The Crème Shop Makeup Blending Beauty Sponge Review | They Look Delicious! But Do They Work?

     Everyone feast your eyes on these recent finds from Marshall's! I found these blending sponge sets a couple weeks ago, was intrigued, and....well, you know the rest. Since then, I've had time to put them to the test! These beauty blending sponges from The Crème Shop  (an LA based brand that I've never heard of before, and according to their website, they're indeed cruelty free!) are inspired and shaped similarly to those delicious sweets that you'll find gracing the shelves of almost any French patisserie!

I do, however, feel like I have to put a disclaimer, after even displaying a picture of these cutesy and delicious macaron and cream puff-shaped makeup blender sponges, and I apologize for having to state the obvious, but here it goes: no, these makeup sponges are not edible. There is good reason for these being located in the beauty aisle, and not up front with all the candy and snacks lol. Sorry, I had to, since I can't be legally responsible for anyone's digestive issues. 😶

I was not able to find either of these sets on their website, thecremeshop.com. I'm thinking the availability on these may be restricted to select Marshall's and TJMaxx stores at around $4-$5 a set, which is the price I got mine for. Keep reading on for the review! 

The Crème Shop Makeup Macarons Tasteful Blending Sponge Duo

     With these macaron sponges, I could find virtually nothing online about them, which is disappointing because I was trying to find out more from the brand to see exactly what blending use they intended for these. It doesn't say anywhere on the packaging that these sponges are supposed to expand when wet, and they indeed do not expand at all, so I'm not faulting them for that. I don't know whether or not these are intended to be finishing blender sponges that are meant to be blending a face already set with powder to eliminate that cakey finish, and I don't use much setting powder to begin with, so I don't have much experience with using these with eliminating a powdery texture, just a cakey texture.

Honestly, I'm also not seeing a difference in how they perform whether I use them wet or dry, but I do like to use all of my sponges wet even if they don't double up or increase at all in size, as I find that water helps meld my makeup together better, and I rarely wear a completely matte face, as it is.

The material in these is so incredibly compacted and dense, that the product I'm blending out with these comes directly off of my face in patches wherever this sponge makes contact, and any makeup on my face almost immediately gets soaked into these sponges. The surface of these is very smooth, surprisingly not hard or anything, just a bit stiff for most makeup purposes. It makes a very faint thump when I dab my face with it, so it's by no means soft, just smooth. I was only out $4 for this set, and while they ultimately don't really work at blending, I have no qualms with using them as novelty little decorative nuggets!

My Grade: D

The Crème Shop Petite Puffs Blending Precision Sponge Duo

     So, there's only one thing I'm echoing with this set that I said about the last set, and that is that I could find zilch about these online. I'm thinking these were part of a limited edition collection on their website at one point, and for whatever reason didn't sell all too well, and the bulk of the remaining stock was sent to discount overstock places around the U.S. These were a dollar more than the macaron sponge set, so at a modest $5 for this, honestly, I would've even paid a couple dollars more, for how well these performed! They're so incredibly adorable too!

It was a laugh trying to fit them back into their original packaging for pictures. There's a symbol on the box that these mini precision sponges do expand when wet, and I've found that after using these damp and washing afterwards, they never did shrink back down to original size. I used them dry some days, yet the material was still expanded. I'm putting that aside though, because in a nutshell, I quite love these, so much that I was inspired to go back and purchase one more sponge from this brand!

These are mini precision sponges, and I guess they're two-toned in case you apply makeup in the dark or don't have your contacts in, and need a color to reference a side of the sponge you want to use. 😄 Nah, all jests aside, I love that these are color block sponges! Nude, soft pink and black are actually my favorite colors to wear as far as fashion goes, so I guess that's what attracted me to this color combo.

As you can see, the sponge on the left that's smaller and more egg shaped with the pink tapered precision end is the most loved of the two, and I use both sides of this sponge for blending out under-eye concealer as well as any concealer I put on the sides of my nose, an area prone to redness. The other sponge I've found is a bit too large for those hard-to-reach areas.
I like to use the black and nude sponge (it looks to me like a little black dress!) to blend out larger surface areas such as the cheeks for cream blusher, and the smaller rounded top for cream highlights (I've even used it once for cream eyeshadow!) and for blending out concealer on the face.

These feel amazing on the skin, wet or dry. Very soft and blends product seamlessly in mere seconds. Even better? There is very minimal product soaked up into the sponge, and judging from washing these, most of the retained product stays on or near the surface of the sponge. I never have to squeeze these beyond recognition to get remnants of stuff from the core of the sponge. One thing to note though, and something that's kind of a bummer, is that these sponges lose their original shape quite easily, and look a bit lumpy and creased after only a couple uses and washes.

My Grade: B+

💋xoxo-Cailee