Review: Benjabelle Brush Trees

Friday, May 24, 2013

I first heard of Benjabelle Brush Trees about three months back from the blog Sasquatch Swatch. To say I was intrigued would be a huge understatement, I decided right then and there that this was something that I was going to get. I mean, I'm an avid brush collector and lover, it only makes sense that I would invest in brush care items, right? Well our "anniversary" rolled around a while ago and Morgan finally found a belated gift for me earlier this month. I was thrilled! (Good job, boyfriend. Good job.) I was pretty excited to use these trees because brush drying is serious business. You don't want water draining into the ferrule of the brushes and this has led to people coming up with some interesting contraptions to dry their brushes- often times rubber bands, hangers, etc are used. I usually lay my brushes downward on a wedge folded towel but that can take up a ton of space.

So there are two brush tree sizes, the Original ($34.99) and the Mini ($24.99). You save $10 if you buy both at the same time. They come in three different colors; black, white and pink. The trees are made of this nice thick glossy plastic, with a sandwiched silicone layer that grips brushes. The trees take seconds to assemble as they are only made of three pieces. The Original has 14 holes while the Mini has 24.

The Original tree is the size of an iPad, it really does not take up much room. Perfect for me because with so many brushes, my bathroom counter is absolutely covered with wet brushes on cleaning day. The oval silicone holes gripped most brushes quite easily, even with brush guards on. I slid them up from below until the silicone "teeth" gripped the largest part of the brush or the rings on the ferrule. The Original tree held large brushes really well while the Mini held most eye brushes with ease. There were a few brushes that were a bit too small for either tree, they would stick out sideways, but that was easily remedied by sticking two brushes in the same hole. This also meant that each tree could hold more. Altogether the two trees held about 45 brushes.

I actually found that I could stack the smaller tree on top of the larger one. It'd be neat if there were grooves on the bigger tree so that it could be done intentionally, even more space saving!

There is one area where I think there could be improvement. So I mentioned that the brush is made out of three pieces, right? Well of the two pieces that make up the "X" shape that is the base of the brush, only one piece (let's call this Piece A) is actually supporting the board while the other piece (B) stabilizes Piece A. Piece B is rather wobbly because no weight is put on it, it does not actually touch the main board with the silicone holes. If Piece B extended up about 4mm, had a groove to slip into and the whole tree had more silicone material on the bottom to act as slip resistant feet, I believe that the trees would be much less wobbly feeling. In fact, I bet if they felt sturdier, some people might ever use these trees to store brushes when they are clean.

I was talking to a few friends about this and while a lot of them expressed interest in having such a product, their number one worry was that they only had a few brushes and didn't think that buying either the large tree or the small tree (or both) would be worth it. I bet that if there was a single large tree that had large, medium and small holes it would be a product that people with smaller (read: those with more reason than I) brush stashes would appreciate. ETA: There is now precisely a tree like this! Check out the new Daisy tree.

Personally, I really like these Benjabelle Trees, they have really sped up my brush drying time. I found that sticking my brushes in the trees then placing them by an open window or in front of a tower fan can reduce the time it takes them to be completely dry down to a couple hours, even 30 minutes for eye brushes. I think makeup artists in particular, with a ton of brushes will find these trees to be dead useful.

What do you think about this neat Benjabelle Tree? Do you think it is useful or more of a novelty item?

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