Since it was 75 degrees here today, I decided it was officially time for my seasonal makeup bag clean-out – take out the Winter stuff, put in the Springy stuff. I was excited to find I had a new Alison Raffaele Foundation Sponge stored away from last year – I love this sponge.

Instead of the typical wedge shaped sponge, this high quality sponge has a slightly rounded rhombus shape (you really don’t get to use the word rhombus much as a beauty writer!), which allows you to distribute foundation evenly in spots that a regular sponge or brush would deposit way more than you need – like the creases above your nostrils.

I find that it works best if you wet it down first and then dip it into foundation – using a wet sponge makes the foundation more sheer and natural looking – and if too much does end up in one spot, you can just flip over the sponge and correct it – the water will take the excess off, but not everything – so you can control how much coverage you’ll get.

Just to see if there was any difference, I tried wetting the sponge down with the iTech Energy Water System, and I got far more luminous and smooth coverage than with regular tap water – it’s a good combination of products.

These sponges are incredibly durable too – they last through many, many washings.

You can get two sponges for $6 at Beauty.com.