If you have a BeautyBlender (or like me, one of its many rip-offs), you know what a complete pain it is to get it squeaky clean again. For months I cleaned my London Drugs-brand sponge with a spray brush cleanser; while it couldn't remove all the foundation pigment from the sponge, I still desperately hoped it at least sanitized the poor thing. Then I found out one of my favourite places ever, Daiso, carried a magical liquid detergent that could cleanse your sponge of all your makeup sins. Sold!
Here's my sad, dirty sponge. It looks gross but it's for
science, okay? My sponge is my favourite way to apply foundation/BB cream, so it gets dirty pretty quickly. There is some fresh foundation that needs to be removed, plus some very set-in pigment that wouldn't budge no matter how much cleanser I sprayed on or how hard I squeezed.
Labeled as a detergent for makeup puffs and sponges ("power sponge"), this pale pink bottle is found in the cosmetics section, where you would find makeup cottons and facial cleanser. The liquid detergent is very similar in texture to dishwashing liquid and is odorless.
Although 80ml/2.8oz seems small, I only put a few drops on both ends of my wet sponge and squished away. After
tons of brownish water came out of the sponge, I rinsed it and repeated the process until I was satisfied with the look of the sponge and the water ran clear. Soon enough, even the set-in pigments were out!
 |
| It's practically sparkling |
Result: happy, squeaky clean sponge! It hasn't been this clean since before it met its first drop of foundation. I'm very pleased with how easily it removed the foundation, and for $2 it is five times cheaper per ounce than the Beauty Blender cleanser.
There are a lot of posts out there mentioning use for makeup brush cleaning. Some say don't, some say it's okay if you follow up with conditioning. I do want to point out that nowhere on the packaging does it indicate use on a brush, just "puff and sponge". I haven't tested it on brushes myself, but I'm leaning towards okay on synthetic brushes with some conditioning, and very hesitant on natural brushes. I feel like the same ingredients that make it such a great sponge cleaner might be too harsh on natural brushes. Right now I'm satisfied with my current brush cleanser and use the detergent strictly for my sponge.
Ingredients: 34% polyoxyethylene alkyl ether, fatty acid alkanolamide, alkyl betaine, water softener (alkaline chemicals)
Do you use a makeup sponge for foundation? How do you get it squeaky clean?
