egg-shaped sponges?

For anyone else who has taken a class with Lucie Brouillard, you may remember her saying "make sure you have a sponge shaped like an egg to avoid harsh lines." I'm sure many of us (including myself) use half-sponges, but how does one go about shaping a half sponge like an egg or to have rounded edges so as to avoid harsh lines?

I have recently started using the backside/outside/rounded side of the half-sponge rather than the flat part for some things. Especially for smaller faces where the flat side is just too big. I can "roll" as much of the rounded side as I need. It's working for me but is hard to get used to.

Sometimes I want the straight/harsh line though.

After Gen Keller's class, I am a curved side sponge user converter, lol. I love it and how much more colors you can pick up and how easily it fits in the eye area. That said, some people tend to cut the sharp edges out by curving them more (snip snip snip snip)

You know... it really doesn't matter.

The egg shaped sponges are out there if you want to buy them ( http://www.beautyblender.net/ for $19.95 EACH!!!!!), but it really is all about technique, practise and blending...

I sometimes use the round side of my half circles when loading from a rainbow cake and rock it on the face to apply and blend, but I can cover a body with a square sponge and I'll challenge anyone to find a "harsh line."

Lynne Jamieson, who blends beautifully and flawlessly, cuts up car wash sponges into fist sized chunks that are roughly shaped with large scissors...

I have always used the round side of my half sponges.... but I kind of wad up the flat side into my fingers so that it makes the sponge kind of pouf out on the other side (if that makes any sense?).

I use them both ways and for smaller faces I will use a 1/4 of a sponge. I find that on some younger children depending upon their facial features/proportions even a 1/2 sponge is too large for their face.

thanks for the suggestions everyone!

ChangingFaceDesigns wrote:I use them both ways and for smaller faces I will use a 1/4 of a sponge. I find that on some younger children depending upon their facial features/proportions even a 1/2 sponge is too large for their face.

Me too Changing. I've just started using the little 1/4 of a sponge & find it works so well on the younger ones.

I use whatever side of the sponge that will give me the coverage I'm looking for. I also squish the sponge into the shapes I need. I use the clean side of the sponge for blending. I have different size sponges for different size faces. I love my 1/2 snaz sponge(the one that comes with the $16 kit) for applying white around kids eyes. My favorite sponge is the "greenie". I also love my home made sponges from the green cushions at Joann's. Whenever I need a new shape I go to my cushion & cut it out.

"The egg shaped sponges are out there if you want to buy them for $19.95 EACH!!!!!, but it really is all about technique, practise and blending... "

Ouch! I wish I could afford that many sponges! I was using some I bought from Amazon and cutting them and dying them black for a long time. I got the grand sponges from Creative Kingdom a few weeks ago that are egg shaped and way more affordable. So far I like them! I took me a little bit to get used to them though. They are high density so loading it is a little different and I just use one sponge per color but so far so good.
Hope this helps!

Some of my favourite sponges are the green Fantasy World Wide, and the pink Always Wicked.
I need a lot of sponges, as I always use one sponge per child, never reusing on the job.
My team and I do an 18 day festival every summer. I have 1,500 sponges. Many of the sponges are the car wash sponges. I use the car wash sponges, and save my favourite sponges for my team. I figure that if I can use car wash sponges, I can use any kind of sponge.
There is a different kind of sponge that I use when a child has sensory issues, or, I want softly blended blush on the cheeks.....
I use magician's sponge balls!

I simply time the harsh edges of halfed sponges with small sharp scissors. Easy. Leave some sharp, trim some not too much and trim some small.

Look at Paradise Sponge Applicators to see how they are trimmed. There's is minor trim, you can trim much more and get a nice little rounded edge for near small eyes. Just trim to desired size.

As for Beauty Blender type sponges these are meant for use with cream makeups and foundations which contain oil. Like wedges they are for soaking up the oil in the makeup. Some of these type sponges work ok with face paints but the more open the cell the greater pigment your sponge will pickup.