Word on the street is there is a dupe for the infamous Beautyblender. The sponge worthy of the title “Game Changer”. Could this be?
Does the 1/4 of a price orange Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge really perform as well as everyone’s favorite hot pink squishy terardrop???
Welcome…to the SPONGE WARS!!
Ok,here’s what happened. Years and years ago, the only sponges available on the market were those white triangular things that came in a bunch of 8 in a box (if you are young enough, you have only seen them used in ombre nail tutorials…) and the spongy “puffs” that came with assorted cream foundations and powders that always seem to smell…industrial.
BUT THEN…The Beautyblender was born. It was new, innovative, revolutionary and…hot pink. And we all lost our s***t over it. For good reason. We could finally say goodbye to streaky foundation and cakeface. Beauty junkies were in love,and Rea Ann(the creator) was rich. The company was smart enough to price it at $19,95, knowing that we are so hooked that we could actually pay double.
Soon after that, all the companies started coming up with their own “Beauty Sponge” for a mere fraction of the price, to hit the competition.
Right: Random eBay Sponge
And soon enough beauty junkies started looking for dupes. From Sephora to MAC, Dior, Beautybay, Forever21, Stila etc etc everyone is doing it. Haven’t seen anything going so viral since the Harlem Shake.
Searching and searching the beauty queens were tired of saying “it’s not the same”. Until the lovely Samantha Chapman and the Real Techniques crew came up with their own version, the Miracle Complexion Sponge. And you started hearing the two words that every makeup addict longs to hear…“drugstore dupe”.
You cannot provoke me like that and expect me not to test it out! So,I did.
Let’s start with the obvious differences,and then we’ll move into more technical stuff. Right of the bat, the color is different, but who cares?
The shape is different as well. The RT is a bit longer, more oblong shaped and has a flat side, which some people liked and I didn’t really care for.
Holding them side by side while the’re dry, texturewise they seem identical. But the RT feels a bit denser than the BB. A quality that remains even after you have wet them.
Looking at them side by side again, having thoroughly rinsed them and squeezed them, the RT appears more porous than the BB, something that I found out was indeed true, since it absorbed more foundation than my BB.
And that for me, is a deal breaker. I was generally not impressed with the RT’s performance, since I missed the rounded “butt” part of the BB I am so accustomed to using for so long. The feeling of a bit more density wouldn’t have bothered me in my pre-BB days, but now is actually a feature that makes me gravitate away from it.
To sum up, is it a dupe? Not by any means.
Is it comparable? Yes! It’s the closest thing I have found.
Does it get the job done? Yes.
Why do people keep saying it’s a dupe? I don’t know…Maybe they haven’t seen a real Beautyblender…
Should I buy it? Only if you are on a really tight bugdet. If you can save up for a while and get the BB, go for the BB and never look back!
The Miracle Complexion Sponge retails for $6 and it is available at the company’s website www.realtechniques.com as well as many other online (and real life) locations.
And the winner iiiiis…the BEAUTYBLENDER!
What’s your take on the matter?
