Best Animal Hair Makeup Brushes [Detailed Review]
Great-quality animal hair makeup brushes can make a huge difference in your makeup application. In my opinion, it's definitely worth investing in your makeup tools since they'll last you years and years. Let's dive into the Volare brushes review!
*Not sponsored, no affiliate links, just sharing these holy grail favorites!
Quick facts:
- Handmade in Japan, high-quality hairs are combed through and bundled together, then assembled with the ferrule and handle (no hairs are cut to maintain the softness and 'point' in the bristles).
- Because none of the hairs are cut and the quality of the animal hairs are really good - you can feel a HUGE difference when you feel these brushes compared to MAC animal hair brushes.
- These are a great dupe for TF or Hakuhodo premium brushes! They are priced around $13 (smudge brush) to $30 (Multi-tasking brush) and higher for their larger face brushes.
Volare brushes: F05 Multi-tasking Brush, E03 Blending Brush, E05 Flat Brush
What's the difference between animal hair and synthetic brushes?
These white-colored fluffy brushes (goat hair) are extremely soft! They're absolutely a dream to work with for blending powder products. If you try swirling a generic synthetic fluffy brush versus an animal hair brush in a blush, you'll notice animal hair brushes will pick up more powder and a bit easier to blend out.
Tip: since animal hair brushes are more porous and hold more product, I don't recommend you use it with liquid or cream products! It'll absorb too much.
The image here of the F05 (larger fluffy face brush) actually fans out a bit more, and tapers a little at the tip. Making it perfect for blush, contour, or even as a smaller face powder brush. It's my personal favourite, and definitely very versatile (hence the multi-tasking brush). Highly recommend getting this one!
The E03 reminds me a lot of the MAC 217 BUT is a lot softer (perhaps because the MAC brush hairs have been cut prior to being assembled). This E03 is already my second one, my first one has been through more than 10 washes and is still soft. I had to get another one because it's also very great for blending eyeshadow or even to set the undereye.
The E05 flat brush is soft as well, but it could be a bit denser to help pack on eyeshadow. Sometimes I will use this for lighter washes with base colors or to use with liquid concealers.
Which best animal hair brushes to get: E11 Smudge Brush, IV02 Micro Smudge Brush
Now I've used the white brustled fluffy brushes before, but these seem to be a stiffer, perhaps weasel or squirrel or definitely some other type of animal hair. These pick up and distribute product more precisely, and because of that, are great to use for eye details.
I've been loving the IV02 to do a softer liner with dark brown eyeshadow. The only small gripe is that the ferrule of the brush sometimes can come into contact with the shadow itself because the hairs are so short and tiny. But I think because the brush shape itself is so small, it really can't be helped.
The E11 is just a great basic eye contouring brush to have (but usually I am too lazy to do more than just an all-over color and then a soft eyeshadow liner heh)!
Volare brushes review summary
For anyone wanting to invest more into their brushes and tools, you have to check out this brand. There's definitely some great picks here, especially the F05 multitasking brush, or the E03 blending brush (better version of MAC 217).
Please let me know if you end up trying any of these, excited for you to feel these and fall in love with them too :)