I have to say these brushes are fantastic and of very high quality. They are all handmade and I found an article online that has a few pics of how they are made in Japan:
PingMag MAKE - The Japan-based interview magazine about “Making things” Archive Makeup Brushes from the land of the Calligraphy Brush
The brushes are made in a traditional brush making method and go through many steps until the end result. It's very impressive and is of great craftsmanship. They are the softest brushes I've ever owned.
I like them better than many of my MAC brushes, even though Hakuhodo produces MAC brushes. The Hakuhodo original brand ones are better imo, the brush hairs are of a higher grade and are much softer. I guess b/c MAC tells them what kind of hair and what price point they want them at, so they make their brushes to MAC's specifications.
I can't say enough good things about them. I absolutely love them and have reorganized my brush holders and put many of my other brushes away in a box for storage to make room for these ones.
About prices: Yes they are rather pricey overall but there's a wide variety of series and price points. The Basics series has some very affordable prices, in fact many are about the same price as MAC brushes here in Europe. If you can afford it, the S-100 series are an absolute dream, although many of the S-100 brush heads are exactly the same just put on the Basics series handle, so you can get them a bit cheaper. On the website, it will tell you which are the exact dupes of the brush heads just on a less expensive handle. Also have to remember that these are made in Japan and are each hand made and none of the end hairs are cut. The hair is of the highest quality, all the lesser quality hair gets removed manually with a fine comb. These aren't some "sweatshop" Made in China cheap quality stuff that gets machine cut.
I would say if you make a first purchase, I wouldn't only buy the $15 brushes to save money, you will not fully appreciate the quality of the brushes and you might think, ok what's the big fuss about? I would honestly save up and buy maybe just one of the more luxurious brushes, that is where they excel and where the difference is most noticeable. Honestly, they make my MAC brushes feel scratchy as hell!
