Review: Daiso Make-Up Brush Cleaner + Giveaway

Good evening ladies!

As many of you already know, Dawn and I are fans of Daiso products for our everyday tools and what not. So as I was shopping to restock my usual Daiso items (among other things) this caught my eye...

I have to admit that it has been a long time since I washed my make-up brushes and it's only now that I got to washing them again, and mainly because I wanted to try this brush cleaner.

Here's the product information at the back. It has an English instructions but for you who cannot read it well, here's what it says:

• Remove dirt from the make-up brush and puff to keep the cleanser clean. Wash the brush and puff on a regular basis in order to use it longer. No damage user's skin. Easy to clean.

For the How to wash brushes instructions I will incorporate the pictures I took while following said instructions and input my comments at the end. :)

HOW TO WASH BRUSHES

• Put the cleaner into the container (I assumed any basin would do), and dip the brush thoroughly.

• Wash it like drawing a circle with running water.
• Dry it with a towel and then arrange ends of the wool. Lastly, dry again naturally.

Obviously I did not follow the second instruction as I used their egg sponge which made everything really easy.

I find that this product is very water-conserving. I know the instructions says dip thoroughly, but I actually just dipped the tip of a dry brush and scrubbed it straight into the egg sponge. To my amazement, even that small amount was able to create a lot of lather and easily cleaned my brushes clean. In retrospect it must have been a wiser decision to take a picture of my white haired brushes so you can see how it really cleans it well.

However, I did find that this product works well with brushes you use for powders, blushes and compacts but not so much for liquids and creams. I used this for my Laneige BB cream puff and it did little to remove all the BB cream stains and unused product in the puff. 

For lipstick brushes, it lathers up less than it does for the other products (see above picture) but it removes most of the creamy and sticky residues on the brush (see picture below).

It does not remove the color stains as well as it does for powder, blush, and compact brushes but it does the job well.

It rinses off quick too. I am used to using hair shampoo for cleaning my make-up brushes and I find that this wastes too much water, it doesn't lather up as quick and it takes so much to rinse off. I also tried the joy + oil combination for cleaning brushes and although that really does a deep cleaning of the brushes, it also wastes a lot of water during rinse off.

After drying the brushes, both synthetic and real hair brush feel smooth and clean. So it can be used for any type of brushes.

How much? It's a Daiso product so it costs around Php 88 for a 150 mL bottle. If you don't have a lot of brushes to clean, I think it can last you for at least 2-3 months depending on how often you wash them. If you have a lot of brushes, it can probably last 1 month. It's small size is a big let down, and also the variability of it's availability per branch makes it hard to find. I found this at Robinsons Ermita branch and I hope they stock up on it in other branches as well.

So finally, after a long time, I have gathered a small treat for you guys. This is a long overdue birthday giveaway but since it's way past my birthday, I'm just going to label this as a summer/flores de mayo giveaway.

Included in this give away are:

Cream Silk Standout Straight leave-on cream

Vitress Hair Solutions hair cuticle coat

Daiso Make-up Brush Cleaner

BYS Kohl Eyelining Pencil in 103 Sky Blue and Silver Glitter

1 Skin Food Food Therapy Dual Effect Snail Mask Sheet

And other Daiso products: Mesh Travel pouch, brow liner, and 3 hair accessories.

Like always, please follow all instructions indicated in the link below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will run for 1 month starting today unti June 10, 2016.

Well, have fun sharing and hope you like this giveaway!

Cheers,
LIZ

What I LOVE: Makeup Blending Sponges

Hey everyone!

Some of my friends ask me how I do my makeup. They know about my acne problems and the dark pimple scars I have and they wanted to know why my foundation doesn't look thick. What I am trying to say is that with all the makeup I use to cover those annoying blemishes, my makeup still looks good and not overly made up (according to them at least). 

What I use are these makeup blending sponges. I've been using these for more than a year and I have loved them since the first day I have used them. They make my foundation look air brushed! No streaks whatsoever! I'm not even exaggerating. The shape avoids leaving streaks that brushes and flat sponges can leave behind and the slimmer top part can reach angles of your face easily for an even application and the pointy tip can be used as a concealer applicator. They also get rid of the sticky feeling you get from thick liquid foundations. They do lessen the coverage of my heavy-coveraged foundations though but I just build them up anyway. :P

I soak these in water until they are soaked evenly. I then squeeze the water out and dry it with a towel. Unlike what the instructions labeled on the packaging of the Beauty Blender, I use a foundation brush or my fingers first and apply the liquid foundation on my face then blend it with my sponges. 

These sponges make the blending of the foundations easier and faster. :D

I have used sponges from 3 brands so far...

The most popular and my favorite is the Beauty Blender. This one started the egg-shaped sponge craze. I wouldn't be surprised because this works really well. It's the best among the three sponges I've used and I will share with you why.

The Beauty Blender is the softest one I've used and it bounces when you lightly dab it on your skin. I think it's because it's the one that can hold the most water and it expands the most out of all the three sponges. Check the photo on the top and the photo above to see how big it got when I wet it. When dry, it was smaller than the two other sponges, but when wet, it got bigger. I'm not sure why but I think those characteristics may be the reason why it's softer. 

I really love this product and I already bought a second one. With proper care, like using the Blender cleanser, it can last around 6-8 months (or even more). The first one I got was still usable at 8-10 months even though some parts at the bottom started to flake off. I love that the life span is long but I don't appreciate that it's so expensive (It's around Php 1,000 on online shops here). Well, I guess I can overlook the price if it gives my foundation a good finish. :D

The second one I got is the Too Cool For School Marshmallow Puff.

This one is pretty affordable... I think this is somewhere around Php 279.00. 

This one isn't as soft as the Beauty Blender but this is softer than the third sponge, which I will mention later. Unlike the Beauty Blender, this one doesn't expand twice its size... maybe just a few millimeters. 

This didn't last too long though. Within 5 months, it started to disintegrate. Haha! I exaggerated on that one, but it just suddenly started flaking off! The pink material started falling all over the place and it was not usable anymore because the parts of the sponge just mix with the foundation. But even with that experience, I still think that this sponge served me well. It still gave my makeup a great finish and it's very affordable!

The last sponge that I've used is from Etude House...

Etude House Baby Doll Puff

This costs Php 378.00. A bit more expensive than Too Cool For School's. This is harder than the other two sponges too. I don't appreciate that it's more expensive yet it's not very soft. Application is not as comfortable (it's not bouncy soft!) compared with the other two.

It still gives an airbrushed finish when I use this so it's still good. I still use this after 6 months but I recently noticed that the bottom started to harden. It gets rough which becomes annoying to use so I think I will be retiring this now unfortunately. 

And those are the sponges I have used so far. I plan on getting another Beauty Blender soon but I am willing to try egg sponges from other brands. 

I always wash them before I use them again. I NEVER use any of these while they still have foundation from previous application. I used the Blender cleanser before which easily cleans these sponges. But if you don't want to spend so much on the cleanser, the dishwashing soap from Daiso is actually a good alternative! I just pump twice the dishwashing soap, rub it at the outside part of the wet sponge then start squeezing the sponge. You'll see that the foundation stains are gone and the sponges are pink and clean again!

Oh, I think it's good to mention that the Beauty Blender and the Etude House Baby Doll Puff are non-latex and are non-allergenic. Not sure with the one from TCFS, I can't find the info on that.

And that's my post about my makeup blending sponges! Do you also use this? What do you love about them? :)

Cheers,
DAWN