Tag Archives: drugstore blush

Milani Spring 2014 Coming Up Roses Blush Swatches & First Impressions

Last summer, Milani released four rose-embossed blushes and I bought & reviewed two of them – I was not impressed. So when I found this year’s set of four blushes, I thought I’d skip them. Luckily I posted a on Instagram and several people commented that this year’s were worth it. I ended up deciding to buy all four. I haven’t had a chance to really play with them yet, so today I have swatches and my first impressions.

First, here are too many photos of the blushes in the pan. They’re just so pretty.
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Essence Beauty Beats (Justin Bieber) Collection Blush & Highlighter Review, Swatches

Purchased – No Affiliate Links

Essence releases a ton of collections is some countries, but just a few in the the US. They recently released a Justin Bieber themed collection called Beauty Beats. I am not a Bieber fan (Baby is catchy, I guess? I can’t name any of his other songs), but I am an Essence fan, so I bought three items – the blush, highlighter, and one of the glosses. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced the gloss in my recent move, so I don’t have swatches of it today. It’s pretty much clear with sparkles, though – not the most exciting thing to swatch, though it looks great (and green!) in the tube. I do have this picture from my Instagram which includes the gloss.

The blush is named Groupie at Heart, and is a gorgeous watermelon pink. It is imprinted with the word boyfriend – I have absolutely no idea why – and it blends easily, but does kick up some powder. It has a really lovely almost-satin finish – it’s basically matte, but not a flat matte. I would highly recommend this if you can find it – and at around $3, it’s a total steal.

Essence Groupie At Heart

Essence Groupie At Heart: unblended // blended

The highlighter is named Swaaag and imprinted with the word swag. Again, no idea why. I was very excited about it because it looks gorgeous in the pan, but I was disappointed to find out that it has large flecks of glitter in it. If it didn’t have the glitter, it would be great – the texture is nice and I like the soft shimmer – but as is, I don’t find it useable as a highlighter for me.

Essence Swaag

Essence Swaaag in natural light: unblended // blended

Essence Swaaag with blur to show sparkle: unblended // blended

In my region of the US., Essence is only available at Ulta. I am jealous of those of you who have access to more of Essence’s collections!

Maybelline Make A Mauve Master Glaze Blush Stick Review & Swatches

**Announcement: I created a (8 questions, all are optional) for you to give me feedback on Project Swatch. I would really appreciate it if you took the time to fill it out – it should only take a couple minutes, and it will help me improve the blog.**

Purchased – Affiliate Links

Maybelline Master Glaze Blush Stick in Make A Mauve

I purchased one of the new-for-2014 Maybelline Master Glaze blush sticks about a month ago, and the reason it’s taken me such a long time to review is probably because I feel pretty meh about it.

The Master Glaze blush sticks come in six colors ($8.99/Ulta, $7.49/drugstore.com), and I believe all six shades have some shimmer. Make a Mauve has a great base color – a rosy mauve – but the flecks of silver glitter are a huge downside for me. It’s smooth and blendable, but dries to a powdery finish that I don’t love – it feels oddly drying.

Make A Mauve – unblended // blended

Maybelline, I really want to love this. I love cream blush, and actually rarely wear powder anymore. But, it just doesn’t quite work for me.

Revlon Blush on Clearance – Quick Swatches

Purchased – No Affiliate Links

There are currently clearance sales going on at all three major drugstore chains – CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. Nouveau Cheap has links to more information about each sale here. I’ve been buying more than I probably should, and I thought I’d share some hits and some misses. Today, I’m going to talk about Revlon’s cream blushes in Rosy Glow & Berry Flirtatious and their Photoready Sculpting Blush Palettes in Neutral & Peach.

Let’s start with the hits – the cream blushes are fantastic. Berry Flirtatious is significantly drier than Rosy Glow, but I like the texture of each of them. I prefer the darker Berry Flirtatious on my skintone, but still enjoy Rosy Glow (and would especially recommend it for those with paler coloring).

Berry Flirtatious // Rosy Glow

The Photoready Sculpting Blush Palettes, on the other hand, may be going into the trash soon. Each one includes a blush, a contour color, and a highlighter. The colors are pretty, but the pigmentation is abysmal – sheer can be good, but barely visible when heavily layered is not.

The following swatches are multiple swipes, and I loaded up as much color as possible onto a fingertip for each swipe.

Peach

Neutral

For comparison purposes, here’s Neutral next to theBalm Mary Lou-Manizer. The Revlon swatches & the Mary Lou-Manizer swatches were done with the same technique but the Revlon ones are about three layers & the theBalm one is one layer.

To summarize:

Cream blushes: Possibly worth it at full price, definitely worth it for 75% off.

Photoready Face Palettes: Not even worth it if they were free.

NYX Hibiscus & Tea Rose Stick Blush Review, Swatches, Photos

Purchased Affiliate Links Since Ulta’s 40% off NYX sale ends in a few days, I wanted to be sure to get this review up today! I purchased these two stick blushes on the first day of the sale, and so far, I really like them.

The packaging is pretty basic; colored plastic that closely matches the shade of the product. They contain a good amount of product – – and the full price around $6 at Ulta or Cherryculture.

I believe that some of the shades contain shimmer, but I chose two shades with creme finishes – no sparkle or shimmer at all. Both are very pigmented.

Hibiscus heavily swatched & blended out // Tea Rose heavily swatched & blended out

I found each of the stick blushes a bit difficult to blend out over dry skin, but they were easy to blend over well-moisturized skin, including over foundation. I would not recommend using these over a powder foundation; they are not emollient enough for that to work. They work best over well-moisturized skin or over liquid foundation.

I’ve only worn them a couple times so far, but wear time seems typical for a cream product, or perhaps a little better than usual. For me, that means that they last 5-6 hours (creams usually last 4-5 hours on me; this is probably partially because I wear blush very lightly).

Overall, I really like these, and I’d definitely recommend them – especially on sale!

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

Essence Cherry Blossom Girl Blush – Swatch of the Day

Giveaway Prize

Essence Cherry Blossom Girl Blush, Lashes

I really love the brand Essence – it surprised me when I just checked and realized I’ve only reviewed a few products from the brand! I have about 20 Essence nail polishes (so easy when they’re so inexpensive), and several makeup items yet-unreviewed. But, one thing that I don’t like about Essence is how hard it is for me to obtain their products! Ulta has some items, and gets some limited edition products, but only a tiny fraction of what other countries get. And, this is all a long-winded way of tell you all how very excited I was to win Liz the Beauty Reductionista‘s giveaway of two limited edition Essence items from the Cherry Blossom Girl collection! I haven’t tried the paper lashes yet – what does one wear them to? – but I have swatches of the blush for you! Continue reading →