Fab or flub?: Sigma’s new brush cleaning mat

There are two cardinal rules for people who wear makeup. The first is never go to bed wearing your makeup. The second is to wash your makeup brushes regularly. While it took some time to break my lazy ways, I am happy to say that I have finally gotten into the regular routine of removing my makeup with wipes each night before bedtime.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t gone so well with my makeup brushes.

Before you chide me, let me start by saying that I do wash my makeup brushes. I do not, however, wash them every two weeks as suggested (again, please don’t judge). Call it laziness, but I have found the process of cleaning my makeup brushes to be utterly inconvenient and time consuming. Plus, I never feel like I get my brushes as clean as I want by using my fingers to wash them.

Sigma Beauty brand folks probably had people like me in mind when they designed their newest makeup care product, the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Mat.

Available on the Sigma website for $32, the mat is an innovative device that claims to help take the guesswork (and the arm work) out of cleaning your makeup brushes. Sound too good to be true? Maybe, but anything that could possibly get me to clean my makeup brushes more than once a month definitely deserved more than a glance.

First impression

When I unpackaged the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Mat, the first thing that caught my eye was the color. The mat is a bright shade of magenta that instantly made my sink look 10 times more stylish.

Similar to the rubber bath mats you place in the shower or bathtub to prevent slipping, the brush cleaning mat is made of rubber and has suction cups on its underside to adhere to your sink. For those wondering if the mat will fit your sink, you need not worry. The product features a universal shape that should fit both small and large sinks.

On further inspection, I noticed the mat was divided into seven sections, or textures, as the Sigma website notes. Each texture is labeled so that users know what it should be used for. One texture reads “Wash Face” to designate the texture you use to wash your face brushes. Another texture reads “Rinse Eyes” for the texture you use to rinse your eye brushes. Some textures are also labeled “Refine,” which designates them as the textures to use if you want to give your makeup brush a deeper clean.

While the mat might seem a bit complicated with all its textures, the concept is actually pretty simple. Wet the brush you want to clean, add a touch of brush cleaner and swirl it up and down the designated texture. When ready to rinse, run water over the texture labeled “Rinse” and then swirl the brush around some more.

When finished, gently squeeze the brush head to remove any excess water and lay it out to dry.

Fab or flub?

Fab! Do you hate washing your makeup brushes? Do you want to make the experience less painful? Then I highly recommend you get online right now and order the Sigma Spa Brush Cleaning Mat.

After using it to clean my whole collection of about 15 makeup brushes, I can say that the mat makes the cleaning process faster and more efficient.

Instead of standing over the sink for an hour with my hands in water, the process took less than a half-hour and I didn’t have to rely on my hands to do the majority of the cleaning. If I had to pick the best part of the mat, it would definitely be its different textures.

Each texture does a great job of working out the old makeup from the innermost fibers of the makeup brush head, far better than my own fingers ever could. After I finished washing my makeup brushes, I simply ran some water over the mat to remove any fibers or makeup, wiped it down with a washcloth and then left it on the counter to dry.

Overall, this product was a great time saver and made my love-hate relationship with cleaning my makeup brushes a little more of the former.

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Fab or flub?: Sigma’s new brush cleaning mat."