I recently heard about a new product line called Sigma Makeup, a company that specializes in face and eye makeup brushes. Curious, I looked for reviews online about their brushes. All the reviews I’ve found were very favorable, and some of them even rave that they are comparable to MAC brushes! Convinced, I ordered my own set of Sigma brushes.
These brushes arrived three days ago and I’ve been testing out every single one. I have to say that these brushes truly stand up to all their hype. They feel soft, and brushes are dense and stiff/full and soft when they should be. I also washed them and they maintained their shape very well, no fraying or anything (yet…but I have high hopes:)).
You can get the complete Sigma Makeup Professional Brushes Kit, which contains 12 brushes for only $64 (plus S/H), which works out to slightly more than $5 per brush. These brushes are also available individually and in smaller sets just for the face or for the eyes. Compared to $20-$60 for a MAC brush, these brushes are steal of a deal.
To make things easier for us (and for all the MAC lovers out there), Sigma’s brushes are numbered the same as their reciprocal MAC brushes. For example. their Tapered Blending Brush is numbered SS224, which is the same as MAC’s Tapered Blending Brush 224.
Unfortunately Sigma Makeup’s brush collection is not as extensive as MAC’s (they don’t have any lip brushes, for example), but they do provide the essential basics. I would recommend pick up Sigma Makeup’s complete set then round out your collection by adding individual MAC brushes.
Check out Sigma Makeup’s website and perhaps treat yourself to a little early Christmas gift 
This is another one of my favorite below-the-radar products. One of my liners is in Smokey Gold since I absolutely love gold accessories and it compliments my skin nicely. It has both gold and silver glitter for a nice contrast. The “fluid” is clear so it doesn’t result in a shiny lame look. I also have Black Diamond, which is a black and silver glitter in a clear fluid. I like to use this one when I am going for a slightly more subtle look.
The liner comes in a compact, ergonomic little package, and has a tiny brush tip. They come in an amazing variety of colors such as Peacock (blue and white glitter), Cognac (gold and bronze glitter), Golden Green (gold, silver and green glitter).
The glitter also stays on very well. Once the fluid dries the glitter does not rub off at all, which is especially helpful when you are partying all night!
I also love the versatility of the liner. I apply a thick line along the top of my lashes usually on top of black liquid liner (and sometimes even paint little patterns on my face) for that glam-night-out look, or just a thin line for a casual coffee date. Either way, the glitter never overpowers your face.
Verdict: Love it. Every woman should have one in their makeup bag.
I’m sure most of you have heard about all the hype about the BareMinerals Foundation by BareEscentuals. People rave about how wonderful their skin feels and how natural the foundation looks. So, I decided to buy some and test out all this hype myself.
The foundation looks like a powder but felt very smooth when I applied it. It also blended very well. I am currently using the Body Shop’s Face and Body Brush to apply the makeup, but I may go and pick up brushes from bareMineral’s line because different brushes are supposed to offer different coverages.
I felt the foundation evened out my skin tone fairly well, and sometimes when I’m only wearing tinted moisturizer I use this product as my concealer since my regular concealer is a) too light for me since I’ve tanned in the summer and b) is a bit too thick to use in the summer.
I love the SPF factor in this foundation so I don’t have to apply that extra layer of sunscreen.
There is a couple of issue I have with this foundation. One is that the shade doesn’t really match my skin tone very well. It is a bit on the light side but the next shade in line was too dark (I had two Sephora ladies help me and they both suggest the Golden Medium shade). Because of the shade mismatch I look a tiny bit washed out in some lightings. I usually try to compensate for this by dusting on some bronzers and blush to warm up my face.
The other issue is that my skin gets oily pretty quickly with this foundation. Although the product is not supposed to be mattifying, I found that my face becomes oily faster than if I use my Clinique Superfit Makeup. Using a primer/mattifyer and applying loose powder does help with the oiliness, but I am still slightly disappointed with this aspect.
Conclusion: this product feels good on my skin and offers a great range of coverage, but is a bit overhyped.
I picked up this from Sephora from their “last-minute purchase bins” when I was standing in line to buy something else (what a great marketing gimmick!). I have pencil straight lashes (to go with my pencil-straight hair) so it was always difficult to curl my lashes even with a lash curler. The idea with the heated lash curler is that it acts like a curling iron and uses heat to re-shape hair.
The curler heated up very fast and has only one heat setting. It’s very compact, shaped like a mascara and uses one AAA battery. The curler part has a series of plastic teeth like a comb with metal wires underneath the teeth. You just use the curler like a regular mascara wand.
I was a little worried about putting something hot so close to my eyes, but the heat wasn’t too bad. I curl my lashes first with a regular curler and use the heated curler to give the curl some staying power and to “smooth out” the curl so it is a nice round curl instead of one (or several) kink.
One word of advice: do not use the curler after you’ve already applied mascara! I don’t know what I was thinking and did just that and as soon as I did I regretted it! Fortunately I pulled the curler away fast enough so no big waxy clumps stuck to it.
Verdict: Love it! It’s a good tool to have (especially if you have straight lashes like me) and it’s very reasonably priced too! (I think it was around $20CDN)
I was looking for a heavy-duty concealer to cover up some old acne scars and this is what the girls at Sephora recommended. It comes in a tube and is a thicker consistency similar to that of Vaseline. A little goes a long way with this product! I’ve had mine for a while now and it still feels like I haven’t used any!
I usually use this with a concealer brush I picked up from the Body Shop. I use it on most parts of my face but not under my eyes unless I have really bad circles. This is because the texture is fairly thick so it does crease after a while.
Verdict: covers up imperfections very well. A good buy if you got pesky acne scars, sun spots, or other discolorations you want to cover up. I recommend getting a separate concealer for the eye area.
