Tried and Tested: Lottie London Soap Star Solid Brush Cleanser #EveryDayMay

As you'd know from last month's 'Loves and Lusts' post (here), during April I finally got round to giving the whole makeup sponge thang a go and bought myself one of the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponges to try out and see just what all the hype was about. Turns out - I really, really like them and can totally see why so many others seem to love them too - so for May I made it my mission to try and source out a product to clean it with. Just like normal makeup brushes, sponges need to be regularly washed too and after doing some research - I settled on the Lottie London Soap Star Solid Brush Cleanser.

BeautyBlender (a.k.a. the brand that first coined the original makeup sponge) also do their own offering, but just like the sponge itself - it was a lot pricier - and after reading some reviews, many seem to say that this more affordable option from Lottie London is just as good, if not better. So, that was the one I plumped for and last night I finally used it for the first time to give my sponge a good clean (again, for the first time since I bought it last month - so it was pretty grubby).

I believe these solid brush cleansers can be used to clean all varieties of makeup brushes aswell as sponges, but I primarily bought this for the former. Once you open the cleanser, you are met with what looks like a standard circle-shaped bar of soap. The scent of it isn't a particularly pleasant one, but it also isn't overly noticeable unless you get extremely close and sniff it (like I did for the purpose of this post). To use I simply wetted my sponge by placing it under warm running water, swirled it on top of the cleanser and rinsed out again with the running water to remove any excess cleanser. I needed to repeat this process a couple more times, but I think this was more a testament to the fact that I'd been using it solidly for over a month and hadn't cleaned it until now - so there was a lot of product to remove. With each go more and more was washing down the drain and my sponge was looking cleaner and cleaner and it was so worth it as at the end I was left with a sponge that pretty much looked and felt as good as new, aside from a couple of stains here and there. I left my sponge overnight to dry and come the next morning - it was ready to use again. The brush cleanser itself I also left overnight with the lid off to dry out and this was also a pretty quick and easy process - I think helped a lot by the fact that underneath the bar is a little sponge to absorb any excess water left behind. Genius.

So, overall I'd definitely give this solid brush cleanser a thumbs up - at least for cleaning makeup sponges! I'm so pleased I've found a way of making my beloved sponge all squeaky clean again and I'd love to see just how well it fares with my my makeup brushes in comparison - maybe that'll be what I try next! Have any of you lovely lot given this product from Lottie London a go? If so, what did you think of it?