Battle Of The Brush Cleaning Soaps: Make Up Store VS Hakuhodo

Hello again!

Sorry I’ve been missing for so long. We’ve finally moved into our new home! YAY! Even though the idea of finally owning your own home is exciting and all, unpacking and cleaning is really time-consuming and exhausting. You can follow my updates on dayre.me/bunbunmakeup. We just got our wifi up yesterday so now I’m back to blogging. I missed this space! 😀

Brand new soaps always look so delectable, don't they?

I've been using Make Up Store Brush Cleaning Soap for the longest time - more than 2 years - and it's so good it's always sold out within a few weeks of a new shipment. I bought a backup last year and only recently started using it.

I take my brush cleaning routine very seriously. I need to keep my brushes clean so they don't irritate my sensitive skin and try to clean them every 2 weeks, more often if I wore makeup everyday for the week.

Size comparison with a Singapore $1 coin.

Hakuhodo Brushes

What could be better experimental objects to test the Hakuhodo Brush Cleaning Soap than Hakuhodo brushes, right? 🙂

Here are some of my Hakuhodo brushes:

The Hakuhodo numbering system is a high level of Science @_@". Even after trying to understand it for a long time, little makes sense.

The alphabet stands for the range - but even if it states 'B004' it actually means 'K004' therefore it belongs to the K range instead of B range; in each range there are different types of bristle material - don't be fooled if it says 'goat' coz there's goat synthetic, goat saikoho, goat ototsuho, goat sokoho, same goes for the blue squirrel too. And the numbers, they don't run in sequence. Previously the brushes didn't have the numbering embossed on the brush like most other brands do and it was such a headache trying to recall which is which. OMGoodness. They do now. Despite all that, they're really good quality brushes. LOVE!

Anyway, back to the Hakuhodo Brush Cleaning Soap, yes.

I think it only cleans very superficially, so while it does a decent job of cleaning the dirt off brushes you'd use for powders, it will not work on those tainted with creams and heavier liquid products.

Synthetic Hair Brushes

I have a good mix of natural and synthetic hair brushes in my stash, but I think I might have more synthetic ones. They're hardy, more resistant to wear, work faster, are usually cheaper, and can perform as well. With the exception of blush though, coz I do still prefer natural hair bristles for that.

Here are some of my most used synthetic brushes:

Unless stated 'MUFE (Make Up For Ever)', the rest are from Sigma.

Synthetic haired brushes are immune to the Hakuhodo Cleaning Soap. Even for the smaller brushes, I had to use quite a bit of force to go over the soap to try and get the gunk out. With the Make Up Store one, it was a breeze.

Verdict

Winner: Make Up Store Cleaning Soap!

It cleans better and faster, has two times more product for just a little more, is more accessible (unless they're out of stock, oops!), and works for sponges as well. I wrote a review on the Make Up Store Cleaning Soap, you might wanna check it out.

What product do you use to clean your brushes? Do share! =)

Thanks for reading!