Volare Cosmetics is a Canadian brand of Japanese-made makeup brushes developed by local Vancouver makeup artist Valensia Ng. The entire range currently includes five face brushes and five eye brushes, all made by hand in Japan using natural hair fibres. I was very lucky to be sent three of Volare’s brushes, the F02 Face Buffing Brush, E01 Eye Blending Brush, and E04 Pointy Eye Blending Brush. The brushes are predominantly made of goat hair, with the exception of the E01 Eye Blending Brush which is a mix of blue squirrel and goat.
My general thoughts are that these brushes are great quality. They are Japanese-made, and you can tell in the workmanship. I have not experienced any shedding or bleeding of dye, and the ferrules feel very firmly attached to the rest of the brush. I also really like the half matte, half glossy look where the ferrule is matte metal and the handles are glossy wood. The etched (not printed) logos on the brush handles are also a nice touch – I’m particularly fond of that font!
The F02 Face Buffing Brush (US$40) is a dense, dome-shaped brush that’s perfect for buffing foundation into the skin or contouring. The dense bristles work very well with cream, liquid and powder products, making it a very versatile brush. I’ve used this mostly to blend out my cream contour, and it works great. The one thing I do notice is that after I wash this, the bristles become more splayed out and not as dense as it felt when I first got it. I’ve never had this issue with other brushes – they do become more fluffy but not as much as this one. It still works great to blend and buff, it’s just as dense as I would have liked it to be.
The E01 Eye Blending Brush (US$24) is my favourite of the three, a tapered fluffy eye blending brush. It is easily the softest eye brush I own because of the blue squirrel hair. It’s extremely soft to the touch, as well as very fluffy so I use this more as a targeted powder brush instead of an eye brush. The tapered tip works great to powder under my eye area, around my nose, chin and forehead, without sacrificing the dewy look around my cheeks.
The E04 Pointy Eye Blending Brush (US$16) is a dome-shaped blending brush made of goat hair. It’s slightly smaller than the E01 Eye Blending Brush but it is less floppy and more directional. I prefer using this to blend my eye makeup because I prefer something that isn’t as floppy, otherwise I find that my eye makeup doesn’t blend as well, or becomes too muddy. I can also use this to carefully place my eyeshadow, or to apply and blend cream eyeshadow as well. The options are endless!
Overall I’m a fan of these brushes. The workmanship is very good and the prices are reasonable. I hope to see them release other styles of brushes in the future as currently there are only a limited number of brushes. I’d love to see a tapered highlighter/powder brush and a small eye pencil brush in the future! The white bristles also look very classy and modern on my vanity top. If you are looking for good quality brushes that aren’t priced to the sky, these are great options that you should consider. The major qualm about purchasing online is that you can’t touch and feel the brushes for yourself, but I can testify to how soft these are.
Right now Volare Cosmetics has a promotion going on where you sign up for their newsletter and get 10% off your order. It’s a great introduction to get your foot in the door with this brand! You can purchase Volare brushes online.
*Maddy Loves 
These look like gorgeous brushes! I’ll have to check them out!
Yeah and they’re based right here in Vancouver too!
Ooo these brushes look so nice! The price is super reasonable too, though I’m surprised pricing is in USD considering it’s a Canadian company.
Yeah, I guess it’s good because they can take advantage of the foreign exchange!
Wow the prices are so good for natural hair! You are such an enabler 🙂
You know it 😀