2013年1月29日星期二

The affect of workers’ turnover to brush quality

We know that makeup brush is purely a kind of manual work, so besides the material, the brush quality totally depends on the workers’ craft. Even we have the best material for our makeup brusehs, if the craft is bad, the brushes will look very ugly and low grade. In another word, skillful and professional workers are the key of a makeup brush factory.
 
However, due to the market environment and special situation, the workers turnover are very frequent in most chinese makeup brush factories. The common situation is: the makeup brush factory pays much to train new workers, but after they are more and more skillful, some workers will leave the factory to find another job not in makeup brush industry. This situation is more common in small makeup brush factory who can not pay enough salary to workers.
 
Since the makeup brush quality depends on workers’ skill, the frequent turnover greatly affects the brush quality. If a factory is always trainning the new staff and let them to make the brushes, the factory will lose all orders sooner or later.
 
The new workers do not know how to mound or cut the hairs, so they are not able to make required bristle shape; they do not know how to skillfuly insert the bristles into ferrules, so some bristles will be exposed outside; they do not know how to connect the ferrule and handle properly, so the joint of ferrule and handle will have gap, glue or burs, or even expose some bristles and dirts, some workers even displace the ferruel and handle. No matter how great the material is, the bad craft will ruin the whole brushes.
 
To save cost and some other reasons, some small factories let the new staff to learn by doing, but it is very rediculous and foolish to have new workers to join the mass production. They will ruin the whole production and even worse will lose the customers’ orders forever due to the bad quality. Eevn worse, some small factiries do not have inspection process, so they send all brushes made by all new workers without any inspection to customers. Such action is just like a suicide, finally there will be no customers for them.
 
The workers turnover is a common situation in this field, it is hard to avoid this by ourselves. But we should try our best to aviod its affect to brush quality. We should not let the new workers join the mass production until they are skillful enough. Even if we let them join the production due to the urgent lead time, we should have strict inspection process on all makeup brushes.
 
Quality is the life of a factory, for makeup brush industry, workers skill is the life of a makeup brush factory.  
 

2013年1月27日星期日

The flaws of makeup brushes

Makeup brush production is totally manual work, therefore, flaws is somewhat avoidless during production. Some flaws must be improved, while some flaws can be accepted if not affect the usage or appearance.
 
The makeup brushes with the following flaws must be reworked by the makeup brush manufacturer:
1.       Visible apperance flaws: makeup brush is a kind of beauty products or art products, even if we can not require 100% perfect, we can not accept visible flaws on apperance, for example,ferrule nicks. Although we know that the small nicks will not affact our makeup applying, it will affect our mood once we see the nicks during each apply.
2.       inproper bristle shape: to gain perfect makeup, each brush should have their special bristle shape, such as dome, flat or taper. While for some makeup brushes, although the whole shape is good and as required, but after carefully checking, we may find that some position does not conform with the whole shape, so it just look like a gap. Which will not only affect the powder holding but also the apperance.
 
Although the above flaws can not be called quality problem, it really can not be accepted, it can be improved by proper skill
 
However, some flaws can not be avoided, they are caused by the material itself or manual work characteristics, for example:
1.       The wood texture or small salient point: wood is natural products, we can not control its grow, what we can do is to cut them into required shape. Therefore, customers should understand the texture difference of handles, and can not require to rework such difference. No makeup brush factory can gurantee that all brushes are 100% the same. Also, there will be a small salient point on some makeup brush handles. It is very normal for wooden handle.
2.       small and invisible glue mark: our workers gather the bristles by glue, connect the ferrule and handle by glue, adhere brush rolls and holders by glue. Glue is a essential material during makeup brush, so glue marks are inevitable during brush production. Although we will wipe off the visible glue marks during quality inspection, some invisible glue marks may be missed, and can not be found or wiped off. Users should understand that manual work is controlled by human beings, and no manual work can be perfect.
 
As reliable makeup brush supplier, we will offer best products and service to customers, and will not quibble if the brushes do have problem. But at the same time, we hope that users and customers can understand that manual work is controlled by human beings, and no manual work can be perfect.
 
 

2013年1月23日星期三

The lead time of the orders before Chinese New Year Holiday.


Chinese New year holiday is almost coming, most chinese makeup brush factories have arranged everything properly and have been ready for the holiday. We know that we will still receive new orders before holiday to customize makeup brushes or order the frequent items, however, no matter what is the situation, the lead time of the orders from now to Chinese New Year holiday will be about 60 days.

The first reason is that our material supplier will have their own production arrangement. Now, the material suppliers are preparing the production of the orders 30 days before. Even if we place the orders to them now, they can not start the production due to the the rush orders. Therefore, if they get our orders before holiday, they can only do related preparation to start production after the holiday.

Secondly, we have shown our holiday arrangement in previous post, we will close our factory during the 15-20 days. Plus the period before holiday, it may delay about 30 days. And our normal production cycle is about 30 days. That is why the lead time will be about 60 days.

However, if customers would like to place orders after our holiday, the lead time will be about 35 -40 days. Therefore, for better cash flow for customers, in fact it is better to place orders and pay prepayment after our holiday even if orders before holiday can help with our production preparation. Whatever, it depends on customers’ preference to order before or after our holiday, our responsibility is to tell customers all truth and do all efforts to support customers.

2013年1月22日星期二

A good makeup brush

During customizing makeup brushes from the makeup brush manufacturers, customers must have their own requirements on the brush material, size and color etc. Therefore, during production  inspection or warehouse-out inspection, the makeup brush manufacturers should carefully check if the makeup brushes meet all these requirements.

However, besides customers’ special requirements, there are normal quality standards which apply to all makeup brushes, no matter the hair is top grade or low grade, the ferrule is copper or aluminum, the handle is black or red, the logo is silk printing or hot stamping.

All kinds of makeup brushes should meet the basic quality requirements, including but not limited to the following:

1. No serious bristle falling, it is known that most bristles are animal hair, it is normal to have several bristle falling at the very beginning. Our QA team will sweep them for more than 40 times to check if there are many bristles falling.
2. No glue hint on the ferrule and handle;
3. No bristles clipped among the ferrule;
4. No metal burrs on ferrule;
5. Bristles,ferrules and handles connect well, no invisible gap
6. Ferrules can not be easily extracted from handle
7. Hair, ferrule and handle color should be meet customers' requirement, no color difference;
8. Proper logo printing;
9. Proper package

In a word, no matter what is the grade level of the makeup brushes, they should have good apperance, and no big problem during applying. It is the best that customers can know these requirements during customizing makeup brushes

2013年1月21日星期一

The shaping of eye brushes and lip brushes

To reach certain makeup effect, some brush bristles may need to have special shape. Some can be shaped by finishing or cutting, such as the angled blush brushes or angled eyebrow brushes. The angled blush brushes can be shaped during hair mounding; the angled eyebrow brushes can be shaped by cutting bristles. By the way, some may wonder why not cut the blush brushes too, that will be much easier for workers. That is because most blush brushes are made of animal hairs, which will become stiff after cutting, while the eyebrow brushes are made of synthetic hairs which will keep the softness after cutting.

Anyway, some bristles can not be shaped by finishing or cutting, and have to be shaped by special glue. For example, the pencil brushes, the eye liner brushes and lip brushes. These brushes require all bristles to be gathered into the center, such effect can not be reached by manual. Therefore, the makeup brush manufacturers will use some green (environmental protective) glue to fix the shape of bristles. Then after cetain period, the bristles will keep the shape even the glue is removed, dried or washed.

Usually, some glues will become powders after drying.If not, before shipment, the makeup brush factory will remove the glue by washing, because the glued bristles will be very stiff for makeup apply. Therefore, users will not find the existance of the glue.

Since the glue has been removed before shipment, some bristles may become deformed after reaching customers or users, even if we have add some tubes on some brush heads such as lip brushes to avoid of such deformation during shipment. However, such deformation will not affect the makeup effect, as the whole bristles are still gathering. If users really care such deformation, you can reshape the bristles by fixing them into a place for certain period, then they will be back to the normal shape.

2013年1月16日星期三

How to distinguish Sigma brush fakes and authentic

With the popularity of Sigma makeup brushes in China, more and more fakes appear in Chinese market. Even if some suppliers declare that they directly buy the makeup brushes from Sigma, no one can ensure these brushes are really authentic. Sometimes, users may buy fakes with price the same as authentic. Such bad experience must cause the users annoyed for a long time.

Here we would like to introduce some hints to distinguish authentic and fakes of makeup brushes:

1.       Material: although Sigma brushes are not such perfect as MAC brushes, the hair material used on their makeup brushes are very good. For example, the goat hair of F30 is ZGF goat hair which feels very soft and comfortable. If the makeup brushes you bought are with inferior hairs, that might be fakes;
2.       Style: to prevent fakes, Sigma frequently changes their brush style. For example, the makeup brushes with old version are with dark painting, while the new brushes are with shinning painting on the brush handles. If you recently buy some Sigma brushes with old design, that should be fakes;
3.       Logo and printing: now, Sigma also engrave their logo on the copper ferrule of their makeup brushes; also since all sigma brushes are made in China, besides the brush name and number, all their brushes handles are engraved letters: Made in P.R.C. If you can not find Made in P.R.C in your sigma brushes, or can not find Sigma logos in your brushes with copper ferrule. These brushes you bought must be fakes.

The above are just some hints to distinguish fakes and authentic of sigma brushes. However, few users are so professional in this, therefore, to ensure that you can buy authentic, it is the best to buy from Sigma official website.

2013年1月15日星期二

Our holiday arrangement

Chinese New Year is coming! We will step into the year of snake!

We will have our holiday from Feb 5th to 20th, and will back to office on Feb 21st.

We will have limit access to our emails, so maybe we can not reply emails/enquiries at the first time; hope to get understanding from all customers.

The factory staff will also have the same holiday arrangement, so we will close our factory from Feb 5th to 20th.

Therefore, if customers want to order or customize makeup brushes, and need to get the shipment before our holiday, please try to place order and arrange prepayment now. As our normal lead time is more than 30 days, if we can not send the makeup brushes out before our holiday, the shipment date will be delayed to March or even later.

If customers are not in urgent need of the brushes, please feel free to contact us at any time, you can choose to place order or arrange prepayment before our holiday, then we can order the material before holiday and start production after our back, which will expedite the shipment; you can also place order after our holiday, then we will order material after getting your prepayment and then start production.

We wish all of our new and old customers can also enjoy everyday during our holiday. We will try best to check our emails during the holiday to offer prompt office to our customers!



2013年1月13日星期日

The cool weather may affect makeup brush quality

In China, this winter is much cooler than before, which not only causes uncomfortable of human body, but also affects makeup brush quality. Some customers may doubt such statement and believe it is only the excuse of the makeup brush manufacturers. Here we would like to explain details as the following:

Firstly, we should clarify that the affects we mention here are not all bad, some are good affects. For example, the goat hair in winter is much softer than that in summer. It is the characteristics of goat hair. Therefore, even if we use the same goat hair grade such as ZGF goat hair, the makeup brushes made of the ZGF goat hair cut in winter will be much softer than that cut in summer. Sometimes, customers will doubt that we mixed some inferior hairs into their brushes since they get two batches with different touching. That is really misunderstanding; we care our fames and credit than everything, and will not do such bad thing to destroy our own brand. The hairs are really the same quality and grade, just different touching in different seasons.

Secondly, everything will become fragile in the cool weather, which is also the situation of makeup brush ferrule and logo. The makeup brush ferrules are made of metal, everyone know that metal will become fragile in cool situation. Therefore, while clamping the ferrule in winter, the fragility will cause more than one clamp marks on the ferrules. It is really not the problem of workmanship but material characteristics.

During custom makeup brushes, most customers will need their logo on the makeup brush handles, while after getting the brushes, they may find that some letters blur. If such situation happens in summer, that is because the makeup brushes are packed before the painting dry up. That is the quality problem. But in winter, that is mostly because the logo printing is also fragile and easy to be scratched. No matter how carefully the workers pack the brushes, it will cause some scratching more or less.

We will do our best to avoid any problem during production, however, sometimes, we can not avoid of the disadvantages of material characteristics. We really hope to get understanding from customers.


2013年1月10日星期四

The makeup brush shipments near to Christmas holiday

Having been doing business with international customers for so many years, we know that most customers will have their Christmas holiday this week. While due to the production arrangement, some shipments need to be sent during this period

However, many of our customers are distributors who are not the end users and need to send the brushes to their own customers. If we send the shipments to them during their holiday, as the forwarder will not be on duty at that time, they will not be able to stay in their office to check the shipments, and also not be able to send the shipments to their customers. If we hold the shipments until their back to office, it will not be allowed for some urgent orders.

To solve such problem, we can directly send the shipments to customers’ client, as there is no Christmas holiday in China, everything works well for us. In this case, no transshipment of the makeup brushes, so it will save a lot of time. However, some customers may worry that it will reveal their clients information, and their clients will directly contact us in future.

As a professional and reliable makeup brush manufacturers for so many years, we always have our own principle and regulations. We know the importance of business rules. If we break such rule, it will bring unaffordable lost to us even if we may get small and temporary profits from the breaking. Therefore, we will never try to snatch customers from our customers. If customers still can not relax, we can note our customers as the shipper in the waybill. Therefore, their client will not know the shipment come from us.

Whatever, we just want to try our best to offer the best service to all customers. Everything depend on customers’ requirements.

2013年1月9日星期三

Why not specify MOQ on website?

Many customers would like to customize makeup brushes with their own logos; however, some hesitate due to our MOQ. Therefore, to save time of both sides, we usually tell them about of our MOQ requirement at the very beginning.

After getting customers’ inquiry, we will firstly ask customers what kind of brushes they required, and then will tell them our MOQ for these makeup brushes. Some customers will ask of MOQ requirement at the first email, however, our MOQ varies according to different brush types.

For example, if customers would like to customize makeup brushes equal to MAC quality or even much better than MAC brushes, our MOQ will be 500pcs for each item; or if the brushes are with top grade and much better than MAC brushes, however, the hairs are very rare, the MOQ will be  more than 500pcs or less than 500pcs depends on material situation; if customers want to order normal brushes, the MOQ will be 1000pcs each; if low grade brushes, the MOQ will be 2000pcs; if mini brushes for makeup boxes, the MOQ will be 10000pcs…Therefore, we can not tell customers our MOQ without knowing what kind of brushes the customers need.

That is also why most makeup brush manufacturers do not specify our MOQ on our website. If customers plan to order MAC equivalents, they must be scared after seeing the 10000pcs MOQ requirement on our website, and will never consider doing business with us; oppositely, if we indicate that our MOQ is 500pcs each on our website, and customers want to order mini brushes, they will feel cheated if we finally tell them the MOQ should be 10000pcs, which will greatly affect our fames and will waste the time of both sides.

Therefore, our MOQ varies according to exact brush type, material and size. Unlike the standard part, most makeup brushes are customized, so we need to feedback customers according to specific and exact situation.

2013年1月8日星期二

How to get samples

At the beginning of entering into the makeup brush industry, most customers do not know what kind of brushes they need, and how to distinguish different material or quality. Therefore, to be more professional in this area and to ensure that they will excellently communicate with the makeup brush manufacturers, some customers would like to check samples first.

To get samples, some may try to get them from the brush manufacturers. However, few manufacturers will offer free samples now, and even if some manufacturers can offer free samples, they will require customers to afford the shipping charge, which may be not acceptable for some customers. Although the cost to get samples through this way is high, the customers can get enough information to fully understand the makeup brush quality and material, as the manufacturers will list exact material of each part and let customers feel the difference by themselves.

To save the cost, some customers will choose to buy testable samples from local supplier, for example from EBay, which will have lower cost since the shipping charge is very low. However, customers may not get enough information from these samples from online. As most online suppliers will list the exact material of the makeup brushes, for example, for hair material, they may just indicate goat hair instead of exact hair grade. Since the goat hair has more than 20 grades, customers may be confused without knowing the exact material. If they test a sample with goat hair which is actually ZGF goat hair and like it very much, then they contact the makeup brush factory for quotation. However, they only say it is goat hair, manufacturers can not quote accordingly to such information, unless the customers can send the samples to them, which will cause high shipping charge.

Therefore, to save time and cost, if customers want to get some samples for testing and better understand brush quality and material, it is better to get the samples directly from the manufacturers.

2013年1月7日星期一

The toning of makeup brush colors

Different customers have different color preference, some like mature or dark color, for example black, red; while some prefer cute color, such as pink or green. Therefore, during customizing makeup brushes, some will require black, but some will require pink for their makeup brush handles, ferrules and hairs.

It is known that most colors are gradually toned. Few makeup brush factory can get the accurate color at the first toning. For example, customers require 806C for their brush handles, however, after the first toning; it may become 807C or 813C which may darker or lighter than required color. At this situation, if the color difference is not too obvious, the makeup brush factory can firstly send pictures for customers’ confirmation. If customers can accept such few difference, that will be great. If not, that is also not a big problem, the makeup brush manufacturer just need to add some pigment and re-tone the painting solution, until get the required color.

Although color toning is not a difficult process, manufactures should keep close communication with customers during production, and ensure customers can accept each detail. That means, during the production process of handle painting, if the manufacturer finds any color difference, they should immediately feedback to customers and does not enter into next step until getting confirmation. Otherwise, if customers disagree the color difference after seeing the finished brush pictures or after getting the shipment, it will need a lot of time and cost to correct the problem.

Therefore, no matter what is the problem, the most important thing is to confirm each detail at each step.


2013年1月6日星期日

The logo fee of silk printing

Having been in makeup brush industry for so many years, more than 90% of our customers would like to engrave their own company name or logo on the brushes they ordered. They hope to promote their brands through this way.

However, some customers hang back due to the logo fee. They believe the fee to have their logo printed on the brushes must be very expensive and maybe some kind of unaffordable for them. It is really a misunderstanding. Usually, most customers would like to use silk printing for their logos. Here we would like to introduce some information on logo fee of silk printing.

The logo fee of silk printing includes plate fee and printing fee. Plate fee is one-off fee, that means customers do not need to pay the plate fee for each order, and if the logo size of the whole set is the same, they only need to pay one plate fee. 1 plate fee is less than USD100.0. Although customers need to pay printing fee for each brush, the printing fee is very cheap, less than RMB1.0 for each brush.

Therefore, if customers want to check samples first and print logo on the samples, the whole sample fee may raise a lot, especially once they want to see different samples with different handle and logo sizes. The logo fee may the main part of the sample fee. However, if customers confirm the samples and would like to order large quantity, they will no need to pay the plate fee again, as above mentioned, plate fee is one-off fee.

To save cost, some customers prefer no logo for samples. Once they confirm the sample quality and place large orders with their logo, we may waiver the logo fee including plate fee and printing fee. Of course, at this situation, customers have not seen the logo effect, so before mass production, we will firstly send pictures or samples of the brushes with logo for customers’ confirmation, and ensure the logo style and printing can meet customers’ requirements.


2013年1月5日星期六

What is good customer service?

This morning, we got an email from a customer who wants to order only 1 brush set with their own logo. While per our company policy, our MOQ is 500pcs each. We explained such situation to them and say sorry that we can not accept order for only one set. The customer was very angry and said they would find another supplier who can provide good customer service. They think we do not offer good service to them. It is somewhat unfair to us.

Per our understanding, good customer service includes pre-sale service, sales service and after-sale service. During per-sale service, we will try best to offer enough information to customers, so that customers can gradually get detailed product information, fully understand our company policy, and know each detail to establish cooperation with us. If customers and makeup brush manufacturers can not reach agreement on some conditions or terms during custom makeup brushes, we believe it is not related to bad service, just different company policy and position.

Once both sides reach agreement on all conditions, both sides should strictly fulfill the agreement: the makeup brush manufacturers should offer qualified makeup brushes within lead time, and keep customers posted for any information, and customers should arrange payment on time. Since all conditions have been discussed before ordering, there should be no conflict during sales service if both sides comply with the agreement.

For after-sale service, after shipment, manufacturers and customers should also keep attention to the brush quality. If any quality problem is found after unpacking, as a professional makeup brush manufacturer, we will offer good enough after-sale service and solve the problem immediately for customers.

Good customer service does not mean accept customers' all requirements, especially during pre-sale service. At such step, each side wants to safeguard their own interests, so no ground for blame. If one side’s requirement conflict with the other’s company policy, it is really normal to refuse such requirement.

2013年1月4日星期五

The defects and rework of makeup brushes

No makeup brush factory can promise that their makeup brushes are 100% perfect. During inspection, some finished brushes will be considered as defects, and even the finished brushes finally pass the inspection, it may have some quality problem during production. For example, the makeup brushes may have glue hint during production; the ferrule may have scratches due to workers’ operation; the handle color may not meet customers’ requirements; the brush hairs may lose hairs heavily; the ferrule and handle may not connect well…..

For the makeup brush factory, some defects can be reworked, while some have to be scrapped. If the handle color is wrong, there is no way but scrap all handles; if there are clear and heavy scratches on the ferrules and handles, we also have to scrap the scratched ferrules and handles, as there is no way to rework them.

However, some defects can really be reworked. For example, the glue hint or overflow, we can remove the hint and extra glue with special solution after production; also if we find the ferrule and handle do not connect well, we can melt the glue and connect them again; if the brush lose hairs heavily, we can disassemble the brush heads and process the hairs again….

Most defects are caused and can be reworked during production. And it will save a lot of time and money if the defects are reworked during production. If we find the quality problem after production, it may cause serious problem, and we may have to scrap the finished brushes if there is no way to disassemble brushes. Also, it will greatly affect the delivery time and cause breach of contract. Therefore, process control is very important to most makeup brush manufacturers.

For a professional makeup brush factory, inspection after production is far away from enough. We should control each production process and try our best to rework the defects at the related steps, so that we can reduce the lost to minimum.

2013年1月3日星期四

The shaping of makeup brush hairs

Many customers like MAC brush very much, especially the hair shape. Therefore, during custom makeup brushes from the makeup brush factory, they will require exact copy of MAC brushes; however, some customers finally find that their brush hairs can not reach the same appearance as MAC brushes, even if the quality and touching is the same.

Some customers can not understand why some brush hairs fray out but MAC brush hairs can centralize and keep good shape.

The key is the hair processing during makeup brush production. Besides Sterilization, combing Hairs and mounding hairs, to reach good appearance, the workers should also washing and shaping hairs with special solution, so that the hairs can keep shapes after drying, and will not fray out or deform.

The washing and shaping of brush hairs will need some time, and the cost is not low, so to save time and cost, some makeup brush manufacturers cancel such step, which will cause the hairs fray out or deform after certain period. Also, if the order quantity is too low, the manufacturers will also skip such process. Usually, such process will require 5000pcs MOQ at least.

In fact, the shaping process of makeup brushes will not have great affect on usage, although perfect shape will bring perfect makeup. Its biggest influence is on appearance. If customers do not pay much attention on small difference, it is also ok and normal to skip such step after clear communication with the makeup brush factory.