beautyblender

I resisted and resisted this stupid - looking "fad". After all, I had in the past (before cruelty was a concept) had cruel Chanel brushes. Boy were they good.

Older, weird hormones, super-oily, now some cheek flakes: yuk. Oh, I tried a super-awful knock-off. And more facial hair. I walked into an Ulta by my house and my friend-to-be who had just the right amount of pushiness to shut me up

because whatever I knew did not matter - I had a problem and I was not solving it.Leslie, my new friend got the IT! CC Cream (But it's not Chanel!) and an ORIGINAL BEAUTY BLENDER that she wet.

Like magic we were (SHE WAS) able to spring and bounce and toss that magical stupid pink thing so as to minimally or not at all disrupt or accentuate the weird flakiness and hairiness on my cheeks! The IT! Looked better than anything at the time, the water was more moisture - I got them both!

I would NOT trade that stupid pink beauty - blender for anything in this world (a different beauty tool). If you came back at me with amnesia and the cruelty Chanel foundation brush I would not even consider it.

THAT BEAUTY BLENDER IS A GENIUS TOOL. WHETHER BARBIE DEVELOPED IT OR A PETROCHEMICAL ENGINEER - I DO NOT CARE.

I have 2 now. I just ordered sale baby ones to use for undereye and eyelid application.

And I came up with the "Cadillac of all Foundations" on another review. I somehow eventually came to mix Koh-Gen-Do Maifashani Moisture Foundation (must be in the tube - no silicates. the aqua foundations - chock full of silicates") So I mix that with the IT CC! and a drop of Argan Oil* by Josie Maran, and the Beauty Blender. And I have never looked back.

Thank you. Soon I must start reviewing all the products I hate too. That is a civic responsibility as well and I sure appreciate it when others do it. I know it leads to lots of "thumbs down". That is not a deterrent. BTW for those thumb down people: If it is a worthless review SINK IT! I will add that I also see reviews (not so much here) that people sink merely because they are building a high in order to purchase a product and when that high gets pierced and they are let down I have seen at times a well defended bad review get sunk on that premise. If you find yourself there, don't do it. The truth is 100% the way to go ALL THE TIME. Again, attention-seeking pretend-critiques: blast-em. You should be able to discern between authentic and inauthentic.
*The drop or two of oil strategy is straight from Beauty-Brainiac Wayne Goss.

I received this in a beauty exchange and I have to say I'm unimpressed. It's literally just a tiny amount of soap in a little tin, for $16, and I'm pretty sure it broke me out. I was fine till I cleaned my blender with this, then the day after using it the first time I got a pimple right in the middle of my forehead. I never get them there.

Yes, of course it cleans my blender and brushes. It's fancy soap. But you know what doesn't break me out and cleans them better, usually on the FIRST rinse unless they're really gunky? Regular cheap glycerine soap.

Go to amazon and order melt and pour glycerine soap base and aluminum lip gloss tins. Melt the soap, add any essential oil you'd like (such as tea tree for antibacterial properties), and pour it in the tins. Boom, you just made your own solid blender/brush cleaner and you have enough to last you probably a year for roughly the same price as one blendercleanser, possibly less. You can even use it for a gentle facial cleanser, just use a separate tin. If that's too much work just pick up a neutrogena glycerine bar, same thing.

I only tried Real Technique before this, so that was the one I compared to. I never owned the original pink Beautyblender and only bought this because it was on sale for $11 (which was still expensive in my opinion, but I was curious). The feeling when squeezing it dry is definitely different from the Real Technique one, and I could understand why people are crazy about the Beautyblender. It's a lot more bouncy even when it's dry. Then you run it under the water and squeeze off the water, it expands quite a lot. Like the other posters said, it bleeds, so the red doesn't stay and fades. It ends up being orange rather than red. I use Dawn dish soap to clean my sponges, and I rotate my sponges (Real Technique and one from Sephora) so I think all of them will last me a long time. In terms of application, I don't notice any difference with the finish, just a different degree of bounciness when applying foundation.

This review is for a kit that contains the original pink foundation sponge, a gray blusher sponge, a mini highlighting/eyeshadow sponge and a sample size cake of solid beautyblender cleanser. Recently it was time for me to replace my staple "pink" sponge, and it occured to me that I have been using the beautyblender for 10-11 years! It's crazy how time flies. I remember way back when the now-ubiquitous ellipticle tool first hit the markets, I, like just about everybody else, thought, "Who would pay $20.00 for a piece of foam?" How naive we were in those days; long before the Clarisonic, at-home-cordless airbrushing devices, Kinetic toning systems, and Tria became household words. I still don't have any of those devices, and I have makeup brushes that are older than a couple of my kids, so, obviously I'm not caught up easily in trends. The beautyblender sponge, however, isn't a trend as much as it is an excellent, practical, extremely useful implement. The foam it's made of is patented, so if you try cheap knockoffs of beautyblenders, you won't get a sponge that's anything like the genuine product. You will get what you pay for. I use the pink beautyblender for applying my foundation. It's fast, easy, and, because the foundation does not absorb into the sponge, my foundations last me much longer. I wash my sponges immediately after use, and, with cleaning and care, one sponge will easily last up to 4 months. I had not purchased any of the smaller sponges before this kit, but they feel less dense than the pink one. It makes sense that they are dense, because they are used for makeup that is not applied in heavy concentrations. I'm not sure if they will last more than a month or two. That being said, I love the way they work. The little one is especially wonderful because it makes it impossible to over-do concealer! I rarely wear concealer, mainly because I feel like it looks so obvious. However, this little sponge (wet, of course), makes even my Amazing Concealer (which is quite heavy), look like skin! It is wonderful for applying foundation/concealer/even powder beneath eyelashes and in inner eye corners. It's perfect for covering those blemishes I guess I'll never outgrow getting, without getting concealer all around the blemish, where I don't want it. The blush brush is especially great with my Cha Cha tint. FINALLY, I can apply this liquid on my cheeks without using too little, too much, staining my fingers, etc. I wash my sponges right after use, and all the the makeup comes out of them. (Cheaper versions of this sponge stay stained, and they look so gross I would never use them more than once). These sponges don't retain water so they dry really quickly, shrinking down to their surprisingly tiny sizes. They look like "new" until the time it comes to replace them, when they start to fade, look worn, and sometimes peel a bit. Even though I have yet to spend hundreds of dollar on a clarisonic, or spring for a single botox injection, I am happy to pay $20.00 for one sponge, (or $42.00 for this kit), because it gives me a way to have perfect makeup application every day. People rave at me about my "beautiful" skin...I don't have beautiful skin. But I know how to put on foundation so it's invisible!

Editing to add: There are cheaper dupes now and Sephora no longer has the monopoly on beauty sponges! I will note I have read a lot on the internet about some dupes being garbage so avoid the dollar store options. It's weird that there'd be any difference between sponges but I suppose maybe the material and denseness of the sponge is important. Real Techniques and Loreal are getting a lot of love for their knock offs.

----------------------

Welp, I might get a lot of downvotes for not loving this cult-classic beauty product. In fact...I hate it.

God there are just so many things wrong with this.

-Absorbs skincare. I am pale and skincare obsessed. This does absorb sunscreen. It's a damp sponge pressing into the skin. I only know for a fact it does because I monitored mine while wringing it out everyday.

-Half of the product disappears into the sponge. I had to apply much more foundation to get the final look.

-Unhygienic if you're unwilling to wash it daily. Bacteria can breed even overnight. That's why some break out while using these or even find mold once cut in half. *If you take good care of yours though - this should not be an issue.* I think it's just common sense... even traditional make up brushes need to be washed on a consistent basis.

-My biggest issue with Beauty Blenders is they don't make my foundation look any better than applying with fingers. For the price, I better see a big difference.

I was disappointed.

SO MANY PEOPLE love this product so I understand I *am* in the minority here. It's still worth a shot, and may work for you way better than it did for me. But I thought I'd give my 2 cents on the matter. I kept trying to make it work for me, and in the end I threw it in the trash.