Let me start off by saying I do not currently nor have I ever owned a Sigma brush. My top 2 epic beauty quests have been finding the perfect foundation and finding the perfect brushes. Those are like unicorns to me. Now, I have recently discovered my favorite drugstore foundation and use it every single day. However, I haven't found my holy grail brushes yet, or have I? Continue reading to find out!



Last week I purchased the Bestope 10pc Professional Cosmetic Makeup Brush Set for Face/Eye/Lip off of Amazon for $10.00 (plus I have Prime). Figures that it's currently on sale for $7.99. Humf! I have been googling and watching Youtube for Sigma brush dupes because I had been contemplating purchasing a set. However, I wanted to be frugal first and try to find similar brushes that were more affordable. I kept seeing the same few brands, but couldn't find them. So I found the next best thing - this set. It looked exactly like what I have been reading about, and when I typed in other brands this set would pop up. So $10 for 10 brushes, why not? Here are my thoughts.

When I first received them they came packaged into a cloth type bag with a zipper on top. The material felt icky to the touch so I just threw it away. Normally I would repurpose such bags, but I didn't like the texture. The brushes themselves each had a piece of plastic on the ends to protect the bristles, I liked that. However, the immediately impression I got was - "really?" I had read mixed reviews and was hoping I was one of the lucky ones, nope. Before I even took off the protective plastic I could see hairs sticking all over the place. They had already begun to shed. Oh the humanity! Whyyyyyyy? (insert heavy defeat sigh here). Well, I pulled the hairs out and overall they still looked good. Only 1 brush was stubborn and had hairs sticking out all over the place, which of course bugged the heck out of me!

I will start with the smaller brushes. When I saw them online my first thought was to use them for eyeshadow. The product description said lips, but which one would you use for that? Hmm. Shrugs. And to be quite honest, only 1-2 brushes work for this purpose because of their size. If you are looking at the photo above, the very top 2 brushes could work to blend out your crease. The others are just odd and over sized. However, I was going to attempt to use them for blending out concealer under my eyes and around my nose. Might work for that. The bristles are really soft and I must admit even despite the hair fallout from the larger brushes, they do look quite fancy. I will do an update on whether or not the other brushes work for that purpose. I'm not sold yet because since they are soft I would think they wouldn't do a good job, however I'm partial to a more firm brush when doing anything with liquid. Or is that just me? I will give the smaller brushes 3/5 stars - for how they look, their softness, and the fact these were the only brushes that didn't shed. I will add two more photos below because I am quite impressed with my iphone's soft light ability and these really are pretty brushes. (crossing fingers I can use all 5)


Now onto the larger face brushes which was the main reason I wanted to purchase this set. I am a huge fan of these kabuki type brushes. I love for my liquid foundation brush to be more dense and therefore more firm when I go to apply. For some reason, with my skin and the products I use, it gives the best application. Now these were the brushes that were shedding. Also, I want to apologize for one of the brushes already being dirty - I used one before I realized I should take photos. Oops!



Whoops to the dirty one on the end, but we will just ignore that right? Well, we shall start from the left, ok? The first 2 on the left are very similar and have an angle to the top. I haven't used either of these yet but I was thinking to use them to contour perhaps? These brushes are really soft as well and the lack of density makes me not want to use them with liquid because they will just absorb the product and sweep it around instead of buffing which is what I want. So I will use those with my powders. The middle brush is the devil! Not sure if you can see in the photo but the hairs are sticking out. Without product, I rubbed it against my face like I was using it and hairs were left on my cheeks. Oh joy! I am not going to attempt to use that brush - in the trash it will go. The next brush is more tapered and looks exactly like the brush I currently use to blend under my eyes concealer and such. Again, the brushes are soft however not dense so I doubt they will work well with liquids. The last brush is the dirty one that I used with my liquid foundation. This brush was horrible! It shed all over my face, absorbed the product, and I ended up using another brush to fix the hot mess this left behind. Because I used this brush is why I am leery of trying any of the others with liquid. I hope the other 3 brushes don't shed this bad or else they will probably all go in the trash or I'll give them to my little niece to play around with.

I know the title of this post is Sigma Brush Dupe? and I started off with a disclaimer that I do not own any. My attempt to find an alternative based on suggestions I found online resulting in a big disappointment. I know the saying "you get what you pay for" however with China being the mass producer of basically all of our goods, I didn't want to believe this. My current foundation brush is an exact Real Techniques dupe. Their face brushes are what? $9-$11 range for just 1? I got one that even has the pink handle with the black grip for $2 off ebay and it's worked great! No shedding and I've used the Real Techniques one and it literally works the same. Perhaps I will go back to that seller and see if they offer any more brushes. I wanted more of a variety, and it looks like that is the way to go. Perhaps I will do a Real Techniques vs Ebay Brushes post once I acquire more than the 1 brush.

Do you have any Sigma brushes? Or do you have any dupes? I am always looking for affordable alternatives because being a full time student, you need to stick with a budget. I never believe in paying full price (wait for sales plus use coupons) and if you ask any of my friends, they know my motto is "I can find it cheaper online" which has never failed me. Although this did not conclude with a comparison, my point was that there are so many websites claiming to have cheap alternatives to these Sigma brushes and I wanted to see if I found something equally superior for, what - a 6th of the cost? I was never good with math.