Denman - Brilliant British Brushes!

I remember when I first heard about Denman brushes; it must have been about 18 or so years ago when I was just starting high school. An older friend at the time was training to become a hairdresser and introduced me to the brand and I convinced my mum to buy one that we shared.

It seems that these days we’re getting more used to things not being built to last like they used to, so I was curious to see if their brushes were still of the same quality that they were all those years ago.

The Denman brand is synonymous with being the hairdressers’ choice of brush and I feel this is because of the quality of the products on offer; the fact that the brushes have stood the test of time, that they are still classed as some of the best brushes available today speaks volumes.

They have many varieties of their brushes available these days too, a brush for any occasion you might say; but the thing that stays constant, is the confidence in the Denman brand.

Their first brush (the D3) is still available, but has now also been released in a few new pimped up styles. This particular makeover of the brush has a change of colour which is generally expected when being made over I guess, but also includes the addition of scent to the brush; yes that’s right, scent.

I have the strawberry scented brush and it’s quite cute. The smell isn’t overpowering, and actually reminds me of the smell of the strawberry shortcake doll I had as a little girl, I don’t know if many (or in fact any) of you know what I mean by this, but it does.

It’s quite a novel idea really, although it doesn’t appear to have a specific purpose that I’ve noticed as the scent doesn’t transfer to your hair (well not in my experience anyway), but you can smell it when you use the brush with a hairdryer which is quite nice, but still ultimately pointless.

None the less I do like it, it does make the range stand out above other brushes available and I think would be a great little stocking filler gift at Christmas. As a standalone brush it holds up very well, it's anti static because of the rubber cushioning and it also holds the hair firmly in place whilst styling which makes it easier to control where the hair goes!

There are 5 different ‘flavours’ available in the aptly named ‘Tutti Frutti’ range:

• Strawberry - red rubber pad and fruit prints

• Green apple – green pad and fruit prints

• Lemon sherbet – yellow pad and fruit prints

• Wild dewberry – Purple (as above) – intriguing as dewberry was my favourite Body Shop scent when I was much younger

• Coconut – there are 2 different styles for this scent, one with a plastic handle as matching with the rest of the range and one that has a beech wood handle (and is a couple of pounds more expensive as a result).

These are priced from £7.16 to £9.45 (for the wooden one) and available from the Denman shop.

http://www.denmanbrush.com/acatalog/Fragranced_Range.html

The D14 appears to be a handbag sized version of the D3, but this one has added bling in the form of diamantes embedded into the handle and back of the brush that the magpie in me instantly loved. I'm glad they sunk the diamantes into the brush as this way they have the benefit of looking nice, but don’t dig into your hand when in use, which is a winner all round!

There are 3 colours available (black, red and gold) and these are also available in the D3 brush, with an extra addition of a turquoise one in the D3 diamante range.

The size is a good size for handbags that aren’t *too* small but I think for smaller bags and clutches, this brush would be too big to go in if you still needed get other essentials in there too.

I don’t think the brush suffers too much with being a smaller size as I've found it works just as well as the larger one, but I wouldn’t use it to fully style my hair as although I have no doubt that it would do the job, I just think on my longer hair that it would take too much longer to do so. If you have shorter hair, this would be brilliant for using on that in my opinion.

These brushes are again available at the Denman website and are priced at £12.21 each. The larger D3 brushes in this style are £15.28 and £18.91 (for the turquoise one).

http://www.denmanbrush.com/acatalog/Diamante_Range.html

Moving on to the smallest of Denman brushes (that I'm aware of) we have the D7. This is a very small brush and mirror that fold in together, and to be honest I didn’t think it would be any use as it is so small. Couple that with the fact that you have to pop it out to use the brush in it I really didn’t think it would be strong or big enough to go through my hair and tidy it up.

So imagine my surprise when I found that it does actually do a very good job of neatening hair whilst on the move and as with the brush above, whilst I wouldn’t use it for styling it I would definitely use it if I was out and only had a small bag or clutch to carry it in, as this would be perfect for that.

Obviously you can’t look in the mirror whilst using the brush bit so you’d need to brush and check, or get in front of a larger mirror but it’s a bonus that it does double as a compact that you can use to touch up your makeup too.

Looks wise, on the mirror side it looks like a regular compact mirror, but flip it over and it looks like what I can only describe as a spotted ladies diaphragm (sorry). However once the sides are together it’s perfectly fine, it just looks like a normal compact mirror.

This brush is £2.50 each and worth every penny.

http://www.denmanbrush.com/acatalog/Hairbrush_Compact.html