Customers offer samples will help expedite of shipment

Some customers have definite demand on brush types; they have such brush in their hand and would like to custom makeup brush with the same quality and craft. To save time, sometimes, they will only take a picture of the brush and send to the makeup brush manufacturer for quotation.

 

Due to the photo environment or equipment limit, the picture may not be able to show the actual effect of the brushes, especially the work craft, it will cause some errors during quotation. And after quotation, if customers would like to release orders, the makeup brush factory will have to make some samples first and send to customers’ confirmation, only after getting customers’ confirmation on samples, the factory or manufacturer can start mass production, which will need about 20 extra days.

 

If customers can send the samples they have to the makeup brush manufacturers, it will greatly helpful for accurate quotation; also, the sample confirmation will not so necessary. Most professional makeup brush factory can copy the brushes if with samples. Of course, if customers do not require urgent delivery and insist on sample confirmation first, that will also be ok to send samples first.

 

For example, a customer would like to order MAC equivalent brushes but only offers MAC brush # to the makeup brush manufacturer. In his opinion, MAC brushes are famous all over the world, the makeup brush factory must know the customers requirement only by the brush number. However, since MAC sells brushes world widely, the brushes sold in Europe are different from that in Asian, their quality and craft vary greatly. So it will be the best if customers can send the brushes they have to the makeup brush manufacturers in case of any misunderstanding on customer’s requirements.

 

If customers offer samples, the lead time can be shortened by 15-20 days, which is almost the same as the lead time of mass production.

Custom makeup brush VS existing brush

Many customers have no clear idea on makeup brush ordering, and do not know which one is better: custom makeup brush or order existing brush from the makeup brush manufacturers.

 

In fact, all customers are customizing makeup brushes even if they use the same size/material/color/craft as the brush samples from makeup brush manufacturers, as customers always require their own logo printed on the brush handles and bags. If order existing brushes, nothing should be changed, the logo should be the name of the makeup brush factory. Just like wholesale the goods of a factory or manufacturer.

 

Most Chinese makeup brush manufacturers specialize in custom makeup brushes; we produce brushes strictly according to customers’ requirements on size, material, craft, color etc. Not like other standard parts, we usually have no fixed existing brushes. For an existing part, the size/material/color/craft and logo should be fixed; if anything changed, the item number should be different. While for makeup brush, the size/material/color/craft etc is so diverse and different customers have different preference, so it is hard to give a fixed item number.

 

Also, for makeup brush sets, if the brush quantity and type contained in a set changed, it should be a different brush set. Therefore, it is hard to fix any brush or brush set as the existing brushes. That is why many makeup brush manufacturers will say that they have no certain existing brushes when the customers want to check the existing brushes. We will only show customers some brushes or brush sets we are producing or have produced for customers’ reference; if customers like them, we will send the samples for customers’ confirmation upon request.

 

Therefore, if you would like to have brushes with you own logo, you should input “custom makeup brushes” in the search engine. During communication with the makeup brush suppliers, you should also let them know such information

Our holiday arrangement

Now it is almost the calendar new year, as well as the Chinese New Year! The following is our holiday notice:

Jan 1^st-3^rd: Holiday for calendar new year

Jan 16^th-31^st: Holiday for Chinese New Year

During the holiday, we will only available by emails, the makeup brush factory will be closed; most staff will be out of office.

However, we will have a staff to be on duty on every working day to check emails on sales@tmakeupbrushes.com, so that we can reply customers’ enquiries. Therefore, most emails will be replied ASAP except those about the production or delivery, we can not ensure the exact delivery time since our production line will be stopped during the holiday. We will reply all emails on delivery or production after our back to the office on Feb 1^st.

If customers have any urgent order, please place the order and arrange the prepayment before Jan 16^th (our Chinese New Year). If we can get orders before holiday, the delivery time will be Middle Feb; while if we get orders after the holiday, the delivery time will be much longer, may be delayed to later March.

We wish all customers enjoy their Christmas Holiday and New Year Holiday!

Please feel free to contact us via email at any time.

Place orders before Chinese New Year

Christmas is coming, New Year is coming, and people all around the country are ready to celebrate the holiday. Before, after the New Year holiday, it will leave about a month for Chinese New Year; while this year, Chinese New Year is also not far. Jan 23th is Chinese New Year day, and most companies will close from Jan 20^th.

 

Our factory will be closed from Jan 16^th to 31st. It will certainly affect the brush production and shipment. Therefore, if customers have any urgent demand, it will be the best to place the order before the Chinese New Year, so that we can order the raw material before the holiday and then start production once our back to the factory. If material is ready, we may just need about 15 days to finish the production.

 

Although some of our staff will be available by email during the holiday, our workers are not on duty, so can not do any production. Even if we get the orders during the Chinese New Year holiday, we will not be able to order the material as our material supplier is also enjoying the holiday. Therefore, placing orders during the holiday is totally the same after the holiday; the delivery time will not have difference.

 

Without the order, we will have to order the raw material after the holiday, and the material production lead time is also about 25 days, in plus of the production time, the whole lead time will be more than 40 days. So if customers place the order after the holiday, the delivery time will be in March or later.

 

But if we get the order before our holiday, we can order the material firstly, as our material supplier will not close their factory so early. Generally, they will not close the factory until Jan 22nd. Most Chinese makeup brush manufacturers will close the factory earlier than other factories if without urgent orders.

 

If you already have any confirmed demand on makeup brushes, please kindly help to place the order before our holiday.

Do a yearly summary during Christmas holiday

Now, most western customers are enjoying their Christmas holiday, but we are still working even if there is few inquiry or email. Most internationals sales do not know what to do during such period.

 

I strongly suggest the salesman can do a yearly summary during the Christmas holiday. We are so busy before that we have no time to survey all enquires. Due to time limit, we may just reply or feedback the most potential customers, and automatically ignore the general inquiry. Most of us believe that even if we reply these general inquiries, it is hard to win business from them, they just group send the emails to all Chinese makeup brush manufacturers or suppliers; we can hardly win orders from them.

 

It is ok to use such strategy during busy time, but since now we are so free, why not try to reply these emails? Maybe you can get surprise from them. Some may ask: the customers are enjoying their holiday, will they check the emails? Well, email is not telephone, customers can open their emails once they are free, our emails will not be missed during the holiday. After the holiday, customers will see our emails. Emails will not cause any disturbance to their holiday time. Although it totally depends on customers’ decision, we should try our best to get the chance to make further progress.

 

Besides, we can make a table to involve all inquiries in this year, no matter confirmed customers, potential customers or impossible customers. As long as we once get inquiries from them, we should input their information into a table to check the related data, such as the order rate, profit rate, advertisement effect etc. Such data will greatly help our plan in next year.

 

As a salesman, we should not waste any time, use any chance to improve our sales volume and customers’ satisfaction; it is a good talent to strengthen ourselves through periodical summarization especially at the end of the year.

MOQ according to different situation

Each makeup brush manufacturer has its own MOQ for makeup brushes, some may say 1000pcs each, some may 2000 each, and some may more.

 

The MOQ will be different according to brush types. For mini brushes, the MOQ may reach 10000pcs; for large medium grade brushes, the MOQ may be 2000pcs each; for high grade brushes, the MOQ may be 1000pcs; for top grade makeup brushes like MAC equivalent, the MOQ may be 500pcs.

 

Since most of our customers are small workshops or wholesalers, it is hard for them to absorb such quantity, especially for some small countries. For example, the Iceland, New Zealand, Finland etc, they have so little population and may only accept 200pcs each or less. If buy 1000 sets at one time, they may need more than one year to sell these brushes out. It will be hard for their capital turnover. So they may prefer paying a little more to get small MOQ.

 

The main reason of the makeup brush manufacturers to have MOQ requirement is only because it is the most cost-effective when reach such quantity. While we may ignore that for some customers in small country, they prefer higher price than large MOQ.

 

Therefore, we indeed should regulate MOQ according to different situation. We can firstly quote customers according to normal MOQ and ask if it is acceptable for customers. If not, we can recalculate the cost and requote customers base on their order quantity. We believe most customers can understand that the price for small quantity will be higher than large quantity.

 

As professional makeup brush manufacturers, we should give customers various choices, and let customers decide which they prefer. Never act on assumptions or assume customers must prefer low price.

 

Certificate of sterilization on makeup brush

Many customers will require certificate of sterilization on makeup brushes due to the government policy. As makeup brush hairs are animal hairs which will contain some bacteria if not sterilized. Such bacteria may be harmful to local environment or human body, so if without the certificate of sterilization, the customs will not release the shipment.

 

The certificate of sterilization is a prove to show that the makeup brushes have been sterilized according to certain regulation, and contain no bacteria. After all brushes in the order are finished, the inspection authority will come to the makeup brush factory to do the inspection, if all brushes are qualified, the inspection authority will then issue the inspection report/certificate.

 

After the shipment, the makeup brush suppliers should send the certificate together with the invoice and packing list for customers’ clearance for the shipment.

 

While as not all customers will require such certificate, the makeup brush supplier will not include such test fee in the quotation at the very beginning. If customers have such requirement, they need to pay extra fee for the test fee. For small quantity and single brush type, the test fee is about USD170.0, for large quantity or multi types, the test fee will be about USD270.0. For example, if there is only 1 brush type with 1000pcs in a order, the test fee will be USD170.0; if the order contains 10 types with more than 1000pcs, the test fee will be USD270.0.

 

Therefore, during custom makeup brushes, if customers know the government or customs has such regulation or requirement on certificate of sterilization, they should tell the makeup brush manufacturers at the very beginning; so that the makeup brush manufacturers can include the test fee in the quotation or let customers know the test fee in advance.

Shipping mark for makeup brushes

Although the shipping mark is not compulsory for international shipment, most customers will require marks on each carton in case of any missing or confusing.

 

The shipping mark content and style totally depends on customers and suppliers. If customers have their own fixed marks, they should send the mark to makeup brush manufacturers to make such marks on the cartons. If customers have no fixed marks and are no so familiar with the mark issues, the brush manufacturers can design the marks and send them to customers for confirmation.

 

Usually, the marks should be printed on the outer cartons, it means: the makeup brush manufacturer should send the marks to the carton factory and require the carton factory to print the marks on each carton. However, if the carton quantity is so few that the carton factory does not want to print the marks on each carton, the makeup brush manufacturers should feedback such situation to customers and try to get customers’ approval to firstly print the marks on paper and then stick the paper on each carton.

 

In fact, the customs has no requirement on mark style or content, no mark is also ok. Shipping mark is only a way to distinguish our cartons from all others, since there are so many cartons in a same port or airport. Shipping mark can help customers find their goods accurately and immediately.

 

A shipping mark usually contains such information: customer’s name or abbreviation, destination (port or city), order number and carton number. For example:

ABC (customer name)

Vancouver (customer’s location)

PO#20110101

Carton#:1-20

 

The important issue is the exporter should ensure the consistency of all related documents. For example, if your invoice shows no mark, all other documents (packing list, declaration, B/L), should show the same information. If the invoice shows mark information, all other documents should show the same mark information. Otherwise, the shipment may be hold on customs and can not reach customers.

Makeup brush shipment

For small orders, some customers would like to ship via DHL/FEDEX/UPS which will be much quicker than via air or sea. Also, they will prefer to prepay the shipping charge to the makeup brush suppliers, as freight charge paid by receiver is much higher than by shipper.

 

While after getting customers’ payment on freight charge, some makeup brush suppliers will choose to ship via DHL agent instead of official DHL, as DHL agent will be cheaper than official. Here we would like to introduce the advantages and disadvantages of DHL and its agent:

 

DHL agent: The most important advantage is low fee. Usually the shipping charge of DHL agent is 30% of official quotation, some may even lower. This is the main reason why many Chinese makeup brush suppliers choose agent.

 

Another advantage of DHL agent is the convenience especially for those suppliers who have no import-export license. Shippers only need to give the packages to the agent, no need to submit any declaration documents, and the agent will handle everything at customs; that is another reason why the agent is so popular in China.

 

However, the shipment via DHL agent will take longer time. The DHL normal time to USA will just 3 days, but if via agent, it may take more than 5 days; some may 7-10 days. That is because to decrease the fee, the agents usually transfer the shipment to another location to combine the packages with others. Such transfer will also cause the package missing or damage, if such issue happens, the shippers will have no way to require any compensation since the shipment is not handled via official DHL.

 

DHL official: The DHL will be quicker and safer than agent. If anything happened, DHL will handle for them, and the shippers can claim compensation from DHL for any package damage or missing. But the shipping charge is too high and shippers need to submit all related declaration documents to DHL, it is not easy for some small makeup brush manufacturers.

 

Despite of the advantages and disadvantages of DHL and its agent, we really suggest DHL official for samples, as the fee will not be much higher; if ship via agent, the small package is easy to be missed. For large shipment, it depends on shippers’ consideration on safety and cost. Usually, large shipment will not be missed.

Prepare samples in advance

Having been in makeup brush industry for so many years, I get known that most customers have no clear idea on which brushes they exactly need. Some of them are very new to this industry and just would like to sell makeup brushes in their local area. Therefore, before custom makeup brushes, they usually will require existing samples or best sellers from the makeup brush factory, so that they can check the capacity of the factory, and better understand the difference between different makeup brushes as well.

 

The problem is, the normal lead time of brush samples is about 15 days. If the makeup brush factory has no existing brush in stock, and start make the samples only after getting the customers approval, it will greatly affect the business progress.

 

In fact, it is ok to offer most customers the same samples, so to save times, the makeup brush manufacturer can make certain brush samples in advance. For example, make 20 sets of all MAC/BB brushes in one time, then once customers require samples, we can immediately send the existing ones to them, which will save time for both customers and makeup brush manufacturers. Once the 20 sets samples are almost sold out, we can make another 20 sets samples again, also we can add the best sellers in that period to the samples, so that we can introduce new arrivals to customers and keep our customers be updated of any information on makeup brush industry.

 

As sales, we should keep fresh and creative at any time, try best to offer better service to customers, solve any problem of customers, and win more orders for our company.

Use alcohol to remove glue remnant

While unpacking the makeup brushes, some customers may notice some yellow dirt on makeup brush ferrule and handle, the dirt is actually glue remnants.

 

We all know that to connect the ferrule with hair and handle, the makeup brush manufacturers have to use glue. Theoretically, the workers must remove the dirt after the production; during inspection, the makeup brushes with such dirt should be unqualified and returned to the production line to be reworked. While sometimes, to expedite the production, some irresponsible workers may not remove the dirt and the inspectors also just ignore it. This is really bad for customers, as the makeup brushes with such glue remnants are very ugly and will drop down the quality level of the makeup brushes.

 

No matter the brush material is in top grade or low grade, the makeup brush suppliers should ensure the beautiful appearance of the makeup brushes. But if unfortunately customers receive makeup brushes with the ugly glue remnants, you can choose to return the brushes to the suppliers to require the brushes reworked, or you can remove the dirt by yourselves if the unqualified quantity is not so more and you urgently need the brushes to be launched.

 

Then, how to remove the glue remnants by ourselves? Well, a cloth and a bottle of alcohol will be enough. Buy a bottle of alcohol from a shop or drugstore, and use a clean cloth with alcohol to clean the brush ferrule and handle; you will find that the glue remnants can be easily removed and the ferrule and handle become shinning. Just remember that after that, you should put the brush in a cool and dry place to ensure that the alcohol moisture will not leave on the makeup brushes.

 

However, if the unqualified quantity is too much and the brush are not in urgent need, customers should return the makeup brushes and require the makeup brush supplier to rework them, it is really their responsibility to supply perfect and beautiful makeup brushes.

Makeup brushes with Bamboo handles

Due to environment protection consideration, some customers may prefer bamboo handles for their makeup brushes. It is ok for many makeup brush manufacturers to produce such bamboo brushes, while customers should understand that the lead time for bamboo handles will be longer than wooden or plastic handles.

 

The reason is the original color of bamboo is slight yellow, while customers always require the color to be white, so the makeup brush factory has to do some special process to change the color to be white, and then do the painting. For the wooden handles, if the weather is rainy, we can bake dry the paint to ensure on-time delivery; but for bamboo handles, we can not bake them but only air dry or sun dry. If baked, the bamboo handle paint will change to yellow again. Therefore, on rainy day, it is usually hard for us to deliver the makeup brushes on time.

 

During custom makeup brushes, if customers would like to have bamboo handles, we usually offer longer lead time than wooden handles, while sometimes, we can not foresee the weather situation in future, so sometimes if it rains for many days, we may not ship the goods on time only because the paint is not dry enough.

 

We indeed want to get the understanding from customers on such issue, while we know that it is really our responsibility to control everything during makeup brush production including the weather situation. Therefore, if our normal lead time is 30 days, in June and July which is the rainy season in China, we may quote 45 days for makeup brushes with bamboo handles. The situation will also happen in winter. If customers can accept 45 days that will be ok for both of us; while if customers are urgently in need of the brushes, we will try our best to expedite the shipment, but we can not promise anything as we can not control the weather.

 

As a makeup brush factory, we always try our best to meet customers’ all requirements, but we also need customers’ understanding and support once any inevitable issue happens.