New Product: Almay Smart Shade Blush

Hello blog-friends! Hope you're all doing just swell out there in Internet-Land. I had the great fortune to attend a tres classy wedding in Ottawa last weekend, and it was such a blast. Amazing food, amazing speeches, and of course, the amazing bride! She looked so good in her simple, elegant silk gown -- this is a lady who gets up at 5AM to go for a long run, and then goes to the gym, and THEN arrives for an 8AM class. Her new hubby is a lucky man indeed!

All this talk about blushing brides must be getting to me, because when I saw the new Almay Smart Shade Blush hiding in the bottom rack of a display at a drug store yesterday, I veritably pounced on it.




It's no secret around here that I'm a big fan of Almay's Smart Shade foundation, so even though I was in a big rush that day, and had exactly 3.2 minutes in that drugstore to buy, write on, and mail out a birthday card to my Mom (Happy Birthday, Mom!), I used some precious seconds to grab the tester of Smart Shade Blush and smear it not only on my own hand, but also on that of my ever-patient and tolerant boyfriend.

The Natural shade (only tester they had) came out whiteish, just like the Smart Shade foundation. The texture was also very similar: creamy, light, and silky. It is not at all gel-like. And, just like the Smart Shade foundation, the blush turns into its colour as you rub it on your skin -- on me (with my golden/yellow skin tone), it was a tawny pink, and on The Boy (he of white and pink skin), it was a cooler, powdery looking rose*.

The colour looked very natural, with sheer, flat colour (i.e., no shimmer or sparkles), and seemed like it would be easy to blend in. None of this neon-pink O-Glow business happening here. But I did not buy it, friends! Why not? Well, I have this thing where cream blush freaks me out a bit. I have nightmare-ish visions of a cakey, streaky mess on my cheeks. Since I like my foundations to be either in powder form, or have a powder finish, I use powder blushes exclusively. But, when/if I decide to try out a cream blush (I predict this will happen in September, when I get my funding and actually have discretionary income again), you can bet Smart Shade is the one I'm going to try!

Almay Smart Shade Blush comes in 4 shades: Pink Rose, Natural, Berry, and Sunkissed (which I think is supposed to be a bronzer). At about $12 CAD for a 0.5 fl. oz. tube, it's not exactly cheap, but I get the impression that you just need a smidge. And maybe you can even multi-task it and use it on your lips! (Like every other cream blush in existence!) Has anyone tried it? What do you think?



* Have I mentioned how utterly secure in his masculinity The Boy is? Because he is. So much so that he can do an interpretive dance to Cascada's "Every time we touch" while in the car and not lose an ounce of masculinity. Hawt.