I'm not buying from Sigma makeup ever again

I say I'm not going to buy Sigma products after ever Sigma haul but this time I really mean.

The brushes can be very hit or miss - some bleed non stop despite numerous washes and shed all over the place. It can be difficult to get rid of the plastic, chemical-ey smell again despite constant washes. Others can be really good.

The palettes to me were just so bulky I had to ultimately give them away as they took up far too much space in my storage. They were also a little too chalky for my liking.

What drove me to buy from them again was the Dry 'N Shape brush drier as it has a lot of positive reviews and could double up as a brush belt. Sigma had a discount code going at the time too so I figured I'd buy a travel set of brushes also to leave at work.

I figured the Dry 'N Shape would be perfect for me as most of my large brushes can take up to two days to dry. The cold, damp, British weather doesn't help.

The instructions claim 4-6 hours should be sufficient to dry the brushes but this isn't the case for me with the larger brushes. I have to leave them in for at least 12 hours, generally more, which is still quicker dry time than leaving brushes on the edge of my desk to dry, but I was still disappointed it took longer than Sigma claims it should.

It did help prevent the bristles on my brushes from getting all splayed and kept them in shape which is one plus.

I did feel like they could have added a few more slots for smaller brushes.

It's currently $29 on the Sigma site. I guess if it works for people as it claims to that's a reasonable price. I still use it but am disappointed with it overall.

Next up I purchased the Make me Blush Travel Kit ($59 currently on the Sigma site).

I do like the brush holder and the fact it holds them very tightly.

The brushes are slightly smaller versions of the full size brushes but lack the quality of the full size brushes. The black bristled brushes bleed even after ten washes :( The foundation brush is a little less densely packed than the full size foundation brush I have. I do like the angled blush brush and angled liner brush.

I was pleased to purchase these two Sigma items at a discounted price but overall I'm disappointed with both items. What sealed the nail in the coffin for me though, was the fact I had to pay over £24 ($38!) on a customs charge. Whatever saving I made was spent there. It's the first time I've ever had to pay a customs charge for an international package and I don't want to repeat the experience so goodbye Sigma. We've had some ups and downs but unfortunately you've disappointed me one too many times. I'll look to the high street for future brushes.

Real Techniques brushes

I want to start off this post by saying I love the Pixiwoo sisters. I have watched every single one of their videos over the years and they are some of my favourite makeup artists on YouTube. Unlike a lot of makeup gurus who can do makeup beautifully only on themselves, these women are true professionals.

I purchased the Real Techniques Core Collection brush set from love-makeup.co.uk for £20.99. I read a few reviews online where reviewers loved all the brushes they'd tried and some that weren't so enthusiastic. Unfortunately I'm on the latter side of the fence - I didn't find these brushes to be anything special.

I like very densely packed brushes that are full of fibres. I found these brushes to look very fluffy but there weren't as many bristles in the brushes as I expected. I wouldn't class them as completely thin but they are nothing like Sigma's HD collection brushes or Eco Tools brushes (which I also recently purchased - EcoTools are really good). The reason I prefer more densely packed brushes is because I find they can deliver a cleaner finish whilst thinner brushes can leave foundation and cream products look streaky on me so I end up having to do more blending.

These brushes do a decent job and I would recommend them to makeup newbies as they are a very good price and a good starting point. For me, I have a large brush collection and am getting pickier about what I use and these brushes just weren't any comparison to what I already own. To summarise then: these brushes were fine but not amazing.

I still love Pixiwoo and will continue to watch all of their videos and use their brushes too. I am disappointed with the brushes and won't be repurchasing them in the future or anything but I will still make the most of them as I do with all of my brushes. I just won't be using them for the purposes I had in mind but I'll get use out of them somehow.

I bought some more Sigma brushes...

Last time I talked about Sigma brushes my review wasn't all that favourable. Yet I was still sucked in by Sigma's rather vicious marketing strategy (constant emails and continuous sponsored videos by some of my fave youtube makeup gurus) and I caved - I just bought the Sigmax Kabuki HD Kit. I knew my previous experience with Sigma brushes was good to average and some bad and I wasn't overly keen on the last kit I purchased but I'd heard so many positive reviews about these brushes that I just had to try them out.

The brushes were nicely wrapped in boxes and ribbon. I also got a free mini brush.

I already have one of these and it's one of my most used blending brushes (my one has the old numbering system on it and has SS217 engraved on the handle). This new version they sent me was disgusting though - all the brushes were hard and stuck together and wouldn't come apart even after washing. Urgh. What a waste!

The smaller brushes are okay - but not what I was expecting. I definitely liked using the tapered point brush for concealing around my eyes as it fit the contours of my face well. The other three I used for spot concealing - but I don't need three to do the same job. I can't really see any other use for them yet but I'm sure I'll think of something soon enough.

The chunky face brushes were the reason I bought this kit. I love using the ELF Powder brush for foundation application on days where my skin needs fuller coverage. I thought the round top and flat top kabuki brushes would take the place of my ELF brush but alas, 'tis not meant to be. I'm not saying they are AWFUL brushes because they certainly aren't, they are of decent quality. But again, they just didn't live up to my expectations. Although the brushes look dense they aren't as packed as my old ELF Powder brushes. I also felt they sucked up a lot of the product when I tested them with foundations and BB creams. And they take FOREVER to dry (which is obvious I know, considering the size of these brushes but they still take too long). The angled brush is meant to be good for bronzer but it applied way too much product for my liking (and yes, I did use a light hand. Nevertheless the result was overly muddy cheeks). The tapered kabuki is one I liked for highlighter. It turned out to be my favourite brush of the bunch.

Overall I will still make the most of ALL the brushes I own. I may give some away to anyone who wants them (so that means any friends who are reading this, feel free to holler at me if you like the look of something) but overall this was not the collection I was anticipating. That is the LAST time I venture near Sigma. I really like xteeener and xsparkage on youtube and they recommended a lot of these brushes which is why I bought them, despite not loving the other Sigma brushes I tried. They give very good reviews and are always honest so I figured these brushes must be the bees knees. The products are good but not *amazing* and for me they are still a little overpriced ($99 for the whole collection). So no more Sigma brushes for me!

Sigma Travel Kit Hot in Pink - Review.

So yesterday I did a haul post mentioning this brush kit I purchased from Sigmabeauty.com. (You can read the post here to read my initial thoughts and see what else I purchased).

This is what it looks like in the stock photo:

$49 paid for 7 brushes (3 face brushes and 4 eye brushes) and this hot pink clutch/tiny brush roll. I usually go for black but since most of my collection consists of black I thought I'd try something different and I'm glad; the brushes themselves have a dark pink handle rather than garish hot pink, which is pretty. On the Sigma site it says that $49 is the sale price and it's usually $59 but that label has been up for quite some time so I don't know if it's a limited sale or extended sale. All the brushes are slightly shorter than the normal range.

So it came in a black coverlet.

The actual clutch is nice. Nothing special but still nice.

It has a zip compartment (not much space but I guess you could add a couple of eyeliners in there for storage) and a cover over the brushes.

The brushes all come in plastic sleeves.

The first brush is the Tapered face brush (F25).

All the brushes have the number and name printed on the handle.

I told you I'm photographically (?) challenged, it's just so blurry!

I was really looking forward to using this brush because I've not seen many brushes with this shape before. It's very soft and I think the tapered edge makes it great for using as a highlighting brush (though I think Sigma do have a similar brush that's slightly smaller than this particularly for that purpose. For me, this does the job fine). So far so good right?

There are cons however.

I don't know how Sigma makes their brushes or what dyes they use in their black bristled brushes but every single Sigma brush I have used that has black bristles has leaked navy blue dye in the wash. On the first wash I expected it but Sigma brushes seem to bleed EVERY SINGLE TIME I wash them. It worries me a little because I don't know what chemicals are in that dye and I feel like if the chemicals remain on the brushes then aren't they also going onto my skin every time I swirl powder onto my face? Also their brushes are made in China and people always say you need to be wary about purchasing makeup from there. Brushes aren't makeup but blue dye is still chemicals. I dunno what to think really, but I know bleeding brushes can't be good.

The other negative is the shedding. At least 75% of the Sigma brushes I own shed in the wash but some also shed just with simple use. They just don't feel well constructed.

I took a photo of my tapered face brush after I'd washed it so you can see the shedding and leaking dye:

Pretty revolting right? The water was running bluer than it appears in this pic but you can still tell that the water looks dirty which it shouldn't have - it was my third time washing it!

So I did like the softness of this brush and the ease of use. The bleeding dye and awful shedding put me off completely though. I wouldn't recommend the Tapered Face brush to anyone.

Next is the Duo Fiber Powder/Blush brush (F15).

Again, this brush is soft and the handle is a nice size and weight, making it comfortable to use. It doesn't have densely packed fibres though, so it didn't do the best job of applying either my powder or blush. The dye also ran even after a few washes. So again another miss.

The Large Concealer Brush (F65) is kinda weird - it's an unusual size for a concealer brush.

Size wise it's in the middle of an average foundation brush and average concealer brush. It's made of synthetic fibres so would work well with liquid and cream products. I'm on the fence about this at the moment - I don't think this worked so well at concealing my under eye area (I prefer a smaller brush) but I think this would work well with a lot of people. I'll try using this on clients.

The Large Fluff Brush (E50):

I have a few similar brushes from Crown Brush so this isn't a special purchase for me. If I'm honest I don't know what I'd use this for apart from to highlight the brow bone.

Next is the Small Tapered Blending Brush (E45):

I did like this one to blend out crease shades.Again, it's another soft brush. But it has more of that infamous bleeding dye.

Short Shader (E20):

I wanted to like this as I have slightly hooded eyes that are on the average to smaller size so I thought a smaller brush would be perfect for me. Didn't like it though. Bristles were too hard.

Finally the Eye Liner Brush (E10):

This I did like! It's super thin and applies liquid liner really precisely. I wanted a thin brush to use when I do others' makeup and this is ideal for that. 

So overall the E10 was my favourite. The E45 was good. Everything else either I'm still unsure about or didn't like. Thus I wouldn't recommend this brush kit to anyone.

The never ending bleeding dye in the wash really worries me and even more so since Sigma make all their products in China. It won't stop me from using their brushes completely since I'm sure Sigma will say they're completely safe to use but I will definitely get more use out of the white and brown bristled brushes since they don't bleed and use the dyed brushes only occasionally. I think this is my last foray into Sigma product - I won't purchase anything new from them again.

Sigma Haul (and general rambly-ness)

(Just a heads up - this is going to be a bit of a rambly post!)

I said I wouldn't buy anymore makeup for a while but I wanted a brush holder so had a look at Sigma's site. I purchased some of their brushes last year when they were still a relatively new company (they still had the MAC duplicate numbering system on their brushes at the time). Shipping time was super quick back then and the brushes were also a tad more affordable than they are now. Their company has expanded on a mammoth scale recently and I think some of that is due to their slightly aggressive affiliate scheme. On the one hand it doesn't bother me if people use affiliate links and whatnot (it's just like being an Avon rep in a way) but on the other hand it's sometimes hard to tell whether Sigma products are actually good quality or if people are just pushing products to get their own commission. Whilst I like the old Sigma brushes I have some of their new lines looked sketchy to me and researching on youtube didn't really help because it's sometimes hard to tell what's honest opinion and what's sales mode.

After buying some hits and quite a few misses from Crown Brush a while back (posts are here and here) my brush collection is pretty vast. Not all the brushes I own are ones that I'd necessarily recommend but I still get good use out of all of them. I've never needed a brush roll before but I did a bridal makeup trial last week and really felt like it would have been useful there. I'm no pro or anything but I really would love to have more pro tools to lug around all those (good and average) brushes I own.

That took me to Sigma. I decided to go with the Premium Travel Kit in Hot In Pink (it's also available in baby pink, silver and black. I got hot pink because I always get brushes in the "safe" colours, thought I'd try something different this time). I figured that it came with brushes that I didn't already own (so I wouldn't have too many doubles, and the tapered brushes looked interesting too) plus I could use the brush roll afterwards. Well that tells you I ordered this around 1am and was half asleep at the time - because the Travel Kit doesn't come with a brush roll but a little clutch!

Space for 7 brushes!

This is why no one should make late night purchases! You end up being half sleep and thus sleep-buying products you don't want!

Anyway, it means I still need to buy a brush roll.

So here's the Travel Kit I purchased:

I've been using the brushes for the last two days and have been considering the pros and cons of them individually and as a set. Will do a more in depth review soon.

The clutch is cute enough and is perfectly fine for travel (as the name of the kit implies!). I still need a separate brush roll though.

The Urban Decay Naked Palette is one my favourite palettes of all time. When I saw that Sigma were producing palettes that look astoundingly similar in design to the Naked palette I had to give them a try. I ordered the Bare palette:

And the Flare palette:

Sigma always add little free gifts with every purchase (i think you have to spend over $30 or so). Last time I got a mini SS17 brush which I LOVE. This time it was a mini palette of three shades - one from Dare, one from Bare and one from the Flare palettes:

Cardboard cover

Actual palette

3 mini shades

Ingredients list - the second ingredient is talc! Also it also includes parabens and carmine. Argh! Not a positive list for me!

It's lovely of Sigma to send this palette free (gotta admit, it's pretty cute looking).

But if I'd known I would get a tester sample I would not have purchased two full size palettes so I really wish I had ordered the brushes alone. Then I would have received this free and realised Sigma eyeshadows aren't for me!

Ah well. You live and you learn.

I will do a swatch fest and review this week but overall this haul was a bit of a bust. Total waste of money. Some of the brushes are good but I have nothing 100% positive to say about any of the items purchased :(

This is why I need to stop hauling!!!

More brushes from Crown Brush

Okay, so after my first order I decided to order another set of Crown Brushes. The first order had some hits and misses so this time I ordered only from 3 ranges that had the best reviews (and also had the best brushes in my first order).

I got these 5:

Crown Brushes have been hit and miss for me really. Some brushes bleed awfully after washing a dozen times, shed hairs in the wash and just generally (gross to have fibres over your eyes when doing makeup) and smell GROTESQUE (though yes, the chemical smell does disappear after a few washes. But that's not the point. The initial smell is so plastic-ey and chemical-fied it makes me wanna GAG, bleurgh).

Some brushes have the roughest bristles (so pokey!) whilst others are super soft. Some are very flimsy and seem badly constructed whilst others are packed full of bristles (or hairs) and seem pro standard. The "good" and "bad" brushes aren't limited to just one range though, they're spread across all the ranges. *Sigh* I don't like spending all this money on some brushes that are good and some that I want to bin. I think that's the end of my brief love affair with this brand. Unless I know for definite a brush works amazingly well I'm not gonna try my luck and order random ones.

I'll do further individual reports on these brushes later (when I've used all of them a few times at least).

In the mean time I don't think I'll need to order another brush ever again. My collection is overwhelming even just to look at:

My eyeliners used to fit in the ELF brush holder but they now have go in a separate pot on the left - too much stuff!

Crown Brush first impressions

I've known about Crown Brushes for quite some time now but I only just decided to purchase some of their products. I checked out their website on Wednesday and saw that they did have a UK site too so I looked at their products and I was impressed by the generally low prices of the eye brushes (roughly around £2-£6 each). They have soooo many ranges to choose from that I think for a newbie to their site, like myself, it's a little overwhelming. They also have too many individual brushes to keep count of and not many have names on them that are memorable (most of them have a letter-number format and that's it) so I wasn't sure where to begin really. There aren't that many reviews on individual brushes online either. But I still thought I'd take a chance and ordered 9 different brushes of varying prices.

Delivery time was super impressive - I placed my order on Wednesday night and the brushes arrived today (Friday morning)! It was a pleasant surprise finding a package awaiting me when I got home today. The package itself looked like this:

Just your bog standard UKMail flimsy-ish plastic. Nothing special but it did the job. Inside the brushes were in bubble wrap:

The brushes were all in clear, plastic sleeves that most brushes come in:

I bought brushes from most of the lines. I heard great things about the Italian Badger range and the powder brush (the one on the furthest right here) is pretty soft and really dense. The other Italian Badger brush seems a little scratchy though. The pink handle brush (forget which range it is) is really, REALLY packed full of bristles and seems to be made of sturdier material than the other brushes. Perhaps I will purchase future brushes from that range.

Overall, these brushes have made a good first impression on me. I'll use them all and do individual quick reviews on them once I've tried them out. The only thing I hate about them is the way they smell (especially Italian Badger brushes, bleurgh). Hopefully that's nothing a good wash and condition won't fix.

Rave review - ELF Studio Powder Brush

If you're looking for a reasonably priced powder brush that does the job and doesn't cost the earth then this is the one for you. It's from ELF (eyeslipsface) which is a rather hit and miss company for me - some of their products are pretty yucky (try gloopy, funny smelling lip glosses or half broken scratchy brushes). But others (in particular the studio range products) are very, very good quality - like this brush.

It applies powder products really well and it's good for setting foundation with a finely milled powder but also great for blush application. It's also synthetic so it also works really well for applying liquid foundation if you want a heavier coverage with that "airbrushed, flawless" appearance.

All round it's a great brush. Nothing negative to say at all. You can purchase the brush here.