NEW: Real Techniques Miracle Diamond Sponge | Review

I’m really excited to share that I managed to get my hands on the brand new Miracle Diamond Sponge from Real Techniques! It’s the very first sponge to be released from their Bold Metals collection, and being such a huge fan of the original Miracle Complexion Sponge I simply couldn’t wait to try it.

I had very mixed impressions when I first saw it on the RT Instagram page, so I thought I’d pick it up for myself and see whether it’s a gimmick or whether it actually does work.

Price & Packaging

Firstly, I really do like the way that Sam & Nic have tried to keep in with the ‘metal’ theme that clearly ran through the Bold Metals brushes (they’re gold, rose gold and silver), and have gone for a type of gem to keep everything matching (I’m definitely one for things looking cute together). My main issue with the packaging is essentially the fact that it’s white – a white sponge is going to get very dirty very quickly, something that I discovered after just one use. The colour also makes it difficult to get fully clean and it stains easily.

The Bold Metals collection is a more expensive side of Real Techniques as a brand, so of course this sponge was going to be more pricey than the sponges from the original line (which are £5.99 each). These Diamond sponges are £12 each, which is definitely not cheap and I can’t say I was happy to pay that, especially when I noticed that it’s recommended to replace it every 1-3 months.

Shape & Application

The fact that the sponge has 13 facets seems to be one of Real Techniques biggest marketing features, but I can’t say that I find myself using all 13. I mainly use the largest surface, which you can see on the first image there, for applying my foundation and I do think it’s brilliant for creating a flawless finish quickly because it’s quite big. However, I found it difficult to get anywhere near my eyes or around my nose so I switched to using one of the triangular faces on the side. This worked fine, but I do think that the shape encourages you to wipe the foundation onto the skin as opposed to dabbing it on because of the strange pointed end.

I really don’t like the tip of the diamond. On the Real Techniques YouTube channel they recommend that you use it for under the eyes and for covering small imperfections, but I found it to be far too flimsy to cover blemishes – it needs to be much stiffer to be effective – and again I could only wipe concealer under my eyes as opposed to tapping, which left a less smooth and more textured result.

Washing

I’m going to say that the washing process is my biggest bugbare with this sponge. I use Johnson’s Baby Shampoo with all of my other RT sponges and they have always been absolutely fine; the product within them shifted quickly and there was never any stains left behind. With this sponge, it’s a different story.
First of all, the product just would not shift from the sponge. I swirled a little of my baby shampoo onto the biggest flat surface (may I add this wash was after one use) and I had to rub the sponge between my fingers to see any shift in the foundation whatsoever. I couldn’t actually get much of the foundation to move from the sides and the tip of the diamond.
And, to top it all off, my sponge ended up being stained by the Johnson’s shampoo, which resulted in a good 20 minutes of rewashing with different products to remove it.
I’m now left with a sponge that just isn’t fully clean, and I don’t want be too rough with it because it is quite a delicate sponge.

Overall, I will continue to use the sponge for my foundation but I’ll be reaching for other things when it comes to concealing – and I suppose that I’ll just have to accept that it’s going to get a bit grubby. I like the finish I can achieve with it, but for the price the washing process is just too troublesome! I purchased mine from Boots.

Do you like the look of this new sponge?

El x

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