How Is The Beauty Blender Different From Other Makeup Sponges

Since hitting store shelves in 2003, Beautyblender makeup sponges take become a staple in makeup bags everywhere. But they don't come cheap.

20 dollars a pop seems steep, especially when you consider that you lot're supposed to supervene upon them every 3 months. On tiptop of that, yous can detect much cheaper knockoffs everywhere from Forever 21 to Ulta to CVS and Walgreens. So what exactly sets the original Beautyblender apart from its lower-priced competition?

According to the Beautyblender website, the sponges are made with an "exclusive aqua-activated cream with insanely soft texture for an airbrushed stop" and "flawless coverage every time." HuffPost reached out to the brand for more information, but they did non immediately respond. Off-make makeup sponges, whose materials are not ever listed on their packaging, are often described as "latex-gratuitous cream."

Nosotros wanted to know more about that. And so nosotros spoke to professional makeup artists to find out if Beautyblenders are really so unlike from every other makeup sponge out there.

Some makeup artists swear the Beautyblender creates a more poreless finish.

Ashley Readings, a professional person makeup creative person based in Toronto, is a devotee of the original Beautyblender. "I feel lost without them," she said.

In her opinion, the brand name Beautyblenders "are that special and that different from a traditional latex sponge. They are then unlike that I don't similar doing makeup without them."

In Readings' experience, Beautyblenders, which are meant to exist used wet, help to create a "poreless finish" on the skin. The off-brand versions, she said, don't hold water the same fashion and can leave makeup with a spongey texture. (Readings labeled those old-school triangle makeup sponges as "the worst" in that sense.)

With a wet Beautyblender, she said, a production like liquid foundation, which people commonly apply with sponges, "just kind of sits on top ... and you tin can just tap it onto skin."

Allure has pointed out that Beautyblender'southward sponge is hydrophilic, which means it's designed to absorb water. All that water leaves less room for the sponge to blot your foundation, so theoretically it should reduce production waste.

Amanda Shackleton, a New York-based bridal makeup artist, is also a fan, although she admitted she was initially "super skeptical about the Beautyblender, with its tag lines 'revolutionary foam technology' and 'airbrushed end.'"

"Until 1 fell in my lap, I had no plans to buy one," she said. But once Shackleton tried it, she liked it. "The more expensive versions are super soft on clients' skin and less likely to cause irritation. They are consistent in quality and that's important to me."

Another factor in the Beautyblender's favor, Readings said, is that it holds upward well to washing. (Merely to be articulate, you should exist washing your applicator sponge after every utilise.) Every bit a professional, she needs to wash and sanitize her blenders constantly, and in her experience, the cheaper ones aren't always as resilient.

Every bit with everything else, marketing is involved.

While she agreed that makeup sponges like the Beautyblender can be great for applying liquid foundation and preventing product waste, Shawnelle Prestidge, a New York-based celebrity makeup artist and founder of Prestidge Beauté, suggested that marketing plays a huge role in determining their cost tag.

"You can attempt things that are really inexpensive and go a great quality production. It simply so happens their markup or margins might not be as loftier," Prestidge said. She also noted that some suppliers may sell the same (or very similar) sponges to be marketed equally different brands.

Yous should be able to tell some differences in textile just by feeling the sponge. Readings said Beautyblenders are "a footling less dense" than the knockoffs, while Shackleton finds the cheaper ones tin can be scratchy and hard.

"Anybody with a new product relies heavily on marketing, which adds to the price of what you're buying, so marketing does play a part," Shackleton said. In her opinion, though, the Beautyblender provides good results beyond the hype.

"I'k lucky to be given many different kinds of makeup to try out and that includes sponges as well," she said. "I'm not a makeup snob and then if a cheaper product works better, I stick to information technology."

Readings falls somewhere in the heart. "I think they're that worth it," she said, "but I remember a lot of it is hype and marketing for sure."

So is the Beautyblender worth its $xx price tag?

The makeup artists we spoke to generally agreed that the average consumer doesn't necessarily demand to spend $20 on a makeup sponge. They as well agreed that you tin achieve practiced results with a more than upkeep-friendly option.

"For personal employ, I think [cheaper ones] are definitely in the 'good enough' realm. Non everything has to be up to my standards all the fourth dimension," Readings said. "The boilerplate woman, tin can she buy a sponge at [the drugstore] for $v? Admittedly she can."

"I would love if they were cheaper so much," Readings added, earlier stating that she'll continue buying Beautyblenders "fifty-fifty though I practice think they're a piddling overpriced."

That said, buying sponges at the dollar shop wasn't recommended either. Prestidge said a sponge from Ulta ― where you can buy the eastward.fifty.f. Cosmetics version for $4 ― is going to exist more than trustworthy than something from most 99-cent stores.

Leslie-Ann Thomson, a Montreal-based makeup artist who'due south worked with extra Priyanka Chopra and vocalist Grimes, said the really cheap sponges "will probably disintegrate faster than the Beautyblender." She recommended more than affordable options like Sephora's dual coverage makeup sponge, which sells for $12, and the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge, which sells for $6.

"It'southward a give-and-take state of affairs," Shackleton said. "In the terminate, [cheap ones] fall apart and you stop up buying more than, so in this case I say spend the actress few dollars and know what yous are getting."