New Hakuhodo S100 Brushes

There are six new Hakuhodo brushes, all from their prestigious S100 series, the range with the gold and vermilion handles. They bring a sense of completion for those of us with a strong need to have all our makeup brushes be of the same color/line. Usually I'm more of quality and function over form when it comes to my brushes, but I do have a very soft spot for Hakuhodo S100 because of the meticulous craftsmanship behind them.

Here's what Hakuhodo has for us now:

• S181- a small (4mm x 2.8 mm) synthetic brush. The tapered edge looks like it'll be great for gel eyeliners. $39 on hakuhodousa.com.
• S180- a syntheic flat push eyeliner brush (9mm x 3.5mm). $41.

It's interesting to note that this is the first time Hakuhodo introduces eyeliner brushes of these two particular shapes.

• S4001- a duo-fiber of goat and synthetic bristles, long and narrow (40mm x 20mm). It's the upscale version of the (otherwise identical) J4001 (compare $54 to $86).
• S106- an angled goat hair brush, on the smaller side (45mm x 12.5mm) as far as powder brushes go, and appears to be almost identical to the G531 powder brush that's priced at $66 (the S106 is $120). The natural white goat hair is preferable to the dyed black one, because it'll never ever bleed.
• S5555 and S5557 are the high-end version of the genius G5555 ($54) and G5557 ($69) brushes. These are angled blunt duo-fiber brushes that are amazing for applying foundation and cream blush. I own three of these in the G series and have every intention to complete the set. If you're an S100 devotee, it doesn't get any better than this.