#makeup sponges

[katesattic]

OK I def like the shake technique for cleaning makeup sponges. That was so much faster!

(first image is makeup sponges after first wash. Second images is makeup sponges after refilling water but before second wash)

[stimtoybox]

[image description: a photo of two silicone blending sponges sitting on a mottled blue and white quilt background. The left-hand sponge is shaped like a pink teardrop and is filled with pink glitter; the right-hand sponge is shaped like a figure-eight with a rounded point and is also filled with pink glitter.]

Silicone Blending Sponges - Typo, a set of two for $5 AUD*

Dimensions: Approximately 4 x 4.5 cm at longest/widest points.

* The price is complicated: these were in a sales box labelled 3 for $5, so I actually got this set of sponges and two phone cases for $5 AUD. The full, non-sale price for the set was $7 AUD, so I got a good deal on this (and the phone cases are both a soft plastic that looks and feels great on my phone).

I’m not sure if this clearance is at all Typo stores, since I know only certain stores are designated to carry some clearance stock items, so I’ll mention that I bought this set at Southern Cross DFO, Melbourne.

These are odd things! They’re quite a bit firmer than mochi squishies, but they still have stretch like any other silicone squishy or stretch cord. I can’t squish these quite as far as a blending sponge, foam squishy or silicone squishy, but they do squish and stretch, and they’re very good for digging in with fingernails: I can just stretch the sponge to remove any indentations or scratches. Short of taking scissors to them, I don’t think I can break them: I’ve been twisting the top of the teardrop rather roughly and nothing has happened.

The only downside is that they do leave a few glitter flecks on my hands. Like any silicone toy, they’re also dust magnets: I’ve had them open on my desk for only two days and they’re already covered! However, they’re not quite as sticky or greasy as some mochi squishies, so I wouldn’t be too worried about washing these.

I also find them a little bit too tough for my chronic hand pain, but I’m reviewing these with an eye to more avid stimmers as a mochi squishy replacement. Dad goes through those so quickly, and these sponges offer much the same stim in a more durable form. Since even replacing cheap stim toys gets expensive if you do it every fortnight, these may be a more economic alternative to mochi squishies.

If you find that conventional silicone stim toys wear out too quickly under squishing or you prefer firmer resistances for squish toys, keep an eye out for these sorts of silicone blender sponges!

[stimtoybox]

[Image Description: a plastic bag of beauty blender sponges in various shapes and colors (pink, yellow, green, blue, purple) hanging from a peg board]

The CVS on Hope Street in Providence, RI (United States) has quite a few sets of sponges. I assume they are also in the beauty sections of other CVSes as well. These ones are lots of different shapes, which I thought was cool, and are $6.29 USD for 15 sponges. There was also a bag that just had wedges, which was $4.99 USD for 20 sponges. I didn’t get either of these, so I don’t know how these ones specifically are to stim with, but I got a much smaller pack of cool egg-shaped ones (I don’t have pictures of that set because I opened it as soon as I got home and forgot to take any) from the same brand and they are great.

Thank you so much, @night-dark-woods! Oh, these are so pretty!

I’ve had a few different bags of makeup sponges for stimming, and I’ve found that thickness is as important for me as good texture. I’ve a few thin ones that are nice to touch, but they’re so thin I can’t really poke at them (and they’re too small for rolling). These ones, aside from being super fabulous in terms of colour, look chunky and thick, ideal for poking at and squishing. I love the look of the wedge-shaped pink ones!

A reminder, too, that makeup sponges make a good base for DIY crackling squishies. Just take two sponges of the same size and glue a snap-style hairclip inside with glue. (I tape the ends of the clip shut before gluing the sponge pieces together around the clip. Then put something heavy, like a book, on top of the sponges until the glue dries.) You can then paint the outside of sponges, if desired, in fabric paint. I made a squishy this way from two silky-soft giant teardrop sponges, and it is super nice to crack.

[stimtoybox]

Silicone Makeup Blender - K-Mart, $2 AUD.

Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.8 cm.

Variations: pink, yellow

I bought this because it feels squishy in the package, hence stimmy potential. (I don’t wear makeup and have no non-stimmy use for this.) I’d say it does, and while it’s a weird stim toy, it provides a few different textures I’ve felt with no other item.

Oddly enough, it’s less squishy outside of the package--the plastic over the top makes it feel squishier than it is. It has a covering on the back that feels like a very fine plastic felt that is quite nice to touch, and a thin film of plastic over the silicone that feels like touching a kind of plastic skin. Both wrinkle easily when bent or squished, so there’s a cool visual component to poking, bending and flexing this, especially because both backing and film wrinkle differently--you get a fine layer of wrinkles on the top, followed by the silicone and then deeper wrinkles underneath. The top film wrinkles enough that you can feel it gather, giving the blender a very subtle texture. The faster and firmer you stroke it, the more it wrinkles, so you can vary the texture depending on how you handle it.

It has no scent at all, and the film means it doesn’t have the powdery feel of a mochi squishy. It is silky smooth and gives under the finger tip, and I can’t think of anything that exactly matches the feel of this. When squished, it like a firm mochi squishy--both firmer but also more jelly-like. Enclosed in backing and film, it isn’t stretchable, and you can’t press a finger all the way down into it.

To me it’s something like how I imagine pressing a very firm jellyfish might feel like.

I don’t think this would be super durable--the top film isn’t thick. I don’t know how much twisting and poking it would take before ripping.

If you like jelly-like consistencies without the sensory feel of jelly, this might be a workable squishing, poking or stroking toy.

Image description under read more cut:

[image description: two photos of an oblong, rounded, pale pink, glitter-infused silicone makeup blender sponge, taken on a red watermelon slice pillow background. First photo shows the sponge inside a black bag with a clear front and peach text written on the bag over the sponge: “oxx silicon make up blender” and “easy to clean, easy to use, absorbs less foundation”. A peach spot to one side has hard-to-see white text reading “new shape”. Second photo shows the sponge, unpackaged. It has a darker pink felt-resembling back and a thin clear film over the sponge, causing faint wrinkles across the top. The glitter pieces are a fine silver.]

[stimtoybox]

[image description: a stock photo of eight makeup blending sponges, arranged in a circle on a white background. From centre top, the sponges are: a pale pink hourglass shape; a dark pink teardrop; a beige/cream hourglass shape; a light blue teardrop; a mauve hourglass shape; a light green teardrop; a banana yellow hourglass shape; another light blue teardrop.]

Makeup Blending Sponges - eBay, $0.77 USD each.

Item has free standard international shipping.

If you wish to purchase more than one of these, another eBay seller has these on sale in lots of 4 for $1.82 USD and 8 for $3.38 USD each.

Even on sale locally, these are at minimum $2 AUD each, making these eBay options a super cheap stimming option. I love them, as they have a more cellulose-like texture than squishies, and they’re great for just rolling in your fingers or gently squashing.

The set of four has two teardrop and two hourglass sponges per set, making it a great starting point for stimmers who want both shapes.

[stimtoybox]

[image description: two teardrop-shaped makeup blending sponges, one aqua and one pink, taken on a red watermelon slice pillow. The aqua sponge is in a peach ziplock bag with a clear plastic front; the pink sponge is in an aqua ziplock bag with a clear plastic front.]

Makeup Blending Sponges - K-Mart, $1.50 AUD

An FYI for Aussies: my local K-Mart is clearancing out the makeup blending sponges in the coloured bags (as shown in the photograph above). The ones in the white bags are still $3 AUD each, but the sponges in the coloured bags (pink, aqua and orange) have been reduced to half price.

(They’re older stock than the white-bag sponges, which I’m guessing is the reason why.)

For folks wanting a cheap, silent, very portable stim toy for rolling and squishing, they’re well worth checking out. Please note that some of these sorts of sponges do contain latex, and the labelling on these ones does not state that they’re latex-free.

My store also had other multi-pack bags of different sized thinner makeup sponges on clearance, which is worth checking out for anyone wanting to paint ABS plastic toys (Tangles, snake puzzles) in PVA glue for a picking and peeling replacement stim - I find it much easier to get smooth coverage with a makeup sponge than a paint brush. In fact, unless the item is very small, I almost always use a sponge to apply glue over a brush (it works well for spreading glue for my handmade book-making, too) so having a bag on hand is well worth it even for people who don’t wear makeup.

[stimtoybox]

[image description: two photos of a white-and-pink-striped teardrop-shaped makeup blending sponge. First photo shows the sponge in a white bag with a clear front displaying the text “beauty care makeup blender primer foundation powder blush” in black type. Second photo shows the sponge at the top of a circle comprised of a pink, orange and purple teardrop sponge and a yellow hourglass/pear-shaped sponge. Both photos are taken on a red watermelon slice pillow as background.]

Makeup Blending Sponges: $3 AUD, K-Mart

Old Colours: Fuchsia | Nude | Lilac | Orange | Aqua | Pink | Purple |

New Colours: Navy and Light Pink Two-Toned | Fuchsia and Navy Two-Toned | Lilac and Navy Two-Toned | White and Fuchsia Marbled | White and Black Marbled |

Dimensions: 6.5 cm x 4.5 cm

I’ll be honest: these sponges haven’t changed since I reviewed them last, other than to undergo a drop in price.

There is, however, now a wonderful selection of colours, and the striped/marbled sponge above was far too pretty to leave behind. So pretty, right? The stripes are different on all its sides, giving you different things to look at as you roll it in your hand. I know colour is important to many of us, and having a great selection of solid and multicoloured sponges for squishing and rolling is always a good thing.

They’re a great substitute for a squishy (although not in the least slow rising) and have a nice, foam-meets-cellulose texture. There’s always one rolling around my desk, it’s easy to wash or brush the dust away, and they’re so easily replaced it doesn’t matter what happens to them.

Now I just have to resist the urge to have one of each colour. Self, I do not need to own all the sponges...

[stimtoybox]

[image description: four goodies from Daiso, left to right, top to bottom. 1 - Pink and white ‘Zenshin Roller’ on a white card with Japanese text. A white knobbled roller-massager set into a pink frame with grooves for holding in one’s fingers. 2 - Bag of makeup sponges in various shapes coloured pink, white, blue, cream, purple and yellow labelled ‘Sponges Reasonable Pack 25 PCS’ followed by text in Japanese, Spanish and (I think) Portugese. 3 - Pink and green clear plastic liquid motion bubbler. 4 - Pack of three beige fabric cotton puffs in a green plastic bag.]

For those wanting an inexpensive roller akin to those available from The Therapy Shoppe, Daiso has these little hand-held ones. The massager is a little soft and feels nice to roll over skin with some tissue or muscle behind it. Sadly, it’s not curved, so it doesn’t follow the planes of my body very well save for my thighs, but I suspect this might not be such a problem for larger adults. (A roller with a little curve would reach more of my skin/fit my body more comfortably.) I also find the knobbles a little too widely placed, so I don’t have as many of them hitting my skin as, say, rolling a prickle ball.

The bag of sponges are soft, fun, inexpensive squishables. The big yellow and green sponge is the best one to roll and squish, but all the others are nice to touch.

The cotton puffs aren’t nice to touch at all. They’re covered with a soft, unremarkable cotton that I find rather boring. While I squish a sponge every time I open my underwear drawer (they’re stored in a box in that drawer) I don’t touch the cotton puffs, and I’ll likely give them away to someone who wears makeup and might use them for their actual purpose.

The bubbler/dripper is great! I have mine on my desk and I tip it over whenever I want to watch the pretty. It reminds me of a sand art picture Oma and Opa used to have that you could tip upside down to watch the sand move, just on a smaller scale.

Everything cost $2.80 AUD from Japanese discount/dollar store Daiso.