A common sentiment I've heard with the Beauty Blender (PHP 1005, 1240 with solid cleanser, Sephora) is that it's a blackhole for money. It's not cheap, you have to replace it way more often than foundation brushes, and it sucks up SO MUCH FOUNDATION. Nearly every BB-user I know has units of measurement called 'regular foundation usage' and 'foundation usage with Beauty Blender.' Which is about double or triple their regular use o_o If you're using expensive foundation, that is extremely painful!

But the people have spoken: they love the BB, and they want to make it work! So I'm sharing this tip that'll put your BB on a diet and keep it from eating up all that foundation.

TIP #1: if you haven't yet tried it, dampen your Beauty Blender.

I see so many people on Facebook groups still being shocked that you have to wet the blender. You might want to try setting spray for certain formulations, but water will work on most liquid foundations. Dampening the BB means the sponge's pores are halfway filled with water and won't have much room to absorb your foundation.

TIP #2: Apply foundation normally, AND THEN smoothen the finish using a Beauty Blender.

I see Youtube or random Facebook videos of people pouring gobs of liquid foundation on the sponge, and then dotting foundation on their face and then pulling and blending. And you wonder why it's eating up product?!

Doing primary application with the BB will just push foundation toward the core of your sponge.. That's foundation wasting inside your BB and making cleanup harder. The less you work with the blender, the better.

Since the BB is adored for its perfecting finish anyway, you can just keep it 'til the last step of your foundation routine. Do the grunt work of spreading foundation with your hands or a brush, and then use the BB to remove streaks and perfect the finish. Since I've started doing this, my foundation usage has gone back to pretty much average. Not only that, cleanup has also sped up exponentially.

Was this dumb advice? Do you already do this anyway? Just putting it out there in case people find it useful. It certainly wasn't my first instinct to use a brush with the Beauty Blender. The first time I used a Beauty Blender, I used it dry - LOL!