We should know all of the Beautyblender facts backwards, forwards, and inside out by now, since the revolutionary makeup sponge slash applicator is a seven-time winner of our annual Best of Beauty Awards. If that doesn’t prove our love for it, we don’t know what will. Who knew that a little sponge could have such a huge impact on the makeup world? Not makeup artist and Beautyblender founder Rea Ann Silva, who just wanted to find a way to make makeup look good on high-definition television. Though it’s been a staple in makeup bags everywhere since 2007, there’s still more to know (and love) about the iconic sponge. So we asked Silva to tell us what even diehard fans might not know. Prepare to get (beauty) schooled with these Beautyblender facts that you probably haven’t heard before.

Unlike traditional makeup sponges, the Beautyblender is hydrophilic, a fancy word that means it’s designed to absorb water. Back in 2007, most makeup sponges were designed to actually repel moisture, with the logic being that a soaked sponge meant product lost. But if you wet the Beautyblender first (which, FYI, you’re supposed to do before you use it if you read the instructions), it soaks up the water so there’s no room left in it to absorb your foundation, too. The Beautyblender Original makeup sponge: a serious step up in the makeup-sponge—and makeup—world.

Since Silva put in a ton of work as a makeup artist on television sets throughout her career, so it’s not a huge surprise that she ended up taking a class about special effects makeup while in the biz. During that class, the teacher began to talk about cutting sponges as a part of a technique. That was Silva’s lightbulb moment. “I was totally enraptured and I thought, oh my god, this could be it,” she tells Allure. After that, Silva began experimenting with different sponge shapes until she settled on the signature silhouette of the 2016 Best of Beauty winner for makeup sponge—and stayed true to it, even when releasing spin-off items like the Beautyblender Micro Mini.

Want to know how Tracee Ellis Ross looked so poreless and perfect when she starred on the television show Girlfriends, pre-Blackish years? You can at least, in part, credit the first-ever prototype of the Beautyblender. Silva was working on the show at the time and used it to apply and touch up the makeup of the four female stars. How Ross’s skin still looks so good today: Probably the Beautyblender, if we’re making an educated guess. But of course Ross is the OG, right? She would be. (And we only mean that in the absolute BEST way).

When she was developing the Beautyblender, Silva focused on perfecting the texture and the shape of the sponge—but not so much on the color. (She hadn’t even considered it.) But the lab sent her a prototype in the now-iconic pink shade and Silva was hooked. “They told me to ignore the color,” she says. “But I saw the neon pink and it made me so happy.” If that’s not fate, we don’t know what is. To us, that pink is more iconic than millennial pink—we’d argue “Beautyblender pink” deserves its ownPantone chip.

(ICYMI, you can get the sponge and its matching cleanser together if you nab the BeautyBlender and BlenderCleanser kit beauty blender sponge cleanser duo.)

 

If you were under the impression that blending any kind of powder, blush, or contour powder using the editor-favorite Beautyblender would muddy up your powder (guilty as charged), you don’t have to worry. “With pressed powder, brushes are like little brooms,” explains Silva—only sweeping product around, rather than evenly blending it and usurping its oil-controlling properties. But when you employ the assistance of a Beautyblender, you can “focus on the areas where you want to wipe out shine.” So long as you give your sponge a good squeeze to wring out excess water before first swipe, there isn’t enough moisture in it to ruin your favorite bronzer, TBH.

Do you use your Beautyblender to apply your makeup every A.M. and then call it a day? Same. But Silva actually designed it to re-blend and refresh makeup during the day. The new, high-def cameras at the time made cake-y layers of makeup look like cake-y layers of makeup (hello, #nofilter life), so continuously piling on more throughout the day was no longer an option. Instead of layering on foundation, Silva could now just re-blend, buffing with the Beautyblender to maintain a flawless finish. (Maybe that’s why there’s now the Beautyblender Blotterazzi 300×400 beautyblender blotterazzi sponge?) Regardless, it was such a good product invention, frankly, that both Too Faced and Benefit Cosmetics both joined forced with the Blotterazi forlimited-edition collabs. (That’s not even mentioning the recent team-up between the original sponge and editor-favorite SPF label Supergoop.)

Obviously, we saved the best news for last, so get ready. “I think the next phase for me would be to create the ultimate complexion makeup for the ultimate complexion tool,” says Silva. Our money’s on foundation (a total guess, but not crazy considering that was the original reason for its invention), but really, we’d take anything Silva creates. While she tells us she doesn’t have a timeline yet, new product is on the horizon. That’s right, Beautyblender fans: There are brand-new Beautyblender products on the way.

Bonus: There’s some Beautyblender in the December Allure Beauty Box. You can get it for just a few more days (and you should!), because it features this:

Source: www.glamour.com