I’ve wanted to do this post for over a year now, but lost
my Beautyblender for quite a while.
Honestly, I lost stuff all the time, it’s horrendous! Anyway, I found it a couple of weeks ago,
‘tidied’ away nicely…so here I am. I’m
sure this post has been done to death, but I wanted to put my two cents
in. So is the Real Techniques Miracle
Complexion Sponge a dupe for the Beautyblender?
Let’s find out!
A Beautyblender is an elliptical shaped sponge that
supposedly creates an airbrush finish to your base. You need to wet the sponge and squeeze the
water out; wetting the sponge expands it and makes it feel lighter. Then you just dab and bounce your makeup on
our face to blend it out. On the
Beautyblender site there are some YouTube videos
that’ll show you how to use it best.
The Beautyblender is edgeless and this is supposed to
help you achieve a flawless base. I like
how easy it is to use. You don’t need to
hold it a certain way or do anything special. It works with pretty much any
product – powder, cream blush, foundation.
This eliminates the need for various brushes for various purposes. One of my worries with using a sponge was
that it will ‘suck’ up all my makeup. That
wasn’t actually the case, and I find it strange to this day that it desn’t just
drink all my foundation up! Apparently,
the Beautyblender uses material that means makeup only sits on the surface of
the spone and doesn’t get inside.
It feels really soft on my skin when I’m blending my
makeup. A noticeable difference I see is
that as I bounce the Beautyblender on my face (to blend my foundation), straightaway
it seems take the shine/flat finish off any foundation and makes my skin look
like skin. This is especially helpful
for creamy foundations that can look quite heavy on my skin, but the
Beautyblender allows me to have that coverage without the excess shine.
I find it really easy to wash as well. I do have the Beautyblender cleansing solid (which
by the way is an overpriced soap), but I rarely use that to wash it. I just go in with handwash and it washes out
to look good as new! I’ve had this for
quite a while and it still looks as good as new. That fact that the sponge doesn’t absorb the
makeup helps.
The RT Miracle Complexion Sponge is about a third of the
Beautyblender price. When dry, it is
bigger than the Beautyblender and it expands when wet too. It’s slightly different to the Beautyblender
in shape. It has the rounded side to blend
the larger areas of your face, then a precision tip for concealer and the
different part – a flat edge, to blend the contours around your eyes and
nose. I’m going to be honest, I don’t
find that that extra feature adds anything to the product. It doesn’t make it any easier/better to blend those areas.
Some might disagree, I personally don’t feel it’s a necessarily useful
feature.
I also find that it retains slightly more water than the
Beautyblender. So you have to squeeze
that bit harder, or really squeeze with a kitchen towel to suck all the water
out. The RT Miracle Complexion Sponge feels
lighter on the skin. It has similar
effect to the Beautyblender but it’s not as
good. It is good at blending out makeup,
but I wouldn’t say ‘flawless’ finish in comparison to the Beautyblender.
The Real Techniques sponge doesn’t wash as well as the
Beautyblender either. There are a couple
of foundation stains that just can’t get out no matter how much I’ve washed
it! And believe me, I’ve tried, as the
stains make the sponge look dirty even when I’ve washed it. Another point, I’ve had the RT sponge for a
shorter time than the Beautyblender, yet it is showing signs of wear. So it’s not quite as durable as the
Beautyblender.
Having said that, it’s probably the closest any sponge
has ever gotten to a Beautyblender. Which
would I recommend? If you have the money
to spend, I’d pick the Beautyblender as it’s just that little bit better. But if you’re unsure if a sponge is for you,
definitely go for the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. It will give you a good taste of what to
expect from the Beautyblender.
Have you tried the Beautyblender or the Real Techniques
Sponge? Share recommendations in the comments below or tweet me @aspiring_london!
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