Beautylish Presents – the Year of the Ox brush

It’s time to welcome the Year of the Ox with Beautylish! They teamed up with Japanese artisans to create their yearly Fude featuring two adorable Oxen that were illustrated by Steph Fung @mochichito and rendered in maki-e lacquer.

The shape of the brush looks quite similar to their past releases -Year of the Pig and Year of the Rat- however, after washing the brush, it splayed to a slightly different shape and this is the cherry on the cake to me!

If you have a look at the picture below, this Lunar Ox brush is quite close in shape to the Z-9, they are both bundled with longer bristles towards the sides (the layering starting higher in the brush head) and this gives the brush a more flat surface at the top. It may not look that flat here in the sideways pic, but once used and bristles set into their final position, that’s how mine looks now.

The Z-9 is definitely in my top 5 brushes of all time, due to its shape, density, quality and functionality, which means, it puts this Beautylish Year of the Ox release also with my top favs. It is bundled with blue squirrel bristles.

Brush	Hair length mm	Ferrule mm
Chikuhodo MK-2	50	26.5*23.5
Chikuhodo Katsuhiro Kanazashi	50	26.5*22.5
Chikuhodo MK-MO	47	26.5*23
Beautylish Year of the Ox	47.6	26*23
Beautylish Year of the Pig	47	26*23
Beautylish Year of the Rat	47	26*23
Chikuhodo Z-9	50	27.8*22

The Ox and the Z-9 do not share the same ferrule shape or dimensions, the Z-9’s ferrule is curved and narrower if you put it sideways. The bristles on the Z-9 are longer, however, the working surface at the top is almost similar for both brushes. I believe that the curved ferrule on the Z-9 contributes in delivering a more directional bundling and mitigating a bit its splay out or floppiness. On the Ox brush, the shorter bristles paired with a thicker non-curved ferrule also give the brush a generous surface at the top so both brushes come very close in working surface and functionality.

I feel more density or fullness in the Ox brush, in terms of personal preference, the Ox may even surpass the Z-9. This is something that time will confirm but right now, this Ox brush is winning the game.

These brushes are gems when it comes to setting with powders, applying bronzers, or illuminating powders, they have density but they will not deliver a heavy application that could be difficult to blend away. The working surface at the top is approx 44*38mm, if you prefer a brush with more precision, then you should opt for a brush with a more tapered shape. I use the Z-9 for the entire face with finishing and bronzing powders, the application is fast and fabulous, never heavy or muddy, the Ox feels just slightly fuller in comparison and allows a bit more control on the application so it will work across a bigger range of products that I use daily.

The handle of the Lunar Ox brush is so adorable, these Oxen could not be cuter than that! The wear of the metallic maki-e lacquer has been good on my similar brushes, some brushes that I show here have been used more than others but so far, no wear is showing, even on the MK-2 which is probably my oldest. Well, the Z-9 is definitely the most used but it doesn’t have any lacquer 🙂

I received this brush yesterday, Beautylish kindly sent it to me as a gift. I washed it immediately and today when I saw its final shape, I gasped. I love it because of its shape and its joyful illustration, we certainly wouldn’t mind a joyful year ahead of us!

This Lunar New Year brush launched yesterday, 12th of January 2021, it is Limited Edition, available on Beautylish website and the price is $125.