Manicare Flawless Complexion Sponge Review

I titled this review as Sponge Cake because the results from using The Manicare Flawless Complexion Sponge was more negative than positive. On the packaging it said "80% noticed their skin was visibly more flawless!", I can say that i stand in the 20% that did not.

Upon using the sponge dry, i found that the pressing method did not give a flawless coverage. My complexion was still uneven and i resolve to buffing with the round side to get my foundation even. After doing so, my face looked caked-up and left me disappointed. The flat side was hopeless at getting my concealer under my eye, especially to the corners. The sponge most definitely held a lot of product, in which i would recommend to not use when apply more costly cosmetics.

When i used the sponge wet my coverage was light as the packaging said it would. I could not help but notice that it still held in a lot of product.

Although i see how useful this tool is to be used to apply different makeup, the results is not 100% what it claims to do. The sponge is dense and I didn't like how my fingers and finger nails get a little covered in makeup. Cleaning the sponge is a breeze though.

I received this in the first Nudes Best Ever Beauty Box. Now I'll start my review by saying that I'm used to quality-high quality. The first beauty blender I bought was the original Beauty Blender. I loved that pink teardrop shaped piece of quality latex so much I wrote a long rave review with all the ways I used that sponge. In a nutshell this sponge feels like it's made of the same cheap rubber that those flat round cosmetic sponges and wedges that you can get a bulk pack at the $2 store. The type you would use for ombre nail art. The only difference between those sponges and this Manicare one is that it is in a Beauty Blenderesque shape, oh and it's pink. I used it damp with the CC cream I got in the Nudes box and it applied the product in a thin even layer. It looked good. I washed out the sponge and got out most of the product but as it's drying nicks and dents are appearing in the sponge, and it's brand new. I just got it out of the plastic cover today. The Beauty Blender I got doesn't have that problem and I can use it wet or dry, with powder or liquids. I've tried using whatever rubber this sponge is made out of dry and it just doesn't apply product well at all, it applies dry products very patchy. So while the Beauty Blender cost me more than three times the price of this, it has lasted me for years and has felt nicer to use plus it didn't have nicks and dents after one wash. Taking that into account it has been cheaper overall than this sponge. I don't reaching for this one often and when it's got too many nicks and dents to use, I won't be repurchasing.

I tried really hard to like this sponge and make it work, but I just couldn't. I have the original beauty blender and so it was great to be able to compare the two. Unfortunately the Manicare sponge was a real let down. The shape isn't bad, a flat side with a slim edge which is good for applying products over larger portions of the face and also creating sharp lines under contour/bronzer etc, and a rounded side as well, but because it was so hard and also just quite big in general I found it quite difficult to apply product to all areas of my face well (creases around my nose, under my eyes etc.) I always use my sponges wet and so to give it a fair chance I also used the manicare sponge wet. While it did swell in size, it stayed very hard and was almost uncomfortable to use on the face. It didn't flex or bounce when trying to put on foundation and even when I tried it dry (which they claimed would give a fuller coverage) I found it did not blend any product, cream or liquid, well at all and also seemed to just remove the product from my face more than anything else. I really did try to make this sponge work for me but it was very unsuccessful. Considering it retails for $13.50 on their website I wouldn't purchase it myself, if I was in a squeeze and needed a sponge I feel like I could probably find a sponge of equivilant quality for a couple of dollars at Kmart or elsewhere.

I was super excited to try this out, as I thought it looked very similar and could be a dupe for the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion sponge - my favourite sponge and what I usually apply and blend my makeup with.

I did not like anything about using this sponge when it was dry, which doesn't worry me too much as I haven't come across a make-up sponge I like using dry.

While this sponge did work to apply my make-up when damp, it wasn't spectacular and was, sadly, definitely not the same as using my real techniques sponge. The manicare sponge felt really hard and firm, even when wet, which I found uncomfortable and hard to use. I found it took a lot longer to blend my foundation than I'm used to, and found it used a lot more product than if I was to use a brush or another sponge. I tried using it to blend in contour and it took, in my opinion, far too much time and effort. It had an almost doughy texture, and I felt like a soaked up a lot of product.

I did really like it to blend in my concealer, I think the flat edge worked really well for that and was the perfect size.

I might continue to use this just for concealer alone, but can't see myself using this for anything else. While this wasn't horrible, it had quite a few negatives and I have other make-up tools I like better.

So, I have to admit, I've yet to find a make up sponge that I like. I love Natio liquid foundations and bb creams, and this sponge, like most others I've tried, sucks up a lot of product. I get a lot more coverage out of a little product by using my hands. I found the sponge left some 'cakey' looking areas when trying to add more coverage to blemishes. I will continue to try it out though, as I don't have a lot of experience using sponges. One thing I will give this sponge is that it is very easy to clean, a little warm water and soap does the trick well. Not a terrible product, but not a game changer for me.

I was super excited to trial this sponge out. And I really did put it to the test. I followed the instructions on the packaging. FIRST TRIAL: I prepped my face as normal, this day I chose to use the sponge dry (as it claimed to give a full coverage application). I used a pressing technique to press the product into my skin. I noticed my skin looked cakey and so continued to press the product in but as the foundation started to dry it was removing the foundation from my skin and then became patchy. SECOND TRIAL: Prepped skin as normal, this time I used to sponge damp. The sponge expanded abit with water. Using the pressing technique again I started to press the foundation into my skin, definitely a difference from using it wet to dry. Looked more evenly applied. However my imperfections showed through. Both days I tried to use the flat side of the sponge under my eye area and sides of nose. I found the flat edge to be too large in size for my eye area but it worked well for the sides of my nose. Tried to use the rouded egde to apply extra coverage to pigmentation or spots but didn't make too much of a difference. This sponge is quite dense. Now, I have used Real Techniques Miracle Complextion Sponge, XO Beauty Flawless Finish Sponge and countless BeautyBlenders. The sponge is a go-to tool for applying my foundation, concealer, cream contours and highlights as well as setting areas with translucent powder. So if I was to compare the Manicure Flawless Complextion Sponge to all those other sponges, I would have to say it is my least favourite out of them all. And now I will tell you why, the shape of this sponge, the way it has been designed is a fail for me as the flat edge is too big to fit nicely under me eye area if it was narrowed at the tip into more of a triangle shape I think it would be perfect for under eyes. The rounded bottom part of the sponge is too small, if the circumference of that part was bigger it would apply easier. I don't mind the dense type of sponge it is because the XO Beauty sponge is also dense and I love that sponge for full coverage days. My biggest downfall with this sponge was that after each application I would clean my sponge (exactly the same way I clean all my sponges) I noticed that the sponge was rinsing out a huge amount of foundation, so to me thats telling me that instead of the sponge pressing the foundation into my skin and only absorbing a small amount it actually absorbed a whole lot of product.

OVERALL RATING: 3/10

When I first took the sponge out of the package it was very dense and hard to squeeze. Once I wet it, it expanded to nearly double the size and was a little easier to squeeze and it had the response of its shape like a memory foam pillow. Once using the sponge to blend out my foundation the sponge was very hard to bounce the product around and it actually sucked up a lot of product. When applying the foundation I found that it became very dense again and was hard to use. This sponge claims that to get a light coverage to use it wet which I did, but using a medium to full coverage foundation I had to use twice the amount of foundation to get a light coverage. Unfortunately I would rather pay more for a sponge that will give me the flawless coverage that it claims to give.

I had high hopes that this was going to be one of those products that was going to blow me away. Unfortunately as the title of my review suggests I wasn't impressed with this product.

I decided to use it exactly as the product suggested and used it dry first applying my product using soft sweeps across the face (they suggested this if to like full coverage which I do). BAD MOVE! All it did was absorb product into the sponge and whatever product was left just got moved around my face. I decided the next day to try it again but this time with a damp sponge. While it did do a slightly better job I still found that it didn't give me the coverage that I like, which is full. I did find however that pushing the sponge into my face as opposed to swiping it did give me the best coverage.

In my opinion a beauty blender does a better job. I found the sponge itself quite dense and hard. Even after wetting out it took a lot of effort to squeeze the water out. It's not a soft product. I also found the shape of the sponge a little strange and found the rounded end a little difficult to use under my eyes so wasn't able to blend out my concealer that well.

I will keep experimenting with the sponge but probably not for foundation!

Unfortunately this make up sponge was a miss for me. The design of the sponge was not my favourite with it being quite firm and the top of the sponge is an awkward shape. I prefer a more angled top or side so I can comfortably sweep my foundation across or down my cheek and then blend. I also like to have a narrower end to get into smaller areas of my face but I cannot do this. I ended up having to almost dub it on then try to quickly blend it out with the flat end. I find my foundation never looks quite as flawless as the sponge seems to absorbs a lot of product more so than other sponge I have used. No I do not recommend this.