New Stuff: Wayne Goss Makeup Brush Collection (Warning: speculation inside)

Update: The individual brushes are now available in the US from Beautylish. You can see the ones I got here.

I guess it’s just that time of year where everyone is announcing all their cool new stuff. Earlier today one of my favorite youtube makeup artists, Wayne Goss, announced that he’ll soon be releasing his very own set of makeup brushes. It’s all in the video below, but here’s a recap of the facts:

• The brushes are hand-crafted in Japan.
• The brush heads are natural hair, gathered humanely.
• There are eight brushes in the collection.
• Each brush has a pointed or tapered tip to add versatility.
• The first run will be limited since the project is backed by Wayne himself, not a large manufacturer.
• They’ll be available in the US exclusively from Beautylish, and from Love Make Up for the rest of the world.
• You can sign up at the sites above for more news, and you’ll be notified when pre-orders open.
• Pricing information isn’t available yet.

Now for the speculation, because I love makeup brushes, and I love speculating. Let’s be clear, I have zero inside information and this is just a HUGE guess on my part. Do not take this as fact.

Since he says the brushes are hand-made in Japan from humanely-harvested natural hair, my bet for the manufacturer is on either Hakuhodo or Chikuhodo, both of which manufacture brushes for other brands. The handles on Wayne’s brushes are vaguely similar to the Chikuhodo Z-Series, which you can see over on drivel about frivol. Chikuhodo’s own brand is pretty pricey – eyeshadow brushes run from around $20-60 and face brushes are even higher – starting around $50, going all the way up to $200+. Based on that, I’m expecting the Goss brushes to fall somewhere within that range too. I’m hoping it’s toward the lower end of the spectrum, which would make sense. After all, he isn’t an established luxury brand like some of the other companies Chikuhodo manufactures for (such as Suqqu). I signed up for updates from Beautylish before I even finished watching the video, so I’ll post again when I hear anything for sure. I’d definitely love to pick a couple up for review, but that will depend a lot on what the price point ends up being, and whether you can buy the brushes individually or have to get the whole set. Overall, I’m pretty excited to see what these end up being like, especially since the other releases I was excited about this fall (Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors) didn’t live up to my hopes and expectations

Update: I checked out Goss’ website (which I’d actually never been to before – I just lurk his youtube), and it mentions that the brushes will be made by a Japanese company called Artisan&Artist. I couldn’t find a whole lot of information about them on the internet, but they seem to mainly make camera and cosmetic bags. My search did, however, dig up a recent post from when Sonia from Sweet Makeup Temptations visited the Chikuhodo offices. In the post she mentions that Chikuhodo manufactures brushes for “Twany, Suqqu, Est, Lissage, Chicca, Kamata, Lunasol, Shiseido, RMK, La Donna, Artisan&Artist, etc…” If you’re into brushes, you should check the post out here – it’s a really great read. In any case, it sounds like Chikuhodo might be the actual manufacturer, but if it’s under another brand it’s hard to say what the pricing will be like. Based on a google-translated version of A&A’s website, their brushes seem to be in the same general price range as Chikuhodo though.

He says in the youtube description that he’ll be filming videos on each individual brush, so be sure to keep an eye out!