Beauty Sponge Hacks

Over the years I’ve been testing out different ways to make my makeup look as best it can in my skin and for this hygiene, maintenance, and application is basically the 3 things you need to think about.

Whether you’re a makeup lover and love a good beat/ full coverage all day everyday or a natural beat/ sometimes glam like me then all this applies to you!

I’m mainly going to discuss cleaning beauty sponges however some of this will apply to brushes.Especially hygiene! Towards the end I will talk a little about application of makeup using sponges to achieve the best possible look from sponges for me and hopefully you take away and try it out for yourselves.

Before any product goes on your face or any tool touches your face,

Yo face needs to be clean! This will effect your skin in the long run. Make sure you moisturise and cleanse that beautiful face daily, when you wake up and go sleep. ( You can head over to my skin care pages to see what I do to keep my face clean and how I’ve killed off the acne and blemishes etc.)

So now that’s out of the way, ideally your sponge or brush should be clean before you use it. You want to also throw it away and buy a new one after so many uses but that is on your judgement and how much you use it.

We’re all guilty of it; we keep using sponges as it is and just pretending it won’t damage anything. REALITY CHECK PEOPLE! Clean it as often as you can because you can infect your skin and if that goes anyway near your eyeballs… infections and styes and sore eyes are just bound to happen not to mention spots and whatever else. You never know what bacteria is lurking in that sponge of yours and you’re happily dabbing it in your face like there’s no tomorrow.

Ways to clean your sponge:

1. JOHNSON’S BABY SHAMPOO – this is the best for your skin. If it’s good enough for a soft and gentle baby it’s good enough for you. It cleans the sponge and it’s not a chemical that can damage your skin or the sponge. All you do is take blobs onto your sponge, massage it in and rinse thoroughly under warm water. You can use this also for Brushes and just go in circular motions in your hand or a rubber cleanser tray if you had one and viola! Give it a good old flick to get it back into shape and leave it to dry on a paper towel.

When drying your sponge or brushes …keep it in open air (near an open window) for a few hours, as you don’t want it to get damp inside. Then give it another flick/ squeeze and put it away in a separate container or wherever you store them.

2. STORAGE – This is also how to keep your sponge clean! Makeup sure your sponge have a separate box or container it stays in at all times. I usually just keep it in the plastic box it comes in. That way there’s a less chance you will get unwanted germs and other chemicals that may crossover such as perfumes etc.

3. MICROWAVE- heat it up! I have used this many times!

Simply add a soap/ detergent ( recommended: Johnson baby shampoo) into a bowl of water and heat it up in the microwave. Use this solution to rinse and squeeze your sponge just like in method 1. You may need to do this a couple times to get everything out and by all means heat it up again. Just be careful as you don’t want to heat it up too much that it damages your sponge and you won’t get as many uses out of it when it starts to wear and tear sooner than you usual.

Try these out and see which is best for you! Let me know in the comments section if you have any more tips to clean your sponges or brushes!!

Moving on to application:

1. If you want Natural/ light – medium coverage of your foundation you need to make sure it’s damp. So run the sponge under a tap and squeeze out the excess.

When applying foundation, take the foundation on the back of your hadn’t to warm up the substance the apply with your clean fingers all over your canvas. Use your damp sponge ( the fatter and rounder side) to use a dabbing motion on your face to spread and cover the foundation evenly. This way you’re not using so much foundation and it covers your face really well. It also gives a nice dewy look to your skin.

I personally don’t like to use a dry sponge and I feel like it soaks in a lot more product, but that also depends on your foundation too.

Don’t forget to set that foundation before anything else with your setting spray.

2. For a more full coverage/ Matte look, use slightly less damp sponge or a compete dry sponge and follow the same procedure as above. You’ll definitely see the difference.

3. APPLYING CONCEALER- yep, I use a sponge to apply my concealer. Well I sue the applicator or a brush to actually put it in my face, usually under eyes. Go ahead again with a damp sponge to spread it to wear it needs to be to let that soak in to the foundation layer. Use the pointy side/ tip of the sponge as it’s easier to get close up in the inner corners and better for precision. Use a softer dab near the under eye area as the skin is very delicate and you don’t want to increase any more bags/ dark circles because you’re too excited with your sponge. Take it easy but enough to spread that concealer.

If you’re covering blemishes or spots. Even though you REALLY shouldn’t put any products on, you really want to use your CLEAN fingers to softly dab in the area. Sponges can often just make the blemish worse so stay away from sponges when you need high coverage in that nasty spot.

If you’re applying a liquid colour corrector for example under the eyes, I use a flat edge to dab it on but I also use it dry to ensure full coverage to cover up the dark undertones. Then go onto with a Concealer as normal.

4. SETTING THE CONCEALER – I tend to apply setting powder with the sponge. Make sure that sponge is damp a little and pick up your powder and apply where you need to bake or set. You can then brush away excess.

When setting/ baking with powder. It’s really good to make sure the sponge is damp as it avoids a cake like look and keeps it in tact for longer. *Again, depends on the product you use.

I would still then go ahead and set that powder with more setting spray because .. why not. Keep it there for as long as you need.

This method has also helped me with creasing under the eyes, so try it out and let me know how that goes!

If you have any more tips or hacks that help you feel free to comment or message me on @divinebeautyig on Instagram!

Happy Blending!

P.S. Makeup is a personal choice but less is more because you’re all gorgeous, Naturally. X

Also if you would like more information or a video on application or cleaning please let me know through instagram or in the comments below !