The Brush Guard vs. the eBay budget equivalent

Posted by Lipglossiping On June - 14 - 2012

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).


Do you protect your brushes?

Posted by Lipglossiping On March - 16 - 2012

For some of us, makeup brushes can amount to a big investment and it pays to look after them.  It’s only fairly recently that I’ve bothered – to be honest, I’m a little bit easy-come-easy-go as my Mum used to tut at me whenever I was being less than careful with my possessions.

(foundation size – good for foundation and small powder brushes)

I use Brush Guards to protect my favourite brushes.  The mesh slips over the handle and cradles the bristles tightly, it’s not the perfect solution for travelling but I love them after washing my brushes as I can simply stand them on end (brush guard down) and this protects the ferrule whilst ensuring that the bristles dry to a perfect shape.  Infact, they’ve even recovered some of my domed brushes that I thought had lost their shape for good.  A worthwhile investment!

(blush size – great for large(r) eyeshadow brushes)

Brush Guards are priced at around £5.95 a packet and come in various sizes from eyeliner-brush sized right up to kabuki.  I bought mine a long time ago from Cocktail Cosmetics.

Do you do anything to protect your brushes? (or have you got better things to do with your life? haha)

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