The SKY Face set

Here are some more details about this Sky Face set before its launch, on Monday 16th of September 2019, on Beautylish.

I aimed for these new Sky series to be ideal travel companions, highly versatile tools, very safe to use, effortless whatever the situation, the place, the skills or the products.

This collection is inspired by the sky and the galaxy. The maple handles are coated with a gradient black to blue paint, with silver, blue and green micro particles that will sparkle under direct light.

The Sky Face set comes with 5 brushes and will cost 270 usd.
I sincerely hope that you’ll love it and if all goes well, it will be permanent and we will make these brushes available as singles in the future 🙂

MASTER FACE

The Master Face is a powder foundation brush, a buffer, a blender, but it can also be a bronzer and a blush brush depending on the pigmentation of the products, or the precision you require.

It’s a big and dense brush shaped like a ball. The high density and added dyed saikoho bristles give this brush lots of strength to pick up powder products, to blend and buff. There is a mix of dyed and undyed bristles to give it more airiness, as a result, it will move easily and won’t disturb your foundation. It feels extremely soft while properly doing its job!

With medium to highly pigmented products it will deliver a medium to high coverage. If you have products that have harder pans you cannot easily work with, this brush will be able to get the best out of them.

I use this brush for many purposes, for example:
– to apply mineral or pressed powder foundation
– to set with powder
– to buff and blend everything together, specially when you need to soften or blend harsh edges
– to apply a “healthy glow powder” – these are natural powders delivering either a bit of extra coverage, or a bit of glow, or both, that can be applied all over the face (I use Guerlain Meteorites, Laura Mercier, Rouge Bunny Rouge, Chanel, Givenchy, Trish McEvoy etc); they are usually sheer and tend to be quite difficult to build up but this brush is ideal for them
– to apply bronzer: the ones that you cannot easily pick, like jelly textures or other textures that have little pigmentation or that are very hard in the pan
– to apply blush: sheer ones that will be give dimension and structure to the face and that can be applied on larger areas. I have a big long face therefore this brush works very well for me for blush, both for a big sculpting application or a normal, more defined application.

On the left, the Master Face with the shape when you receive it, once you wash it, it will splay out and bloom, and that’s when it performs its best!

This brush is domed, you can calibrate the pressure you put on its tip and decide the surface you wish to work with, the Face One is flat and directly covers more surface.

It’s a completely different brush compared to the Face Pro, the Master Face is denser, more directional, delivers more coverage and will be stronger with the products.

This picture will give you a good idea of the width…

… but you also have to imagine a more denser body 🙂

It can be great for touch ups or for a quick application of “something” wherever you are, as a buffer to fix patchiness or uneveness, etc.. Because it’s bundled with extremely soft goat bristles, it will naturally absorb excess oils, while being super soft on dry or delicate skin.
I don’t always wear make-up on a daily basis but sometimes I really need something on my face before I open the door, of before I run to the park with my daughter, you get the idea… this brush is always treasured in emergency situations 😀

Specs

Total length: 178mm
Hair length: 38mm
Ferrule width: 20mm
Material: Brown and white saikoho goat

SOFT CHEEK

The Soft Cheek is a domed brush that delivers sheer to medium coverage. Due to its versatile size and density, it can be a blush brush, bronzer, sculpting, setting, finishing, you can literally use this brush with so many things and it can jump from one job to the other in such a brilliant easy way.

When it opens (after wash), it’s fluffy but definitely not floppy; it has medium density and even though it’s quite flexible at the surface, it offers lots of control and strength.

It looks like a complete different brush once it blooms!

Compared to the Inochige from the Pro set. The Inochige is pointy and denser, this Soft Cheek will allow a softer application in terms of intensity.

If you have the Detail Pro, this picture below will give you a better idea of its size – so much bigger 🙂

I use this workhorse with everything, but mainly for a soft application of blush and bronzer. I love how versatile it is, also the fact that it is actually more powerful than it looks, the dyed saikoho goat bristles give it such great strength and stability.

Specs

Total length: 178mm
Hair length: 38mm
Ferrule width: 13mm
Material: Brown saikoho goat

CLASSIC CHEEK      

This Classic Cheek is the most versatile and universal blush brush I could envision. Due to its size, density and shape, this brush is also appropriate for bronzer, contour or highlight application. It offers scalable precision and intensity depending on how you hold it, or the pressure you use.

It’s nicely dense for a blush brush but the curved ferrule gives it more airiness and makes the bristles fluff out just slightly more. As a result, the brush is powerful with any product, helps you calibrate the intensity easily and the blending effort is minimal to none.

Before and after wash:

The Cheek Pro from the Pro collection is a bit flatter at the surface and denser. They are quite similar but the Classic Cheek offers slightly more finesse with the application.

Sideways, the difference is more obvious, the shape of the Classic Cheek is more oval/almond:

Specs

Total length: 173mm
Hair length: 33mm
Ferrule width: 16*11mm
Material: White saikoho goat

MINI CHEEK

The Mini Cheek is a such a precious tool when you are looking for a targeted application but you don’t necessarily want heavy results at the very first swipe.

It has been bundled with a curved ferrule, this ferrule will open up the bristles and give it a more fluffy airy shape. This ideal small fluffy shape and medium density make it extremely easy to build up any application, even to very intense results without leaving a harsh perimeter.

I love tiny face brushes for so many reasons, this one is such a gem with highlight or contour, but also useful when you are going for very precise blush, powder or bronzer application.

The Mini Cheek is the smallest of the Sky Face set, a picture next to the smallest of the Pro Face set – the Detail Pro – is a good idea to show you how they differ in size.

Specs

Total length: 172mm
Hair length: 27mm
Ferrule width: 12.5*7mm
Material: Brown and white saikoho goat

WORKER FAN

The Worker Fan is the fan that can do any task you want, hence “Worker” in the name. It’s the perfect size and density to handle blush, bronzer, sculpting, and even highlight. It’s actually a smaller version of the current Sculpt One. I am obsessed with the Sculpt One’s body and capabilities, the size of the Worker Fan is more versatile if you want to use it for even more tasks!

The thicker hakutotsuho bristles are highly efficient and blend as they apply, truly effortlessly. It’s fluffy, so the application is not going to be harsh or difficult to blend.

You may not be a fan of fans, but I hope this one is going to change your mind and make you love them for their functionality! 🙂

When you first receive it, it is tight, once it’s washed it will open and splay out really nicely to its real shape.

Now, all the white fans side by side 🙂

Specs

Total length: 170mm
Hair length: 30mm
Ferrule width: 20mm
Material: White hakutotsuho goat

SKY versus the PRO set

Looking at both sets side by side, you’ll see that the brushes are quite different, to me they are completely different.

Basically, the Pro set is more decisive with the placement and determined with the blending, the Sky set is more progressive with the exception of the Master Face – but we do need at least one strong buffer/blender/fixer in the Sky set.

The challenges

I won’t go into too many details, but I thought it could be nice to share with you some of the difficulties encoutered, just a couple, but this Sky Face set ended up quite challenging to make.

For example, I always wanted a big ball -or rounded- brush with very soft saikoho bristles but strong enough to do a great job, like the Master Face here. But soft and fine saikoho goat bristles do not splay out naturally like hakutotsuho bristles do (like the fan). Also, natural bristles in general are way more difficult to bundle compared to synthetic ones, each bristle can be different. This is even more true when you are trying to mix bristles that are dyed, with bristles that aren’t (like Master Face, Mini Cheek). On top of this challenge, in order to obtain a rounded shape, we have to mix longer and shorter bristles in a specific proportion and size and this doesn’t come easy. The artisans have worked hard with components and techniques in order to give this brush the ball shape that many of us love.

There is another thing, with regards to hakutotsuho goat bristles, that is good to mention. You may think those thicker bristles are cheaper because they aren’t as fine as saikoho, however, they are extremely difficult to bundle and even more on a fan ferrule! But I really wanted those thicker sturdy bristles for the fan because they truly make a difference, they are terribly efficient and it’s no surprise why they are so loved by many make-up artists in Japan.

It was always about the best quality bristles for the purpose, the most premium ferrule, wood, lacquer, etc. I could have added more sparkles onto the handles, which would have increased the cost even more, but we want something that looks elegant and here, less is more 🙂

Well, a dedicated packaging would have been nice, I completely agree with that, but at this stage it would add so many fees that I prefer to put it on the brushes instead.

The care and maintenance

There is a post here about care and maintenance if you need more details on how to wash them. The brushes come washed and sanitized, but I still recommend you to wash them before use, mainly because the shape after wash is more close to what it should be to perform its best. Due to their particular bundling, it is likely that some bristles shed at the beginning but it is completely normal. The finishing job on them has been spectacular but they still need to move.

Bottom line

I hope you will love these Sky brushes, that you will find them useful for your daily routine, your trips, your work if you are a professional. I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on them and if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer 🙂 As always, a huge thank you for reading and for your extremely kind support!!!