A'Squirrel brushes.

i wanted to try some brushes from A'Squirrel since i started to explore the make up field about 2 years ago, and now i finally have! after trying some other squirrel hair brushes i know that it's the softest hair of all and i love good and soft brushes.
i ordered the Pure Squirrel Make Up Brush Set #4, which contains all their "luxurious all pure squirrel" hair brushes (the other sets contain less pure squirrel brushes but also have goat hair brushes mixed in) on a-squirrel.com (i think the website is quite hard to navigate and also doesn't look very serious. so please, could you change it if you read this, A'Squirrel team?). this set costs 113.90$, but there also is a "buy 2 get 1 free" offer if you want to buy together with friends. i think the price point is totally acceptable for squirrel hair brushes. the shipping costs 10$ (world wide flat rate) and took about 2 weeks.
the set comes in a faux leather brush roll, i find the quality of that much inferior to the brush roll i have from Sigma. it smells very artificial and is quite stiff. i don't think i will get any use out of that.

the Pure Squirrel Make Up Brush Set #4 includes 9 brushes:

• 1 Luxurious All Pure Squirrel Large Powder Brush
• 1 Luxurious All Pure Squirrel Large Blusher/Powder Brush
• 1 Luxurious All Pure Squirrel Large 1/4 Angled Contour/Blending Brush
• 1 Luxurious All Pure Squirrel Large Eyeshadow Brush
• 1 Soft Sable Medium Chisel Eyeshadow Brush
• 1 Soft Sable Fine Narrow Eyeliner/Concealer Brush
• 1 Nylon Angled Flat Eyebrow Framer Brush
• 1 Mascara Wand
• 1 Soft Sable Pointed Eyeshadow/Crease/Lip Brush (Retractable)

each comes carefully wrapped in silk paper around the handles, brush head covers and additional plastic wraps. when you first open the package, a cloud of artificial and animal smell comes out, but after the first washing the brushes lose the smell completely.

the brushes are sturdy, but are not very well crafted. the wooden handles have a good weight, but the edges from the ferrules are a bit sharp and on a few brushes, you can still detect some glue residues between ferrule and handle.

the biggest disappointment for me was the lip brush. as i wanted to test them on sturdiness and pulled on the ferrules and brush head, a whole strand of hairs came out. i think it was faulty glued.

the hairs of the squirrel brushes are soooooo soft! i must say they are just as soft as my blue squirrel brushes by Hakuhodo and even softer than my squirrel brushes from Rouge Bunny Rouge, Trish McEvoy, Paula Dorf or MakeUpShow. the hair quality is perfect. but because they are so soft, these brushes only have a light pressure point and bounce.
before using, of course i washed all brushes (for washing tips, look here). each of them washed very well. they didn't shed at all or bleed dye. they kept their shape, softness and hair structure after drying.
now to each brush individually:

Pure Squirrel Large Powder Brush 

before washing:

after washing:

MAC 150 - A'Squirrel Large Powder Brush - MAC 129

it's a medium sized classic powder brush, incredibly soft and rather fluffy and loose. it could pet myself with this brush all day ;) because it's so delicate and soft to your skin, it's perfect to distribute a fine veil of setting powder on your foundation or applying bronzer on large areas. it's not suited to buff in any products. the negative point of this very fine and soft squirrel hair is that it gets stuck together in strands quickly when it absorbs your natural skin oils so it needs to be washed more often to keep it fluffy.

Pure Squirrel Large Blusher/Powder Brush

before washing:

after washing:

MAC 129 - A'Squirrel Blush Brush - MAC 116

this is a fairly large blush brush as you can see on the comparison pic. it's just as soft and fluffly as the powder brush. because it's so soft and loose, it's seems to be made for very light blush application. it can also handle bright and very pigmented blushes with ease and blends them seamlessly. it's much too big for precise colour placement, but great for soft coloured cheeks or bronzer application. if you have a small and delicate face though (and not so ginormous like mine), you'll find this brush more suited as a powder than a blush brush.

Pure Squirrel Large 1/4 Angled Contour/Blending Brush

 before washing:

after washing:

MAC 168 - A'Squirrel Angled Brush

when i firstly opened the Angled Brush, i was surprised of it's weird shape. it's round but slightly angled at the top. it gets more definition after the washing, though. this brush is very soft and i find it to be too losely packed for the ferrule (as you can see above, if i squeeze the bristles there is still some space left between the ferrule edge and the brush hairs). it's so soft that i would not primarily use it for a contour placement (where i would need more density to buff out any edges precisely) but very nice for a more precise blush application and powder highlighter.

Pure Squirrel Large Eyeshadow Brush

before washing:

after washing:

MAC 224 - A'Squirrel Blending Brush

this is a rather large round fluffy blending brush (it's even a tiny bit bigger than the MAC 224). it's very soft and dense at the same time. because it is so big, i can't use it for crease-work, but it's great to apply pressed and loose powder eyeshadows all over the lid or brow bone highlighter. it blends out colours easily and seamlessly due to it's flat domed shape. it can also be used to apply precise highlight and contour shades on the face like the nose, or powder or concealer in the under eye area.

Sable Medium Chisel Eyeshadow Brush

A'Squirrel Eyeshadow Brush - MAC 239

this is a rather small eyeshadow lay-down brush. it's quite dense and stiff, but still soft and smooth to your eyes. it applies eyeshadow very precise and intensely. i like the thin handle and find it very easy to use, it's one of the positive surprises of this set! if they would sell it individually, i would definitely order one or two more of these, but sadly they only come in sets.

Sable Fine Narrow Eyeliner/Concealer Brush

a fine and rather long eyelining brush. it has a good bounce and i find it easy to control. you can create fine lines with it as well as getting thicker. it grabs gel eyeliners very well and applies them evenly (for that part, the quality of your gel liner is the determining factor, though). i wouldn't use it for concealer application, but only because i don't use concealer on my face. but i often heard advices (e.g. from Lisa Eldridge) to use very fine brushes to spot-apply concealer on zits and red dots so it looks more natural and less apparent.

Nylon Angled Flat Eyebrow Framer Brush

Essence Eyeliner Brush - A'Squirrel Brow Brush - Louise Young LY30

 this is a medium fine and medium stiff angled brush. it's average to apply eyebrow powder, i don't get any problems but also don't find it outstanding. i can imagine it would also be ok to use as an eyeliner brush, it's not too stiff or harsh for that purpose.

Mascara Wand

average mascara wand you can use to brush your brows or separate your lashes with.

Sable Pointed Eyeshadow/Crease/Lip Brush (Retractable)

the ferrule cap is light but fits fine on the brush. it's shedding makes me not want to use it though.

final thoughts:

this is a good set! for the price you get some great brushes, the hair quality is excellent. my favourites are the powder and blusher brush (although you would be fine with the blush brush only because it has a powder brush size), the blending brush and the eyeshadow brush. i wished the face brushes were more dense and the lip brush hadn't shed, but all in all i'm pleased with the brushes and am tempted to order the white goat brush set from A'Squirrel additionally ;)