Monday, July 6, 2009

Menda Pumps

I was taking off my nail polish the other day and decided I wanted one of those pumps they have in the salon.  After some hunting around, I found out a company called Menda makes some.  I ordered 4 different pumps. (100$ www.mendapump.com)

I have some strange aversion to ever pouring anything back into it's original source container so I decided I wanted the pure versions.  (the regular version will allow product to seep back into the container if left in the dish).

I picked up a frosted glass, floral glass, and 2 locking pure-takes (locks for transport).  I decided the pure takes might work well filled with 244 paired with pointy q-tips as a quick makeup mistake fixer/eraser or general all around remover.

I busted out my huge bottle of 244 I bought from alcone (55$ www.alconeco.com) and filled up one of the pure-takes.  To test its leakiness I sealed it into a freezer ziploc and tossed it into my purse (a truly inhospitable location).  Better to test it then take it on a trip somewhere to find it exploded with the 244 contaminating all my makeup. It passes this test with the 244, but I think leakiness of containers is also dependent on what solvent you put inside, so it may not be leak proof with all liquids.  I did not take it on an airplane yet, so I have not tested how resistant it is to pressure.

The 244 in the menda pump works well.  Until now I have always kept my 244 in a small dropper bottle.  It's a little annoying because I have to twist it open and carefully drop the 244 onto the tip of the q-tip. It's also hard to get the tip fully saturated without having some drip off the tip.  With the menda I can pump once, dip the tip of the q-tip in the puddle, and it's ready for use.

One thing that's annoying is that to lock/close the pure-take you have to press the pump down, then twist to lock.  This means you need to clean out the dish after locking it, as the pressing down action will dispense 244 into the dish.  The way I have been dealing with it, is that I press and lock it as I'm using it, so I won't have to have that extra dispense action just to close it.

I also filled one of the glass pumps with garnier fructis mixed with water to see how it would fare as my brush cleaner dispenser (sounds like a weird brush cleaner, but it works well for me).  

I think it's a bit of a mess with the larger brushes since the dish is too small to swish the brushes around in without bubbles/soap streaming down the side.  I think it works better than a regular soap pump because it's easy to pick up the soap onto the brush evenly with the menda. Unfortunately, I have to hold the whole bottle under the sink to rinse out any residue from the dish, or else it dries up into a film of soap, but the water rinses the dish clean, and also cleans up any side dripping happening. I think it works best for small concealer brushes, and eyeliner brushes which are the ones I wash after every use.  Overall I haven't found anything I think works better except maybe my ginger grating dish, but I use that mostly for large puffy brushes, and I still have to pump the soap into the dish, and try to get it foaming with water properly before I dip my brush in, or I risk getting un-foamed soap stuck deep in the brush.

I used the other glass pump for my nail polish remover, and it works as expected, but I think this is one of the most common uses for it, so nothing novel about the fact that it works well.

Visually, I think the plastic pumps look better than the glass ones.  Somehow, even though I'd think glass looks better than plastic, the glass ones still look 'cheaper' strangely enough. Plus, they aren't as portable.  

Something worth noting is that the pure versions have this little mushroom nub in the center, so if you would like to dispense liquid straight into something, like a sponge or something, the regular version may work better because with the nub in the way, a rounded bottom sponge cannot be dipped into the dish.  I might pick one of them up to try this.



2 comments:

Salima said...

i actually happened upon your blog by accident. When i was reading your posts I was shocked at how much similar to you I am. I actually went through similar phases with creme foundations (but only between RCMA, CS and Ben Nye) and the airbrushing phase (OCC and Mehron). I actually bought a generic airbrushing system - airbrush included- from a tool store for $50 (which looks like an exact replica of the silverjet to be quite honest!!). I also went through the sponge phase (i am on my fourth Beauty Blender but have found that Alcon sponges actually work just as well and are so much cheaper) I guess the only difference is that I am not a makeup artist, just an enthusiast :) I really enjoyed your blog and will continue to read.

Weihao / kly said...

lyn,

hi there, was wondering if you're still doing airbrushing.

would like to contact you asap, please contact me @ klyzon@gmail.com please.

thanks and regards