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May 24, 2010

sigma professional brushes complete kit vs mac brushes

Last week I received a very exciting package from Sigma! The brushes came roughly one week after I had an email from Sigma confirming they had been shipped, which was great. I have been lusting after a brush set by them for what seems like forever, and finally I have my hands on them. I was sent the brushes for reviewing purposes and have managed to keep schtum about it on twitter so that I could wait to do a blog post about them. I know that they are very popular as a cheaper alternative to Mac brushes, but for some reason I never expected the quality of the brushes to be 'that good' as people were saying. It just seemed to me that brushes so inexpensive surely couldn't be compared to Mac brushes. Well I was so wrong as actually some of the brushes are better than a few of my similar Mac brushes. I have no idea why anyone would buy loads of Mac brushes these days when you can easily buy just as good if not better brushes from Sigma for less than half the price. Don't get me wrong, there are a few Mac brushes that I haven't seen dupes for, which are worth buying, but for the main part, buy Sigma! I was kicking myself that I had ever spent that money on Mac brushes in the first place instead of getting Sigma brushes. I obviously am not going to do an in depth review of each brush, if there isn't any review for the brush, then there isn't anything to say, apart from it does exactly what it was made for!

SIGMA PROFESSIONAL BRUSHES COMPLETE KIT


Left to right:

Powder Brush, Duo Fibre Brush, Foundation Brush, Large Angled Contour Brush, Large Shader Brush, Concealer Brush, Tapered Blending Brush, Eye Shading Brush, Medium Angled Shading Brush, Pencil Brush, Small Angle Brush, Eyeliner Brush.


LARGE POWDER BRUSH

This brush is super super soft and amazing at applying face powder. You can literally put all your face powder on in just a few strokes using this brush. It glides over the skin beautifully and it is one of the softest make up brushes I have ever felt.


DUO FIBRE BRUSH

It is pretty much an exact dupe of the Mac 187 brush. I do slightly prefer the Mac brush though because of the shape. As you can see in the pictures, the Mac brush is slightly more rounded and the brissles are much firmer making it easier to blend in foundation. However, the Sigma brush is a very good dupe and for the price its well worth skipping the Mac brush for it.


Top - Mac 187
Bottom - Sigma Duo Fibre Brush


Left - Sigma
Right - Mac


FOUNDATION BRUSH

I am completely in love with this brush! I have been using it for about a week now and it makes my liquid foundation blend into my skin perfectly and flawlessly. My Mac 190 is really old so I can't compare them as it needs chucking out. But you can see they look very similar and probably perform exactly the same. I would repurchase the Sigma foundation brush again & again without a doubt. It is just perfect!


Left - Sigma Foundation Brush
Right - Mac 190 Foundation Brush


LARGE ANGLED CONTOUR BRUSH

This brush is really good for adding a touch of blusher to the cheeks but I much prefer the Mac 168 contour brush. The Mac brush is much firmer which gives you a lot more control over the brush, whereas the Sigma brush is too floppy for my liking. But again, it is worth buying if you don't want such a 'professional' finish.


LARGE SHADER BRUSH


CONCEALER BRUSH

This works perfectly at pushing concealer into the skin. Again, it is an all round great brush and works really well.


Top - Mac 224 Blending Brush
Bottom - Sigma Blending Brush

In my opinion, the Sigma brush is much better than the Mac Blending Brush. It is slightly more firm than the Mac brush which makes it much better for blending eyeshadow as you get more control.


Left - Eye Shading Brush
Right - 213 Mac Fluff Brush

They pretty much do the same thing but the Sigma brush lays down more eyeshadow on the lid as it is wider, so therefore it is better.


MEDIUM ANGLED SHADING BRUSH


PENCIL BRUSH


SMALL ANGLE BRUSH


The Mac eyeliner brush is much more precise than the sigma one. I wouldn't really recommend buying the Sigma as doesn't apply the eyeliner in a thin enough line, for me.


I purchased these little plastic beads on ebay for less than £3 including postage, it means that you can find your favourite vase or jug to put your brushes in, and they will all stand up straight!


A few of the brushes had plastic brush protecters sent with them which is great for stopping them from being shaped funnily while they are in my make up bag.


Here is the manual that was sent with the brush set, it has all the brushes in it and describes what the use for each one is really well.


Overall, I would highly recommend this brush set to everyone. It would make such a great investment, and it really transforms the way you put on make up. You can buy the brush set on the Sigma website here for roughly £47.68/$69, it is well worth it, trust me! I will definitely be re-purchasing Sigma brushes in the future. I just hope that more people invest in these beauties!

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review!They look really great!!

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  2. Wonderful review!

    I love MAC brushes, and have been wondering whether to order some Sigma ones to compare...

    x
    makeupkitten

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  3. I have the large powder brush and the kabuki but would love some more of them! They are lovely and soft and most def a great alternative to Mac!!

    Hope you enjoy x

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  4. Excellent review, thankyou!

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  5. Great review-I'm so jealous you have them. My OH ordered them a few weeks ago for my birthday present and they still haven't arrived-not impressed with the delivery, let's just hope the products override that :-) XX

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  6. Ive been wanting to try these as well...
    I have done a lot of research but im not to sure yet. Once I get to get them ill be doing a review as well !! Thankyou for your thoughts they helped me a lot

    ReplyDelete