It’s all about that flawless, airbrushed finish and nowadays there seems to be no shortage of ways to ensure that foundation application is all, but perfect. I used to use fingers to apply my liquid foundation, but once I discovered makeup sponges of porosity that were “just right” I knew I had found my golden foundation ticket. Now, how much better can life get? Let’s take that perfect sponge and add micro vibration to it so that I don’t have even have to do dabbing motions with my hand! The Sephora Collection Sonic Airbrush Sponge* ($31.00 CDN) is reminiscent of a baby Clarisonic and gently buffs any cream products onto the skin with an impressive 12,000 dabs/minute. I’m not sure how a “dab” is measured, but I’m guessing it refers to a point of contact with the skin? Though the instructions say “easy-to-use”, there is a bit of playing involved to get this to work the way I had imagined in my head.
I love the non-latex sponge and the little protective plastic cap. There is a small rubber button that activates the vibration when pressed. Like the Clarisonic, the sponge works best when only a light pressure is applied. I pressed a little bit harder when I first started using it and kept wondering why foundation wasn’t being circulated across my skin. The sponge is also quite absorbent, so it is best to first apply your cream foundation on your skin while allowing the sponge to do the job of buffing.
I read a few of reviews on the Sephora website where the overall rating of this brush is on the lower side when compared to other makeup application tools. Some commented that although this sponge can be washed, it expands in such a way that the plastic cap does not fit correctly afterwards. I did wash the sponge, but let it dry completely before trying to cap it and experienced no issues. The other comments revolved around the sponge tearing when trying to remove it for washing and this I totally can see people doing. Remove the sponge like you would your pearl studs – pull from behind instead of from the actual sponge. Do this and you will have your sponge for much longer!
Final verdict: It took some time to figure out how best to use this tool, but after a couple of tries what I have found works best is to let the foundation be that “polishing substance” between the sponge and the skin and to just let the vibration allow the sponge to glide across. Initially I was still moving the sponge quite a bit, but realized that if I let the vibrations do their job I ended up with fairly even foundation coverage! It also does the job in little under 30 seconds. The sad thing about this airbrush sponge is that other than the one sponge refill that comes with the packaging, Sephora does not carry replacement heads. This makes me feel like this sponge was intended just for travel use because why would you make something that I want to use all the time and not make replacement sponges for it?! That being said, I do like the idea of traveling with this as the sponge is protected with a cap while a regular makeup sponge needs to be stored in a ziplock to be kept clean. I still use my regular makeup sponges for foundation application, so I’m not saying that this is the ONLY way to get flawless coverage, but if you’re into cool little makeup gadgets this a pretty cool one.
The Sephora Collection has a number of makeup application tools. Is this one that you would want to try?
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