#sigmagic

Just kidding guys… I’ve talked about this approximately 20 times already.

It’s my brushes. And how I HATE washing them. It is a chore devised by Satan to test the sanity and patience of otherwise rational people. So I buy new ones. Which results in having many, many dirty brushes.

It’s not that I don’t like having clean brushes; I love it. It’s like having clean sheets, but for your face. I’m just lazy and didn’t have a good place to do it because my whole house is lacking space, and, most annoying of all, I hadn’t ever found a brush cleaner that didn’t smell weird or dry out my brushes or leave them feeling gross and sticky when they dried. The last thing I bought to help with this chore was terrible and I returned it almost immediately.

I had seen the solid cleanser that beautyblender makes and the idea was weird to me… it’s just a bar of soap. How do you keep it clean? And does it really adequately clean brushes and sponges? Oh wait, it’s how much? I once tried to use my bathroom hand soap and one of those brush cleaning mats and that was a mild disaster. It took forever to wash the soap out and get my brushes to look or feel clean.

Then I stumbled across an xsparkage video where she was testing this weird solid brush cleaner from Sigma. It’s like a little round container of soap with rubber scrubby things, and there are suction cups on the back of it so it can stick to the side of the sink. Clever. She hates cleaning her brushes as much as I do, so I was curious what she would think and how much less annoying it could really be. I was pleasantly surprised when it seemed fairly painless, so I ordered one. And since I knew I’d be in a place with some counter space this week, I decided to bring it with me and clean my damn brushes.

Now, I won’t say that this is magic. It’s not the miracle product we’ve all been looking for that makes the process of washing brushes a joy, but it does become tolerable. As reasonable adults, I think that’s really the most we can ask.

The lid is vented to make sure the soap can dry completely and not get all waterlogged and soggy. Nice thinking Sigma. The little nubbin things are strong enough to clean but still pliable so they don’t damage brushes. And the suction cups are pretty solid, so this even stuck to the weird curvy sink in this bathroom.

When I started washing I was really grossed out by all of the stuff exiting my brushes. Foundation, powder products, cream highlights and eyeshadows, all caked and crusted in these brushes. Some hadn’t been washed in months. I know, grossest thing ever. I wasn’t using them, but still. I’m not sure exactly how long the process took since I cleaned them a little at a time over the course of a day. Every time I got up to pee, I washed a few brushes. I don’t know why I can’t do this at home. It would take up way less time and space if I did it once a week instead of once a quarter.

Anyway, I’m on board with this product. Even with the massive pile of brushes I washed, I don’t feel like I used up that much product. The soap was almost to the top of the little scrubber things when I started, and this is what it looked like when I finished:

I was really concerned about how quickly this would be used up. I was worried that it was a little gimmicky and not worth the money, but I’m happy to be wrong in this case. And now, look at all my beautiful clean brushes!

My skin thanks you Sigma.

Do you hate cleaning brushes? Any hacks I should know about?