Coral and blusher are probably two of my favourite words ever, so I honestly couldn’t wait to get my hands on this baby! Although generally I’m a cream blush girl, if the right powder blush came along I am more than willing to change my ways – and this product pretty much sounds like it may be the best powder alternative to a shimmery cream blush.
Benefit have excelled themselves when it comes to design with this powder box. A gorgeous mix of safari prints in the most devine colours of metalic corals and brights, it already half won my heart. It comes with a rectangular brush and the powder itself is an awesome intense coral with flecks of shimmer.
Promising so far..
Application
The first time I tried this was on top of foundation and powder, and I used the brush that came with it. Admittedly my skin was awful as I was in the midst of a flu, and I was dry, stressed skin galore, however this product only high lighted my problem. I actually had to wash my face and do my make-up again as I couldn’t bare going out like that.
The second time (in the pics below) I used a Bare Escentual Feather Light brush, which is basically very similar to Mac 187 except finer – not as many brush hairs. I swirled it around in the pot, and then swirled it along my cheeks, above and below the cheek bone. The only make-up I applied prior was a good moisturising foundation (Mac Studio Sculpt) and some concealer, definitely no powder!
VerdictI LOVE this product. At first it took a while to really figure it out as I was never a Nars Orgasm girl (an older product apparently very similar to this), but now I honestly don’t reach for anything else anymore, and I’m a serious blush girl!
You do have to be careful with which base you apply it on top off, I actually find a light base (such as Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation) works best out of all my bases as Coralista just glides on. And obviously, as mentioned before, stay away from powdery mattes, it’s like oil and water – they don’t mix. In my opinion you need fairly good skin before or else it will high light any dry flakes and bumps. I think it suits people with warmer skin tones, and if you’re a shimmery bronzer gal, this will work amazingly with it. My one gripe is that it is too shimmery, and not enough colour pigment, BUT I think that’s the intention of the product. Maybe you use this in conjunction with another blusher? I do actually do that myself quite often.
If you apply it with a light, soft brush (like I used second time round) on skin that isn’t matte I think you could get a really gorgeous wash of shimmer. However, it is one of those products where the more you apply, the heavier the shimmer is as opposed to colour, and the gold shimmer can have a tendency to high light your pores if heavily applied, not ideal. And be warned; if you want a ‘pop’ of colour on your cheeks, this isn’t the product. I would actually say this is a finishing product as opposed to a straight blusher, just a lovely, shimmery coral tinged highlighter. One last thing, the size of the box is a little large for most portable make-up bags, it certainly doesn’t fit in mine so I often end up having it loose in my regular bag when taking it out which can be a bit annoying.
Here are some pics..
