Lemme tell ya that the last week and a half of testing these makeup applicators was really confusing...for my cat! The vibration sounds like his favourite motorized toy mouse so every morning I have gotten some VERY curious eyes looking at me in the bathroom! I remember first seeing motorized makeup tools and being fascinated with whether they really made THAT much more of a difference to how a cream or powder formula looked and whether I could really get airbrushed looking skin as the vibration is meant to mimic the tapping of the fingers on skin. This was years ago and now foundation finishes are so flawlessly perfect that I wonder if the added vibration will really change anything which is exactly what I sought to find out with Conair's new True Glow Glam Collection!
PR samples
I never realized how many beauty tools Conair had OTHER than hair dryers and though I don't use a lot of makeup specific gadgets, I will never say no to the potential for airbrushed skin! In addition to the vibrating makeup brush set and makeup blender, the True Glow Glam Collection also contains a heated eyelash curler and very cool warming eye massager!
The Vibrating Makeup Blender is larger than the Beauty Blender with a sponge that is more dense and firm. Like all other sponge makeup blenders, you can use this either wet or dry though if you decide to use it wet, I would remove the vibrating portion first since water and batteries don't really mesh well. What's nice is that the blender has a natural standing base so that it can properly air dry and keep my counter clean!
While the blender has a pointed tip, I don't really use it all that much as I tend to use the flat bottom of my Beauty Blender for faster coverage. To make up for the fact that there is no bottom, this makeup blender has lots of surface area on the sides for large area application. Now, the real question is - did my makeup look any better? Honestly, I don't think so. I didn't find the process any faster and I wasn't a fan of the sponge shape and density as I found it both a bit awkward to hold and I like my blenders to be more "squishy".
To turn on all you need to do is press the power button and off to the races you go! I should add that both of these makeup applicators do not come with batteries. This blender requires a AAA and the brush set a AA so have those two sizes handy!
Though the idea of having a battery within the sponge seems like a great concept, having something solid probably reduces the amount of "squish" quite a bit. In terms of a replacement blender, I do not see one on the Conair website, but I am assuming this will be something you can buy later on as blenders should be replaced every couple of months.
I fared better with the makeup brush set which uses a proprietary speed called the Sonic Advantage to evenly disperse makeup. There are two interchangeable brush heads - a sponge to apply foundation with and a brush to apply powder products like loose powder or blush.
I actually quite liked the sponge applicator because I noticed I used slightly less foundation to achieve the same level of coverage and it took less time as I only needed to glide the sponge across my skin once without having to really buff. The finish of my skin didn't look too different than when I apply without vibration though.
While the brush head seemed fine for setting powder, it wasn't great at blush. The bristles are long and not dense so not a lot of product gets picked up and I found the added vibration made no difference to product dispersion. I had to dip into my blush 3x compared to only once with my Real Techniques brush.
As a final test, that I just remembered to do this morning, I compared foundation application of both the makeup blender and sponge to another well-known vibrating makeup application tool - the Clarisonic. I was PR gifted the foundation brush head so I tried it this morning and because the vibrations are localized oscillations within the brush head itself, the time it took to buff and blend my foundation was quicker and took far less effort. It is considerably more money so it really depends on whether you are looking to invest in a solely makeup tool like the Conair brushes or a primarily skincare tool like the Clarisonic with makeup application as a bonus.
While I am still not entirely sold on vibration-powered makeup tools, this collection from Conair is firstly, attractive to look at, and sits at a great price point of under $20 each while the Clarisonic Foundation Brush Head alone is $50. I am still partial to my Beauty Blender so I am very picky with my makeup blenders, but I did see a difference in speed and slightly less foundation used when using the sponge head of the makeup brush duo. Though the bristles on the brush head were not the best at dispersing concentrated products like blush, highlighter or bronzer would be perfect as you would want the effects to be more subtle. I still feel like regular brushes will be my go-to for products like these, but if you are looking to mix-up your makeup routine a bit, give either of these a go especially the brush set!
The Conair True Glow Glam Collection is available now.
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