HAKUHODO – KINOKOS GALORE

When I ordered my first Kinoko it was more than 3 years ago: the Kokutan Saikoho (goat) Kinoko brush Large C, dyed bristles, 225 usd.

I didn’t have such dense brushes at the time and felt a little bit intimidated by the coverage it was offering. I did not use it often, however, I treasured it a lot, I was fascinated by the density, the discipline of the bristles, also the strength, the bristles on the sides are short and tightly bundled to give this brush its perfect rounded shape.

Kokutan Saikoho Kinoko brush large C

The way you can work and blend with it, is almost like a sponge, nice equal pressure from all the surface, more than just “strokes”, this brush hugs you! Each stroke feels like a smooth hug and is almost therapeutic, well it is since I use it even without product!  Although I prefer softer brushes I am so in love with the sensation that this brush procures that I got myself a little Kinoko army. Give me more hands so that I can use them all at once!!! 😀

I just wanted to show you today what options you have since you can only see two type of Kinokos on Hakuhodo’s website:

• The Maple Kinokos with white saikoho goat hair and
• The Ebony Kokutan Kinokos with black Saikoho goat hair.

But there is more, you can have the Ebony with white bristles and the Maple with black bristles!

I usually prefer white, but with the Kinokos I prefer the black bristles, the white ones are firmer, a tiny bit shorter and they don’t follow the face features as well as the black do. I got some white because I love how they look and I thought they would feel the same as the black but they don’t. Today I mostly use the black ones! The white work almost the same but you just don’t have that same fusion type of sensation that you have with the black.

The dark ebony handles are matte while the maple ones are varnished with a glossy coat. IMHO they look better when the head contrasts with the handle so my fav today are the maple handles with the dark bristles.

There are two possible logos, either the Hakuhodo logo or the lettering, mine have either one or the other, no specific reason, I ordered mine through Hakuhodo USA and I know that they had to get some from Japan directly but I don’t think this is the reason, I guess at some point they did both options and batches got mixed.

Some nice little round butts.. they call this shape a “cup” shape. (Please ignore the fans here.. they will be featured in an upcoming post).

There are 3 different sizes, large, medium and small. The white versions are a bit smaller in each of the categories because the bristles are slightly shorter, more directional and don’t splay out as much.

The large sizes:

5cm diameter, the white one is slightly less wide and just slightly shorter.

The medium sizes:

They are 4.3 cm diameter, same comment about the white one, very slightly shorter and it clearly doesn’t splay out as much.

The small sizes:

One of each, they are terribly cute! You can feel the amount of work on the handles and the heads are so nicely bundled that it is difficult to resist them. They are excellent little helpers, to fix mistakes, to use for setting some zones, to add contouring and dimension.

Maple Saikoho Kinoko family

By the way, all the kinokos are sold individually, obviously the bigger it is, the more expensive, these cost 188, 125 and 75 usd.

Kokutan Saikoho Kinoko

I have the Large C (225 usd), the large normal (225 usd) and the small (100 usd).

Ordering the Large C was a mistake, I originally wanted a “cup” shape. Just be careful when you order as it is an expensive mistake! I got the medium and the small recently, I use them either for pressed powder, contour, blending, finishing, Guerlain meteorites, blush, highlighter, setting concealer, etc… Anything is a good excuse!

These are not soft like squirrel bristles but they are softer than any Mac goat. If you just want extremely soft brushes then you have to search for blue squirrel / goat mixes for example or just squirrel bristles, however, these Hakuhodo are soft enough for delicate skin.

Saikoho Kinoko Maple

These are the large (188 usd) and the small (75 usd).

I just have one regret, I prefer to use long handles instead of kabukis but these are amazing and now always on my vanity, my little pair of HG kinokos, my fav of them all.

Maple handles are cheaper than ebony and the combination is gorgeous on top of that.

Kokutan Saikoho Kinoko white

This one is feeling a bit lonely 🙂 costs 100 usd, I don’t think I will order his parents because I don’t use the white ones that much, but I had to have at least one!

I wanted to share this overview, hopefully it gives you enough info to understand the difference. If you have some similar kabukis and you want me to compare them,  just let me know down in the comments!

Since I could not find them all on Hakuhodo website, I wrote to their customer services and they could get them for me. If you need help, you can either contact them, or contact me and I will direct you to the right person 🙂

Thanks for reading! <3