MUA Blusher Shade 1 Review

This little number is one of my very first purchases from MUA and the reason I keep coming back to this brand to try out lots of new things. In a nutshell, you cannot get better value for your money - I dare you to prove me wrong.

I will admit that the packaging is not particularly pretty. The plastic casing looks and feels very cheap, but for the price you could do a lot worse. It will protect the blusher from daily wear and tear if all you keep it in is your make-up case/bag, though I'm not sure it would survive being thrown around in a handbag or suitcase.

But, let's move on to the actual blusher. It's butter soft to the touch, blends easily as long as you use the right brush and has just the right amount of pigmentation to make application easy and straightforward. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and my much more expensive MAC blushes.

What I will say is that due to the softness of the powder, mine broke off at the corners a little bit, so a light hand is required or you might damage your blush.
This particular shade is a very pretty bright pink which looks a lot more shimmery in the pan than it translates onto the skin. In reality it makes for a very girly, light flush on the cheeks which goes particularly well with cooler skin tones.

MUA Blusher Shade 1 swatch in natural light

MUA Blusher Shade 1 swatch with flash

I simply cannot believe that these retail at £1 each. I really want to just run out and buy the whole colour spectrum. Even if the packaging isn't great, the quality of the product more than makes up for it, even putting some high end alternatives to shame.

Bourjois Cream Blush Review - Shade 03, Rose Tender

There's been a bit of a hype around this launch, so I feel like I'm a little late with my actual review of the Bourjois Cream Blush - apologies if you're fed up of them popping up all over your dashboard, haha!

One of my very first blushes was actually from Bourjois, which at the time was a brand that was difficult to get hold of for me. Unfortunately I no longer own it and I don't even remember what happened to it in the end. Anyway, I now have a new one to play with, so I'm not too sad about it.

The packaging of these is very similar to the "little round pot" packaging that is so inherent to Bourjois as a brand. However, the cream blushes are a little wider, thinner, lighter and just overall sleeker. They also house a magnifying mirror in the lid, which is a bit small to do your make-up in, but will do the job in a pinch.
Out of the four shades that have launched I got 03, Rose Tender to review.

Bourjois Cream Blush 03 Rose Tender Swatch

Rose Tender is a dark, dusky pink shot through with little flecks of shimmer in the pan. It applies a little sheerer and therefore lighter than it looks in the packaging, though I have no doubt that you could easily build it up to its true pan colour if you ever wished to do that.
Personally, I prefer to have a lighter flush on the cheeks and that's easily done applying it just with my fingers. The pigmentation is pretty much spot on in my opinion and while it's not ultra-bright and pigmented, that means that it's much easier to apply even for someone who might be a tad heavy-handed.

The blush applies as a cream and then dries down to a powder finish, just as advertised. Thankfully, the bits of shimmer translate into a healthy, flushed glow, rather than into glitter face.
There's just one negative with this blush and that is its staying power. It lasts about 4 hours on my face and then simply melts off and as it's a cream product it's not very convenient to reapply it on the go.

Is it worth the hype then? Yeeee...almost. It ticks pretty much every box apart from longevity, which I feel could be vastly improved. At £7.99 per pot though, I feel like it's a very welcome addition to the high street cream blusher department.

Bourjois Cream Blusher Launch - Are you excited?

I have to admit it's been a while since I got excited about a new product launch, but there's a few summer collections that have got me written all over them.

One of those exciting new things is the Bourjois cream blush. Now, Bourjois blushes have been around for a while - almost 150 years actually. Yeah, 150. One-five-oh. I had to do a double take when I first saw that number. Either way, Bourjois are now bringing out four new cream blushes and I cannot wait to get my mitts on them.

They describe them as a cream-to-powder formula, which is my preferred texture when it comes to blushers and the reason why I'm loving my Topshop blushers so much. Bourjois blushes actually seem to uphold a pretty good reputation in the blogging world, so I'm quite surprised I don't own any more than I do.

The four shades available are:

01 Nude Velvet
02 Healthy Glow
03 Rose Tender
04 Sweet Cherry

I personally can't wait to get my mitts on 03 and 01!
These launch next week on May 15 in Boots, Superdrug and on Asos.com and they seem very reasonably priced at £7.99 each. If you can't wait that long, Selfridges already have them in stock now.

And if you'd like to see some sneaky preview swatches, why not check out this post on Do Not Freeze?

Will you be heading out to pick up a Bourjois cream blush?

Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Lover Review

You know those times when you're looking for something for ages and as soon as you find it it seems to pop up everywhere? This is one of those times. I was looking for a matte apricot blush and found it in this beautiful offering by Illamasqua. As soon as I bought it I seemed to spot them everywhere, but I guess that's just life.

Kennt Ihr auch diese Vorfälle, wo man ewig nach etwas sucht und sobald man es findet taucht es plötzlich überall auf? Darum geht es hier. Ich habe ein mattes, Apricot-farbenes Rouge gesucht und in diesem wunderschönen Produkt von Illamasqua gefunden. Sobald ich es gekauft hatte, sah ich plötzlich überall ähnliche Produkte, aber so ist manchmal das Leben.

A word on the packaging first: The blush is housed in a sturdy black plastic case with a transparent window which will make it easy to find the shade you're looking for if you're in a hurry. Some people may prefer a mirror in the lid, though for me that's not an issue. The pointy corners make for a unique design which certainly isn't going to get lost in your stash, though I found it often difficult to open and if you have weak finger nails like me, beware, as you may lose one or two in the process.

Erst einmal zur Verpackung: Das Rouge sitzt in einem stablien schwarzen Plastikgehäuse mit einem durchsichtigen Fenster, welches es ganz einfach macht, die richtige Farbe zu finden, sollte man es einmal eilig haben. Manche Leute bevorzugen einen Spiegel in der Verpackung, aber für mich spielt das keine Rolle. Die spitzen Ecken sorgen für ein individuelles Design, das in euren Sammlungen mit Sicherheit hervorsticht, doch leider fand ich es oft schwierig, das Gehäuse zu öffnen. Wenn ihr auch so dünne Fingernägel habt wie ich, dann seid vorsichtig, denn ihr könnet leicht einen oder zwei bei einem Öffnungsversuch verlieren.

The compact houses 4.5g of product which is generous and will last for a long time.

Innen drin befinden sich 4.5g vom Produkt. Für ein Rouge ist das großzügig und wird lange reichen.

The blush itself is a warm apricot which leans orange in some lights. The texture is buttery soft and very pigmented, so you'll need to use a light hand when applying this! On the skin it has a velvety finish and can be layered up without caking or settling into pores or lines.

Der Blusher selbst ist warm und aprikosig und hat bei mancher Beleuchtung einen Orange-Stich. Von der Konsistenz her ist er butterweich und sehr pigmentiert, muss also leichthändig aufgetragen werden! Auf der Haut liefert er ein samtiges Finish und kann ganz leicht aufgebaut werden, ohne dass Flecken entstehen oder dass etwas sich in Poren oder Fältchen einnistet.

This colour would look stunning with a tan or on naturally darker or warmer skin tones. Of course there's no reason paler skins couldn't wear this either, though I personally found that it really emphasised my freckles, so I'll be laying this off until I get a bit of a tan in the summer months!

Diese Farbe würde bezaubernd aussehen auf gebräunter oder von Natur aus dunkler Haut. Natürlich gibt es keinen Grund, warum auch hellere Hauttypen dieses Rouge nicht tragen könnten. Für mich persönlich hat sich herausgestellt, dass es meine Sommersprossen sehr stark betont hat, also lasse ich es lieber bis zu den Sommermonaten liegen!

Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Lover - swatched in natural light

Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Lover - swatched with flash

This blusher retails for £16.50 and for the formula and pigmentation I definitely recommend it. It's just a shame that after so much searching for this particular shade it ended up not suiting me after all!

Dieses Rouge kostet 19.73€ und für die Konsistenz und Pigmentation würde ich es auf jeden Fall weiterempfehlen. Schade nur, dass sich nach all dem Suchen nach dieser besonderen Farbe herausgestellt hat, dass sie mir überhaupt nicht steht!

Available online from Illamasqua.com here.