A couple of weeks ago I read an article on Refinery 29 about how the BeautyBlender’s talents span more than just foundation and concealer buffing and blending. In the article the MUA whipped out the magic sponge for blush, lip stain, eyeshadow and even nail polish application. It really was rather wonderful. Not as wonderful as the article I also read on there recently about bugs being found inside a BeautyBlender – bleurgh – but you know, swings and roundabouts peeps. So in the name of research I decided to hang up my brushes one morning and stick to just this springy little sponge with a bit of help from my fingertips for my makeup application. So how did I fare?
I began by smoothing on my Too Faced Hangover Replenishing Primer with my fingers and bopping in any particularly moist areas (yeah I went there!) with a freshly washed and squeezed BeautyBlender. For base I’m back to using my trusty CHANEL Vitalumiere Aqua Foundation in B10. I dotted it on my key ‘blah skin’ areas, got things moving with my fingers and then finished off by bopping my BeautyBlender all over to make sure it was looking all seamless. The same story went for concealer which was Estee Lauder’s Stay-in-Place Doublewear Concealer in Extra Light and then to add a bit of warmth to my skin I applied a line of YSL’s Les Saharienne’s Blur Bronzer on my cheeks and again got to work with the BeautyBlender.
I think we can all agree that for face when it comes to cream and liquid products, the BeautyBlender kinda rocks, but it was a different story for eyes. I primed them with the Kat Von D High Voltage Eye Primer, for which it worked well. It’s a fleshy coloured formula so needs a bit of blending and the pointed nib was fab for that. I then streaked on a couple of coats of the CHANEL Illusion D’Ombre in Mirage with my fingers and constricted the sponge to make a little tiny buffer. It worked ok, but no better than my fingers and because the sponge by this point was absolutely covered in a myriad of products the colour ended up slightly muted and dull. Obviously brows and lashes were taken care of with the usual methods; Bobbi Brown Perfectly Defined Eyebrow Pencil in Grey and Isehan Heroine Make Length and Curl Mascara. And for lips I just decided to slick on MAC Lipstick in Mehr because I thought attempting the BeautyBlender anywhere near that could get seriously messy.
Overall, I think for base products it’s awesome. In fact when I stayed away a couple of weekend’s ago, this is all I took with me – no brushes at all! But for eyes and lips, I think I’ll stick to my trusty brushes and good ol’ fingertips.
I have two side notes to add to my experiment. Firstly, I didn’t realise this the first few times I used my BeautyBlender that it has to really be quite damp in order to operate to its fullest potential. It’s all about pumping it under the tap to make sure it expands and then squeezing it whilst it’s wrapped in a towel to make sure it’s not too wet. Secondly, when it comes to cleaning the best thing I’ve found is the BeautyBlender Solid Cleanser. No it’s not a marketing ploy, it really works the best of all the methods I’ve tried – Dr Bronners Magic Soap included. In fact it’s so darn cleansing some of the pink colour comes out when I really give it a good scrub. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing? I’m going with good; cleanliness is next to godliness right?
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