Like most beauty junkies out there, one of my first brush sets was from Sigma. Back in the day, they were one of the few affordable company with a wide selection of "good" brushes. I got the starter kit/set which contained a bunch of basic brushes for face and eyes. I believe I have even reviewed them when I first started my blog and I remember how excited I was back then to have all these tools and cool brushes I couldn't have gotten unless I would have decided to splurge on MAC ones, which quite frankly, was a bit out of my budget.
Sigma has long been touted to be a dupe for MAC brushes but upon closer inspection and using them for a while it's easy to see they are not. They might look like it but the quality simply isn't there.
The eye brushes are fine. They're good. Really good. I still use them to this day and aside from a chip in the paint here and there, they perform well and I would recommend them with all my heart despite most of them coming loose at the ferule. I re-glued them back on and made it work.
The face brushes... well, that's a different story. One year into use most of the handles came loose at the ferrule. Sigma was gracious enough to send me replacements and I have to say that their customer service is amazing. Problem is, I now experienced bleeding with my new stippling brush, bleeding to the point where the white hairs are black. I must have washed it with all the solutions and mixes possible. I dried them in all positions possible. I don't even understand where is all that black ink coming from? How is there any left to bleed after so many washes?Needless to say, I gave up on them; I was so turned off by the quality that I am not even going to bother asking for other replacements.
Overall, more than half of my Sigma make-up brushes have fallen apart by year two of use, whether they bled, shed or came loose. I was tempted to try out their Sigmax line, but then Real Techniques came out and they blew me out of the water and available at my local Walmart. Same goes for Ecotools and Spa Resource brushes.
Did anyone else have similar issues? Did I get bad batches? Let me know.
Labels: brushes, rant, review, sigma
