The 14 ~valid~ reasons you need these exquisite Japanese brushes in your life
I was in Hong Kong last November for a beauty convention when I spotted a simple booth tucked in amongst hundreds of others in the massive venue. I almost missed it, but a glimpse of luxe brushes caught my eye. When I entered I found out that my hunch was right: the brushes were indeed luxurious and made by Uyeda Bisyodo, an artisanal brush brand founded in Japan in 1945.
There are many different collections available, but since the prices were quite up there, I decided to purchase the Vivianne Femme line because these are more affordable. I wasn’t seriously thinking of selling these here in the Philippines to begin with. I just really needed to upgrade my brushes! But since I use these a lot in my Facebook live videos and people keep asking about them, I thought, why not have them at the Project Vanity Store! I’ve had them for 10 months now and I use them every. Single. Day. The Japanese never kid around when it comes to quality.
I love that they wash well; the bristles don’t fall apart and become frayed after countless deep cleaning sessions in the last 10 months. They stay ultra soft, same as the day I purchased them. These are brushes that you can use for years and years. They also improve your makeup application due to the precision and careful thought placed into designing each brush.
Let me talk about each of the 14 brushes, and why they deserve a spot in your kit! They are all available at the Project Vanity Store.
Ultra Soft Setting Powder Face Brush (P2,295). This brush is probably the softest powder brush that has ever come in my possession. It just feels like tiny little butterfly kisses on the face! But more than the tactile feel and weight of the brush, it blends loose/pressed powder beautifully AND efficiently. No more cake face with this one! It’s bigger than your average powder brush, and that’s why it works so well. It takes a lot less time to do powder work with it due to the size.
Ultra Soft Blush Brush (P1,345). If you’re looking for that diffused and natural-looking blush application, this is the brush for you! It’s soft and light on the face, so it’s easy to avoid the dreaded clown look. It deposits pigments on the cheeks beautifully, even if your hands are heavy on the till.
Ultra Soft Highlight and Contour Face Brush (P895). This is the ideal brush for applying pigments in controlled areas, such as highlighters and contour powder. It has long bristles and a smaller diameter so you can get in those smaller parts of the face like on the cheek bones and hollows of the cheeks! It also concentrates pigment better but blends to a natural finish.
Ultra Blending Face Brush (P1,145). This brush is for anything cream or liquid - be it foundation, blush, contour, highlighter, it’s the perfect medium shape for application. It has densely-packed bristles that come in two lengths (like a stippling brush) for that diffused, well-blended look. I love this for liquid foundation!
All-Over Oval Brush (P595). This is a beautifully-shaped brush for detail work all over the face. Need to quickly apply eyeshadow all over the lid, or blend the edges of your eye work? This is the one. Need to contour your nose? This is it! Need to apply loose powder under the eyes? You got it. Highlighter? This too! Blush? Yup. And the best part is, because it’s dense and soft, it works for both cream AND powder formulations. It’s small yet quite mighty, and quite unique!
Next up is a variety of detail brushes for the eyes, face, and lips. The Fluffy Eyelid Eyeshadow Round Brush (P485) is a versatile applicator; if you need only one eyeshadow brush in your life, this is it! It deposits pigment and blends it well. The Fluffy Eyelid Detail Eyeshadow Round Brush (P375) is great if you love doing smoky eyes but hate the mess; it’s smaller and can get into the outer-V and even the lower lid easier. For crease work, you can’t go wrong with the Soft Round Crease Detail Brush (P395) as it softly draws and diffuses crease eyeshadow. The Eyeshadow Smudger Detail Brush (465) on the other hand is for smudging eyeliners on both the upper and lower lids. It’s soft so it doesn’t poke that delicate area!
The Eyeshadow Detail Brush (P495) is great for extra detailed work with your eyeshadow as it’s slim and gets into those corners. I like using it to apply dry eyeshadow as eyeliner on both upper and lower lids! You’ll love the Mini Precision Eyeliner Brush (P295) for your gel or cream eyeliners. It’s unlike those long and pointed eyeliner brushes that are hard to control; this one has a flat edge, but has a small size so you can carefully work in the eyeliner with no mistakes.
For the eyebrows, the Angled Eye Brow Brush (P445) has that perfect mix of density and stiffness. I love using this with powder eyebrow colors (or even just matte eyeshadows actually!) to shade my brows. I also use it with cream and liquid formulations.
If you’re looking for precision when you conceal blemishes, the Spot Concealing Detail Brush (P325) is made for the job. It is stiff so that it gets your concealer to maximum opacity while being able to blend out the edges. The Flat Lip Detail Brush (P445) on the other hand is great for getting that perfect lip shape with the flat edge. I love this with a red or dark lipstick, so that the edges are neat! I also sometimes use this to fix the edges of eyeliner and eyebrows with concealer. ;)
And that’s it! I hope you find something you like in here. We also sell the entire set - a perfect investment for professional makeup artists! Let me know what you think, as always!
