About a week ago I ordered the London Soho New York Beauty Sponge from Amazon.
Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009IN9U10/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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| London Soho New York Beauty Sponge in Original Packaging |
It came in the mail this morning and once I got home I decided to try it out! This is supposed to be one of the closest dupes to the infamous Beauty Blender, despite it's different shape. Unfortunately for me, Amazon's shipping messed the box up, but the sponge was still in perfect condition. From first glance, the sponge looked to be the same color and the Beauty Blender, but I don't own a Beauty Blender so I cannot directly compare the two. I got this off of Amazon for $7.99 as an add-on item. You can, however, find it at Walmart for about $5.
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| Beauty Sponge in my hand, dry. |
The sponge is very dense when dry, and it is a very cute football shape. The color is a dark coral-pink, and the sponge is quite smooth, and seems to almost have 'pores', since there are tiny holes in the sponge. My particular sponge was not very symmetric, with one side being slightly more rounded rather than pointed.
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| Beauty sponge smushed, dry. |
When I pushed down or smushed the sponge, it was very dense. I could not smush it so that it was very flat, either. The texture of the sponge kind of reminds me of a memory foam mattress, because when you smush the sponge with your fingers, the form of your fingers stays for a second or two before it returns to it's initial shape.
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| Beauty sponge in my hand, damp. |
I dampened the sponge by putting it in a cup of water for about a minute. I then took it out of the cup and squeezed out as much water as I could, and then I squeezed the sponge in a towel to remove all excess water. The sponge grew significantly, probably about 75% or so. Not quite twice the size. The thing about this sponge is that when you soak it in water and take it out of the cup, the water does not drip out of the sponge. It simply stays inside of it. Squeezing the water out of the sponge did take some time and effort. I definitely recommend squeezing it in a towel if you want to ensure that you remove as much excess water as you can. After I removed as much water as I could, the sponge still stayed the initial shape it was after removing it from the water. It was less dense, the 'pores' were much more visible, and the color was a more vibrant hot pink.
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| Beauty sponge smushed, damp |
When damp, this sponge becomes much less dense than it is when dry, but it definitely does have some density. I find that when it's damp it's perfect to use to apply foundations with. It is soft and not rough on the face, it applies the foundation (I used Lioele's Triple the Solution BB Cream today) flawlessly and leaves a nice, smooth finish. It was very easy to use, and I found that the shape of the sponge was very convenient when rolling the foundation onto the skin. It covered a lot of my face and sped up the application. I spent about as much time applying the foundation with the sponge as I would with my fingers, and the result is much more flawless and easy. I love this BB cream, but I do find it difficult to blend sometimes. However, this sponge helped it blend into my skin seamlessly. It feels so lightweight, like you're not wearing anything on your face! It does, however, leave a dewy finish on the skin. Whenever I apply foundation/BB cream, I set it with powder, so it does not matter much to me.
This sponge isn't the easiest to clean, but the tactics I used are fairly simplistic. I used a facial cleanser that didn't work well for me (L'oreal Go 360 Clean) and applied it directly onto the sponge, focusing on areas where there are foundation stains. I rubbed in the cleanser and rinsed the sponge under a running faucet. I continued to rinse and squeeze the excess water out of the sponge until there were no more suds or dirty/foundation stained water.
Needless to say, I'm loving this affordable alternative to the Beauty Blender! It's easy to use, and creates great results. If you can find it for ~$5 at Walmart, definitely give it a try, it's worth the price! I'll definitely be incorporating this into my makeup routine. I don't apply makeup every day, I don't find it necessary. I think everyone should be able to go out without makeup and feel good about themselves, so I try to only apply makeup when I want to. It's more of a hobby for me than a "must do" type of thing. Either way, whether you apply makeup every day or every once in a while, I definitely recommend picking up this beauty sponge.
Have you tried this sponge yet? Or are you saving up for the pricey Beauty Blender? Or do you prefer using your brushes/fingers?
Random notes:
- I'll keep you updated on this sponge, and there will be another first impression post on the Holika Holika Aqua Petit Jelly BB Cream, once I get it in the mail and I test it out for you all (:
- I've gotten used to the ELF eyebrow kit, and I am loving it! There will be a review up soon!
Talk to you all soon,
Annie ♥
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