Beauty and Fashion For the Fringe

This purchase was the result of my stalking up and down the aisles in Sephora, hunting for an Apricot colored baked blush that didn’t contain a metric ton of shimmer or glitter…having no idea what an impossible task I had in front of me. I wanted something peachy but not orange, something either matte or satin/natural finish but not with chunks of glitter and it couldn’t be over $30. Ladies, I dare you to go try this for yourself. (but it has to be at my local sephora or it’s not fair, lol!)  I originally wanted to try some blushes from Benefit because I have none but I decided I wanted something more matte. I actually don’t have anything against shimmery blush, it’s just that  Meow and other mineral companies have that covered for much less money! This blush “Plush” by Lorac is from their line of  “Baked Matte Satin Blush”.  “Matte Satin”, huh? It’s not quite an oxymoron, but…it’s definitely not matte however it was the least shimmery baked blush I could get my paws on so I scooped it up and trotted home excited to test it out.

"Plush" (in light from sunlight bulb)

The blush leans more orange than apricot in the pan and as you can see, it isn’t exactly matte.  In the pan I can see the description “Satin” making sense though.  This is not a color I would normally choose- I have found that pinks, mauve, rose and berry colors look best on me because they are closest to my natural blushing color, but then again I’m not always going for natural!  😉

I noticed some difficulty when I first applied this. I had on primer (MUFE HD) and mineral powder foundation (Meow). It seemed to stick to some spots more than others which created a splotchy, streaky application. It seemed to highlight any little bump and uneven-ness in my complexion which is not flattering. It took lots of blending and fussing with it to get it looking decent but once I got it in place and looking OK (OK, not great mind you) it stayed put. There was still color on my face nine hours later although it wasn’t looking freshly applied or anything. It was noticeably there though.

Next,  I tried wearing it over tinted moisturizer( Laura Mercier Oil-Free). The application was a bit better- still spotty looking and I had to blend it almost to the point of  it disappearing to get it to look right. This is where it hit me that it was actually fairly shimmery- when you blend it out it seems more shimmer than matte or satin, as the name implies. Once again it took some fuss to get looking right. I had to add layers and blend more until things looked acceptable. This time I noticed it lasted longer- I took it off after 11 hours and there was still color there but I think I had more of the product on this time. It’s either that, or it liked the tinted moisturizer better than my mineral powder foundation.

"Plush" Swatched on my arm under sunlight bulb

Also, let me just say that this is not my color!  I like sheer apricot on my face but this is actually not sheer and seems more orange than apricot. It’s less orange on my skin than it looks in the pan but still it looked too unnatural and not flattering with my skintone.  I may have yellow undertones but I still have a lot of pink in my skin somehow plus I have redness in my cheeks.

I think this color would work best on someone with neutral, peach or olive undertones and is best on warm or neutral, rather than cool skin.  I eventually got this to look almost nice over primer and liquid foundation but it was far from flawless. If you have  uneven skin texture of any kind in the area you wear blush then I would not recommend the Lorac Baked Matte Satin Blush. Then again, if the color was closer to my skintone I do think that the flaws wouldn’t have been so obviously highlighted.  If you like the looks of them in person, I would advise playing around with them and trying them on if possible.  They might work better with other foundations so please take that into account however I am fairly certain that they do not play with well with other powder formulations. Worn over the liquid foundation (Cover Girl Nature Luxe) the color faded more evenly and looked better this time after 11 hours than it did over the tinted moisturizer.

"Plush" swatch blended out. See the bumps? I couldn't see those before the blush.

The Black Paragraph

This is not a cop-out but honestly, I don’t have much to add here. I don’t really see any way of gothing this up!

I ended up returning this. Between the color not being right for me and the fact it took so much time to get looking decent, I wasn’t feeling the love.

Lorac Baked Matte Satin Blush -“Plush”  is $24  available at Sephora

Here's one more. "Plush" sheered out. See the glitter around the edges?