A common trend in the beauty world is the use of the beauty blender. If you don't know what that is, it's simply a sponge that makes your foundation appear seamless and helps remove excess product.
While it's traditionally pink and teardrop shaped, it comes in a vast array of colors, shapes, and sizes. Personally, I use mine quite regularly (but mine is a cheap off-brand version because I'm too poor to pay Sephora $20 for a sponge).
Additionally, I can confirm that these suckers are a pain in the ass to clean. Normally I'll just turn a blind eye to the grossness of the foundation covered egg that's likely harboring all sorts of bacteria like most girls do.
But, when Twitter decided to grace me with its boundless knowledge, I came across what would be a life-changer. For me and the makeup world. A new way to clean your beauty blender.
By... microwaving it?
User @Jaycoko_ tweeted out that by microwaving a beauty blender you can clean it, to make it look like you had just purchased it.
But, naturally, Twitter isn't always reliable and I was extremely skeptical.
So before I did it for myself, I looked at the responses and no surprise, it's shown to work for some:But others....not so much:
One thing I continually noticed was that everyone who claimed it didn't work also did it wrong. Because I eventually caved and tried it, and it worked.
So, let me confirm for you that this technique does
work. If it doesn't work for you, you're doing it wrong.If you're one of the unfortunate people who lost a beauty blender because you did this hack incorrectly, don't be afraid to try it again. Let me show you how you're actually supposed to do it. I even have step-by-step instructions for you with pictures from my own experience with this. So, pay attention.
PUT YOUR DAMP BEAUTY BLENDER IN SOAPY WATER.
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
This is the entire purpose of the method. The key factor to cleaning it. If you just put a dry sponge in the microwave, that's how you end up with a complete melted and burnt blender. Nobody wants that. A melted beauty blender is no bueno.
For the soapy water, I mixed Dawn dish soap and lukewarm water. It's important to note that beauty blenders will float, but still make sure plenty of soapy water is in the glass.
The key to success here is: Don't put a dry beauty blender in the microwave.
Your beauty blender is a sponge
. It is designed to absorb product as well as water. Make sure it's damp before doing anything else. If you put a damp beauty blender in the soapy water and you will succeed at the end of the process.Microwave it for one minute.
One minute. No more no less. Pretty simple right? I don't think you can mess this part of the process up.
If you're like me, and you were afraid you were gonna burn the whole place down or set the smoke alarms off, don't fret! Nothing will happen (as long as your beauty blender is DAMP, NOT DRY).
Squeeze the excess water out.
Do this like you normally would when you're dampening you're beauty blender prior to applying your makeup.
But careful, it will be HOT.
I suggest using a hot pad or a towel to take the glass out of the microwave, and then running the beauty blender over with cold water before attempting to squeeze anything out. Also, it's beneficial to continuously run cold water over it as you're squeezing the soapy water out.
Congrats! You have a clean beauty blender.
If you followed each of these steps correctly, you should have a beauty blender that looks like new! I'm telling you, this technique works, just make sure you don't microwave a dry sponge.
Here's my before and after shot:
You can see a massive difference. My beauty blender looks brand new, the original color is back and the foundation is completely gone.
Overall, I would give this method 4/5 stars.
If you're like me, lazy as hell, this method doesn't take too much effort. The only struggle is that it takes some time making sure all of the soap is gone. But, you end up with a really clean beauty blender in the end!
That makes it all worth it and that's why I will definitely be utilizing this method more often.