SO...
Here's what came out of the smaller-than-expected package I received today:
Aren't they just adorable? I saved the bags and brochures cause throwing them out would be such a shame!
Here's their free gift (a travel sized E25 blending brush)
Now, I do think they could've done something a bit better for me since I do have the E25 in my premium kit and my order was quite big. But I guess this is better than nothing!
This is the brochure for the Sigmax HD brushes:
Here are the actual brushes. Really dense and really soft. It's hard to believe they're synthetic but I know I'll LOVE these brushes to bits! They have brush guards too to help maintain their shape.
Here's their congratulatory card and instructions on cleaning the brushes..
This is the brochure for the Complete Brush Kit (sorry for the glare - lighting in my room sucks, on top of my average point + shoot digital camera)
Here's the brush roll that says Sigma on it, and the magnetic clip that keeps it together:
Here's the Complete Brush Kit with all the brush guards and wrappers still on it (I still hadn't touched the brushes at this point:
Here's the brochure that came with the Premium Professional Kit
Now here's the actual Premium Professional Brushes (sorry it's so hard to see all the brushes):
Here's a few extra pictures of brochures and packaging:
Initial thoughts:
Overall, the shipping was super fast. I ordered it on October 18th and received it today (October 23).. and we're talking international shipping from the States to Taiwan. How great is that?! Even though Express USPS shipping was the only option available I'm glad I went ahead with it because waiting for these things would have driven me nuts, as I was checking the tracking every single day almost every few hours!
I've read a few blogs and seen youtube videos that said they noticed a really strong smell when they got their kit. This wasn't the case for me. I didn't notice any strong stench of any sort. Maybe a little glue or plastic but nothing that I really would have noticed if it weren't for those blog post that I had read.
I'm also really happy with the quality of the brush rolls as they are really soft and seem very durable. However, I do know that if I don't clean the brushes properly makeup will most likely stick onto the brush roll.. forever. But I guess that's inevitable. Worst comes to worse, is just to buy a new brush roll. But that won't be happening anytime soon for me as I think I've bought enough in terms of brushes to last me a good many years to come!
I did also notice some shedding for the brushes with natural bristles. I'm hoping that will go away after a few washes and that I won't be picking off excess hairs from my face after doing my makeup.
In terms of washing, they were all quite pleasant to wash except for the Sigmax brushes! These brushes are so dense with hairs that I couldn't get all the shampoo out. It's still not all out so I'm going to have to continue rinsing them when I finish typing up this post =(.. I can't wait to be cleaning these every week (sarcasm intended).
I'm sure it also goes without saying that ALL the brushes are extremely soft. So I'm not going to comment on how soft each of the brushes are cause it just get's redundant. But I will say that no matter what kind of review anyone does with these, there's no way of escaping the inevitable comparison to MAC brushes. After all, that's what they were designed to duplicate in the first place (despite their new numbering system). I only have 3 MAC brushes so I can't really compare all the brushes but from what I've noticed is that the MAC 187 is a bit more dense than the Sigma F50 (SS187) duo-fibre brush. I don't know if they will work the same way but I'm probably going to continue using the MAC one and use the Sigma one for blush or highlight. The Sigma E55 (SS239) is quite different from the MAC 239 in that the Sigma one is brown and a lot softer than the MAC 239. It will probably do the same thing but I do think that the reason the MAC 239 packed on colour so well was because it was a bit harder. But I'll have to test it out later on to make sure. I do like that the Sigma one is brown because with the MAC one I was always scared of staining it with dark eyeshadows, so I'm glad I won't have to worry about that with the Sigma. The last MAC comparison would be the MAC 219 vs. the Sigma E30 (SS219), there's not a very big difference at all. The handles for all the Sigma brushes are longer than their MAC counterparts so other than that difference I can't see any other noticeable difference between these 2 brushes. The Sigma one has slightly longer bristles but I don't think that will differ in application when I use it.
So I've been living in Taiwan for almost 2 months now and the weather is a little hectic but I'm slowly getting used to it. I miss a lot of people back home but I have my parents here with me so I'm happy with that. Aside from that I've been going out quite a bit and looking at some potential beauty items I hope to snatch up in the near future. I ran out of my beloved Covergirl Lashblast the other day and decided to go to Watson's (an asian drug/beauty supply store) to go look for it. But unfortunately, they didn't have the lashblast... So I looked in the maybelline section and took what I though was the Maybelline colossal mascara. It wasn't till after I bought it that I realized the packaging was different.
This is what it looked like:
Apparently, it's called MAGNUM here. I'm guessing asians find MAGNUM larger than COLOSSAL? Anyway I don't think the product is different, just the packaging is. I've never used the Colossal before so I'll have to try this out. I'm still trying to finish the last bits of whats left of my almost dried-out Lashblast so I'll update on how much I like this later on.
Another surprising thing I found was something that I had wanted SO BADLY that I hunted down every store that could possibly carry it when I was still living in Vancouver. But it was limited edition and sold out EVERY WHERE! When I went to Watsons, I was browsing through the OPI section and I found these babies:
OPI - Absolutely Alice
Yes, these are from the Alice in Wonderland collection that was out early this year and has been sought after by many nail polish fanatics because of their consistency and unique colour. I bought 2 bottles of Mad as a Hatter and 1 bottle of Absolutely Alice because I loved MAAH so much! It's basically a dark taupe/clear base with multi-coloured glitters of silver, magenta, turquoise, indigo, green, orange, and honestly there are probably more colours but there's so many. It's confetti galore! But on the nails it looks so pretty. Like a dark purplish, greyish, silver.. That's a horrible description but basically, if you LOVE MAC's Satin Taupe eyeshadow, this is the glitterbomb nailpolish version of that eyeshadow!
As for Absolutely Alice, I wasn't going to get it at first but then I saw a bunch of amazing swatches online and decided to get them (yes, I shop with my iPhone). It's a Cobalt blue with lots of silver and turquoise glitter. The most fascinating thing about this nail polish is that it also has gold glitter suspended all over to match Alice's blonde hair. So it's really unique.
Both the polishes offer maximum opacity within 2-3 coats. They are a pain to take off as with all glitter nail polishes but the colours are so pretty it's almost worth the pain haha.
So that's all the new things I have at the moment. I will update on how the Sigma brushes work, how I like the Maybelline Magnum mascara and on top of that, I will be getting 3 shipments in within the next month or so. I ordered MAC's Stereo Rose from eBay which I know I'll love but I payed about $60CAD for it. HUGE rip off but I'm hoping it will be completely worth the hype, even though I know most people reading this are probably wincing and shaking their heads at me right now. HA but I don't care, I drove myself nuts for the past 3 months trying to hunt it down at MAC stores. I also have the pigment in Mauvement by MAC coming at the same time. Lastly, I have an iPhone 4 coming too! My sister received these things already and she's shipping them to me next week. I can't wait to get it! MORE MORE MORE EXCITEMENT!
I'll also start posting up pictures of my nail polish collection if anyone is interested in any of those. I have some OPI, some Sally Hansen, Rimmel, and a lot of e-nail which you can only get in Taiwan. I really wanna make a post about e-nail as they are eco-friendly nail polishes that come in a HUGE variety of colours!
So until next time,
Love dove <3*
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