Sigma Make Me Classy Brush Set Initial Thoughts/Review

I had been lusting after these Sigma Make me Classy brushes for so long, especially after seeing you tubers being sent them and talking about how wonderful they are. Although almost £100 seems a little too much to me for make-up brushes but I went for it and bought some. After all it works out cheaper than buying individual MAC brushes right?

 You know when you have wanted something for so long and then you finally get it and every aspect of it excites you? haha this happened to me as sad as that may be. The packaging is really nice and I even got a free travel sized blending brush with the kit. There was also a leaflet which tells you what each brush is for and what it's made out of.

This set comes with a mixture of brushes in the sense that some are natural hair bristles whilst others are synthetic. Seven of the 12 brushes were natural bristles. I already own one Sigma brush which I actually love (Flat top synthetic kabuki F80).

 Most the brushes I own are synthetic with the exception of some of my MAC ones. But I thought I'd give this kit a try regardless as I had read natural hair brushes are better for powder application and I use a powder foundation most the time.

Initial thoughts
Let's start with the positives..
-Pretty packaging and inside the box everything was packaged well, most of the brushes came with plastic 'shields' as you can see in a picture above.
-They come in a very handy case which is perfect to travel with, turns into two great brush holders for when your using them and also when you pop the lid on it's a cleaner storage solution.
-The brushes themselves are very soft and dense.
-You get a good range of brushes.

Now the not so positives...
Although before I start I do want to mention I didn't actually use these brushes on my face as I wanted to wash them first but after washing them I didn't want to use them at all.

-After playing with the brushes, just touching/feeling them I noticed a couple of the natural hair brushes (mainly F30 and F40 the powder and contour brushes) had an incredibly strong and disgusting smell..I can't even describe it but I found it incredibly off putting. Even after washing them the smell was just as bad.
- I also noticed with the natural bristle brushes, before washing, during and even after...Shedding!! Already?! Okay I understand there can be a few loose hairs but I did experience a lot of shedding.So this made me wonder if some of these brushes are shedding already...it will only get worse right..

So overall although these brushes have some good positives the negatives even though my issue is mainly with the natural brushes really put me off. In comparison to my natural hair MAC brushes (which barley shed and don't smell) the sigma brushes loose. Although for the prices and the amount of brushes you get Sigma is of course better value compared to MAC.

I was considering getting the 'Mr Bunny' kit which is all synthetic brushes which I know I would be happier with but I decided not to as I feel there is better and cheaper (and easier obtainable in the UK) brushes out there compared to Sigma such as Real Techniques, EcoTools, even ELF and I have also heard a lot about Crown brushes too.
I didn't end up keeping the brushes so I can't make a fair comment on performance but I have read a huge amount of reviews where people have had to deal with the  handle becoming loose and eventually the brush end falling off the handle. Even reading the comments people left on the gorgeous Rissross's instagram picture makes me feel glad I didn't keep these brushes!

Do you own any Sigma? What do you think?
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