Makeup sponge by Ebelin, dupe for Beauty Blender?

There’s been lot of Beauty Blender dupes released past 3 years and all I’ve tried so far haven’t even come close to Beauty Blender. I stumbled across yet another dupe in DM drugstore, this time by Ebelin, so let’s see if it’s any good.

Price: you can buy Beauty Blender (BB) for 16,90€ from French Sephora, with 20% off seasonal sale, you can buy it for 13,52€. Makeup sponge by Ebelin costs 2,25€ in Austrian DM drugstore (in Slovakia the price is probably similar).

Makeup sponge by Ebelin and Beauty Blender

How it’s used: before the application you wet the sponge and squeeze extra water. The fact that it’s wet helps to keep the product you are applying on the sponge and not soaking in. The BB allows flawless application of any cream products such as primer, foundation, concealer, cream bronzer, blush or highlighter. Recently I’ve seen makeup artists using it with under eye powder as well, I tried it and it works nice. You can watch the instructional videos on the Beauty Blender website.

Texture:

Beauty blender: has unique texture, it is very soft sponge that doubles in size when wet. When used, it beautifully applies the product and softly bounces off your skin.

Makeup sponge by Ebelin: it has rather rubbery texture that is not soft to the touch as the BB. You cannot squeeze it completely to the point that you would feel your fingers through the material as it is in case of BB. When it’s wet it doubles its size just like BB but it doesn’t bounce softly so the experience is not as nice as with the BB.

Makeup sponge by Ebelin (right) and Beauty Blender (left) : both dry

Skin look after using each sponge:

Beauty blender: I use it for foundation and under eye concealer; it allows flawless application, taking away extra cream product if I apply too much of it. I also use it for under eye powder and it cancels powder-like look immediately.

Makeup sponge by Ebelin: surprisingly it works quite well; it gives flawless look to my foundation too. On the other hand since it is not possible to squeeze it very well, it is hard to use it for under eye concealer and powder.

Makeup sponge be Ebelin (right) and Beauty Blender (left) : both wet

Final verdict: this is probably the closest dupe to Beauty Blender if I’m not counting sponge by Real Techniques (it doesn’t try to be a BB dupe, but everybody compares it to it anyway). For the price and relatively good job, I think the sponge by Ebelin is a good alternative to expensive BB sponge. I will definitely use it but then I’ll go back to Beauty Blender. It is the best makeup sponge in the world.