Hello!! Recently all of the Sonia Kashuk products at Target were placed on clearance and a whole new set of products were brought in. If you do not know who Sonia Kashuk is, you should! The makeup brushes are AMAZING! Definitely good quality brushes for an affordable price. Once I heard that this brand new line released a variety of beauty sponges, I made sure to scoop a couple up to test out. I am an avid supporter of the good ole OG Beauty Blender found at Sephora, but let’s be real with one another, it’s expensive! Costs start to add up when you are needing to change it out every couple of months due to wear and tear. On top of costs, I have no self control in a beauty store so I tend to drag my feet whenever I have to go and get a new one from Sephora. I’m all about finding affordable beauty products with high end qualities.
This is the No. 801 Sponge with a size comparison next to the OG Beauty Blender. BTW my BB was needing to be replaced so it is looking pretty rough – don’t judge hah!
The Sonia Kashuk sponge when dry is quite a bit larger than the BB. It also has a flat bottom rather than a dome shape. I would also like to throw in that I love the marble pattern on the SK blender. There are two different color variations of the 801 blender – majority black with white marbling and vice versa (Mine is the majority white with black marbling). I noticed this during a second round trip to Target after I had already purchased this blender. Of course these sponges are dipped into foundations and are a pain to clean because they soak in some of the product, but that doesn’t bother me because I wash my blenders before every use. So when I wet/dampened the SK blender, it got extremely huge!! Of course BB gets larger as well since they are sponges, but the SK blender is already big and then dampening it…BOOM we got a ginormous sponge. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. When I initially tried it, I was kind of turned off because it was large and in charge making it hard for me to adjust to using it. When using the BB I use the bottom dome to blend my foundation and the pointed tip for concealer and small spaces like the nose. With the SK blender, I just can’t see myself using the flat bottom to blend anything because it’s not a very flexible shaping. So rather than using that part of the blender, I have been using the pointed part and it seems to be going fine. It definitely does a fabulous job blending out the foundation and making your makeup look flawless. The size is growing on me and as of lately I do not mind it, other than the flat bottom. It almost seems like a waste of sponge because I know I will not be using it. I suppose if you wanted to use the flat side of the sponge to lightly dab on some translucent powder to lock in your foundation that could work.
As I had stated, there are a few different variations of blenders that were released. After testing out the 801, I decided to go back to Target and pick up one of the smaller blenders which is the No. 804.
The shape of the 804 blender is quite similar to the Real Techniques sponge with the flat side on one part of the bottom with a dome on the opposite end. The actual size is very similar to the OG BB and seems extremely small compared to the 801 blender. Just like the 801, I am still trying to find a happy medium area that feels comfortable for my personal use. One other difference I noticed with both the 801 and 804 is the pointed tip is extremely pointed compared to the BB.
In regards to cost comparison, a Beauty Blender costs $20. Both the 801 and 804 blenders by Sonia Kashuk cost $7 each. Yup…extremely affordable with a high end quality!! If you are unable to spend $20 comfortably on a blending sponge, I definitely recommend you give these sponges a try. There is no need to spend a lot of money on products when there are many out there that can give you the same results or better.
Overall application of makeup with these sponges has been fabulous. I have not noticed any uneven blending and I don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to get the foundation to blend properly. I honestly may have a new favorite blender that I will be using from now on! I definitely recommend everyone to go and snatch one of these up from Target and let me know what you think! Also, has anyone else tried these new sponges? Always open to feedback from everyone and anyone. Let me know if there are any products that you would like for me to try out and review. Talk to you all soon!
xoxo Renee