Blusher | Vanity Claire

When this bundle of goodies landed through my door, I nearly had an emotional breakdown out of sheer excitement and gratitude. Look at all of the beautiful things! LOOK AT THEM. The Estee Edit is a new(ish) range by Estee Lauder, inspired by the iconic woman herself and her mantra that “beauty is an attitude”. The collection, which includes skincare as well as makeup, has been curated by the brand’s guest editors, including Kendall Jenner. As a wise man once said, if it’s good enough for a Jenner, it’s good enough for me. View Full Post

Ever since writing our post on the Barry M new releases I was feverishly excited to try out the new products. Despite some misses (Brow Pen, we’re looking at you), Barry M are a brand we both love and so I was eager as the proverbial beaver to see them work their magic in their latest products.

I was particularly interested in the eyeshadow and blush palettes, so when I was in Superdrug recently I nearly jumped for joy when I saw that this was finally in stock. I chose the ‘Natural Glow’ palette as, let’s face it, neutral colours will always have my heart and loins. Plus, it had the nicest blusher shade of the three so I was completely sold on it.

On first impressions, this is a gorgeous palette. The packaging is sleek, sturdy and contains an extremely useful and good sized mirror in the lid. It also comes with two applicators, which I don’t think anybody ever really uses but, well, we’d moan if they didn’t include them, wouldn’t we? I like the colour range (though if I was being picky I would like them laid out from lightest to darkest, but Barry M weirdly didn’t ring me to ask my opinion on this) and the equal mixture of shimmer and matte.

So, all is looking positive. And then we move onto the application…

and very unfortunately the product falls down a little bit for me. The pigmentation is simply not as good as I was expecting. It’s much better on the shimmer shades than the matte, but as I’m more a matte girl anyway this isn’t much comfort to me. I mean, really, can you even see that first shade? It just looks a bit like a bruise, and that’s not reeeeally a look I go for.

I’ll hold my hands up and say I’m WUBBISH at applying eyeshadow, so I really need quite strong pigmentation to actually be able to see what I’m doing. People who are naturally more skilled in the eyeshadow department (i.e. everybody, probably even my neighbour’s dogs) will probably be able to get more from the palette, but for me it’s a bit too much of a struggle trying to work colour into the crease for quite little payoff. I think maybe I’ve been spoiled by MUA’s Undress Me Too (which you can see me rave about here) which is just amazingly pigmented.

On the bright side, this morning I realised that the third shade along is actually the perfect match for my light eyebrows so I’ve used it to fill them in a bit. It took quite a few layers to actually, er, see it at all but I’ll definitely get some good use out of it in that respect.

The blusher is a bit more pigmented than the shadows. It’s still quite subtle, but that’s better with blushers anyway because at least you can’t get carried away and end up looking like a clownish idiot. As you can see, it’s a nice pale pink with a slight glimmer to it so I’m much happier with this part of the palette.

These retail for £6.49, which is still an excellent price for six shadows and a blush, and to be honest it still makes a good addition to my makeup bag as a product I’ll turn to now and again. Kind of like if I was a Victorian man and had a mistress – you know, like I’ll never really love her but she’s good for a bit of a change now and then. Yep, that’s my analogy and I’m sticking to it.

Have any of you tried the Natural Glow palette from Barry M? What did you think of it?

I used to be the most loyal customer of Boots in the entire world. I was an absolute Boots wifey, and the very thought of going to Superdrug made my lip curl in disdain. Why would I go to Superdrug when I can collect millions of points on my Boots card? Why would I go to Superdrug when Boots have such a superb Meal Deal? Why would I go to Superdrug when at Boots I can be served by people wearing those funny tunics that make me feel like I’m some sort of beauty professional?

Well, ladies and gents, I am quite the changed woman these days and I regularly cheat on Boots by going into Superdrug too – sometimes I even go to them both in the same day, which just makes me a proper shopping sket. There is one brand in particular to be blamed for my infidelity: the Superdrug-exclusive MUA.

MUA has only really been on my radar for around a year and at first I dismissed the brand as simply too cheap to be any good. Then Lauren raved about their £1 lipsticks, and I discovered for myself the wonder that is the Undress Me Too palette, and then it was safe to say MUA had creeped its way up my favourite brands list.

I picked up both of these items in the last couple of weeks and both amazingly cost me just £1. There isn’t a huge amount to say about the powder – is there ever? It’s translucent and stops people being able to check their reflection in my nose, which is all I can ask for really. The range of blushers is much more interesting. According to the Superdrug website, there are six shades available in the £1 range (you can see them all here): Bon Bon, Cupcake, Lolly, Marshmallow, Candyfloss and Bubblegum. Completely sickening names aside, the colour range is nice, ranging from pale peach through to bright purpley-pink.

The shade that I picked up was Candyfloss, a rather cool-toned pastel dusky pink:

(On a side note, am I the only one quite impressed that they bother with the MUA imprint inside the compact? If I was selling something for only a quid I’d probably just put the powder loose in a little sandwich bag and throw it at customers.)

It’s a really nice colour which seems pretty perfect for winter, and is also a nice match on my new ~~pasty, corpse-like~~ pale skin. My only real bug bear is the flecks of glitter running through it – how hard is it for brands just to make matte blushers, I ask you? Pigmentation wise, though, it’s really impressive. A little goes a long way, to the extent that when I put a bit on without using a mirror while sitting at my desk at work the other day, it wasn’t until I went into the toilet that I realised I had accidentally made myself look like a clown (thanks for the heads up Lauren, you twit).

Overall I’m really pleased with these cheap and cheerful MUA products. The packaging is simple, but all that’s needed – and perfect considering these are the types of products you’re likely to carry around in your handbag anyway so don’t want to worry about having to keep pretty. I’m particularly impressed with the blusher, and think I’ll definitely be ‘investing’ (giggle, giggle – no really, I’m skint, that pound will be an investment) in another couple of shades for my makeup bag.

What do you all think of MUA? Have you tried either of these products?

Good day, homegirls,

This is somewhat a late time to be getting on the Accessorize blusher wagon. In fact, I think I may have missed the first 10 wagons and I am now on the Night Wagon, which is crowded with drunk hipsters and mad people scoffing Subways.

Even so, I thought I would get involved and review my Accessorize Baked Blusher, mainly because I love it. I want to marry it. You think I am joking, but I’m not. We’ve planned a small ceremony on a beach in Cornwall; I’ve yet to find a dress.

For those who haven’t tried this blusher yet – you are lunatics. I know the packaging is quite alarming and there isn’t really any need for the butterfly pattern (Claire and I were discussing that butterflies are basically tarted up moths), but the product inside is top notch.

I have the Baked Blusher in Scandal, which makes me feel quite the wanton woman. It’s a lovely deep rose coloured shade, with gold shimmer marbled into it. This gives it a lovely shimmer that isn’t too full on – it’s excellent for summer especially! I would say that for girls who prefer a matte blusher, this one probably isn’t for you. But if you enjoy cheeks that look like they belong to the disco ball family (in a good way), then definitely think about getting involved!

This is what it looks like on my face.

I’ve had my Accessorize blusher for around 2 months now and it literally looks as if I haven’t used ANY of it. I’m not sure if it’s the ‘baked’ element to the product or if it is actually magic, but I can see this lasting me a very, very long time. It costs £6 from any Accessorize store (and online) but you can find these little bad boys at Superdrug too.

The Estee Edit | Haul & First Impressions

Barry M ‘Natural Glow’ Eyeshadow Palette | Review & Swatches

MUA’s £1 Wonders: Blush & Powder | Review

Accessorize Merged Baked Blusher: Review

Has anyone else used this blush? Thoughts?