Silicone sponge: WTF or success story
margarita virova
It seemed the latest revolutionary makeup tool Beautyblender will remain - and that it will be impossible to jump higher. All this is exactly up to the moment when the sponge from silicone SiliSponge has not burst into the beauty-world. On the website of a small brand that invented this product, everything is already sold out, and the pre-orders are painted two months in advance. Such insanity does not happen often.
Bloggers are already sharing their impressions of the sensation. A week ago, Jeffrey Star experienced the novelty, and Huda Kattan and Nikki de Jager showed home-made versions of the sponge tabs in bras (the result was dubbed "BoobieBlender"), and the Internet publications inscribed to him entire chronicles. And all because its technical characteristics sound like an impossible dream: you can clean a silicone instrument and prepare it for work in a matter of minutes.
It is difficult to argue with the convenience of the famous ovoid sponges, but this does not mean that they do not have their flaws. First, to wash Beautyblender or its analogs, you need to spend a lot of effort. To serve it for a long time, it is better to use special means for this ritual. Secondly, porous sponges, like brushes, often absorb a significant amount of the agent during work - sometimes it is convenient, but often it is simply insulting. Silicone sponge will certainly relieve both the first and second problems. But if you imagine caring procedures with his participation is not at all difficult, then in makeup he looks like a really unexpected newcomer.
The very young and small Hong Kong indie brand Molly Cosmetics, whose online store was launched only in April of this year, was engaged in the production of obviously hit products from the very beginning. There are liquid matte lipsticks, including non-dull colors, mirror art for nail art, false eyelashes, brushes, brushes and Beautyblender twin "eggs" - and all this splendor at relatively low prices. Molly Cosmetics is clearly guided by a young audience, brought up on instagram-sweat. In November, the brand announced a plastic transparent oval sponge for applying a tonal base made of silicone, which made it famous all over the world. Less than a month, and the unusual tool was already overgrown with legends, it survived the release of the second version (a bit more attractive looking) and requires a pre-order and painful waiting for the purchase.
Most of the reports of silicone sponge began with a commentary that you don’t have a breast implant in front of you, despite the visual resemblance. In every joke there is some truth: an affordable replacement for mastheva was found in the underwear departments. An unobvious advantage is that you can create the perfect shape for the instrument yourself. If you're still not a DIY fan, know that you can arrange delivery from China to Russia, you just have to wait. Now on Molly Cosmetics site, the price for the object of desire is pleasant - the sponge will cost 615 rubles.
Judging by the test drives, which are already quite a few on YouTube, their main task - to evenly distribute the tonal tool - silicone sponge performs adequately. Makeup artists and bloggers who have tried a sensational product on the camera put a very dense coating - in this case, all the flaws should be visible to the naked eye. Everything here is clean: it turns out the very effect of smooth skin, which can be boasted after working with egg-shaped sponge or good brushes.
You can judge this at least by the review of the same Jeffrey Star, who not only showed a pleasant surprise, but also gave an exhaustive master class on the use of sponges (works on both sides and makes funny sounds when patting the skin). Make-up artist Michael Finch tried to use a miracle tool for applying dry textures, which was defeated: silicone sponge, unlike a porous competitor, was not intended for this. And yet, first of all, it seduces the hygiene of the instrument - this is a great help for professional makeup artists, and for those who are tired of manipulations with sponges and cleaners, taking a significant amount of time.
For now, it is difficult to say whether SiliSponge can be called really useful and necessary invention - business has not yet reached large-scale acquaintance of sponges with the audience. I remember that BeautyBlender was also met with skepticism for some time, so we will probably wait for the first sober assessments next year, apparently.