Primadonna Style: Splurge or Save? The Brush Egg vs 2x Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove

We all know that dirty makeup brushes can lead to less than stellar makeup application, or even worse; bacteria that promotes bad skin. I must admit that the lengthy cleaning time, long drying time, and dry parched hands from working so hard to get each brush free of stubborn makeup makes me put this important task off longer than I should.

Lately, I've been trying to do a better job of staying on top of giving my brushes a weekly cleaning. I started looking around for a tool that could make the process go a bit quicker and stumbled upon two products: The Brush Egg and the 2x Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove. Both soft silicone cleaning tools provide a slightly abrasive surface to agitate brush bristles over to help you cut cleaning time in half while promising to get makeup brushes cleaner than just simple hand washing.

I was torn. Both products had excellent reviews, but the 2x Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Glove was more than three times the price of The Brush Egg! Price alone made me want to just opt for the budget friendly Brush Egg and call it a day, but the hand protection offered by Sigma's Cleaning Glove, and the large surface area made me want to test it and see if it was worth the steep price tag. I decided to give both products a try and see if it was worth splurging on the expensive Sigma Glove, or if the economically priced Brush Egg would do the trick.

Price:
I purchased the Sigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove for $39 on amazon.com with free shipping.

I snagged The Brush Egg in an ebay auction for $2.99 with free shipping.

Packaging:
The Brush Egg I received did not come in any special packaging. It was wrapped in clear cellophane inside of a small packing envelope.

The Sigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove came in a nice box complete with information about each texture on the glove.

Textures:
The Brush Egg features two textures. There were no instructions included.

The Sigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove packaging led me to a video on Sigma's website that showed how to use another product they have for cleaning called the Brush Cleaning Mat. The Mat has the same textures as the glove, and after watching the video I was able to understand better how to use each section to deep clean my makeup brushes . I do wish there was a video uploaded to the website with info on the actual glove as well. Using the barcode scanner only to be led to a miscellaneous video of another product was a bit of a let down.

The glove itself has varied textures including a large round textured side for cleaning face brushes, and a smaller patterned side for cleaning smaller brushes. Both sides also featured a refining texture and a refining plus texture for deeper cleaning of the bristles, as well as a texture on the sides(between the thumbs) for removing excess water and shaping the bristles once the brush has been washed.

The Sigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove features dual thumbs to allow you to wear the glove on either hand. It also comes with a protective microfiber mitt to wear inside of the silicone glove to protect the hand from excess moisture while washing makeup brushes.

The extra thumb is pretty convenient since it allows the flexibility of wearing the glove on either hand, but it's pretty awkward when putting it on and trying to squeeze the extra thumb into the silicone outer layer of the glove. Once I had it on I found it to be pretty comfortable. The mitt kept the glove snugly on my hand without any shifting.

(I'm using a 50/50 mix of baby shampoo and Dr. Bronner's Lavender Castile Liquid Soap

in an empty pump bottle to clean my makeup brushes.)

makeup brush cleaner brush cleaning solution

Performance:
The Brush Egg is the perfect size for cleaning small eye makeup brushes. I found that most small brushes required a minimum of two rounds of cleaning when using this tool. The opening to the brush egg is small and felt slightly uncomfortable on my two fingers. It is more comfortable if the egg is simply held in the palm of the hand. Because I already use the palm of my hand to clean my brushes, this felt like a lot more trouble than it was worth. My hand was still wet, and I still had to wash and rinse each brush several times with the brush egg before it was completely clean.

I grabbed a large dense bronzer brush to see how it performed with this cleaning tool. Surprisingly, it got it pretty clean after only two wash and rinses. My issue is that because this is such a small tool, it is impossible to clean such a large brush without the hand getting completely wet. Though the textured surface did the job, it did not cut down on washing time, and once again I felt this tool seemed like an unnecessary extra step since I use the palm of my hand to clean my brushes anyway.

After watching a video for a similar product I used the labels/textures on the Sigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove in a specific order to clean my brushes.
1. Wash
2. Rinse
3, Deep Clean with the "Refine" texture
4. Get an even deeper clean with the swirling texture of "Refine Plus"
5. Rinse again.

Following this order got each brush thoroughly clean without having to go back and rewash.

Due to the large size of the glove, I was able to wash multiple brushes at one time.

My softer brushes did not fair well with my vigorous cleaning using the glove and lost several hairs. I have to remember to be more gentle in the future.

One of my favorite parts of using this glove was that my hand stayed

completely dry while washing my makeup brushes.

I was going to just clean a few brushes to test this glove out, but the entire experience was so quick and easy, I ended up cleaning quite a few more than I anticipated.

Final thoughts:

The low purchase price makes The Brush Egg an easy purchase for even the thriftiest makeup enthusiast. At the end of the day, though I love a good bargain as much as the next girl,theSigma 2X Sigma Spa TM Brush Cleaning Glove was a much better purchase for me. It kept my hands dry and protected from harsh soap during cleaning, allowed me to wash multiple brushes thoroughly at one time, and cut my cleaning time in half. It was worth the splurge and I would absolutely purchase it again. The Brush Egg was not a good purchase for me. It did not cut my brush cleaning time at all, nor did it protect my hands. It was also uncomfortable to wear. If you are looking for something to help you keep your makeup brushes clean, I suggest you splurge this time around!