If you wear makeup, you likely have that little pink sponge in your kit. Makeup artists and Sephora addicts alike love Beautyblender – a popular brand of makeup sponge with 1.7 million Instagram followers (and many, many multiples of that in sales). While the sponges, which are to be used wet, are great for blending foundation and concealer, they’re tricky to store and transport without being prone to bacteria. Enter the GlamPod, a simple, plastic oval with holes to store makeup sponges so they can dry and stay clean. “I’ve seen people carry their sponges with them in a plastic Ziploc bag they’ve poked holes in,” GlamPod’s creator, Ola Cislik, laughs. “This is a much sleeker and less tedious option.” The GlamPod fits virtually any brand, shape and size of makeup sponge – even when they’re wet and expand.
Cislik is a second year law student at the University of Alberta, and designed the product after shared frustrations with storing her makeup sponges. “I spend almost all my time outside of school working on it,” Cislik says.
She oversees design and marketing in Edmonton and manufacturing in Airdrie. “When it’s possible to make something locally, why wouldn’t you?”
Since launching GlamPod in July 2017, Cislik is thrilled to see makeup users across North America take to her product. “We’ve had a great response from different makeup artists down in California . . . even [famed makeup and tattoo artist) Kat Von D commented when we launched the black GlamPod and really liked it,” Cislik says.
This article appears in the May 2018 issue of Avenue Edmonton.
