Do yourself a favor, wait for these to be on sale before indulging, if you even bother indulging after this review.



Almay Smart Shade Powder Blush are quite reminiscent of Almay Smart Shade Smart Balance Pressed Powder in style. Each blush is made up of one solid dominate color and has tiny little polka dots of two other different shades. The blushes are supposed to “smartly” adapt to your skin tone and create the perfect shade of blush for your tone.

This concept is bogus in my opinion. Blush shades in general will look differently on any variety of skin tones. Pink blush might be bright on fairer skin while looking sheer and natural on darker. There isn’t any special technology behind this concept. It’s merely your skin tone picking up on the color and reflecting back in a variety of different ways.

In this case, Almay Smart Shade Powder Blush will look different on everyone true but there isn’t any special adapting technology at work that makes it so. It’s simply your skin tone and how it adapts to a certain shade.

That’s all there is to it.

The blushes come in a dual compact which features the powder on the top. Flip it over and open the container under the powder to reveal a blush and a mirror. The packaging is slick, convenient, and easy for travel. each blush is quite large in size so there is a generous amount of product in here which you should take into consideration when purchasing.



I don’t personally recommend these in all honesty. I’d love to rave them as they look like very pretty blushes in the package.

Sadly, the formula is dry so it’s difficult to pick up the blush with a brush. You literally have to swipe, swipe, and swipe to get any powder transferred to a blush brush. Swirling a kabuki into the powder might prove more successful. On some levels this might be a good thing if you’re heavier handed as you can’t over do the blush in the least. They apply easily, don’t have a dry appearance thankfully, and seem to blend out ok. Although sometimes I got a little patchiness going on particularly with Coral and Nude, both of which appear Snooki orange on my skin. The wear times isn’t fabulous here either as they seem to disappear within a three hour period.



Pink, Nude, Coral



Pink



Nude



Coral

I think the colors are also far from flattering. Pink is very nice and produces a natural flush on cheeks however, both Coral and Nude are very orange on my skin.

Overall, there isn’t very much to get excited about here. At a glance the packaging, blush itself, and general idea seems very fun. I instantly saw them and wanted all three! And in fact, as you can see, purchased all three. But after trying them I’m very disappointed, The dry, harder texture of the blush isn’t exactly friendly to work with and the wear time is iffy at best. Plus the colors turned into a very mediocre experience as well.






Coral






Rose

Note: Sorry trying different settings with my camera so one of the images kinda came out orange-y? Apologies!

If you tried them I’d love to hear your experience!
















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Read more: http://www.musingsofamuse.com/2012/12/almay-smart-shade-powder-blush-review-swatches.html#ixzz2RASfftVM