Hello my dear readers and welcome to the first installment of my new blog series: Disappointing Beauty Products. We’ve all have been there: we purchased a product that we were super excited about but it turns out that we just can’t seem to be able to make it work. Often these purchases just lie forgotten in a drawer and never get used until we finally decide to just throw them away, or – if we’re frugal – we return them to the store.
The first beauty product I would like to introduce in this category is the beautyblender. Considered by many makeup enthusiasts to be the holy grail of foundation tools, it promises to “flawlessly apply your makeup.” A few months back I just had to see what all the fuss is about and decided to purchase the beautyblender Duo Set, which includes two beautyblender sponges and a full size cleanser.
My usual application method of choice for foundation are clean fingers which has been working pretty well for me. While I like the amount of control I have when using my fingers, my biggest complaint about this method is that it can take a while to blend and layer and blend again in order to achieve a nice, even finish. I was hoping that the beautyblender would allow me to do the job faster, without losing any of the coverage I can achieve using my fingers. It’s called the beautyBLENDER after all.
Let’s talk about the pros first. I was impressed by how fast I was able to cover my whole face in foundation using the beautyblender. It probably didn’t take more than a minute. And it was fun using it – bounce, bounce, bounce.
That’s unfortunately, where the advantages end. After applying my foundation with the beautyblender I noticed that it looked really wet on my face and was kinda just sitting on top of my skin. The beautyblender didn’t really work the product into my skin. Additional buffing with a brush was required to do that.
Secondly, the coverage was not as good as what I was used to when using my fingers. Even applying additional layers didn’t increase the coverage at all, probably because the product remained so wet that any new layers just didn’t stick.
I also felt like my finishing powder didn’t apply as well on top of my foundation. I was able to see a layer of powder on my face. Not flattering.
Even the time savings aren’t really all that great if you take into account that you need to wet and inflate the beautyblender before use and clean it thoroughly afterward. Once that is factored in I would say that it took about the same time to apply my foundation between the two methods.
In short, the beautyblender didn’t work as well as using clean fingers. And those are free. That’s really what it comes down to for me. One beautyblender costs almost $20 and at that price point I was expecting to be blown away. I could probably make it work with a bit more practice but I think I’d rather return the set and save myself the money.
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