Sigma Travel Kit - Naughty in Black - a win!

About a week or so ago, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was casually checking my emails and spied one from Kat at Click & Make-up ( check out her blog at http://www.clickandmake-up.com), I had won a giveaway, woohoo! Now, you must understand two things... firstly, I never win competitions or giveaways, really.. NEVER! Secondly, I have been craving a set of Sigma brushes for the longest time. If you don't believe me, check out my previous Sigma posts. I've had to console myself with the occasional brush purchase, one or two at a time.

 Anyway, this not only made my day, but it made my week. My boyfriend smiled sweetly when I started bouncing up and down, smiling like a Cheshire cat. He didn't quite understand my delight, but attempted to show some enthusiasm, bless.

It arrived yesterday, my new baby:

 http://www.sigmabeauty.com/product_p/tk002.htm/?Click=34607

It includes:

1 Large Powder F30 – This is a dense, round topped brush with natural bristles for applying powder products.

1 Large Angled Contour F40 – an angled brush with natural bristles for contouring

1 Foundation F60 – for liquid or cream foundations and applying moisturisers or concealing larger areas. This is much softer than my Body Shop foundation brush, very interested to see the difference it makes.

1 Pencil E30 – natural bristles for crease work and more precise application

1 Tapered blending E40 – natural bristles, rounded and tapered for blending

 1 Eye Shading E55 – natural bristles, soft and densely packed. For applying colour all over the lid.

1 Concealer F70 – this is tapered, round and flat and is particularly recommended for the under eye area. This is wider than the Body Shop concealer brush I use; I’ll do a comparison soon.

http://www.sigmabeauty.com/product_p/tk002.htm/?Click=34607

 And as an added bonus a Duo-fibre F50 was included in the package separately. This should be perfect for light applications and blending my new NYX cream blush.

The case itself is a smart and compact (sounds like a car advert) imitation leather black textured finish with the Sigma logo on the front. This is a roll style case, with a magnetic fastening hidden within the case itself. Very snazzy.

 http://www.sigmabeauty.com/product_p/tk002.htm/?Click=34607

This kit gets a 5 star customer rating on Sigma’s website and I can see why. It’s a lovely bit of kit. I’m going to take great pleasure in trying all of these out and will post reviews on each brush as and when I can. I’ll be off to Ireland for a week soon to see the family and this will be perfect for my carry-on. I won’t be checking in any luggage, so packing light is essential. The brushes are a good size, not your usual flimsy travel brushes. I’ve had bad experiences with those in the past. I’ve washed them already as instructed, with minimal shedding and am eager to try them out.

 Again I’d like to say a big Thank you to Kat and encourage you all to enter her giveaways, they’re pretty fab:-D

Sigma Premium Brush Kit Discount

Hi ladies,



If anyone has been considering getting themselves a Sigma Premium Brush Kit, here's your chance to get an extra 10% off, just click on the title of this post. Every little bit helps, right? Apparently, the discount is valid for the next 2 weeks.

Believe me when I say, the brushes I have tried so far from Sigma have been great and I plan to get more. I've already reviewed the F80 and have a review coming up on a couple of sweet eye brushes I've been test driving.

ELF Brushes

A while back I decided to try out some ELF brushes and ordered the following:

Blushing, Bronzing and Blending Brush £1.50
Studio Complexion Brush £3.50
Studio Fan Brush £3.50

As you'll have noticed, 2 were from their Studio line and 1 was from the basic line. This was intended in order to get an idea of the difference in quality between the 2 lines. Both are very inexpensive, but I have to say having seen them in person and tried them out, there is no comparison.

The Studio line is infinitely superior. The Blushing, Bronzing and Blending Brush is too small in my opinion to be useful for contouring or highlighting and the bristles are rough. Not a brush I have used more than once nor one I can see myself using in the future.

However, the fan brush and complexion brush are much softer and have been put to decent use. The Fan is a nice little brush for applying highlighters across the top of the cheek bone and the Complexion brush is great for insuring highlighter and bronzer/ blusher are suitably blended.

I wouldn't compare these to more expensive brands like Sigma etc. they are not intended for the same market I'm sure, but if there's a brush type you'd love to try without committing, this could be a solution.

As you can see from the prices above these are all very cheap, but I would recommend you go for the Studio line at just £2 more for a much better quality product if you wish to try them out.

Sigma

I am having serious product envy. Those Sigma brush kits are taunting me, saying buy me, buy me!

I can't, not this month at least. Having tried out the flat kabuki F80 as mentioned previously, I am having what can only be described as 'brush love'. I know, it's insane, but true. I WANT, nay MUST HAVE those brushes. If only I had been born in January. If only I hadn't gone mad in the sales already. If only, if only. Isn't that just typical of January?

I shall just have to wait, like a good little blogger. Hhhhmmm! If those other things I ordered would just arrive pronto, it would take the sting out of my brush envy for a while. OMG, they send a free gift if you spend over $30... no I have to be strong....

If I last out until February, I deserve a medal.

Sigma F80 Flat top synthetic kabuki

Having heard so many positive things about Sigma brushes on the internet, I just had to try one out. My Coastal scents buffer has pretty much bitten the dust, it's usable, but on it's way out as you can see.

Therefore, I had the perfect excuse;-) I ordered and nervously waited, watching reports about delayed delivery due to weather conditions, but thankfully this little package was one of the few to make it without too much delay. I'm still actually waiting on some orders from the UK that were placed before this one. Well done to Sigma on that one.

Anyway, first impressions were that the brush itself looks like it's good quality, certainly better than I am used to in a buffer. A bargain at $16 and it's very dense. The Sigma version is on top and the Coastal Scents version is on the bottom, just to give you an idea. This particular brush is the F80, which is Flat and sold specifically as a buffer. There is also a domed version available, which they recommend for buffing around areas like the nose, but I am comfortable with the flat version for now.

I must say that using this I noticed there was more tugging on the skin if I wasn't careful, but that's due to the denser nature of the brush. The results were undoubtedly better, blending was a piece of cake and it really did give that air brushed look. Naturally I washed this brush before using and noticed it seemed to dry faster than other brushes of this type, this may be due to the synthetic bristles, which by the way are extremely soft. These are suitable for Vegan ladies out there. The other thing I noticed is that this brush doesn't seem to drink up my foundation. This is a problem I have noticed with both foundation brushes and buffers before. Some brushes appear to soak up so much product that it's both wasteful and a pain come brush washing time. No problems like that here.

I've got to say, I was a tad cynical before I tried this, but now I am actually browsing through their website thinking about what to get next. I would absolutely love to be able to buy a complete set, but can't justify the cost right now, it is just after Christmas after all and I've already been quite generous to myself. However, buying a brush per month should result in a very nice set in a year. I'll keep you updated.

Make up Brushes from Coastal Scents

Image via WikipediaFrom time to time another brush bites the dust and there's an ongoing search for the best quality versus price. If you're new to buying brushes, like me you'll probably find that you just can't live without them after a while. The other thing is, when you start off at the cheap end you think the quality is fine, but as you move towards the better brushes, you start to wonder how you ever applied make up with the old scratchy brushes. However, don't be fooled into thinking that more expensive always means better quality. There are some excellent mid price products available and some usable cheaper brushes.

A suggestion for those starting out is buy a cheap to mid range basic roll and set of brushes. See which brushes you actually use daily. Then start to buy just those individually in a better quality. If there's a new brush you'd love to try like a stippling brush, try out the cheap one first. Then invest once you've experimented for a while.

Having seen several good reviews online for coastal scents brushes, I decided to give them a go and ordered the following:

Shade and shadow brush - $1.49
Black pointed crease brush - $2.95
Flat Mineral Bronzer Buffer Large - $4.69

All the Coastal Scents brushes are very reasonably priced in comparison to many other brands of similar quality. The feel of the brushes is nice and soft and they have stood some every day wear pretty well. They're used every day and washed at least once per week. The Shade and shadow brush and Black pointed crease brush are as good as the day I bought them (several months ago). The only criticism I would have, is that the paint on the buffer brush has started to break off in big chunks. The bristles are still in perfect condition and perhaps it's still usable for a while. I'm just a bit worried that water may soak into the bare wooden handle and damage it. We'll have to see what happens, but seriously, at this price I'm not too worried.