Category Archives: Flower

Swatch Spam: Blush, Bronzer, and Highlighter

I realized that I have a ton of products I haven’t ever swatched or reviewed for Project Swatch, so I thought I’d remedy that by doing a couple of posts with lots of swatches! I’m starting off today with several blushes and a few highlighters and bronzers. I’ll say just a few words about each item.

TheBalm How Bout Them Apples

Cider // Pie // Candy // Cobbler // Crisp // Caramel

First, we have TheBalm How ‘Bout Them Apples blush palette ($32 at Nordstrom). I like it, but not as much as I expected to. The texture of these is a bit more slippery than I prefer for the cheeks, and a bit too drying for the lips. Pretty colors though, and definitely wearable on both the cheeks and lips; just not ideal.

Milani Bella Rosa

Next, the new Milani Bella Rosa baked blush (approximately $8 at drugstores or Milanicosmetics.com) is just as wonderful as all the online reviews say. Smooth, pigmented, and blendable.

Milani Hermosa Rose

Milani Illuminating Face Powder (around $9) in Hermosa Rose is absolutely gorgeous in the pan. It’s lightly pigmented and has a very fine, smooth shimmer. I am not sure what I think about the color though – it’s a little too dark for a highlighter for me, but not dark enough to be a true bronzer. I haven’t tried it as blush yet, but hopefully that will work out!

Rose-O-Den-Dron // Elegant Azalea // Pure Petunia // Peach Blossom

I really like Flower Win Some Rouge Some cream blush (around $8 at Walmart). You can read my review of Elegant Azalea here. Note that Rose-O-Den-Dron has a different texture than the rest – I don’t know if it’s a quality control issue or what. But, both textures work well – blendable and smooth.

Ticket to Brazil // Reserve Your Cabana

And finally, two of the three Wet n Wild Color Icon Bronzers – Ticket to Brazil & Reserve Your Cabana (around $4 at drugstores, online at Walgreens.com). Both are lovely – smooth and blendable with the best kind of shimmery finishes – but the highlighter, Reserve Your Cabana is especially silky.

Do you have any of these items, or are any of them are your wishlist?

*I purchased all products featured in this post. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

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Flower Cosmetics Elegant Azalea Win Some Rouge Some Creme Blush: Review & Swatches

Purchased Affiliate Links

I purchased two items from the new(ish) Flower by Drew Barrymore line (available available exclusively at Walmart, -->online --> and in some stores). Earlier today, I reviewed the Color Play Creme Eyeshadow in Time Willow Tell, which I did not like – but you win some and you lose some, and this Win Some Rouge Some Creme Blush is a definite hit! (Okay that was terrible of me.)

Again, I’m not a fan of Flower’s packaging; the white plastic looks cheap and tacky to me, and I really wish they had printed the shade names on the actual packaging rather than on just the peel-off labels.

Most – or perhaps all – of the other cream/creme blushes I own are true creams, but this Flower blush is a cream-to-powder formula. The texture is sort of silky and powdery, but also creamy, if that makes any sense – and it definitely dries down to a powder finish. It is incredibly pigmented (the heavier swatch below is just one swipe!) but also extremely blendable, so it’s easy to apply anything from the sheerest layer on up.

Flower Elegant Azalea Creme Blush Swatch

Elegant Azalea – heavy swatch, blended swatch

I chose the shade Elegant Azalea, which is a bright coral-pink with a matte finish; no shimmer or sparkle at all (my swatch photo came out oddly and it sort of looks like there is shimmer; there definitely is not any).

Overall, I love this blush. It’s a great color and a great texture. I love that it’s so blendable and so easy to apply a sheer layer, yet also so easy to build up more intense color. I would absolutely recommend this product, and I’m considering picking up more shades!

*I purchased the product(s) featured in this post. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

Flower Time Willow Tell Color Play Creme Eyeshadow: Review & Swatches

Purchased Affiliate Links

I recently purchased two items from the Walmart-exclusive Flower by Drew Barrymore makeup line (available -->online --> and in some stores), and I’ll be reviewing both for you today. First up – Color Play Creme Eyeshadow in the shade Time Willow Tell, which retails for $8.

First: Packaging. Part of the premise behind Flower Makeup is that it is prestige-quality makeup in high quality, more luxurious packaging for an inexpensive price. As with any makeup line, the quality of the items vary, but packaging wise, I personally think they completely missed their goal. To me, the packaging looks and feels extremely cheap and tacky – white plastic? Really? It is reasonably functional and sturdy, but not only is it not luxe, it’s some of the least attractive drugstore packaging I’ve ever seen. Additionally, they neglected to label the plastic with the shade names of the products; only the peel-off labels (which seal the products closed) have shade names.

Texture-wise, this is a really interesting product. I first read about it on Nouveau Cheap, and I was intrigued by G.’s detailed review – a whipped mouse that never dried down, but didn’t crease, even on her oily skin? I suggest reading her review, as she had a totally different experience with this product than I did (it creased for me; more on this later). I do agree with her about the texture in the pot; it’s sort of cool-whip-esque, and totally different from any other eyeshadow I have tried.

Time Willow Tell is a very sparkly icy sage green. In the swatches below, I’ve applied it two ways; the left swatch is a single thin, blended layer, and the right swatch is multiple layers. As you can see, one layer gives a lot of sparkle and very little color; multiple layers give a little color, but it’s still quite sheer. I found that it was not possible to build it to an opaque color.

Natural light: one layer, multiple layers

With flash: one layer, multiple layers

I tried wearing this on my eyes several ways. As an extremely sheer wash of sparkle only it works well enough and doesn’t crease – there really isn’t enough product there to crease. Layered about as heavily as in the second swatch – which is really quite sheer and not very heavily layered at all – it creases very badly within a few hours on me, either alone or over primer. If worn the same way but set with face powder or eyeshadow (I chose a sheer shade, but I imagine layering on an opaque eyeshadow would work as well), it works for me and does not crease. It has a little fallout throughout the day, due to the sparkle.

Overall, I found this product mildly disappointing. I was hoping that I would be able to get a richer, more opaque color out of it; instead, it’s quite sheer. I don’t really mind using a primer and setting it with powder, though of course I would prefer it if I could use it alone. I won’t be purchasing any more of these shadows, and I don’t recommend them.

*As noted in this review, I purchased the featured product. This post contains an affiliate link. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.