Review: L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Blush

I love blush. Aside from foundation, it’s my favourite base makeup product. I would reach for blush before I would reach for a bronzer/contour or highlighter. Personally, I feel that on my skin if I can only do one or the other, I think I benefit more from blush than I do bronzer. I used to only really like powder blushes because I had quite oily skin and liked a really matte face when I did makeup. Now however, I have more dry-to-sometimes-combo skin and prefer a more luminous, fresh and natural finish. This change in skin type has led me to discover the wonder of cream and liquid type blushes as well as the cheek and lip stain products. I’ve tried the E.L.F. cream blush stick, the Benefit cheek tints like Posietint and Chachatint (Benetint is on my list of things to try), the Australis cheek and lip stains which are like a cream/stain hybrid. I love all of those things, they all have beautiful finishes. The L’Oreal Nude Magique BB Blush seemed like the perfect thing to try next, so last time I got a points voucher in the mail from the Priceline Sister Club I decided to put it to the test.

I’ll get the negatives out of the way first. The first thing is that there only seems to be one shade. I looked around my local Priceline a bit to see if they had more, but I think there’s only the one. I think it might be one of those products that claim to match any skin tone. The shade is called Universal Rosy Blush. It’s a very bright pink. It seems fairly neutral in tone, but it is bright! The other main negative with it is that it can be difficult to work with. It’s sort of an odd formula. It comes out mostly transparent and as you work with it is turns into its true colour. The problem is that you have to work really fast. It dries fast and acts the same way a stain like Benetint does. I found that I can’t just dot it on and then blend it out like you would with other products, I have to blend it immediately after it touches my skin. It’s also extremely easy to use way too much. The first time I used it I made it so bright and pigmented that I end up having to go in with more foundation to tone it down. I looked absolutely nuts.

Now on to the positives of this blush. Once you figure out how much to use and the best way to apply it, the blush looks so pretty on the skin. It’s almost a gel consistency which makes it quite thin compared to a cream. Because of this it sits nicely on top of foundation. Once I got the hang of it I was able to achieve a beautiful fresh finish with it. It’s not sparkly at all, but because it’s a gel-like formula it really glowy on the skin. It would be absolutely wonderful in spring and summer when you don’t want to wear too many powder products. I personally like luminous products all year round so I will wear this all the time!

After all that do I like it? The straight answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but I could definitely have survived without it in my collection. I’m glad that I finally bit the bullet and tried it out, but it’s not something I will repurchase or even miss when it’s gone. For me it was just a little too much effort in the beginning. I know there’s a learning curve with any ‘stain’ type product because they can be quite sensitive and tricky but this was a little too much. It took me at least four uses to get any kind of confidence with it. Honestly, after my first use I put it at the back of my drawer and almost forgot I had it. The time between my first and second use was at least two weeks. I like easy products. I don’t want to have to fight with a product, I just want it to bend to my will. This is a nice product that’s good in theory but there are heaps of similar products out there that I fell are far easier to use. If you don’t want to fork out the cash for the Benetint products (which would be understandable because they’re not cheap!), I think the Australis Lip and Cheek combos are great. I’m fairly certain you can only get Australis in Australia and maybe New Zealand, but if you can get your hands on them, I would recommend them over this L’Oreal one.