Sigma Make-up Brushes: Are they worth it?

I took my sweet time reviewing the Complete Sigma Professional Brush set. The hype around these brushes on youtube has been unreal. It's been the same on beauty blogs. So many people love them. Certain youtube guru's touted these brushes as the next best thing since sliced bread aka just as good as if not better than MAC brushes.

Hmmm.

I disagree. A lot.  On so many points. These brushes are no where near as good as or even better than MAC brushes. I have a decent brush collection and there is no way you are going to convince me that these brushes are on par with MAC. Bull poop. Yes you read right. Bull Poop.

With that being said they aren't completely useless. However I wanna talk about the ones that didn't make it into my personal stash or freelance kit.

Forgot to add the SS252

• The natural hair brushes shed. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM SHED!
• The smell like dead goat. I know what dead goat smells like cause we used to slaughter them for parties back home. The smell is the same and it does not leave
• The brushes are rather scratchy
• The black haired ones bleed like a shot alien
• They are useless at holding their shape ie. very flimsy

As I worked with these particular brushes I found myself increasing annoyed. They just were not doing what I wanted them to do. Eventually I stopped reaching for them in my brush roll and simply took them out. I'm not going to compare them to their MAC counterparts in terms of what they look like. I just expected these brushes to be very well made considering they are handmade. The quality does not match the claim.

All is not lost for Sigma though. The brushes I can live with are:

• Eyeliner brush
• Concealer brush
• Foundation brush
• Small angle brush
• SS224 blending brush
• SS275 Angled brush

Notice a trend? Bar two, they are all synthetic brushes. Now in my opinion, it is very difficult to mess up a sythentic brush like a foundation or concealer brush. So if these had turned out to be rubbish as well I would have been very unhappy. They aren't the best out there but they serve as great "extras" in my kit.

I only realised about 3 weeks into testing these brushes out that the eyeliner brush is not a lip brush. I automatically used it as a lip brush and have continued to do so. I never once saw it as a liner brush. So it will stay that way.The small angle brush is flimsy-ish but it works when needed. Not as firm as I would like but hey I can live with this one. I have a love hate relationship with the SS275. It's STUPIDLY flimsy but it's great for blending out concealer. Sheds the worst this one. So I hate but it but like it all in one go.

The one brush in this whole brush set that I find worth having is the SS224 blending brush. It is still a bit scratchy. And it sheds and bleeds as well. BUT this brush blends VERY WELL. And I love to blend. Sigma did right with this brush. If it didn't smell or bleed or shed I would love this brush 100%. It is the only brush that performs it's job excellently in this set. The rest are a bit meh.

So this post is probably useless because most of us in the blogosphere have bought what we wanted from Sigma, but I felt like telling you guys anyway.

The question remains: Are they worth it?

If you are starting out from scratch, kinda broke and want something cheap to learn with then maybe.

If you're a season make-up junkie, consider the synthetic brushes but definitely look into the SS224.

If you're a make-up artist possibly consider the SS224. That's the only brush that I believe will be worth your time in the end.

Stay Blessed lovelies xxx

REVIEW: ADesign Master Brush set (14pc)

Not too long ago two very special people blessed me with kit building funds. They thought my freelance business was worth investing in and so they helped me get a few things I've been wanting to get for my kit for a very long time. Ladies I present Adesign Brushes :)

The Adesign Master Brush set comes with 14 brushes and retails for about $175 from Camerareadycosmetics.com or Adesignbrushes.com. Normally I'm not a fan of brushes that come in sets but after much research I decided that these would be a very good buy. There is always a chance that your decision could turn out wrong but in this case I was bang on right. They are brilliant.

The come is this rather sexy faux leather snake skin brush roll. When I first got it I thought maybe they'd left out some of my brushes. I was stressed cause it was a little too compact for my liking...
However when you open it out this is what you get. 14 beautiful brushes. These brushes are very well made. They are all black and on the bottom end of the brush they have the name Adesign on one side of the brush and the name of the brush on the other side so you know which one you're picking up. I'm not sure if the handles are made out of wood but they are quite light and the handles for some of the brushes can be short. Which isn't a bad thing mind. It helps you get better control of the brush when you're working on a client.

When I first washed the brushes, the black haired ones lost some dye. Not anything that would alarm you but just enough for you to notice. Since then they haven't lost any colour. Shedding wise when I first washed them I had some shedding from the bigger fluffier brushes but since then I haven't lost any hair from them and they remain luxuriously soft.

Left to right:-

XL Powder: this brush is huge! and THE SOFTEST brush I own. Hands down. Great for fine powders
Powder: good size head, distributes well, shorter handle, very soft
Cheek: good size head, great for powder blush, soft, medium sized handle
Angle cheek: slightly bigger than MAC 168, not as densely packed, great for a soft wash of colour, not so much for contouring, soft brush

Left to right:-

Foundation: smaller than usual head, great for getting into smaller facial corners, very soft
All Over Shadow: beautiful for all over shadow, soft, can be used to blend outter crease on larger eyelids
Eye 1: amazing brush, soft, packs on colour as well as if not better than MAC 239, tapered to get more definition if needed
Eye 2: great for wet/creme eyeshadows, smooth application, soft, longer handle
Eye 3: amazing with gel liners or smudging khol liners for smokey eye looks, precision application with this brush


Left to right:-

Medium concealer: works like a charm, picks up enough product, longer handle, smooth application
Eye 5: my new eyebrow brush! dense enough to give nice definition, soft enough not to be too harsh, picks up colour well
Lip: smooth application, a tad smaller for fuller lips but does a good job
Small concealer: gets into those tight places like under the eyelid, great application
Groomer: grooms even the wildest of hairs into place, excellent:)

Honestly, I find it really hard to fault this brush set. It was worth every penny spent on it and it's helped loads with upping my game when it comes to make-up application. I am a happy girl!

I intend to collect the other brushes from Adesign that didn't come in the set because there are some that I suspect will work wonders for some clients I have in mind.

My wishlist:

Angle eye
Eye 4
Pointed Concealer
Cream Cheek
Skin Care brush set
Kabuki set
Pointed Foundation Kabuki
Flat Top foundation Kabuki

Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh so I got a lotta saving to do. But I think they'll be well worth it!

Stay Blessed!