SPOTLIGHT: Rediscovering Powder Blushes (Part 1)...

They say that the only constant in life is change :-) Well I love the fact that whenever I make myself a hard and fast rule (especially when it comes to makeup), I often find myself doing a total about-face somewhere down the track. And that's what happened with blushes. Years ago I decided to ONLY wear cream blushes - being an older chooky, I found that creams were far more flattering for my getting-wrinklier-by-the-day skin, and so I ditched most of the powders I had in my kit. But the simple fact is that there are HEAPS more shades available in dry blushes, the formulas have improved considerably, and after experimenting with using a cream base PLUS a dusting of powder blush over the top, I've found I can reap the benefits of both worlds...

So after making the decision to re-explore the makeup category I'd cast aside, I went in search of some reasonably priced products in fabulous colours to begin the exceptionally pleasurable task of rebuilding my collection, and here's what I found...

I still had an assortment of blushes that came with eye-shadow kits - some were ok-for-me shades, but what I didn't have was a range of pinks, from pastel rose through to bold magenta...

This Lacura duo (from Aldi of course) is called Soft Rose - two delicate pinks that give my cheeks a supremely natural and healthy glow. Love the packaging - a matte black compact with a mirror inside, and it comes with a baby brush (which I've tossed because teeny little blush brushes just annoy me), all for the bargain price of around $5. The powder is finely milled, has a slight shimmer, and while my brush easily picks it up, there's very little fallout. Actually so far I've only used the shade on the right, but the pale pink will come in handy as a highlighter...

Next up was essence "blush up" in Heat Wave - it's a stunning combo that graduates from orange to pink, and retails for $6.45. Love the sturdy clear perspex packaging, gorgeous colours on either side, and when you swipe both together, you get a fabulous silky coral. I'm a complete failure when it comes to swatching, but fortunately darling Sandy from Eyes For Makeup has some neat ones on her blog...

I couldn't resist this stunning BYS trio last time I was in KMart - it's called On the Bright Side and retails for $7.95. The pink on the left is deliciously shimmery and the other two are almost-mattes (#3 has a slight shimmer). One of the nightmares us bloggers have is trying to capture on camera the true colours of cosmetics - flash, no flash, natural light, I tell you it's darn near impossible to get it right, but this first pic (natural light) is the closest I could manage. Can't wait to try out that one in the middle!

Taken with flash

And finally...I bought this MODELco blush from Coles when they were having a recent promo - the colour Amaretto Sunset is absolutely divine and perfect for autumn. Came with a mini kabuki brush too. This was the most expensive of the lot at $18, but I just had to have this shade - it's very similar to my favourite cream blush (Australis Chocolate Truffle) which devastatingly has been discontinued :-(

Left ModelCo Amaretto Sunset, right Australis Chocolate Truffle

I can't believe I've been blogging for almost 8 months, and this is the first time I've done a feature on blushes! I've a few more to share with you in the next couple of weeks, including the brilliant Benefit Hervana one that came in my Blogstar prize, so I'll be back with more soon ♥

Take care of you,

kats xxx