If you don't wash it for a week, it will be dirtier than the toilet. How dirty are beauty sponges? How should you choose one?

For those who often wear makeup, beauty sponges are often used. If you buy the right one, it can add a lot of points to your base makeup. But cleaning beauty sponges is really a headache. It is too troublesome to wash it after each use, but if you don't wash it, you worry that it will not be clean.

In this article, we will tell you: How dirty are beauty sponges? How to clean beauty sponges? How to choose beauty sponges?

If you are also using a beauty sponge, remember to like and forward it!

1. How dirty are makeup sponges? This time, we collected 10 used makeup sponges/powder puffs from the company and spent 2,500 yuan to send them to the laboratory for testing of the total number of bacterial colonies. To see if the things we use on our faces every day are clean and hygienic.

The details of the 10 beauty eggs/powder puffs are as follows:

Before sending them for testing, we thought everyone's beauty sponges were just a little dirty. But the results showed that beauty sponges are like bacterial petri dishes:

There is currently no national standard for beauty sponges. We found the national standard for powder puffs similar to beauty sponges, which requires that the total colony count should be ≤ 1000 CFU/g.

Compared with the standard, except for one dry-use beauty egg, the beauty eggs used by the company's young ladies can be said to be full of bacteria, with the highest total colony count reaching 27 million CFU/g, which is 27,000 times higher than the standard.

Some people may ask, I am not eating the beauty sponge, so it shouldn’t matter if it gets a little dirty when I use it to apply foundation, right?

The bacteria attached to the beauty sponge are likely to cause an imbalance in the skin's flora, leading to problems such as inflammation or allergies.

Therefore, it is very necessary to clean the beauty sponge in time. It is recommended to clean it after each use and dry it in a cool and ventilated place.

2. How to clean the beauty sponge? 1. Squeeze the cleaning agent onto the beauty sponge and put it into a fresh-keeping bag. Add appropriate amount of clean water into the bag;

2. Rub and squeeze the beauty egg to soak the detergent, and gently squeeze out the foundation inside (do not pinch it with your fingernails);

3. After squeezing the beauty sponge until no obvious foundation flows out, rinse with clean water until there is no foam;

4. Use a dry paper towel to absorb the moisture in the beauty egg, place it on the beauty egg rack, and place it in a cool and ventilated place to dry naturally (do not expose to the sun).

3. How to choose a beauty sponge? In addition to whether the beauty sponge is clean, people are also concerned about whether the beauty sponge is easy to use. After all, a beauty sponge that is not easy to use will absorb powder, fade, and not stick to the makeup...

We have also thought about these questions for you. The researcher bought 14 popular beauty eggs, and through water absorption test, powder absorption test and real-life trial, she can help you choose the best beauty eggs:

01 Water absorption capacity

At present, there is no specific criterion for judging the quality of beauty sponges. However, most beauty sponges on the market are made of hydrophilic polyurethane, which has an important characteristic: it expands when exposed to water. Therefore, to a certain extent, we can judge the hardness and skin-friendliness of beauty sponges by the amount of water they absorb.

The researcher weighed a brand new beauty egg and a wet beauty egg (no water will flow out when squeezing the beauty egg).

Calculate the ratio of the water absorbed by the beauty egg to the total weight after being wetted to obtain the water absorption capacity. The results are as follows:

The larger the ratio, the stronger the water absorption capacity of the beauty sponge, and the softer and more skin-friendly it is. The top five water absorption capacities are No. 11, No. 14, No. 9, No. 5, and No. 10.

02 Eating powder

We hope that the beauty sponge is not only soft and skin-friendly, but also absorbs as little powder as possible. After all, liquid foundation is bought with real money, so we should save as much as possible.

The powder consumption experiment simulates the makeup application process of dry and wet beauty sponges. Use a beauty sponge to evenly apply the same amount of liquid foundation on a weighing paper, weigh the weight before and after use, and get the ratio of powder consumption to the amount used.

The results are as follows:

When used dry, the ones that require less powder are No. 8, No. 9, No. 11, No. 2 and No. 6. When used wet, the ones that require less powder are No. 8, No. 10, No. 4, No. 9 and No. 14. Whether to use it dry or wet depends on your personal preference.

03 Real-person trial

In addition to testing the water absorption capacity and powder absorption rate, we also recruited 14 volunteers from the company to conduct a blind test to understand their actual usage effects.

After applying makeup with the beauty sponge, the volunteers filled out their experience and gave a comprehensive rating based on three dimensions: comfort, softness, and makeup feel:

Based on real-life trial reviews and experimental data, we recommend No. 10, No. 9, and No. 13 beauty sponges.

During the real-life trial, a volunteer mentioned that the beauty sponge's "cross-section is friendly to small parts", indicating that the shape of the beauty sponge will also affect the makeup experience. Here are some tips for choosing the shape:

Finally, I would like to remind sisters not to be lazy, use more detergent to wash the beauty sponge, replace it with a new one every month, and throw it away if it gets moldy.