Five Favs #2 | Blushers

If you recall, last month I started a new blog series called #FiveFavs, I didn't commit to how frequently I'd be writing instalments, but that they'd have different themes.  Well, this time it's all about blushers, and the ones I reach for the most.  I must admit, I do reach for more than this 5, but I had to limit it somehow, otherwise it'd be an endless post.

1.  NARS Dolce Vita*

I absolutely adore this blusher, it's pretty much matte and a beautiful deep berry tone, which is typically my favourite shade to wear on my cheeks.  The quality is fantastic - just as I like in a blusher, not crazy pigmented like Sleek blushers can be and other similar ones, but nice, and easy to work with and blend on the cheekbones.

2.  Sephora blusher in Healthy Rose

This really is a very pretty shade, and perfect for spring.  It's sort of a soft peachy-coral with a hint of pink and a bit of a duskyness to it.  It's also completely matte, which I love - sometimes I love a matte blusher, as it looks really natural, and other times I love having a shimmery cheek, but this is a blusher for natural looking cheeks.

3.  Smashbox blusher in Chiffon

This really is a gorgeous shade, very similar to NARS Orgasm.  It's rose gold with a nice shimmer/sparkle.  I wouldn't call it a dupe as it's pretty much the same price, but if you didn't want to buy the NARS one, for whatever reason, this is a great alternative.  It's a great texture, nicely pigmented and very, very pretty on the cheeks.

4.  Eddie Funkhouser blusher in Peep Show*

This was in a Wantable makeup box some time ago.  I'd never heard of Eddie Funkhouser before and haven't since, but this blusher is something special.  Yes it's a bright pink, but it's pigmentation balance it's great, not too much and not too sheer, and it looks really pretty on the cheeks, almost like you've just come in from outside.  And, it's matte, so a winner for me.

5.  MAC Mineralize blusher in Gentle

The newest blusher in my collection and the one I've been wearing almost every day for the last 2-3 weeks since I've had it.  It's leaning towards berry-toned, and has a soft goldish shimmer, but it's not rose gold, which I like.  I feel like too many blushers have jumped on that bandwagon in the last couple of years, it's nice to see a shimmery blusher that's a bit different.  This sits on the cheeks beautifully, looking soft and 'gentle' with a very soft shimmery glow.

So there's my top 5 blushers as the 2nd instalment of my #FiveFavs series.  I have quite a few others planned, but if there's any you'd like to see, like foundations, palettes etc, anything really, just leave it as a comment below :)

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*Some of these blushers were PR Samples

5 product face for Summer

For those of you clever enough to spot it, yep I'm wearing lipstick, and nope, there's no lipstick photographed in the top picture, that's because I'm a numpty.  So, lets pretend I'm not wearing lipstick in this pic (which to be fair, I don't normally) and then it'll be a 5 product face, not a pretend 5 product face :P

Anyway, we'll just brush that under the carpet :)  So I've been mixing things up a bit recently, wearing less makeup, some days I'm even venturing to work without any on!  Sadly, those days I often get comments saying "You look ill, are you ok?".... yeah, thanks for that boost of confidence!  lol, anyway, after not wearing foundation for a long time due to having horrific skin, I'm now wearing it again thanks to a new and improved skincare routine (you literally wouldn't believe the difference, if I'd had the confidence, I'd have done before and after photographs), whoop!  Just not as often as I used to.

I wanted to see how few products I could get away with using that would stop people saying that I look ill, seems 5 is the minimum.  So here's what I used.

Base - Makeup Forever HD Foundation

This created a great base for me that set matte, and lasted all day with only minimal patting of my nose and forehead (something I have to do with every foundation I ever wear, in fact, even if I'm not wearing foundation I have to do this).

Eyelids - Makeup Revolution palette in Romantic smoked

For this I only used one shade, which was the 3rd from the left, similar to Urban Decay's Sin - a soft natural slightly shimmery shade.  I wanted the lashes to stand out and my eyes to look bright and alert.

Lashes - Bourjois 1 seconde volume mascara (waterproof)*

Hopefully you saw yesterdays review, if not, you can see in the pic above it's a pretty awesome mascara.  It has the weirdest wand, with spikes and... balls.  It doesn't clump, and it does a great job of making the most of your lashes.  Also, because it's waterproof it doesn't budge all day and there's no drop-off from it on your cheeks.  That does mean it's a bit of a bugger to remove though, even with Bioderma!

Cheeks - Sephora blusher in Healthy rose

If you've been reading my summer series, then you'll have seen me review this already, it's an absolutely gorgeous blusher with a hint of coral, perfect for adding a natural glow to your skin/face.

Brows - HD brow palette in Foxy*

No face is complete without defined brows, even if they're not that defined :)  I tend not to go overboard with my brows, but they're naturally very pale and sparse, so they need a little help to look more normal, and so far I've found that this is my favourite palette to achieve this :)

So guys, I have a bit of a confession to make, you know how I was wearing lipstick, which made this a 6 product face?  Well, it was actually a 7 product face, I just realised I was wearing an eye shadow primer too... I know, total fail :P  Anyway, that's still not bad for me, I'd normally wear foundation, powder, eye shadow primer, cream shadow, at least 2 eye shadows, liquid eyeliner, mascara, blusher, brow powder - so 10 products, not bad to shave a few off that :)

That's the end of this Summer series, see you again in a few weeks for my next summer series looking and some different products :)

 

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Top 3 blushers for Summer

I've decided to have a bit of a happy Summer-themed week this week, I've written up loads of post all about my fav products for summer etc, although not every post is summer themed :)  I hope you enjoy this week, don't forget to visit back every day as there'll be a new post every single day (trying to blog more often for you) :)

Today's post is on my top 3 blushers for summer.  I'm a bit of a blusher addict, I think that blushers are one product you can wear without any other makeup and it'll make a real difference to how you look, adding a bit of colour to your cheeks.  The same can be said about mascara (couple of mascara reviews this week too, one is perfect for summer!).

Now, if I'd been sensible and limited it to 10 blushers instead, you'd have had a bit more variety, but what you have here, are 3 stunning blushers, each would look amazing with you sat out on the beach, or sitting in front of a coffee shop sipping an iced latte *mmmmmm*.  As always, my pictures aren't edited other than cropped & with text added :)

Michael Kors bronzer in Flush*

Yep, technically this is branded as a bronzer but I think we can both agree that this is a blusher, it's not brown, it's pink.  Ok, now we have that cleared up lets move on.  This is probably one of my all time favourite blushers at the moment.  Yes it's expensive, however you do get a LOT of product for your money, probably more than you could use in 2 ye (£34*)ars if this was the only blusher you used.  It's a beautiful dusky pink with a soft shimmer to it (no glitter).  It'll highlight your cheeks ever so slightly giving you a natural and beautiful glow :)

Physicians Formula Happy Booster in Natural

When you see these pictures, they're going to look quite similar, so I've put a collage together at the bottom so you can see the subtle differences between each shade :)  This is a bit of an iconic blusher, my blogger friend Laura brought it back from America for me (whoop).  It works beautifully as a soft highlighter, or it's buildable as a blusher (how I'm wearing it) - or you could layer it up on top of your favourite blusher to give it a different dimension :)  Ever thought of doing that with different blushers?

 Sephora blusher in Healthy Rose

Back in January when I was in France I made sure I went to a Sephora, I needed wanted the MUF HD foundation (which is what I'm wearing in these pics).  While I was there, I picked up a couple of their own products, this being one of them.  It's up there in my favourite blushers ever, it's a stunningly beautiful shade that has a hint of coral.  It's not ridiculously pigmented so you're not likely to pick up too much product when you're swirling your brush in it - that's something a love, a firm blusher!

Here's all the blushers side by side, it's a subtle difference but hopefully you can see their different qualities and subtle differences in shades.

These are certainly the 3 I'm wearing the most at the moment and the 3 I see myself wearing more and more as we move into the summer.  It makes for a gorgeous look just to wear it by itself with no other makeup, or teamed up with some mascara and eyeliner, or on a full face of makeup :)

I know to my UK readers this might be a slightly frustrating post, with 2 of the products being ones we struggle to get in the UK, but compared to a year ago, I have a lot more American readers these days too, so I don't want to just feature UK products (like I used to) - besides, there are ways to get hold of these like eBay, Amazon, blogger swaps and holidays :)

What's your 3 favourite blushers for Summer?

 

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Sephora blusher in Healthy Rose 09

Back in January when I was in France I couldn't miss the opportunity not to go to Sephora, there was one in the town we were staying in (Bergerac).  My goal was to buy the MUF HD foundation, which I did, but when I was there I picked a couple of other bits up too, one of them being this little baby :)

The first time I used it, I could tell this was going to quickly become one of my favourite blushers, and I wasn't wrong!  I tend to prefer totally matte blushers instead of shimmery or glittery ones, and this one is totally matte.  It's quite a firm blusher and not overly pigmented, so you can really swish the brush in the product and not pick up too much, which I love.  It really is such a beautiful colour, perfect for Spring/Summer too.

This also is probably one of the best blushers for durability and staying put for a long time, once it's on, it stays put until you take it off.  It cost €10.90 which is about £9 at the current exchange rate.  If you get the chance to try this blusher, or another Sephora blusher, I really couldn't recommend it more - it'll be £9 well spent :)

This months Biggest-Pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Casey from A Topsy Turvy blog

 

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