Japonesque Brushes: Pro Finishing Fan, Angled Foundation & Travel Lux Bronzer

Today I’m talking makeup brushes, namely three Japonesque beauties that I’ve been loving lately: Travel Lux Bronzer, Pro Angled Foundation and Pro Finishing Fan. Established 20 years ago in the US, Japonesque create high spec makeup brushes and tools made with a range of synthetic and natural hairs. Designed with input from award winning makeup artists, and the chosen tools of many beauty professionals, they are now available at HQHair in the UK.

Packaging is simple, chic and substantial, with illustrated descriptions of how to use each product on the back.

Pro Finishing Fan Brush (natural)

One of Japonesque’s newest designs, the Pro Finishing Fan Brush is made with natural bristles and designed for finishing and contouring. The bristles aren’t as spiky as they look in my pics… I just wanted to show how slim it is from the side. Fan brushes are a relatively new discovery for me… I had no clue what to do with them at first but have had fun learning through trial and error this Summer.

I mainly use mine for applying a light sweep of strongly pigmented powders, such as bronze or blush. This fan brush allows me to pick up the smallest amount of product for gentle coverage, as I’ll demonstrate in a moment. I also use it to apply highlighter on cheekbones or to finish a final look, sweeping it gently across my face to blend and remove any excess product.

Pro Fan Brush: Tips for Use (from box)

Travel Lux Bronzer (Natural)

Of the three brushes I was sent for review, this one is my absolute favourite and I’ve been using daily ever since! Strokably soft, densely packed, smooth contours, fat handles and… well kinda cuddly (!!!) I just adore this brush.

Its dome shape enables smooth, flawless application of bronzer, which is what I’ve been using it for the most - not a streak in sight. I find that the extreme softness of the bristles and gently contoured shape means extending seamless colour to the neck and décolleté is dreamily easy.

It picks up quite a lot of product, so I mainly use it with quite gently pigmented powders that I’m not scared of overdoing, such as Clarins Duo Bronzer in Light 01 {see my review here}.

If in a rush I’ll occasionally use the tip of it to pop blusher on the apples of my cheeks - such as NARS Orgasm and Benefit Hervana {review} - but today I made the mistake of doing this with Illamasqua Powder Blush in Lover, hoping for a whisper of peach and instead ended up with tangerine cheeks!

Lux Travel Bronzer: Tips for Use

Performance Demo

I did a little demo to illustrate how differently the Pro Fan Brush and Travel Lux Bronzer pick up and disperse colour…

I hope this illustrates how different the same product can appear simply by using different brushes - and gives you an idea of how these two perform. The Lux Bronzer distributes the product finely and evenly with dense coverage, whereas the Pro Fan Brush gives a light coverage of faint colour. I love that just switching tools can make the same product so much more versatile!

Pro Angled Foundation Brush (synthetic)

While I think this brush looks and feels beautiful, I must admit it’s the one I was least excited to try, purely because I’ve become so out of the habit of using this style of foundation brush. I normally use the Real Techniques Stippling Brush (and want to try their Buffing Brush, which I believe is great for foundation), so returning to ‘painting’ on foundation was an odd transition which just felt a bit unnatural to me.

Having said that, I have given this a fair testing for the purpose of this review and do have to admit that it performs better than my other angled foundation brushes (by Estee Lauder and Crown). I tried it with both cream {Laura Mercier Crème Smooth} and liquid {MyFace MyMix} foundations and felt it worked particularly well with the cream, allowing me to select between fuller coverage or sheering out where less was needed.

The angled cut and tapered edge allowed for precision around eyes and nose, with the flatter surface for sweeping across cheeks, forehead and jawline. I was happy with the finish it gave, which appearing a bit more ‘made up’ than normal. It’s just a personal choice that I currently prefer bigger, fluffier brushes for foundation application.

Angled Foundation Brush: Tips for Use