The 'Silisponge' trend took the beauty world by storm, I mean how could it not, it's applying makeup with something that looks like a mini chicken cutlet. Trust South Africa's own Swiitch Beauty to release their 'Jelly Blender' which is an exact dupe of the original Molly Cosmetics 'Silisponge'. The apparent pros to this little Jelly Blender is that it is firstly glorified for the fact that it does not absorb product and is also said to be a dream to clean up and to disinfect which means less hassle and fewer breakouts. (This is kind of a lengthy post guys but in this case here's hoping it's quality through quantity).
Okay so first things first, and that would be, impressions. The packing to be honest was not the best. I purchased mine at their Durban pop-up sale and I just received it in a little clear resealable plastic bag with not so much as their logo on it, which was kinda disappointing. I purchased the Jelly Blended for R80 although it retails in their online store for R150 which I thought was a bargain!
As all you beauty sponge cult members like myself, who swear by products such as the Beauty Blender, will know how sponges tend to soak up a tonne of product which obviously means you have to keep adding product to the sponge which essentially gets wasted. With the Jelly Blender that problem is nowhere in sight! When using this blender you save so much of product and in tern cash because nothing is getting absorbed and so with this blender a little less product takes you quite far, and the leftover cash can be used to purchase more makeup, duh! So this wouldn't be a true 'The Bed Head Blogger' review if I didn't break my first impressions down to the core, so I decided to try application and blending with foundation, concealer and even a cream contour.
I started off with foundation, I used the NYX Cosmetics 'Stay Matte but Never Flat' foundation. I squeezed a small size amount onto the back on my hand and decided to try little strokes to distribute the product, it wasn't the best of ideas. The product seemed to slide all over the place and looked hella streaky, patchy and uneven. Personally I don't think it was the Jelly Blender I think it was just the application method, because I decided to try patting in the foundation and this seemed to do the trick, although I still feel as though the application with a beauty sponge does a better job.
Next was concealer, I put a tiny blob of NYX 'Gotcha Covered' concealer over the foundation patch I had previously put down and tried patting in the concealer. It seemed to work pretty well, there were no harsh lines or streaking of any kind, however, the coverage look a little wet, which means that product isn't being pushed into the skin but rather is just sitting on the surface. I decided to apply some foundation and concealer on my face and dusted some powder over it, however it wasn't the best idea because it started to cake up a bit in places. My advice on this would be to use as little product as possible so that there's just enough to cover your entire face.
Lastly I used the the same concealer in a darker shade to try and blend out a cream contour. I have to say that when it came to this step the Jelly Blender worked like a bomb! It blended out the harshness to perfection, with no streaking but at the same time didn't blend the product to nothingness. Once again, you've got to to keep in mind to use minimal product and lighting pat the product so that it distributes properly to make for a killer contour.
My final thoughts? I'm not crazy about this product, I do think if you're invested in getting your contour to really stand out and sculpt your face then this is definitely for you. If you're looking for something to use on the daily to apply your foundation and concealer then maybe you should skip this one, it can be a little time consuming to get the product to sit properly on the skin. Also, I think if you're looking for a flawless finish everyday then I would suggest splurging a little and sticking to a beauty sponge, I recommend an original Beauty Blender. From all the sponges I've tried it has to be the best in terms of application and lack of product absorption. Hope this helps you guys smooth out your product application dilemmas.
-courts xx
