Revlon Golden Affair sculpting blush

Here is a fantastic budget buy I snapped up the other week! Whilst staying with my boyfriend, I popped into Poundland Canterbury and fell head over heels for this Revlon Golden Affair sculpting blush. I saw it in a slightly deeper shade over at Artdonatella's blog (check out her post here) quite a while ago and loved it on sight. So when by chance I found this limited edition product in a slightly lighter shade for £1, I knew I had to have it!

One thing you can't ignore about this blush is how good it looks in the packaging. The packaging itself is simple but isn't that cheap. The design of the blush itself is gorgeous. Call me fickle but I was totally in love with it even before I got to try it out!

Unfortunately, when I started to swatch and use it a considerable amount of the gold lifted. I'd say about 80% of the gold is sprayed on very lightly so my blush went from how it looks in the picture above to how it looks in the picture below in one use!

The shade I found was 'berry daring' which although not their darkest shade, looked pretty dramatic at a first glance. When initially applied or swatched the shade is a deep crimson with some vibrant gold shimmer. From these swatches I hope you can see the punchy pigmentation. On the left is the crimson base on its own, the centre swatch is the sprayed gold and the second is the two combined.

The intense pigmentation and deep berry tone to this blush were both slightly scary to me when it came to application. As you can see from the shot above - I'm pale and pink with lots of freckles. I loved the berry tones, I loved the look but I didn't want to end up looking like a panto extra! Below is a shot of me with just foundation (and some rather worn in eye makeup) so you can compare it to the after shot later on.

Upon application I can actually understand why it's called a sculpting blush. Don't ask me it how it does it, but I can definitely see some contouring that wasn't there before in the after shot. I applied this very quickly and am hardly a blush expert, so I'm over the moon that it has such a pretty effect so easily. Admittedly I did apply barely a dusting and did blend quite a bit but still, this took seconds to achieve.

Although this blush is awkward to track down, it's a gorgeous product that is very cheap for such lovely pigmentation and presentation. I had been looking for a berry toned blush and I think I've found a stunner!

Peacocks blusher and bronzer

Two of the most interesting items I picked up in my haul are the blusher and the bronzer that I picked up a Peacocks cosmetics sale at £1 each. There was even an offer of 10% student discount on so one of these was picked up for me by my boyfriend at 90p!

While the blusher carries a pretty gold shimmer and looks an almost apricot shade, it shows up on the skin as quite a natural flush of pink. I thought that due to the low price, it might give quite a heavy-handed dose splodge of colour or be hard to blend. In fact, the base of this blusher (and similarly the bronzer) is a fine gold shimmer underneath which a gentle tint builds. I like the illuminating qualities this gives the fact that it can be blended so lightly.

I couldn't resist picking up the bronzer too although there wasn't an unboxed example on display to peek at. I was quite surprised at how dark it was when I opened in and might not have bought it had I seen it but I'm glad I did. Though the colour looks deep, the fine shimmer particles lift the shade and make it good for applying an easy summery contour.

I've actually been wearing this instead of my Accessorize blusher because while the Accessorize blusher is a similarly shimmery pink, to build the tint, you need to build the shimmer. With the Peacocks blusher I find that you can build the colour a lot quicker without needing to layer up on the product as much, making it a preferable shade for summer!

One of my favourite things about the bronzer is the fact that it isn't cakey. While the shimmer is clearly gold, on my skin this product also doesn't create orange layers like some budget examples I've tried. A little goes a long way but it can of course be built up. I wore this dusted over a light base on the hottest day of the year so far and was extremely pleased with the results!

For my pennies, I recieved two boxed block powder products weighing in at 13.5g including a small brush. Now, I have actually used the brush (as I normally use supplied eyeshadow applicators) mostly out of my own laziness but I have to say they're not great. They do shed and mine seemed to be a a bid dodgy but I don't really mind for the uber cheap pricetag!

I feel almost guilty for saying that I didn't look twice at these products when they were at their full price. I believe they were originally £3 each, but then again bronzers and blushers aren't usually everyday products for me. I think that the bronzer has found its way into my heart as a distinctly summery product that I wouldn't necessarily splurge on but I'm glad I found! The blusher has become my current favourite for wearing in the evenings. I know that I'm fickle, but these two products are definitely some summery sale treats that I would advise you all to check out!

Accessorize baked blusher

Now I'm sure by now everyone has worked out that I'm very much into Accessorize's makeup range. I've posted swatches so far of the eyeshadows and a lipgloss and I'm sure that on other blogs you must have seen by now some of the duochrome nail shades they've got on offer. Well now I've got to show you what was actually the first Accessorize product I ever tried! I started my collection with their baked blusher in 'pretty pink' and frankly I'm sure you'll see why I couldn't resist it.

After I read a post about the blusher on Lipglossiping my birthday came around in March and I couldn't help it. The gorgeous packaging and glorious swirled colours were calling to me! Because I can't afford higher-end brands I am used to fairly bland packaging but Accessorize as I've said before know their market! For a £5.50 blusher where you get 8 grams of product the packaging is still adorable. Kudos to them!

The surface of this blusher looks like the surface of an amazingly girlie planet that I wish I lived on... Well actually it looks like a blend of a pale peachy pinks with veins of lilac running through it. And even though I have very pale skin this shade is still perfect as both a subtle shimmer and blush. When dusted lightly it provides shimmer and when used more liberally the peach tone really comes to life. The product is very fine and doesn't have heavy chunks of glitter in it. Really I'd say it is very easy to work with.

 

Due to the shimmer in this product it can look a lot paler than you first might expect when swatched. In this swatch where the light hits in the bottom of the picture you can see the highlighting shimmer's effect but if you look towards the top the peach tint is more visible. On my cheeks this product doesn't stand out and look obvious but actually blends quite well with my skintone and adds a natural looking radiance. I'd say that this is perfect for summer and using these products always brings out my girlie side!

My MUA blushers

I decided recently to make another MUA Makeup Academy post to show you my £1 blushers.

Please note that when these products are brand new they will not look this battered! I'd probably describe this packaging as 'functional' and for £1 you certainly don't get and bells and whistles. Mine have been with me for quite a while now but here is a quick shot of what they look like at a glance.

There are 4 shades available currently in the collection and on the left here is shade 1 with shade 3 on the right. To me they look like a cool bubblegum pink and a deep apricot tinged flush both with a decent helping of glitter particles (visible in the pan of shade 1). Although normally the glitter would be a let down for me it normally isn't that visible when worn! The shades apart from the glitter particles are relatively matte!

Now although the packaging isn't really that exciting the real reason I bought these products was for experimentation! I've always had a pink complexion at the best (and worst) of times so with a little too much sun in the summer or wind in the winter I can end up looking bright red in an instant! Only recently did I dare to venture into the world of blushers and these shades were the ones I started with.

Now this is a heavy swatch but you can get a good idea of the true tones from here. Shade 1 (on the left again) offers a sweet pink flush while here you can see the apricot undertone to shade 3 which is slightly too dark for me. The fine glitter is visible here but I don't tend to see it at much when I wear these shades because I use them so sparingly!

Perhaps best used sparingly, these shades can provide a nice healthy tint to my cheeks. I favour the lighter Shade 1 and wore it in my FOTD dusted lightly over the top of my cheeks. My qualms are that they can be quite chalky and although I'm no expert I find them really tough to blend. My technique for these is building the colour up slowly rather than trying to blend them out! Also there can be quite a lot of fallout in the pan so be careful with that brush!

As I am so pale I have to say I like the idea that I can give my complexion an easy little boost with a £1 product! I wouldn't say these are as impressive as some of MUA's other offerings but I don't regret buying them because a little can go quite a way!