Does This Viral Hack Really Clean Your Beauty Blender?

By BR Kellie

Who doesn't love a good beauty hack? One that simplifies a process. One that makes life easier. One that saves time while getting results. Recently the beauty world went a bit nuts over a beauty hack that saw filthy beauty sponges come out sparkly clean. I read a handful of articles about it, because, well... it seemed too good to be true. Then I decided I had to give it a go, because if there's one thing I hate doing it's cleaning my BeautyBlender, and if this hack could save me time and get my sponge back in good nick, I was in!

First things first... THE HACK. Take a microwave-proof mug/glass, squirt in dishwashing liquid, add water until it's at the halfway mark, drop your sponge it. Pop it in the microwave and put it on high for one minute. Once it's done remove the sponge from the cup (CAREFULLY - because it will burn your hands as it's super hot), then rinse under water and leave to dry.

SO SIMPLE! But did it work? Or was this hack a load of hooey?

Let's take a look at what I was working with...

Giddy aunt, while beating the makeup into my face it looks like the poor BeautyBlender's been beaten half to death. Yep, I love my BeautyBlender and it shows. It's revolting. Making it the perfect candidate for this test. 

I followed the instructions down to the letter, and in the microwave it went.

The minute passed, and with eager grabby hands I pulled the cup from the microwave, then using a spoon I retrieved the sponge, took hold of it, popped it under cold water and gave it a squeeze.

OWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

Don't do what I did. 

You see, despite running it under cold water the inside was still stuffed with boiling water and when I squeezed the sponge I squeezed said water over my hand. Cue running of hand under cold water along with sponge to ease the pain. 

But did the pain pay off?

Er, no. 

What did happen was a whole lot of dye left the sponge, and the mangy foundation stains remained.

So I thought I'd give it another burst. Same thing happened again - minus the burn, because I squeezed out the hot water by pressing down on the sponge with my spoon before running it under the cold water. Bye dye, hello again stainage. Also, by this point my sponge was starting to get a bit bent out of shape. A little putty-ish. It was bouncing back, but it was taking its time to do so. I was seeing a $30 sponge go down the drain  - or into the rubbish bin - not ideal.

SO... I went back to the internet for more research, and found an article titled along the lines of 'The Beauty Hack You've Been Doing Wrong!'. That article said you had to let the sponge cool down in the cup and then run it under water. 

Right, okay then. So I did that. Result!! .... er.... Not so much.

It looked a 'bit' better, but it was so bleached out it looked like it had been sitting in the desert sun for half its life. The stains may have lightened but they're very much still there. At least with about four minutes of microwaving on its side in boiling hot water I knew any germs in there were well and truly dead.

So how's my beloved BeautyBlender performed since? Fine-ish. You see it still bounces the foundation on, but now it makes a 'skoosh skoosh skoosh' sound. It sounds like all those bubbles made with dishwashing liquid and water are in the middle of the BeautyBlender begging to get out - and this is after I rinsed and squeezed the BeautyBlender post-microwaving for a good ten minutes. No exaggeration. 

Bubbles trapped inside a BeautyBlender? That can't be a good thing. 

So... I'm calling it. This hack is gak! It took forever, it didn't lift the stains, and now my sponge is a bit stuffed. It's a fail, my friends.

The question is though... have you tried this hack? Did it work for you? Have I done something wrong? Or will you be bypassing this altogether and sticking to the tried and true method of using makeup brush cleanser and rolling the sponge around in your hand to keep things clean?