TRISH MCEVOY Petite Kabuki

Trish McEvoy is a brand I am interested in, she has some fantastic brushes, unfortunately some are a bit on the rough side but I truly love the shape she gives to them, she came up with a few brushes that I would rate holy grails if they weren’t as rough. I saw this brush and wanted to see how it would perform and if the softness had a bit improved with time. If you don’t have delicate skin, this is not something that will bother you, for me it is something I have to take into consideration every single time I purchase a brush.

This is made with goat hair, it measures 14cm in total, the hair is 2.8-3cm long, just a few bristles reach 3cm at the point, the ferrule is 1.2cm wide.

It comes in a plain plastic sleeve, it is handmade but I don’t know where, on her website, it’s mentioned this is AAAA highest quality goat hair, compared to her other goat hair brushes in her collection yes I agree this is probably 4 times better, however if you compare it to Saikoho goat hair, for example Hakuhodo J5521 (38$), the Trish is far from being as soft and it costs 7$ more. On her website it looks brown with some black, mine is black, even with the brightest light and a macro lens I can’t see the beautiful brown hue, it doesn’t look very similar in terms of handle color, maybe it will change with time but I doubt it.

Trish McEvoy Petite Kabuki vs Hakuhodo J5521

The handle is beautiful, I love this trend, a handle without a ferrule, wood-like (or wood), looks very traditional and very appealing.

Compared to other similar brushes, for example Rae Morris or Shaquda, the quality of the assembling of the head and the handle is not as good with the Trish, not as neat around the head. Obviously the final look and quality of the Rae or Shakuda is better, not only the handle but also the bundling of the bristles.

The Trish Petite Kabuki (45$) looks cheaper than the Rae brushes (40$ & 30$) while logically it should be the opposite.

Rae Morris had released two similar Kabukis some years ago that have been replaced now by the ones with the magnets but these two older and lighter brushes are very similar, the bundling of the head is thinner at the tip and the softness is also similar, so if you got these two Rae brushes at the time, you can expect similar type of softness and similar bundling (more pointy).

In terms of functionality, it does the job nicely but I find it a bit too light to hold and that bothers me, I prefer more sturdy handles.  The Rae Morris are better balanced, softer and cheaper so unfortunately today I don’t see a reason why you should get the Trish instead. I am a bit disappointed with this Petite Kabuki, at this price, you can get so many better options. The best value for money is the Hakuhodo J5521 because the quality of the bristles is absolutely stunning and it is so densely packed, but then if you really love this traditional Japanese handles, the Rae Morris are the ones to go for.