NYX Stick Blush in Pink Poppy Review, Photos and Swatches

To think that about a year ago, I'd never tried any NYX products and now I use them nearly every day!

Cream blush. My goodness, I love a cream blush. As my skin ages, I find I like using cream blushes much more than powders. They give a softer effect, and don't catch on the fine hairs on my cheeks like powders do. Plus they give a soft and natural flush to the skin.

I especially love them in the summer, when my battle with the oily bits of my face is at its fruitless peak. My cheeks are normal in the summer, not oily and not dry, so when the rest of my face looks like a oil slick due to sweat and oil, powder blush looks especially incongruous on my oil-free cheeks. I tend to go lighter with my makeup in the summer, and cream blush looks very natural and light.

This post looks at one of NYX's Stick Blushes - Pink Poppy, a neutral pink. It reads on the cool side, and definitely works for my cool-toned skin but I could see it working well on warmer skintones as well.

The Stick Blushes are 6.2 g each, and cost $6 each. Here's what the NYX website has to say about them:

Add a touch of color with our creamy and extremely pigmented Stick Blush! Available in eight rich shades! Apply and receive the perfect glow every day!

NYX Stick Blush in Pink Poppy

NYX Stick Blush in Pink Poppy - ingredients

The Stick Blushes come in a stubby little twist-up tube, and the size and application-ease make it very easy to carry them with you.

NYX Stick Blush in Pink Poppy

There's not a tonne of product in these little tubes (6.2 g), but I really don't need to wear much of Pink Poppy to get the effect I want. I am fair-skinned so a little colour goes a long way, for the most part.

In the photo above you can see a teeny bit of gold sparkle. That's accurate, though I don't find that the sparkle reads on my cheeks at all. 

Here it is swatched on the back of my hand (NW15 skintone). All you do is twist up the tube a little and swipe it on. Below there is one swipe of Pink Poppy. 

NYX Stick Blush in Pink Poppy - swatched

The texture is smooth and a little tacky. Sort of gel-like. It is very easy to blend and the more moisture on your skin, the easier the blending. It dries as it sets but never looks artificial. You could use a brush or a sponge to apply and blend this, but I typically use my fingers. The warmth of my skin helps to soften and blend this into my cheeks.

See? Here it is on my face. It looks incredibly natural. The gold sparkle doesn't look artificial, and isn't really noticeable at all, but perhaps is adding to the skin-like smoothness in effect. I love how natural this looks on me.

In terms of longevity, it doesn't last as long as a powder blush, but I don't see much fading at all. Perhaps because my cheeks don't get oily, I don't look in the mirror at the end of the workday and see a tired complexion. If your skin is oily on your cheeks, I'd recommend topping the Stick Blushes with a powder blush. It'll help it to last longer. I do this sometimes too, if I want a more dramatic effect. 

Well done, NYX! I love Pink Poppy!

Grade: A

Rimmel Stay Blushed! Liquid Cheek Tint in Sunkissed Cherry Review, Photos and Swatches

Rimmel's Stay Blushed! Liquid Cheek Tint is a cream blush that comes in five shades and retails for somewhere around $5-$8 CDN. If you are a fan of cream blush, these are definitely worth checking out since they're readily available (Rimmel is a drugstore brand), and inexpensive. 

Cream blushes are worth knowing about because they give a very natural flush of colour, and a very natural (not powdery) finish. They are easy to blend and can be worn on their own, or layered under a powder blush for dimension. Cream blushes are fantastic for dry skin because powder blush on top of dry skin can enhance the dry appearance. Using cream blushes (and cream products) can give the skin a natural sheen, whether you prefer a dewy or more natural effect. 

I first heard about Rimmel's Stay Blushed! Liquid Cheek Tint in a Lisa Eldridge tutorial featuring Alexa Chung. Because I don't have a lot of cream blushes in my makeup collection, I was intrigued by a drugstore brand that a pro MUA was using on a celebrity. So I went out to buy the colour she used - Sunkissed Cherry.

The Rimmel Stay Blushed! Liquid Cheek Tints are packaged in a small white plastic tube and contain 0.47 fl. oz/14 mL of product. Here is the tube of 004 Sunkissed Cherry in my hand to show the size. 

Instructions

Ingredients

Sorry about the messy tip!

Sunkissed Cherry isn't what I'd call liquid, it's more of a mousse texture. From what I've seen online, the others in this line are also mousse-like textures, apart from 002 Touch of Berry. I actually prefer the drier, thicker texture of these to say a cheek stain liquid texture as it's easier to work with. 

It's also not what I'd call a cherry colour. Cherry is a pink-red, and this is definitely more of an orange with some pink in it, definitely a coral shade. 

Swatched on NW15 skintone

You do not need a lot of product to start with, so it's good that this is a small, squeezable tube. You can control how much comes out. With a pump, it's more difficult to control. 

Once blended out, it becomes much more liquidy. I have a lot on my hand in these photos, and this is far more than I'd used on my cheeks, but I wanted to show you how much pigment you can get from this product and also, why it's best to start with a little and to add if needed.

Sunkissed Cherry starts out wet and dries so you need to work fairly quickly. I'd say it dries to the point of being tough to work with after a minute or so. I am able to work with it easily within this time, and layer it as needed. 

In the first photo, it's just slightly blended out, and quite wet looking. 

In this second photo, it's sheered out even further, and it's dried a bit as well. 

And finally, here it is fully dry. Obviously, unless you were going for a theatrical Nutcracker look, you would not have these strong edges. But you can see how it dries without looking dry and how the skin still shows through. 

And here it is on my face. Sometimes I wear it for a natural flush of colour on days that I want a natural look, and I also will wear it layered under a powder blush if I want more of an impact. 

Wear-wise, this is a pretty longwearing product. I have combination skin - oily in the t-zone and drier on the cheeks. In the winter, my cheeks are normal to dry and in the summer, normal to oily, and this wears well all year round. I like that in the winter it allows my skin to have a healthy, non-dry texture, and in the summer, I like that it lasts despite the oily nature of my skin, and the heat and humidity. I do tend to layer a power blush on top in the summer to increase the longevity of it though. 

I plan to pick up the other shades because this is quite inexpensive and I'm impressed by Sunkissed Cherry. 

Grade: A

C.

Beauty Squared Round-Up for April 5, 2015

Happy Easter! Happy Passover! Happy Sunday! Happy whatever-else-you-are-or-feel-like-celebrating today!

If you're looking for suggestions, how about celebrating this week's Beauty Squared Round-Up?

• Is there anything better than being able to make your own skin care from ingredients in your fridge and pantry? This way you know exactly what goes into what you're putting on your face, you can make it yourself, it's completely natural and fresh, it's inexpensive, and you don't need to leave the house!
• Five DIY Beauty Recipes For Flawless Skin
• Fifteen Ways To Make a Face Mask From the Fridge
  
• Beauty oils are having a moment lately, but they have been around for thousands of years. Here's everything you should know about using beauty oils on your hair and skin.
  
• Spring is here (looks out window, sees snow falling). No really, it is. Close the curtains and stay inside today. Here are some runway-inspired and spring-inspired eye makeup looks to try.
  
• Here are some more runway beauty tips (including manicures) from New York Fashion Week for you. They don't have to wait until fall.
  
• Is blush a bit of a challenge for you? Trust, you're not the only one who might struggle with how and wear to apply it. Here's a post that shows you how to wear blush four ways - two fairly standards, and two a little more unconventional. Who knows, they might work on you!
  
• Fashion Magazine's Beauty Panel shares their tips for handling a bad hair day.
  
• Thinking of growing out your bangs? Bookmark this link.
  
• Someday you'll be able to reorder your favourite items, including beauty products, through the touch of a button. An Amazon Dash Button, programmed by you for automatic reorders.
  
• Artist Donald Robertson has teamed up with Smashbox Cosmetics to design the packaging for a limited release of matte lipsticks and gel eyeliners.
  
• If you have been watching CBC's Schitt's Creek (POP in the U.S.), starring Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy, Dan Levy and Eugene Levy, you've probably noticed Catherine's amazing style. Her personal make-up artist for the shoot was Lucky Bromhead and 29Secrets.com talked to Lucky about what it's like to be Lucky, what it was like to be on set for Schitt's Creek, and what she thinks should be in everyone's makeup kit.
  
• If you'll be in London this summer, you might want to check out the Warpaint: Alexander McQueen and Make-Up, the satellite exhibit for the V&A's McQueen exhibit. 

NYX Blush in Mauve Review, Photos and Swatches

I picked up a bunch of NYX products recently because it was about time that I checked out this brand. It's a drugstore brand that has products that can rival higher-end products, so check it out!

NYX is known for their blushes and it's a good place to start if you're a newbie to the brand, like me. I recently picked up two NYX powder blushes - Mauve and Apricot. In this post we'll look at Mauve, a matte light mauve. NYX powder blushes deliver silky sheer colour that glides on easily, blends beautifully and creates a natural glow.

Mauve is a beautiful, soft, very wearable shade. It's one of those shades that you can wear and look like you've got almost nothing on. It's very natural, and would go well with a stronger eye or lip look, as well as with more natural looks.

Let's take a closer look.

All of the NYX powder blushes have this gem-like pattern pressed into them, which gives them a higher end feel. The packaging is black plastic with a clear window. Not sure if it's due to being a drugstore product and displayed in a those display units with plastic rows and the spring foot pushing the products forward, or the way it's shipped to stores, or from being handled, or the quality of it, but the packaging when I bought it was scuffed and scratched. 

Still, what's inside isn't damaged and looks beautiful. Check out the texture in the photo below (click on the image to enlarge it). 

On my skin, Mauve actually looks like a soft, cool pink. The texture is very smooth and it applies sheer. The best blushes are sheer because blush needs to look natural, like it's your skin, not sitting heavily on top. Sheer allows your skin to show through. Even when you apply layers of Mauve, it's still sheer but the colour increases. Mauve is matte, but it's not a completely flat shade. There's a hint of glow to it, but no shimmer at all. 

Mauve is quite a soft shade, so on my skintone (NW15) it shows up pretty quickly and easily, but on deeper skin tones it may need a few layers to have much effect. 

I think Mauve is a fantastic basic blush shade for lighter skintones. It looks natural and is easy to wear with a light application or a heavier application. It would work with heavier eye or lip looks or with something natural, such as how I'm wearing it in the photos above. 

Stay tuned for more NYX reviews, including of the NYX Apricot blush. 

Grade: A

C.

MAC Heirloom Mix Sweet Sentiment Mineralize Blush Review, Swatches and Photos

The last two weeks have been a blur of researching, planning, listing, debating, swatching, attempted purchasing and (FINALLY) purchasing a mega haul of products from Sephora's VIB/VIB Rouge sale. Because of the engrossing nature of this sale and it's accompanying problems (re: the website crashing and burning mere hours into the sale then remaining inoperable for days), the MAC Heirloom Mix holiday collection completely slipped by under my radar.

MAC Mineralize Blush in Sweet Sentiment

I only picked up one thing from Heirloom Mix, the Mineralize blush in Sweet Sentiment (LE $35.00 CA, $30.00 US). Sweet Sentiment is described as a "rosy pink", it's a finely milled, medium cool pink with lilac overtones. It has a natural sheen, with no glitter or shimmer and good pigmentation.

Like most Mineralize blushes, Sweet Sentiment kicks up quite a bit of product when you run your brush over it, so I suggest patting your brush on this product as opposed to swiping it. Because it has good pigmentation, you won't need a lot of this blush to get good color payoff. Photos in natural light, swatches on NC 35/40 skin.

MAC Mineralize Blush in Sweet Sentiment

Like all the other Heirloom Mix offerings, Sweet Sentiment comes in special black and silver glitter packaging, which pushes the normal Mineralize blush price up to $35.00 CA from $32.00 CA. Interestingly, the holiday blushes are packaged in the old, smaller blush compacts, not the new larger ones. Sweet Sentiment is blendable with buildable color and wears well throughout a regular 8 hour day.

At the time of writing this post, Sweet Sentiment is still available online at MAC.

Grade: A-

Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot Box 'O Blushes Review, Photos and Swatches

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Holiday season when you're a beauty junkie is an exciting, tempting time. There are so many gift sets and special collections that come out starting in October and it's tough to avoid buying all of it. 

I was completely unable to avoid the temptation of snapping up the Benefit Cheeky Sweet Spot Box 'O Blushes though. It's a palette containing six of Benefit's famous boxed powders - Dandelion, Hoola, Rockateur, Sugarbomb, CORALista and Bella Bamba, plus a little container of their Watt's Up cream highlighter and a small version of the boxed powder brush.

It retails for $43 CDN and is available at Sephora (stores and online) and in Shoppers Drug Mart stores that sell Benefit products. Comparatively, an individual Box 'O Powders retails for $36 CDN (a comparison of sizes comes later in the post). 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Benefit is known for their packaging, and this one is no exception. It's a metal tin, shaped like a really narrow house, with a peaked roof. It's decorated to look like a candy store and is vaguely Christmas-themed.

Here it is in my hand to show you the size. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Even though it's made of metal, it's not heavy. The packaging reminds me of chocolate or cookie packaging, which is probably what they're aiming for. It'll be handy for storing things after it's empty as well. Oh, and the peaked roof bit comes off, so even easier to store. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

The front of the box opens to reveal the palette inside. There's also an info booklet inside, which lists the ingredients in multiple languages and application instructions.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

There's a protective plastic sheet with each powder's names on it, that'll help keep the box clean and the blushes/bronzer protected from damage. Each powder has its name embossed in it, just as they do in the individual box 'o powders.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

The size of the blushes/bronzer in the palette vary as follows:

Dandelion = 4.0g Net wt. 0.14 oz.
Sugarbomb = 6.0g Net wt. 0.21 oz.
CORALista = 5.0g Net wt. 0.17 oz.
Bella Bamba = 5.0g Net wt. 0.17 oz.
Hoola = 5.0g Net wt. 0.17 oz.
Rockateur = 5.0g Net wt. 0.17 oz.

In comparison, the size of the individual Box 'O Powders are as follows:

Dandelion = 7.0g Net wt. 0.25 oz.
Sugarbomb = 12.0g Net wt. 0.42 oz.
CORALista = 8.0g Net wt. 0.28 oz.
Bella Bamba = 8.0g Net wt. 0.28 oz.
Hoola = 8.0g Net wt. 0.28 oz. 
Rockateur = 5.0g Net wt. 0.17 oz.

I'm not sure why there's such a variance in the size of the individual Box 'O Powders but the ones in the palette have less variance. It is of note that Rockateur in the Cheeky Sweet Spot is exactly the same size as the individual Rockateur, while the others are roughly half their individual size.

Here is a full-size Sugarbomb Box 'O Powder and the brush that came with it next to the palette to show size. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes

Let's take a look at some swatches!

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Dandelion

Dandelion is a ballerina pink brightening face powder, very sheer, very pretty and a little shimmery. It's very soft and sheer, as you can see in the below swatch. Dandelion is a little chalky in texture but it doesn't sit heavily on the skin at all. This is one of my favourites of Benefit's Box 'O Powders. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Dandelion

Bella Bamba is a 3D watermelon pink blush with gold undertones. It's a bright pink, but sheer and it's got a good dose of gold shimmer-sparkle. This is a highlighter and blush combined. Bella Bamba goes on silkily.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Bella Bamba

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Bella Bamba

Sugarbomb is a combination of four shimmery shades - peach, plum, pink and rose. You can wear each shade individually or combined. Well, in the regular-sized Box 'O Powder you can. Maybe not so in this smaller version, unless you have a tiny brush (tinier than the one included in this palette). For the swatch below, I did a swirl of the shades.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Sugarbomb

It's sheer, shimmery and quite a pretty shade, with pink and peach being the predominant colours. It's slightly chalky in texture. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Sugarbomb

Hoola is Benefit's much-loved boxed bronzer and the only one in the palette that's matte. Hoola is a warm, medium-brown shade, without much orange to it at all, which is perfect. It wears very sheer, so it's an easy shade to wear, even on fair skin. It applies very smoothly.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Hoola

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Hoola

CORALista is a warm, shimmery coral-pink that gives the skin instant warmth. This is one of my favourite Box 'O Powders. It gives me an incredible glow when I wear it, without looking heavy or obvious. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - CORALista

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - CORALista

There is talk that the CORALista in the Cheeky Sweet Spot Box 'O Blushes is quite different from the regular CORALista, so I thought I'd compare the two to see for myself. I only have a sample of CORALista, not the full box, so assuming that my sample is the same as the original, here's what the two CORAListas look like side by side.

On the finger on the left is a heavy swatch of the original CORALista and on the right is a heavy swatch of the Cheeky Sweet Spot CORALista. The one on the left is pinker than the one on the right, definitely. Both have the same amount of shimmer but the one on the left is definitely more coral than the one on the right, which looks to me to be more peach.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - CORALista

Here are the two CORAListas swatched on my arm, with the original CORALista on the right and the Cheeky Sweet Spot Box 'O Blushes on the left. Yes, definitely a peachier tone to the left one compared to the right. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - CORALista

Rockateur is shimmery rose gold shade with much the same sheerness of the other blushes. It's probably the most silky of all of the blushes/bronzer in this palette and probably my favourite of all of them as well. It's an incredibly easy-to-wear blush.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Rockateur

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Rockateur

Finally, here is the Watt's Up highlighter. Watt's Up is a champagne cream-to-powder highlighter that looks like it might be too heavy when you apply it at first, but it blends out like a dream. This highlighter earns its praise and then some. It's so very, very pretty on the skin. 

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Watt's Up

Watt's Up has quite a stiff, almost dry texture, so you don't get a lot on your fingers (or brush) when you run them across it. This isn't a problem though, since you don't want a heavy application on the first try. Start with a little and build if you need to.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Watt's Up

I think it was a great idea for Benefit to include Watt's Up with this palette. With five brushes and a bronzer you're already focusing on your cheeks so why not do a bit of highlighting as well. Tapping a bit of Watt's Up onto the tops of the cheekbones and onto the brow bone gives a beautiful glow to the skin. 

One minor complaint about Watt's Up here is more about the packaging than the product. This Watt's Up comes in a little plastic case with a resealable lid.

Benefit Cheeky Spot Box 'O Blushes - Watt's Up

I flat-out love this palette. I've only tried a few of the Benefit Box 'O Powders before in the past and this is a fantastic way to try the ones I haven't. I also really love how you can mix them, adding a bit of one shade and then another or blending four of them onto your skin - why not? In terms of a blush palette, it doesn't have a lot of variation shade and texture-wise, but for a Benefit blush palette, this is pretty awesome. If you're a fan of the Benefit Box 'O Powders, this is a palette you want. 

One drawback is of course, the variation in CORALista from the original. While the CORALista in the palette is pretty, I prefer the pink of the original. 

But in all, this was an excellent purchase. If you've been wanting to try some of the Benefit blushes but the price tag has made you hesitate or you've been unable to choose which one to start with, this is the perfect palette for you!

Grade: A-