Tati Beauty Blendiful

The Blendiful, Tati Beauty’s second product release, strives to become the newest must-have multi-tool for the masses. As one of the original YouTube makeup gurus, Tati Westbrook has tried thousands of products over the years. In other words- she knows her stuff. But is her Blendiful makeup applicator, which comes as a set with a large gray puff and a smaller heart-shaped puff designed for touch-ups, really as “game changing” as she claims?

Price: $18

Find it HERE

Tested January 2020

The matte black package this product arrives in contains two 100% polyester puffs. Both the larger gray puff and the mini, black, heart-shaped puff are 1/2 inch thick. The smaller of the two has a bit more rigidity based on its size (it’s 2.5 inches across at its widest point), while the more generously sized gray puff measures 3.5 inches x 4 inches, which is just a bit bigger than the palm of my hand. Since I’ve never tried a velour puff like this, I watched Tati’s video discussing how to use the Blendiful before testing it, so that I had a starting place to understand what she claims it can do. Let me break down its performance by layer.

*Blendiful used to apply foundation, concealer, contour and bronzer*

Primer: Tati herself claims this puff is especially good at applying pore-filling primer. I don’t typically use this type of primer (they seem to make my foundation slide and/or pill), but for the sake of this review I dotted DR. BRANDT pores no more® primer on my t-zone and dabbed it in with the Blendiful. I couldn’t really tell when the primer was all absorbed since I couldn’t feel through the puff (as opposed to applying directly with a finger) so I dabbed at it a few extra times for good measure. Surprisingly, I couldn’t feel much residue on the puff afterwards- meaning it hadn’t absorbed much, if any, product.

Foundation: Since my Laura Mercier foundation is pricey, I was afraid to pour it onto the puff only to have it all soak in. Because of this I dotted it around my face first and then used the puff to dab, pat and roll it into my skin. When I tried to swipe, I saw streaks and the product was more or less wiped away- so don’t do that. Unlike a damp Beauty Blender which seems to sheer out foundation a bit (by both adding water and absorbing extra product) this kept the coverage quite full. It seems the synthetic material doesn’t really absorb any product. What it didn’t do was was help the product glide around, since it is meant to be used dry. I ended up using slightly more foundation than usual. Application was pretty flawless except for a little extra product settling into the lines on my forehead, which I was able to blend out with a couple extra passes. The only downside so far to the puff is that it takes time to use. Though it’s large, it’s also thin and flexible so you’re really only getting pressure on your skin from wherever your fingertips are pressing against it. Imagine the amount of time it would take you to apply a full face of foundation if you only used the tips of 3 fingers…

Concealer: The puff is too large to effectively blend concealer around the inner corner of my eye without also covering my lashes and brows. With some strategic pinching and folding I was able to make it work but the result was no better than my fingers or a brush or sponge, so not worth the hassle.

Cream Contour: I wanted to love this for contour and I think with a different formula I could, but it would have to be something thinner and with more slip than the FENTY BEAUTY Match Stix Matte Skinstick in shade Amber. I love my Fenty contour stick; the shade is perfect and typically a really dense synthetic brush allows me to keep it where I want and still buff out the edges. The Blendiful on the other hand didn’t soften it much at all. I tried dabbing and rolling and patting… the bummer is that folded in half lengthwise the Blendiful fits perfectly into the hollow of your cheek, so application location would be spot on. After way too much time dabbing I felt the results were passable albeit a bit intense.

*The Blendiful fits perfectly into the contoured hollow of your cheek*

Cream Bronzer: The Fenty contour is a true shadow, with the shade bordering on ashy, so one’s face needs a little warming up afterwards. Enter Soleil Tan de Chanel. This Chanel bronzer is foolproof, so if the Blendiful can’t handle it, I can’t handle the Blendiful. Chanel’s bronzer formula is a cream-gel with a lot of slip and sheer but buildable coverage. I typically apply it with a synthetic stippling brush, using a swirling motion. I decided to dab the Blendiful directly into the jar and just go for it. Fortunately this worked and I was able to effectively warm up my face. The puff layered this bronzer nicely on top of my foundation and contour without picking up or moving anything from underneath. Unfortunately, because The Blendiful is so thin, I felt once again like I was using a piece of velour over the tips of a couple of fingers to tap things in, a slow process if you don’t want to end up with leopard spots.

*Capable of blending cream products if they have some slip, like this gel bronzer*

Translucent Powder: The Blendiful is quite literally a powder puff so it should come as no surprise that it does a good job at pressing powder into the skin. I don’t normally “bake” my face because my skin is dry and I’m 31 years old. For this review, however, I attempted to using the Blendiful to do this. Areas where I simply used the puff to press in a normal amount of powder looked gorgeously airbrushed, but areas where I layered on extra (to “bake”) looked thick and any lines and texture were emphasized. Fortunately I was able to spray a little MAC FIX+ (which is mostly water and glycerin) directly onto the puff, dab the excess off on the back of my hand and rehydrate the problem areas. After all of these extra steps I thought my base actually looked really good. Definitely matte not dewy, but I felt like my makeup would last having been set this way.

Powder Blush: Here’s where things got dicey. Tati claims the Blendiful was designed to “seamlessly apply & soften both liquid and powder products.” I was skeptical about using this puff to dab on pigmented powders, and rightfully so. A couple light touches of my Kevyn Aucoin The Neo-Blush (see a review of the blush HERE) and I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t blend or soften it AT ALL. I flipped the Blendiful over and tried to use the clean side, no luck. I tried to use the corner with leftover foundation on it to dull the rouge and that was even worse. I ended up with a thick and muddy disaster. I had no choice but to completely remove all the layers from my cheekbone to jaw and start over.

*The Blendiful applied powder blush too heavily and there was no going back*

My makeup application in general was a little faster the second time around, but I still struggled to blend out the drier cream products (see contour). I used a brush for blush this time and because of my first bad experience with it. I skipped using the Blendiful to apply highlighter and instead opted for a fan brush.

In the end, I was able to create a passable look using all my of my best performing products and also spent exponentially more time than usual (not even counting the cheek redo). If I wanted a matte look that was going to last all day I could see utilizing the Blendiful to press translucent powder into my cream products to set them. Similarly, if I had oily skin and wanted to blot it with a powder puff, the Blendiful’s large footprint would make quick work of the task. Unfortunately, I rarely find myself in either situation.

So as a 30-something who needs all the extra moisture I can get, this dry puff did me no favors. I might mail it to Liz if she wants to try it because the small heart shaped puff that comes in the package with the full size Blendiful is cute. I will say that, true to its claims, the Blendiful did come completely clean in the washing machine (hand washing in the sink didn’t cut it). The product insert said to use a gentle cleanser or to wash it in a net laundry bag for delicates. I did neither. First, I tried dish soap (because it cuts grease and cream makeups are oil-based), and when this didn’t work, I tossed it into a regular laundry load with some towels and crossed my fingers. I skipped the dryer because the polyester puff was basically dry straight out of the wash and to my surprise looked practically brand new.