Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove Dupe: Daiso Silicone Mat/Pot Holder

Sigma's Spa Brush Cleaning Glove has been making its rounds in the blogosphere/beauty-guru-sphere, and naturally, being the avid beauty fan I am, I had to check it out. I though the concept was a good one, but I had my doubts over whether a simple silicone glove was worth US$35 or not. Then, I realized - all it really brought to the table was just a textured silicone surface to more effectively dislodge makeup and dirt from the brushes during use. And certainly, this was something dupe-able, right?

A cheap alternative to the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove: A $2 silicone mat from Daiso

I had also seen other bloggers suggesting various dupes for the Sigma Brush Cleaning Glove - all the way from simple silicone textured place mats, pot holders, laundry scrubbers, and even silicone pet care gloves for pet hair! Of course, this prompted me to make a trip to my nearest Daiso, where I came across this


A cheap alternative to the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove: US$35 vs SGD$2, worth a shot!
I'm sure you're wondering, how does it perform? Does it really work? So I gave it a go, and I think it does work!

Sigma Angled Top Kabuki F84: Contour and Buff at One Go

Sigma is a beauty brand hailing from the USA, and the brand is most famous for its makeup brushes. That's no surprise - the ones I've tried have been actually worth the price. Good makeup brushes don't come cheap, and some of the most famous brushes (Trish Mcevoy, Shu Uemura, etc) can be prohibitively expensive for a girl on a budget, so it's always great to find a brand that manages to combine both quality and price into one package.

The Sigma Angled Top Kabuki F84, is one-third of the recently-released Sigma Synthetic Face Kit, which I've also briefly reviewed previously. Today's post, as part of my journey to delve into each individual brush in the kit in greater detail, focuses on the Angled Top Kabuki F84. (In case you've missed it, I've previously looked at the Flat Top Kabuki and the Round Top Kabuki previously.)



Of all the three kabukis in the Sigma Synthetic Face Set, I have to say this is probably my favourite, probably because it's the most versatile. I love the angled shape, which makes it very handy for applying blush, bronzer, or contouring products. And although this is a kabuki brush, its use doesn't stop at buffing. I think this one could actually apply products, should you wish to use a heavier hand. I think it would be great to apply lightly pigmented products that need building up, because the bristles do tend to pick up quite a bit of product.

Another thing I like about the Angled Top Kabuki is the qualaity of the bristles. These are synthetic bristles that are very fine and soft. I find them comparable in quality to the bristles of some of the other brands with great synthetic brushes, like Urban Decay, The Body Shop, Too Faced, and Ecotools. As far as bristles go, I can't fault this one.



Because the bristles are made out of synthetic material, these brushes are pretty nifty for applying cream and liquid products, in addition to powder. Unlike natural bristles, synthetic bristles don't soak up liquids, so that makes them good for applying cream, gel, and liquid products.

So do you need this brush? I'd say yes, if you use mineral blush, bronzer, or contouring products that require you to buff and blend, or if you've been looking for a contouring brush to apply liquid and cream blushes and bronzers with. The Angled Top Kabuki is of good quality, so if it suits your needs, it's worth checking out.

(Product was provided for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not compensated by or affiliated with the company in any way.)

Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Flat Top Brush vs Sigma Round Top Kabuki: A Comparison

A synthetic flat-top brush is a necessity if you work with liquids and creams often. It's very useful for applying liquid or cream foundation, as well as other cream products, like brush. I was recently playing around with my Sigma Beauty Round Top Kabuki Brush F82, and I realized it was actually pretty similar to another brush in my collection, the much-acclaimed Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Flat Brusher Blush.

Although it's billed as a brusher blush, the Sonia Kashuk Synthetic Flat Top Brush h has been getting raves for liquid foundation application. Two Sigma brushes I have, the Flat Top Kabuki F80, as well as the Round Top Kabuki F82, are quite similar to the brushes. Since I've already talked about the Flat Top Kabuki before, I thought I'd deal with the Round Top Kabuki in this one.



Both brushes are similar, and both are of surprisingly good quality, considering the price. Both have synthetic bristles, and the bristles are quite densely packed. Both also have a similar brush diameter. In many respects, the similarities in bristle type and density mean that both brushes will be pretty similar. If you liked the Sonia Kashuk for liquid application, you'd probably like the Sigma Kabuki for a similar effect, too. If you liked the Sonia Kashuk for buffing and blending, you'd probably like the Sigma Round Top for the same, too. And if you liked the small, handy size of the Sonia Kashuk brush for working around tiny areas of the face, like the nose, then the Sigma Kabuki would perform in exactly the same way.

That said, there are some slight differences. The Sonia Kashuk Flat Top Brush has bristles that are slightly longer than the sigma Kabuki, and the Sigma Round Top Kabuki has a brush shape that is slightly rounded at the sides, whereas the Sonia Kashuk is totally flat. Thus, the Sigma brush is more likely to give a denser application of product as compared to the Sonia Kashuk brush. Also, some people might prefer the rounded shape of the Sigma Kabuki, as they feel it might help them maneuver around the contours of their faces better. The differences may not be very noticeable, but I'm splitting hairs for the sake of a review here.



So which one do you need? Well, I'd say both are pretty compable, and I guess ultimately which one you end up with would depend on which one is available. For girls who live outside of the USA (or for that matter, within the USA but far away from a Target), where Sonia Kashuk is unavailable or hard to get, then the Sigma Round Top Kabuki or Flat Top Kabuki would be a very close substitute. Sigma Beauty does ship worldwide, so it's easily gotten hold of.

(The Sigma brush was sent to me for review. Review is my complete and honest opinion. I am not compensated or affiliated with the company in any way.)

Sigma Flat Top Kabuki vs MAC 187: A Comparison

The MAC 187 is one of the most famous makeup brushes in makeupdom. I remember when I was a newbie to the makeup world, everyone I knew had one, wanted one, or thought it was absolutely necessary to have one. Over time, of course, dupes and similar brushes came out. And since I'm doing a review on the Sigma Flat Top Synthetic Kabiki F80, I thought I'd photograph the two brushes next to each other, since they do appear to be similar.

Both brushes have comparable handle length, and bristle colour. You can see below that they are of a similar size, so if you liked the MAC 187's size, you'd probably like the Sigma Flat Top Kabuki as well. The quality of both brushes is also very good - I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much from a Sigma brush - after all, nothing lives up to its hype, right? - but I am forced to admit that the Sigma brush is actually of much better quality than I expected.



Top: Sigma Flat Top Kabuki, Bottom: MAC 187

However, despite their similarities, they perform totally different functions. After all, the MAC 187 is a duo fiber/skunk/stippling brush (whichever terminology you prefer), while the Sigma Flat Top Kabuki, is well, a kabuki/buffing brush. In short, this means that the MAC 187 would be bettr for applying product in a sheer, sparing manner (e.g. for heavily pigmented blushes or foundations), while the Sigma Kabuki would be best for buffing, or blending (e.g. blending after all product is applied, or buffing in mineral makeup). But let's explore the brushes a little more.



The MAC 187 has bristles that are a lot less dense than the Sigma Kabuki. So for more pigmented products, the 187 might be a better choice, since less product will be picked up and deposited. However, for sheerer products, the Sigma Kabuki would be better, as it can really pack on product.

Also, the MAC 187 has natural bristles, as opposed to the Sigma Kabuki which has synthetic bristles. While there are no hard and fast rules for what brush goes with what product, it has been my general experience that natural bristles do better with powder products, while synthetic bristles work better with cream, liquid, or gel products. With natural bristles, they deposit powder products evenly, but if used with liquid products, the bristles tend to absorb some of the moisture from the product, making application uneven. On the other hand, synthetic bristles tend to work well with liquids and creams because they don't absorb any moisture, however I do find that for some reason they don't deposit as much powder as natural bristles do. For some reason the powder just seems to get "trapped" in synthetic bristles, but not in natural hair ones.

So, although they might look similar, they actually aren't when it comes to function. The MAC 187 is better for powder products, and for products that are more pigmented, while the Sigma kabuki works well with cream, liquid and gell products, and also for products that are more sheer. The 187 is a stippling brush, while the kabuki is a buffing brush. They actually complemnt each other very well in that regard. Well worth owning both, in my opinion.

(The Sigma brush was sent to me for review. Review is my own honest and complete opinion. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company for this review.)

Sigma Synthetic Face Kit Kabuki Brushes Comparison: Angled, Flat Top and Round

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you have had great fun counting down to 2011! I thought I'd start the new year trying out a brand I've never reviewed before - Sigma Beauty. They have been out there in the blogosphere for awhile due to their brushes, and while there have been some differences in opinion, in general it seems that Sigma's brushes garner glowing reviews, complete with dupes for MAC brushes. I was pretty skeptical of the reviews (really, you expect me to believe that EVERY self-proclaimed Youtube "guru" loves these brushes?), and it appeared that there was only one way for me to discover whether these were really worth the hype or not. And that's how I ended up with a few Sigma brushes.

It can be pretty daunting picking from Sigma's wide array of makeup brushes. Sigma only does brushes and accessories, so you can imagine how specialized they are. They have a gazillion face brushes, so out of those I zoomed in on three that looked interesting. These are three kabuki brushes, in various shapes that intrigued me. While most brands only have one single kabuki brush, Sigma has three! How's that for variety?

The three kabuki brushes shown here are the Round Top Kabuki F82, the Angled Top Kabuki, F84, and the Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki, F80. They are arranged in that order from top to bottom in this photo:



Although only the Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki F80 lists itself as being synthetic, all three brushes are synthetic, and made of the same type of brush bristle. The bristles are actuay quite soft and well-formed, and remind me of the same synthetic bristles used by Too Faced and The Body Shop, two other brands with popular brands of synthetic brushes. The bristles are also very well-packed, as one might expect of a good quality kabuki brush - definitely no floppy bristles here! These brushes were definitely made to buff. Another thing I like about the bristles is that because they are synthetic, these brushes are good for applying not solely powder, but also cream, liquid, and gel products. Natural hair brushes tend to "soak up" liquid products, so for any liquid-based product, synthetic brushes tend to be more ideal.

The handles and ferrules of the brushes are also pretty sturdy - definitely no hair falling off, or no glue coming un-sticky. They were actually of much better quality than I expected them to be. The handles are all the same length, and are pretty uniform.

So now you must be wondering - if they're all kabukis, what's the difference between them? Well, first of all, there is shape. The Round Top Kabuki, Flat top Kabuki, and Angled Top Kabuki all have different shapes. Pretty obvious, right? But there is also bristle length. The Round Top Kabuki F82 is the brush with the shortest bristles, while the Angled Top Kabuki F84 has the longest bristles. Also, although all the brushes have tightly-packed bristles, there is still slight variance in the density of the bristles. The Round Top Kabuki has the densest bristles, while the Angled Top has the sparsest bristles.



So what does this mean, if you're looking at all these kabukis? Well, denser bristles tend to translate into a heavier appication of product. So if you're looking to apply product with these, pick a denser-bristled brush if you want a heavier application, and vice versa. That said, since all three brushes are kabukis, application is granted to be a pretty heavy, so the variance isn't too large. If you're not looking to apply product, but just to buff out the product on your skin after application, then denser bristles tend to buff out products better, so once again, if this brush is purely for buffing, it would be better to pick a denser brush. However, once again, I'd caveat that since all these brushes are kabukis, they're all going to be dense - it's just how dense they are.

Lastly, there is shape. Brush shapes can be a little bit subjective to some extent, since someone's ideal bronzer brush can be another person's contouring brush. But personally, I'd use the Flat Top Synthetic Kabuki F80 for buffing in all-over face products, like foundation and powder, while I'd use the Angled Top Kabuki F84 for cheek products (blush, bronzer, contouring powder even), since it's handy angled shape would come in really useful for such functions. The Round Top Kabuki Brush F82, would be useful for any tight spots that require lots of buffing, since this brush is a very effective buffer.

Over the next couple of posts, I'll be comparing these brushes to the ones I currently already have in my stash, and doing comparisons for each of them in a bit more detail. But for now, if you need a good synthetic kabuki, these are actually worth looking into.