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Thursday 16 July 2015

HIGH END VS LOW END: Beauty Sponges

Thursday 16 July 2015

Beauty sponges are becoming an increasingly popular method of applying the perfect base. The question is do you really need to spend £16 on a sponge that has a 3 month lifespan?

damp beautyblender
First up is the beautyblender which is our high end competitor. This sponge really is infamous now, I feel like everyone and their mum has heard of the beautyblender and the amazing way it applies everything from liquid, cream and powder products. I jumped onto the bandwagon and bought myself a beautyblender about three months ago and I have been loving it ever since - you can read my initial review here

The beautyblender has made me never want to apply my foundation with a brush again, I remember once my beautyblender was in desperate need of a clean and I dug out my Real Techniques Buffing Brush to blend in my foundation and I was so disappointed at the results, my foundation didn't look anywhere near as flawless ad when I applied it using my beautyblender. After that I knew there was basically no going back, I was going to be using a sponge to apply my foundation for the rest of my days.

However even though the beautyblender is a reusable sponge most say it only realistically can last you three months due to bacteria building up ect... which for a student like me is a big problem, I can't realistically justify spending that much on something four times a year which is why I started looking for cheaper alternatives.

damp miracle complexion sponge
So after hearing on beauty blogs that the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge is a dupe for the beautyblender I decided to give it a whirl. I bought my sponge from Superdrug for £6 so it is A LOT cheaper than the beautyblender, I have also found on amazon some sellers selling it for around the £4 mark so you can get it for a quarter of the price of a beautyblender. But the real question is - is this sponge a dupe for the beautyblender?

NO. It isn't a dupe for the beautyblender and let me explain why. When I first opened this sponge I found it to be very dense and stiff, so I dampened it and it grew fractionally in size and became much more bouncy. However the big difference between the two is that the beautyblender has the ability to "bounce" the product into your skin whereas the Miracle Complexion Sponge presses product into your skin. Also the beautyblender grows dramatically in size when dampened where as the Miracle Complexion Sponge does not. These are really subtle differences but they are essentially two different types of sponge which both create a flawless looking base.

CONCLUSION
Both of these sponges are phenomenal, the both create a flawless looking base. So I would argue that these are as good as each other when it comes to applying product and I will defiantly be repurchasing both of these products in the future. If you are looking at getting one of these sponges I would say start with the Real Techniques one as it is the more cost effective option and if you don't enjoy applying your base with a sponge it is only a few pounds you will be wasting and if you love it maybe try the beautyblender to see how it works out in comparison.

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