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

Sleek Lace Blush By 3 Blush Palette Review, Photos and Swatches

If you regularly visit any UK beauty blogs or watch UK-based beauty tutorials online, you may have heard about Sleek Makeup. I first heard about Sleek in Pixiwoo videos and then I saw their BB cream in a Wayne Goss video. 

Sleek is a UK "high-street" makeup brand. "High-street" in the UK translates as "drugstore" in North America. Sleek products are sold in the UK at Superdrug and occasionally at New Look stores. If there are any UK (or non-UK) readers out there who can tell us where else Sleek can be found in stores, please let us know by leaving a comment!

Sleek Makeup is inexpensive but good quality and highly touted by makeup artists and beauty bloggers. Because of the low cost, it's a good option for teenagers or those who want to try products without having to pay a lot. And while paying less often means that the product quality is less too, Sleek products for the most part are very good value for their cost.

I bought a few things, and I'll review them post by post. This post will look at the Blush By 3 Palette in Lace.

Sleek also sells individual blushes, but they do these great palettes that hold three shades, designed to be worn individually or layered. The thing I kept hearing about Sleek blushes is that they're highly pigmented, which is not typical for more inexpensive product lines. 

Here's what Sleek has about the Blush By 3 in Lace palette:

Blush By 3 is the ultimate palette offering you three times the impact in one neat little compact.

With three complementary shades each designed with its own unique finish, from rich shimmers to intensely deep and bright show-stopping matte shades. Heads will turn! Blush By 3 in Lace is perfect for all skin tones, offers a matte or shimmery highlight finish. 

$12.49 USD

20 g/0.68 oz

Let's take a look at the packaging. The photo above shows the front of the box. Below is the back of the box:

The Blush By 3 palette is a matte black plastic which will pretty quickly get grubby. The palette is thin and small enough to carry in a purse. It also contains a large mirror which gets a thumbs-up from me.

Back of the palette - blush colours from L-R: Crochet, Guipure and Chantilly.

Now, I was a bit shocked when I opened this palette for the first time. You see, online it is pictured like this:

And in reality, it looks like this:

A bit of a difference, right? The colours are much more intense than they're pictured. I was a bit scared by these. I've never tried to wear a blush in any of these colours. I actually went online to make sure they hadn't mislabelled the palette.

L-R: Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly

Still, they're great colours and if they apply sheerly, they're wearable, even on my skin tone. Here they are swatched fairly heavily on my inner arm. 

L-R: Crochet, Guipure, Chantilly

They are highly pigmented but they're sheer, so with a light hand, I am able to wear them. As long as I go slowly, since I'm not the best at applying blush on myself for some reason. 

Texture-wise, these vary slightly. Crochet is more powdery than the other two and Guipure is creamier, likely due to the shimmer content. At first, I thought I would wear Chantilly and Guipure more than Crochet, since it's so orange, but I have become an orange blush convert lately and Crochet is actually very wearable even on my skintone. These blushes can be worn on their own or combined.

These colours would be great on deeper skintones since they've got so much pigment to them. Crochet and Chantilly would pop on darker skins and Crochet is a great shade for skin with warm undertones. But those of you with lighter skintones can absolutely wear these too, as I can attest. Just start with a lighter hand and build as needed. 

I really like the design of this palette - the blush pans are a good size - bigger than most makeup brands. Here it is in my hand, to give you a sense of the size.

I definitely recommend the Sleek Blush By 3 Palette in Lace, despite the difference in shade between the online photos and reality. It's very well-priced even with the exchange and shipping cost and it's good quality, especially considering the price.

Grade: B+

Other products I ordered and have reviewed from Sleek:


Sleek i-Divine Au Naturel Palette - http://beautysquared.blogspot.ca/2013/10/sleek-i-divine-au-naturel-palette.html

Sleek Be Beautiful Blemish Balm - http://beautysquared.blogspot.ca/2013/10/sleek-be-beautiful-blemish-balm-review.html


Catherine