believe this is the most expensive brush that Hakuhodo have in their collection, it costs Usd 216. I saw it recently on their website listed as a new product.

Saikoho is the type of goat hair they used, it’s the best goat hair (or one of the best), it’s also very rare. The amount of hair in this brush is huge therefore it makes this brush really expensive.
It’s not as soft as squirrel hair and it’s not as soft as the baby chest goat hair brush in the white Koyudo mushroom, but it’s very pleasant to use, extremely dense and velvety.

I always have a funny sensation when I use it, it feels like a very gentle car wash sensation 🙂 it delivers an even pressure from the side of the brush head to the top of the surface.
With the right pressure (not necessary to put too much) you feel like it massages your face without moving your skin around ! It totally relaxes me and it even gave me the goosebumps 😛

It’s meant for powder, I use it also for bronzer,  it can deliver a sheer to heavy coverage, absolutely flawless and even. I can pack a lot of product, with more pigmented bronzers you will need to tap the excess off, I never ended with harsh lines, the blending was always perfect. It’s also a very nice finishing brush, but beware of the density as it can blend away your products if you don’t use it with care.

Hakuhodo has this same kabuki in two other smaller sizes, the hair of this one is 4cm long.

I am trying to show you how it looks inside (no brushes have been harmed in the process…) but it’s difficult to do so, it’s a black mass of hair, but you can see that the hair is fine.

The Koyudo H005 Mushroom brush H Series

Koyudo has this same brush with different handles, I chose the pink one for a change. It’s made of squirrel and goat (I think  but I have to say that it’s incredibly difficult for me to understand their translation or anything else than squirrel and this one is a mix). Anyway, it’s very soft, smaller than the Hakuhodo and much less densely packed.

The hair length is 3.8cm and costs 5,564 JPY (around Usd 68).
It’s a really lovely brush, extremely efficient for a natural application of bronzer, I can also manage the application of blush, you can cover a smaller surface if you use only the point.

This is a nice versatile brush since it’s smaller than the other two, it also works with many different products more or less pigmented, it’s very easy to apply your bronzer without overdoing it.

Some little white hair made their way into the bundle but that’s not a problem, I think it looks cute with the little white hair. The quality of the brush is excellent, it doesn’t shed, it feels amazingly soft on the skin.

Both black kabukis side by side :

Koyudo White Mushroom

This is made of baby goat chest hair, costs around Usd 135, worth every penny. If it doesn’t show on the Koyudo website and you want to get it, contact them by email, they might be able to get them for you. On the CoolJapanNow website it shows out of stock.

When I first got this brush I went crazy, it’s so incredibly soft that you can’t stop touching it. It’s just heaven in a brush to me, I don’t know how they manage to bundle it so perfectly. It’s dense but not densely and tightly packed like the Hakuhodo is and it has much more flexibility, therefore the coverage is sheer to medium. I use it with bronzer and powder.

Three amazing kabukis, unfortunately very expensive but each one of them is worth every penny. They are or excellent quality, none of them shed.

• The most expensive : the Hakuhodo, then the white mushroom, then the black mushroom
• The denser : the Hakuhodo, then the white mushroom, then the black mushroom
• The softest : the white mushroom, then the black mushroom, then the Hakuhodo
• The most versatile : the black mushroom

My favorite : the white mushroom, but I love the three of them and I equally share the love 😉