Hakuhodo @ IBE 2014

After the Estee Lauder Companies Staff Sale yesterday, all I really wanted to do was crawl into my bed and catch up on lost sleep but my friend was in town and I don’t get to see her often + we wanted to go to the International Beauty Expo @ KL Convention Centre to check out just one brand, Hakuhodo which makes it appearance just once a year at this expo.

Registering to gain entry to the expo is a pain as it takes quite some time to queue up. Some people only complete the registration form at the counter which exarcebates the delay. Actually forms should have been distributed to all in the queue to quicken the process. Of course there is a shortcut but not all of us have access to the Internet on our phones so that avenue wasn’t open to me.

Inside the halls, there were so many brands but we knew where we were going and nothing was going to impede our way. Yes, the King of Makeup Brushes was our only target so we made a beeline for Hakuhodo where there was a non-stop stream of people stopping to check out the world famous brushes. It’s surprising that so many people of all ages knew about the superior quality of the brushes. From the way some of the customers talked, I could tell they are professional makeup artists.

The brushes are super soft and surprisingly, not as expensive as I thought with some eyeshadow brushes selling below RM50. The face brushes are over RM100 as they have so much hair but they are well worth the price. One lady spent RM1475 on a number of brushes with the average spending between RM400-500.

While most customers went for the basic series which is already very good compared to other brands’ brushes available here, the Kokutan Series is like the crème de la crème but even this series isn’t top of the range of Hakuhodo brushes. Kokutan brushes feel even softer than the basic series which accounts for the higher pricing.

The 2 Japanese ladies at Hakuhodo were kept very busy with customers’ enquiries and non-stop sales. They speak little English but they do speak Mandarin. Their service is impeccable and I am amazed how they kept so calm and collected when they faced a barrage of enquiries. There’s a booklet available on all the brushes but it is all in Japanese.