Review/Rave: the Konjac sponge

What on earth is this mysterious name for a sponge? Well, let me explain.
Konjac is a plant that grows in Asia, in tropical and subtropical areas. I wanted to show you a picture but to be honest it's a really ugly plant, so I'd rather not.
Anyways, this plant has a corm that is often referred to as yam, even though it has nothing to do with the actual potato family. But it's edible, too, and it's used in a lot of recipes in several Asian countries.


Now this blog hasn't turned into a food one overnight, and our Konjac plant is very fibery, which allows the making of sponges that are 100% made of those vegetal fibers. How cool is that?
Those sponges are totally natural, free of additive or color and when they're getting tired they can be made into compost or used to give moisture in plant pots, so that makes them 100% recyclable.


But what do they do for you? Well they're extremely soft and can be used on any type of skin, including on fragile baby skin. People with eczema or psoriasis can use them too.
The sponges can be used on face and body, alone or with a tiny bit of cleanser (really a tiny bit because it will foam like crazy with the sponge).


Through gentle massage, the Konjac sponge is supposed to stimulates blood flow and activate skin renewal, as well as very slightly exfoliating the skin. Now I cannot measure this, of course, but what I know is that it does leave my skin fresh, clean, feeling plumped and looking glowy. So I absolutely love it!


Now you can use the natural version whatever your skin condition is, but there are also a couple of versions that are enriched with different types of clay, that are made for the face only and that help with particular skin conditions :

• pink clay for tired, devitalized skin
• green clay for normal to oily skin
• red clay for dry and sensitive skin, which is the one I am using at the moment as my cheeks are sensitive and kind of dry
• There is also a version with Bamboo Charcoal for very oily or acne prone skins.

A Konjac sponge costs £5.25 and will last you about 3 months, depending on how you use it and care for it.

I use mine in the morning with no cleanser, and sometimes in the evening to rinse off my Shu Uemura cleansing oil when it's emulsified. I heard it works great with a makeup removing balm as well.
I absolutely adore the feeling of that sponge on my skin, particularly in the morning as it helps me waking up and makes my skin looks fab before I put makeup on. 

I definitely recommend this little guy to everyone as it's such an affordable and natural but effective beauty tool.

Konjac Sponges can be purchased from The Konjac Sponge Company or from Zuneta; both will ship internationally.

If you wish to see the sponge in action, here's a little demo by makeup artist Katie Hugues.