Review by NWang

For a cheek brush of only $11, I didn't expect it to be so smooth. The hair strands are thicker than the saikoho I'm familar with, but they all have natural tips. Koyudo brushes of $100 tier usually have blunt goat hair, scratchy like scrubs, but this brush is as smooth as silk. Glad with this purchase.

It's a cute little furry ball. Due to its short length (27mm), it's capable to pick up medium to hard pressed powder. Very soft on face, but able to blend well. Although it's thoroughly matte, it's well made, no gap between ferrule & handle (metal ferrule & plasic handle).

Very sleek and well made, the pics don't it justice. All tips have natural ends. Good for small area around eyes.

I'm not a big fan of this brush. The blunt tips make it hard to use, too heavy for depositing pigments and no blending powder. The package is beautiful as always. I would recommend other black raccoon with natural tips.

The slant silver fox & goat brush SS3-3 gives a light to medium finish with powder or liquid. It's sleek and comfortable for sensitive skins. Quite buildable with powder without caking. The SS3-1 large paddle with black raccoon hair is easy to use as concealer brush both for complexion or under eyes. And it's best used under the foundation layer for its brstile is able to press concealer into pores or lines. It can be a little bit prickly on cheeks sometimes. The SS3-2 small brush has too much black raccoon hair bundled tightly together (too thick for its hair type) and is prickly for under eyes application, spot concealer on face or cream eyeshadows are a better way of using it.

Velvet soft yet sturdy, unbelievable cute & practical. I wish there were other color option other than plastic orange and cheap cosmetic pink.

I received defective piece with huge gap between ferrule & handle. I wish the famous fu-pa 07p will be back in stock, which is larger and more powerful than this one. This little brush is easy to carry around, quick to clean & dry, very handy and way much cheaper than Chikuhodo FO-2. Of course, the finish can't be the same level as FO-2 (FO-2 is fool-proof, natural, dewy, velvet...and sleek on face).

Spaceful and no limit on number of brushes to put in, since the compartments are not individually divided for each brush. There is a detachable zipped pocket in the middle to accormadate brushes of large ferrule/handle circumference.

This duo-end concealer brush are powerful enough to blend in and touch up. The tapered side is tongue shaped; it feels softer and stronger than a flat tipped kolinsky lip brush when spreading concealer. The flat topped end is ultra soft and makes the concealer trace disappears within seconds. It's the best concealer brush I have tried in cream concealer application. I think it will also work well with liquid products (synthetic after all). I took one star off because the tapered side has at least 4 hair trends assembled upside-down, which I had to remove with eyebrow tweezers. I definitely agree with the other two reviewer, this brush was not talked about enough. I've tried lot of weasel and kolinsky lip brush; I have small butter knife shaped weasel brush; I've used synthetic brush in concealer palette or slant touch-up brushes; I've purchased thick pine squirrel and kolinsky brush; however, this brush is the best I've used for cream concealer. The flat topped end is unmatched.

I bought it to match the No. 229 powder brush (grey squirrel, matte black handle, pearl white handle). Unlike other squirrel/goat cheek brushes I got, it's fully bundled; the bristle tip is round instead of tapered or flat. And it's densely packed. The out layer is all grey squirrel. The central part contains more goat. It can work as a goat brush with smooth feeling (of its out layer), or function as a squirrel brush in wiping mode.

Far beyond expectation. It's not a Chikuhodo R-C2 or RR-C2 duplicate. It's softer and fluffier, yet medium densely packed. The round, unpinched, golden ferrule, matched with pale pink handle, is so delicate and luxurious. I have a 55cm grey squirrel/sokoho No. 9 powder brush from previous sale, which is also golden ferrule/pale pink handle, to match this cheek brush. Totally glad with my purchase!

I should have got it earlier. As a paddle brush, it's soft and elastic, very idle for brushes & highlights. No wonder he Z series has been so popular for so long. It's really a gem!

For delicate hairs such as saikoho, flat top stamp brush is the best shape for functions. T-3 functions well as a foundation brush, both with high & low viscosity foundations. It's fool-proof, better than T-11 (T-11 needs some technics to master the application). T-3 finishes spreading & buffing at the same time. And it's easy to clean. The finish is very natural. I think it's almost as good as chikuhodo FO-2, which also gives a natural finish. For price wise, take T-3!

It's ultra soft but still resistant enough to give a perfect blending. I didn't expect it to be so powerful. I also have the Mizuho CMP527 Gray Squirrel/Pony, which is a little bit scratchy at certain angles (but most of time not scratchy), I prefer this Chikuhodo Z-11 to Mizuho CMP527, for the softness & beautiful handle.

Only good for less pigmented, hard pressed blush. I have soft pressed, pigmented blush, which doesn't work well with this brush. It's soft and dense, applies blush very precisely, blends well. I plan to get some less pigmented blush and use this brush.

I saw a lot of good reviews and recommendations of this brush. I didn't like the handle shape but eventually got the brush. It's so lovely and functional. Now I'm addicted to this small, pom pom brush. It's well made, the handle is beautiful, and the function is super. I should have got it earlier! I think it even works better than a paddle brush when applying blush.

Anyone who has a warm-colored, deep blush with golden shimmer knows what I mean. That kind of disaster can only be saved by FO-4. Only FO-4 will leave a natural, lovely finish on my cheek with that kind of blush. The golden shimmer won't be all over and the carrot color is no where to be seen. And there is no pigment or shimmer retained on FO-4. I love the smoothness and silkiness of FO-4. The shape also helps its function. Glad I gave it a try. Previously I saw negative reviews of silver fox hair but eventually I decided to try it myself. Glad that I did that!

The foundation application is much better than Houkodou BZ-1, actually, prompting me to get a backup. The finish is very natural & dewy, not cakey at all. I use Shiseido Self-refreshing foundation, which is not that fluid (not much flowing). FO-2 works best with this kind of foundation, using only 1/3 of what BZ-1 may consume. The feeling of tips is very smooth, and fox hair is delicate, more delicate than goat hair.

I have mixed feeling about this brush. Its shape is functional rather than just cute. The two peaks and a valley provide more contact surface with skin, so even if the bristle is only 40mm, it functions well than a 50mm domed brush. However, I don't like the baby goat hair and polyester mix. The out layer at the base feels so synthetic, that almost turns me away immediately. And this sturdy layer and delicate baby goat hair tips makes it hard to comprehend the application of pigmented powder. If I press too light, the color is merely on my face, but if I pressed too hard, then my face is overly colored by the powder. My advice is that, just use it as a normal powder brush, and buy a smaller size for blush application.

The bristle is very soft, as soft as pure squirrel, but still more elastic than pure squirrel, due the some fine goat hair (I can't feel the goat hair, but the elasticity confirms its existence). The brush seem luxurious, the picture doesn't do it justice. And it function pretty well due to its softness, elastic and bonding. The oval ferrule is the best shape for long bristle brush function. The hair is abundant. I love this brush!