Lavender Steam Distillation
From a flowering crop to aromatic oil: a Provencal ingredient craft shaped by the plant, the still and careful collection.
EUROPE TODAY / Beauty
Makeup-brush making
A bundle of fine fibres becomes a precise tool through alignment, shaping and careful assembly.
- Where it is practised
- Saint-Brieuc, Brittany, France
- Materials & tools
- Natural hair or synthetic fibres, metal ferrules, wooden handles and suitable adhesive
- Used in
- Beauty
A working craft, today.
Makeup-brush making remains a working craft in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany. Makers combine natural hair or synthetic fibres with metal ferrules and handles to create tools for powders, complexion products and eye makeup. In the documented workshop method, the fibres are aligned at their fine tips, settled in a brass mould and shaped with the fingers. The head is fitted into a ferrule before gluing, handle assembly and crimping complete the tool. The work depends on controlled shaping: the form of the head, its resilience and its capacity to hold material help define the brush's intended use.
Inside the process.
An introduction to the sequence. Materials, tools and working methods vary with the project.
01
Choose and align the fibres
Select a hair or synthetic-fibre bundle for the intended brush and align its fine tips.
02
Form the head
In the documented hand-forming method, settle the bundle in a brass mould and shape its profile with the fingers.
03
Set the ferrule
Insert the shaped bundle into the metal ferrule and secure the assembly with adhesive.
04
Assemble and finish
Fit the handle, complete the mounting and crimping, and finish the brush for its intended use.
THE DECISIONS BEHIND THE DETAIL
Where the skill shows.
- Different head shapes serve broad powder application or detailed eye work.
- The fibres' spring helps the head return towards its original shape after bending.
- The ability to hold material is a working characteristic alongside the brush's shape.
Made for use.
Face brushes for powder, blush and complexion productsEye makeup brushes for shadow and liner
Follow the craft.
- Cosmetic brush workshop and manufacture
- Workshop assembly operations
- Contemporary cosmetic-brush materials and processes
- Les pinceaux d'art: twentieth- and twenty-first-century makeup tools
PHOTOGRAPHS, FILMS & CREDITS
FILM · La fabrication des pinceaux cosmétiques LEONARD
Shaping and assembling cosmetic brushes in a Saint-Brieuc workshop. Watch the manufacturer's film about the making process.
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Another set of skills.
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