Review: Wayne Goss 02 Face Brush

It’s almost time for the next run of Wayne Goss brushes to come back in stock at Beautylish, so what better time to review the third Goss brush that I got? The Goss 02 is a smallish tapered brush designed to be used with powder products for the face.

Like the other brushes in the range, the 02 has a black seamless ferrule and black-lacquered wooden handle. It’s light but well-balanced and comfortable to hold. The brush number and ‘wayne goss’ are imprinted on the handle with holographic lettering, which I covered with clear nail polish to keep it looking nice.

The brush head on the 02 is round and tapers at the end. The bristles are arranged so that the tapering starts about halfway down the brush head. It’s fairly dense, but not so much that it’s stiff. On par with the other Goss brushes I have, it’s solidly constructed with no flaws in craftsmanship. The hair is evenly bundled and well-shaped. It did shed about 4-5 hairs over the first few uses, but no more since then.

The hair type for the brush isn’t specified, but it’s very similar in appearance and texture to the Hakuhodo G5521. Based on that I’m going to guess it’s a mix of goat and blue squirrel, so it’s very soft and silky. The balance of softness and density means you can get very good coverage and blending, but it’s hard to overapply products with this brush. I could see it being a little too soft to use with very lightly pigmented products, though, and it wouldn’t work well with cream or liquid products. I’ve used it for blush, contouring and highlighting, and it was great for all of them. So great, in fact, that it’s become my most-use blush brush on my extra-dry skin. It’s too small for all-over powder application, but there will be a limited edition holiday brush that’s more appropriately sized for finishing powder or bronzer (you can see it in Wayne’s video here, at the 3:38 mark).

As always, here are the measurements for the 02:

• Full length – 168mm
• Bristle length – 32mm
• Width of ferrule foot – 12.5mm
• Width of brush head at the widest part – 22mm

When I was first looking into this one, I thought it looked nearly identical to the Hakuhodo G5521, which is part of the reason I hesitated to get it – I wasn’t sure if I need two of that style of brush. At the time I was only using the G5521 for highlighting, and when I realized how much more it could really do, that’s when I decided to spring for the Goss as well.

It turned out that I was pretty close to right. There are minor differences in the brushes, but I can use them pretty much interchangeably. The Goss is a little fuller and less dense, but the shape is very similar. Below are some photos of the Goss 02 vs Hakuhodo G5521.

In Short: This has quickly become one of my most-used brushes for face products.

The Wayne Goss 02 is available for $35 from beautylish.com in the US and love-makeup.co.uk everywhere else.