The paint on makeup brush handle

For makeup brushes, no matter with wooden handle, bamboo handle or plastic handle, all need to be painted to required color or effect. Since there are various paints on the market, here we would like to introduce something about the paint used on makeup brushes.

 

The paints we usually use are NC (nitrocellulose), PE (polyethylene) , and PU（polyurethane）, each of them includes various colors and coloring agent such as the glaze on NC paint,

 

The most common paint is NC paint, it is the most economic and normal paint. While some countries have strict control on paint usage, NC paint may not pass their customs, so some customers may require PE or PU paint on the makeup brush handles. PU and PE is expensive than NC, so the unit price of the makeup brushes will relatively higher.

 

All NC, PE and PU paint has topcoat and primer paint with different colors. Since they are chemical products, most European countries may require test reports or certificates on such paint to ensure that the paint has no harm to environment and human body. If so, all related paints including topcoat, primer paint and glaze should be submitted to the test institute to do the test.

 

If without special requirement, the makeup brush factory will use NC as default paint, so before placing orders, customers should clearly understand their government policy on paint; if NC paint is not ok, customers should clarify during custom makeup brushes, so that the makeup brush factory can quote accordingly; if related test reports are required, the fee should be afforded by customers.

Certificate and test report of makeup brushes

Generally most of our customers will not need certificate or test report for makeup brushes, as long as the quality is good enough. But for European customers, due to government and customs requirement, they usually require various certificates and test reports from the makeup brush manufacturers or suppliers for any imported goods.

 

The most common certificate is ISO which can show the qualification of the makeup brush manufacturer. Anyway, such certificate has no direct evaluation on makeup brush itself but a overall evaluation on the factory.

 

It is known that makeup brush has 3 parts: hair, ferrule and handle, so the direct evaluation should be on these 3 parts.

 

The hair should be environment protective; some customers may also require disinfection and sterilization since the hairs are cut from animal body and may contain germs. The ferrule material is usually aluminum and copper which should contain limited Cd, Pb and Hg. The handle is usually painted, so should test the painting to prove that the painting is green and no harm to human body and environment.

 

Usually, per customers’ requirements during custom makeup brushes, after finishing the production, we will submit some samples to a reliable test institute like SGS, ask for a test on the samples according to required regulation, then SGS will do the test and send us a test report to show if the samples submitted are qualified. If not qualified, the makeup brush factory will have to rework the makeup brushes till qualified. If qualified, such test reports will help with the custom clearance at customer’s country, especially for European countries, these test reports are essential, or the goods will be hold on customs and can not reach customers.

 

However, the makeup brush factory will not include the test fee during quotation, so if customers have such requirement, they should pay extra fee for such tests.

EXW price and FOB price

During quotation, many Chinese makeup brush manufacturers do not exactly know the difference between EXW price and FOB price. Most of them believe the EXW price and FOB price is almost the same since they no need to pay the shipping charge to customers.

 

The truth is there is really big difference between these two terms. EXW means Exwork. If the price we quote is EXW price, that means our responsibility is just till production finished. Customers should be responsible for everything ever since, including finding a forwarder in China to arrange the shipment to the port, paying custom related fees and shipping charge. The makeup brush manufacturers only need to ensure the production to be finished on time.

 

But if we quote FOB price, we should arrange everything till the goods leave the port, so we will have to contact the forwarder for shipment arrangement, ship the goods and pay the related charge to the port, coordinate and pay the charge for Chinese customs declaration. Therefore, comparing to EXW price, we will pay about ￥2000.0 more for FOB price.

 

Therefore, while quotation, it is best for makeup brush manufacturers to quote EXW price, so that we can take less responsibility and risks; if customers require FOB price, we should add at least ￥2000.0. If the shipping charge to the port is higher, the total cost will be higher relatively.

 

Some manufacturers may get great loss as they do not clearly understand the difference between these two terms. For example, they just calculate the production cost to custom makeup brushes, so the price they quote should be EXW price, but they quote the price to customers as FOB price. So they have to afford the extra cost by themselves. Sometimes, the total profit of the shipment may be lower than such cost, so they actually do this business at a loss.

 

During communication with customers, we should clearly understand all related terms and knowledge, most of the time, knowledge is really wealth!

About shipping quantity

Some customers really wonder how the makeup brush factory ensures the shipping quantity. Usually, the order quantity will be more than 10Kpcs, it is hard to count by hands, and also manual counting is not so accurate.

In fact, due to time limit, it is impossible for makeup brush factory to count the makeup brushes one by one. Our usual practice is to weigh each brush to get the unit net weight, then calculate the quantity of the total shipment accordingly. For example, the unit weight of a powder brush is 20g, the order quantity is 5000pcs, and we plan to put 200pcs in each inner carton, so the net weight of each inner carton should be 4kg. We do not need to count 200pcs for each inner carton, but just put many makeup brushes on the electronic weighing machine till the scale reaches 4kg. So we can ensure the quantity in each inner carton, and only need to count the inner carton numbers to ensure the total brush quantity.

Anyway, since makeup brush production is a manual process, it is hard to ensure the net weight of each brush to be completely the same. For example, one brush may 20g, while the other may be 18g or 22g, so maybe the quantity in one inner carton is 200pcs, but 198pcs in another carton.  Therefore calculating the quantity through weight is also not so accurate. If more than the quantity, that will be no problem, but if less than the order quantity, it may hurt our customers’ business.

To avoid this situation, we will always put spare parts for each shipment. Usually we will put 5-10pcs spare brushes for each type, and will notify customers of the carton# of the spare parts via email.

Therefore, customers no need to worry about the quantity, as a professional makeup brush manufacturer, we will always try our best to protect customers’ profits.

Confirmation by pictures during brush production

After arranging payment, many customers can not wait to receive the makeup brushes. While the normal lead time of the makeup brush manufacturer is about 30 days or more, which is really a long period for customers. And during this period, customers usually are not sure if they can receive makeup brushes that 100% meet their requirements.

 

Usually, we will send samples for customers’ confirmation before mass production. But sometimes, customers would like to make some changes on the samples, for example: change colors, vary size or material etc. Theoretically, we should send new samples for customers’ confirmation, while the lead time for new samples is also about 15 days, it will waste a lot of time if repeatedly confirm the samples. Therefore, most customers and makeup brush manufacturers would like to directly start the mass production as long as the requirements are described in detail. While some customers still have some concerns on the makeup brushes and eagerly want to see the real brushes ASAP.

 

Also, some samples are without customers’ logo, the makeup brush factory will print the logo during mass production. So even if customers are satisfied with the makeup brush samples, they are not sure what their logo will look like on the makeup brush handles.

 

To relax customers, if requested, at the very beginning of mass production, we will firstly produce some finished brushes with required logos, then take the pictures of these brushes and send the pictures to customers via emails for confirmation. If customers are satisfied with the pictures, we will start mass production; if not so satisfied, we can accordingly make some changes according to customers’ requirements, and will not start mass production until get customers’ confirmation.

 

In this way, we can save time and money to confirm brush samples via express, and customers will have a clear idea of what kind of brushes they will receive!

If shipment hold on customs

Some people may become scared once knowing their shipments are hold on customs. In fact, it is just a routine inspection at customs, no need to worry too much.

 

Some may ask: our shipments are never hold on customs, why this time? Well, there are so many packages passed the customs everyday, it is impossible to inspect each package, so the customs have to randomly check the packages. Sometimes, your packages may pass the customs without inspection, while sometimes, they are randomly chosen to be inspected.

 

Usually, there will be no problem as long as your packages are not dangerous goods or declare less value to avoid taxes. The customs will release the packages within 1-2 days.

 

If the shipments are hold on the Chinese customs, our forwarder will immediately notify us and require us to offer required documents, then the forwarder will submit these documents to the Chinese customs, if no problem, the packages will be released quickly.

 

If the packages are hold on the customers’ customs, the forwarder will also contact customers immediately according to the contact information on the waybill, so it is very important to list customer’s correct contact information on the waybill in case of anything happened. The forwarder will tell customer to submit essential documents. Also, we will keep tracking the shipments once they are sent out, if finding anything unusual, we should immediately contact customers and let them contact their local forwarder to check out the shipment status. If no problem, the packages will be also released quickly.

 

Therefore, as long as your products and documents are legal and declare actual value, no need to worry even if they are inspected at customs

Label printing on makeup brushes

During custom makeup brushes, most customers will require logo printing on makeup brush handles or bags, it is easy for the makeup brush manufacturers.

 

While besides the customers’ logo, other letters may also be required to be printed on the brushes or packages. For example, some customers would like to have the brush name or item number on the brushes; the Chinese customs may require the mark of “made in china” for some brushes that shipped to overseas

 

For the mark of “Made in China”, many customers find such mark on some famous brands, and are eager to know if it is ok to remove such mark.

 

We know that most customers do not like such mark on their makeup brushes, but some makeup brush manufacturers always tell them: it is the Chinese government regulation!

 

In fact, as long as the makeup brushes are not made for famous brands, like MAC, BB, Sigma etc, the mark “Made in China” can be removed from the brushes. The reason of Chinese customs to have such regulation is just to avoid of imitations or fakes of famous brands.

 

Also, some customers themselves require the mark of “Made in China” to distinguish the makeup brush factories in different countries. It is known that Sigma brushes are made in several countries; sometimes they will require the mark of origin on their brushes.

 

Therefore, the mark of “made in china” is non-mandatory; it totally depends on customers’ requirements, and will be no problem without such mark.

Something about MAC and Sigma makeup brushes

Q: Can you please explain a little about the difference between MAC and Sigma brushes. Some Sigma brushes are actually really good copies of the MAC ones and feel exactly the same way, but there are some which do not and it looks like the MAC brushes have more hairs and are much softer.

A: Yes, some MAC brushes are softer and have more hairs than Sigma brushes, that is a part of work craft of makeup brush factory. As you know, the makeup brush production is a manual work, so the hair usage and arrangement totally depend on the workers craft during brush production. Therefore, even with the same material, if the material usage and shape is different, the price will be different.

 

Q: What makes MAC brushes so good? Is it the amount of hair? Is it the way the hair has been treated?

A: The MAC brushes are good mostly because they use good material and good craft for their brushes; sometimes, some makeup brush suppliers will only quote you like goat hair, but the goat hair has more than 20 grades, so the quality and price varies a lot; also sometimes even quote the same hair material, some bad suppliers will mix some inferior hair.

 

Q: Is the dye used for the hair in the MAC brushes different from the one used for Sigma brushes?

A: The dying process of MAC brushes is different from sigma brushes; MAC brushes will not bleed;

 

Q: Why are some brushes softer than others? What does make one brush softer than another when the used hair is the same?

A: Some brush softer than another even with the same material, that is because of special treatment;

 

Q: Why do some Sigma brushes shed?

A: The Sigma brush shed, that is because the Sigma brushes are manufactured in several different makeup brush factories, these factories use different material and craft for these brushes. Also, for goat hair brush, it is normal to have 5-6 hairs falling at the first usage.

 

Q: how to solve these problems with the Sigma brushes and how to make them better/ as well as the MAC brushes?

A: To solve the problems with sigma brushes, the makeup brush manufacturers should mainly control the brush material and craft.

About production time

Since it has been November, many customers begin to finalize the orders after long-term discussion and confirmation, and would like to get makeup brushes before the Christmas Holiday. Therefore, huge orders pour into the makeup brush factory, but the normal lead time of makeup brush factory is about 30 days or more after confirming samples. So, if customers can not confirm the samples before Nov 20^th, it is somewhat impossible to get makeup brushes before Christmas Holiday.

 

Some customers are really urgently in need of the brushes for holiday promotion, they even hope to pay extra fee to expedite the production of their brushes, while usually it is hard to expedite too much.

 

Some customers then ask about our production capacity, and after knowing our production capacity is about 200kpcs per month, they are really puzzled about why we need so many days to produce their orders.

 

In fact, although we declare 30 days as the normal lead time, the real production time may just about 10 days. That is because our material supplier also need time to produce or prepare materials. Usually, most Chinese makeup brush factories do not stock any material. As makeup brush production is very special, most customers would like to custom makeup brushes with their own design and style, it is risky for any makeup brush factory to store a certain type of material. If no customer needs makeup brushes with such material, the makeup brush factory has to afford such lost by themselves.

 

That is why our production capacity is 200kpcs per month but we need about 30 days to finish a 5000pcs order. We need to firstly order material from our supplier, wait for their production finished and material shipped to us. If any problem happened during our supplier’s production or our production, the lead time will be even longer.

 

Therefore, if customers would like to get brushes before Christmas Holiday, it is best to place order on October, so that we can send samples on early November, and start mass production after getting confirmation of samples. That will leave some time to the makeup brush manufacturer in case of any problem happen during production.

How to let the makeup brush factory know your exact requirement?

For some customers who are new to the makeup brush industry, they usually do not know how to communicate with the makeup brush factory during custom makeup brushes. As they do not know the material, size and other details, while the makeup brush manufacturers need all details for exact quotation.

 

Generally, to know the customers detailed requirements, the makeup brush manufacturers need to know the following information: exact hair material for each brush and the exact size of each part of the each brush. Take a powder brush for example, customers should tell us the powder brush hair is natural or synthetic hair; if natural hair, what kind of natural hair, goat hair or any other hair; if goat hair, which grade goat hair since it has more than 20 grades, ZGF or BJF or HJF goat hair? Also what is the handle length, ferrule length, hair length and ferrule diameter? As these dimension will greatly affect brush price.

 

While seldom customers can answer all these questions, they may just know they need a good brush or sets; once the manufacturers or suppliers ask them such question, they will certainly not know what to do and how to get such information; it will be difficult for quotation.

 

To open this bottleneck, we suggest customers just send us pictures of the brushes they like or tell us the part # of some famous brand like MAC, sigma etc, then we can read all essential information from the pictures.

 

Of course, if customers have any extra requirements which do not show on the pictures, it is also ok; we will act according to customer requirements.

 

We believe this will somewhat help manufacturers better understand customers’ requirements and will make the communication easier and quicker.

Say something about Chinese suppliers

Although we are a Chinese makeup brush supplier, we really suffer a lot from our Chinese material suppliers. Most of them do not pay much attention to customers’ requirements but handle everything according to their own rules.

 

Quality- for example, although we have specified in our orders that what we need is ZGF goat hair, sometimes, they mixed some inferior hairs into it; the required processing on the copper ferrule is Nickel Plating, while they just ignore such requirement……

 

Package- we require inner carton for our materials but they just randomly pack all material in one carton; we require clear marks of items and quantity on each carton, but such requirements are seldom satisfied…..

 

Delivery- It is the biggest problem of most of our suppliers. Some suppliers can meet our requirements on quality and package, while delivery is their bottleneck. For example, the required delivery is on Oct 10^th, since there is no notice of the delay from our supplier; we assume the delivery will be on time. While on Oct 10^th, we do not get any package. After calling our supplier, we get known that the delivery will be delayed! Such situation always makes us crazy since we urgently need this material for our production, and it often happens! We have changed many suppliers due to such situation, but finally we realize that it is the common phenomenon in China, most Chinese suppliers have such problems due to the management confusion.

 

In fact, we know and can understand that there will be some problems during production, and sometimes it is really unavoidable for such situation. What we can not understand is no oral or written notice for such delay. We can not know anything until the due date! It is really ridiculous for business. We directly work with global customers, so can not handle like this. We will notice our customers in written in advance if any delay happens.

 

However, although we have strictly required our suppliers to improve this and let us know any problems which may affect the delivery, we are disappointed.

 

It is a global market, Chinese suppliers can no longer work alone by own rules, we need to integrate into the global economy and meet global market rules, so that we can work together to win more and more big orders.

About the price negotiation of makeup brush

After getting quotation, most customers must wonder if it is the best price; if the makeup brush manufacturer leaves any space for negotiation; if it is cost-effective to buy makeup brushes at such price. We can understand customers’ such consideration. All of us want to get the best goods with the lowest price.

 

At the very beginning of international business, most Chinese factories and exporters got huge profits through the business with foreign buyers. As the foreigners do not know the situation in China and can not imagine how low the cost in China. Therefore, many Chinese factories and suppliers sell the goods at very high price although their cost is very low.

 

Generally, with the reform and opening-up policy, China is known by more and more foreigners and Chinese goods become popular, more and more people become familiar with China, they get known that Chinese products have very low labor cost, so they realize that they must negotiate with the Chinese factories during business to get better price. And most Chinese factories and suppliers will leave negotiation room at the initial quotation.

 

While now, we have known that our customers have been familiar enough to China, most of them can even calculate our production cost, it becomes unnecessary to leave any negotiation room. Therefore, we always offer the best price at our initial quotation and let customers know it has been the best price, no negotiation. It will greatly save the time of both sides and can push every business move forward quickly.

 

Therefore, we hope that customers will not do negotiation after getting our quotation on makeup brushes, we always quote the best price at the very beginning to save time and win customers. Due to the fierce competition, most makeup brush manufacturers will accept orders as long as they can get some profits.

Be a professional and reliable makeup brush supplier

As the human beings, we can not control everything, but we should try our best to be a professional and responsible person. Especially for business, no matter what happened, we should do whatever we can do to protect our partners’ interests and maintain our fame and credit.

 

During makeup brush production, we often meet this or that unavoidable problem. For example, these days, I am seriously sick and need to be in the hospital, while I notice that it is nearly the time to deliver one order. If we can not ship the goods on time, my customer and our factory will burden huge lost. Before going into hospital, I must arrange everything to ensure punctual delivery. Firstly, check with the production department about the production schedule; then forwarder all related documents and orders to my colleague, explain all details to him/her and ensure him/her completely understand all customer’s requirements on the makeup brushes; also report all related information to my superior about this order; finally, before the shipment, even having been in the hospital, call the production department, my colleague and superior to ensure everything go on well.

 

The salesman’s action directly affects the fame and credit of the makeup brush manufacturer, so each salesman should have good sense of responsibility. No matter what happened, firstly try your best to protect the customers’ and factory’s interests.

 

As the makeup brush supplier, we can not live alone; we always need customers’ support. Only after getting customers’ trust, we can get their supports.

 

Being responsible and reliable is not just a talk; we should value each order and each customer. Keep all promises we once made to customers no matter what happened! If finally we failed to keep the promise even we have tried our best, we should truly explain everything to customers, try to get their understanding and minimize the losses.