The Makeup Show: Sephora and Hakuhodo brush collaboration!

While I’ve always been picky about good quality makeup, I never gave much thought to brushes until last year. My makeup skills are about average, but good brushes help me to achieve the look with less effort and produces better results. When it comes to good quality brushes, Hakuhodo, Wayne Goss, Chikuhodo and Tom Ford are where it’s at. However, they all come with high-end price tags, except for Hakuhodo, which also have a line with mid-range pricing. The price is due to the handle, so it is a great option if you want high quality brushes for mid-range pricing and don’t care about whether the handle is plain black or red lacquer with 24K plated gold.

They are softer than MAC and Sephora and picks up color better than Too Faced, so if that is your price range then definitely give the brand a try. Hakuhodo uses mostly natural hair, but if you prefer synthetic hair then my favorite would be the Sephora Pro brushes. If you like the Sephora Pro line of brushes but wish they could be even better and softer, then you are in luck! I was at The Makeup Show in NYC last Sunday and saw this…

It’s a new line of synthetic Hakuhodo brushes in collaboration with Sephora! The custom blend of bristle is slightly softer than the Sephora Pro line and slightly more firm than Hakuhodo’s natural haired brushes. They didn’t give me an exact price but did say it will be 20%-30% more than the normal Sephora pricing. It comes out in July and the one they have for demonstration is the second one on the brochure, which would be great at applying and blending cream blushes and bronzers.

ps. I finally got Instagram! Feel free to follow me @chicdabbler, altho I’m still figuring out how things work on there, so please excuse the amateur-ness in the beginning, lol. But back to where I got this collaboration news from, TMS! I’ve been saving up for months for The Makeup Show in NYC and I spent all my beauty budget on this. It was an event for vendors to show their products, sell their products and provide seminars/lectures to professionals. Read on for hauls and pictures of the event. Some of the brands are just here to demonstrate their product, like Surratt. The blushes are slightly bigger than the halves in Nars dual intensity and smaller than Nars’ regular blush. However! The fun thing is that you can get an empty 2 blush palette and customize whichever two you put in there, light blush, dark blush, warm blush, cool blush, bronzers or highlighter. All their products are carried in Sephora I believe.

Most vendors did bring their products to sell, and there were some serious discounts for some of the big brands! It was 40% off for Sephora and MUFE, 30% off for Nars and I think ~30% off for Stila or Kevin Aucoin as well. It was crowded but the lines were not too bad except for MUFE, Nars, MAC and Nigels (BeautyBlender, Hourglass and TwoFaced products at 30% discounts). Unless you don’t mind waiting in line for half hour or more, come when TMS opens and hit those places first. Also, bring water and wear comfortable shoes, you will need them.

What I do like about TMS, aside from the discounts, is that most salespeople are professional, knowledgeable and not snobby! It’s a rare combination, probably because they assume you are a professional as well if you are here. I love the look of makeup over at Besame, there were makeup artists showing off their awesome skills, and between all the vendors, you can buy every color and every finish of any makeup you could wish for! In addition to paid lessons, there are free seminar of things from theatrical makeup in the image below to how to contour with airbrush.

I came mostly to see what a makeup trade show is like and also to ask questions, feel and buy some high end brushes. I learned some useful information about brush types and brush hair, so I’ll be writing a high-end brush review along with what I learned in the coming month after playing more with my brushes. If I didn’t have so much products waiting to be used, I would’ve gotten a lot more stuff, but for now, here’s my haul.

I got MUFE Large Powder Brush 130, Full Coverage Concealer in 06, Step 1 Skin Equalizer in Radiant Primer/Yellow, Metal Palette and the bag was free. From Hakuhodo I got the Yachiyo Large Point brush, Kakutan MLL eyeshadow brush, B002/K002 face brush and G5523. From Sephora I got the Pro Airbrush in 57 (concealer) and 55 (foundation). Because the disccount was good, I also got a Kevin Aucoin lash curler and Stila Smudge Stick in Ultramarine and Jade. It was a good experience, and because it’s NYC, there was plenty of tasty and interesting food near the venue. I had Japanese/Mexican fusion taco bento, freshly made green tea donut and coconut/banana donut for lunch. Yum!