Coastal scents and Hakuhodo Hauls

When Coastal Scents had a 20% back to school discount, i hauled some items that i wanted to try badly, namely a flat top buffer brush (i was using minerals foundations for a while and the short handled kabukis that i was using were a little too hard to hold) and a pointy pencil es brush. i also got the african black soap that was receiving excellent reviews, not just on the coastal scents site (i do my research eh heh heh heh).

the delux buffer brush(BR216) is very soft and feels luxurious. it's made with animal hair so there is a smell(and so do the Hakuhodos). what i don't like about it is that it's not densely packed and the hairs with spray outwards. not useful for when you want to buff foundation. so what i did was to hold the hairs with elastic bands so i get a smaller but dense brush head. it works well this way.i'm using the Bourjois Mineral Matte mousse foundation with this brush.



i also did a litle investment in the Hakuhodo brushes that Misschievious raved about a long time back. i've always found brushes prickly and sometimes scratchy on my sensitive skin so hopefully these will be soft as clouds.



here's a comparative pic of the pencil brush from Coastal scents(top) and Hakuhodo(bottom)

the hakuhodo brush is clearly better made, the bristles are soft with the natural tip intact and it's also firm but soft. the Coastal scents brush has a scraggly top and does not feel as dense. i have not tried it yet but i have used the Hakuhodo pencil brush for my inner eye corners (will poke) but works well on the outer corners for contouring



the big pointed blush brush is also dense but soft. i love the fact that it's pointed so i can blush near my nose to produce that sunburnt look or some simple contouring. it's does feel scratchy sometimes but i think that's because i'm super sensitive or that i'm going againt the direction of the hair.

the other Hakuhodo e/s brushes i got are smaller and thinner and are good for packing e/s but not for blending (i still like my Elf e/s brush for that). what i like about them is that after picking up the e/s and placing them on my lids, i don't discern any pigment left on the brushes, so there isn't any wastage of pigments.



here's a pretty picture of the brushes amongst my collection of cones from various vacation trips.

so that's my mini review on the brushes that i got. the shipping at Hakuhodo is farly reasonble so if i ever feel like another splurge i'd defintely get my brushes from them again.