You may remember this post about the brush guards that I use whenever I clean my brushes, it allows them to dry and retain their shape perfectly. In the comments, Ellie told us about the el-cheapo version you could pick up on eBay for just ninety-nine pennies! A couple of my original brush guards were showing some wear on the edges so I picked up a couple of rolls and waited patiently for them to arrive from the far East.
I thought I’d do a quick comparison… this isn’t particularly in-depth but I thought it might be useful to demonstrate the major differences between the available tools.
The most obvious difference is in the rigidity of the material used to construct the brush guards. The eBay equivalent is much softer, more pliable and to be honest, less substantial. The ‘official’ brush guards are firmer and more rigid with a stronger construction. If you imagine a rope… the stronger rope will be weaved of more strands – this is pretty much what’s happening here. Think of it as the ‘official’ version of The Brush Guard being triple-ply loo roll as opposed to the single-ply eBay alternative!
However, this doesn’t make the eBay Brush Guards any less useful when it comes to keeping the brush hairs in shape. Look, same brush…
You can see that both guards encourage the brush to keep its naturally domed taper, thus allowing it to dry retaining a good shape. The biggest drawback to the eBay version is that I simply haven’t been able to use them on any eye brushes with as much success and that includes brushes like the MAC 217 – there’s too much stretch in the mesh to conform to a smaller brush tip and hold the bristles as tightly as I’d like.
As for travel? Well, the official version would be my recommendation. The eBay guards are simply too pliable and don’t afford the rigidity needed to protect the brushes when they’re bumping up against one another. To try and demonstrate what I mean, I pressed my fingertip against the brush tip on a MAC 217… I tried to apply the same amount of pressure to the brush head and you can see the difference between the amount of movement exercised on the delicate hairs.
Ultimately, if you’re looking for something to simply cover, lightly protect and shape your larger brushes after washing and aren’t looking for something to protect your brushes whilst travelling – go for the eBay brush guards. At 99p for a roll of mesh you’ll be sitting pretty with neatly domed powder brushes at the ready! If you need something more substantial or struggle to keep your eye brushes in good shape, you should stump up the extra pennies and go for the official versions of The Brush Guard.
It may look like a super low-tech solution to protecting your brushes, but not all brush guards are built equally!
I purchased my eBay brush guards, rather unsurprisingly, on eBay (99p) and my official ones from Cocktail Cosmetics (£5 per pack).
Thanks for the comparison! I would have liked to get more “official” brush guards for less, but considering the quality of the ebay ones I think I’ll just spring for the real ones. I don’t think a few dollars/pounds is too much considering how useful they are!
I would go for the Ebay brush guards as the price in unbeatable and they do the job perfectly.
For travelling, I wouldn’t have brushes loose in a makeup bag. They would be in a brush case whereby they wouldn’t need any brush guards.
Thanks for the review.
Ah, you got some! I can see the big difference in pliability. The cheapy stuff still does the job for me, but to be fair I don’t travel with my brushes that much and like Mary says, when I do they tend to be in a brush roll.
I think for drying purposes the ebay ones will be find (and well I have quite a few brushes so it’ll save on the pennies!). PS what the polish your wearing it looks good, mint with a shimmer 🙂
Oh god, this makes me feel very bad as the current level of “protection” afforded to my brushes is them all being stuffed haphazardly into my makeup bag, usually still covered in makeup (yes, I am a filthy pig, I am trying to clean them more often though!)
Mind you mine are mostly from ELF and such and so it’s probably cheaper to just replace them than buy fancy brush guards, if I ever manage to afford proper nice quality ones I’m sure I’ll be babying them a lot more!