MUA is a brand which intrigues me. It lurks away in the back corner of my local
Superdrug. The display is frankly festering - there is never any stock and what is there is just bashed up testers or things people have opened and used.
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| MUA Blusher in Lolly and Candyfloss |
After that glowing review you are probably wondering why on earth you would look twice at the brand. I have mainly blogged about high end products so far, but I love a good high street / drugstore offering too. I have to say that the
MUA products I have tried are actually quite good. They are also unbelievably cheap!
There are lipsticks for £1, eyeshadow palettes for £4, foundation for £2. Incredible - but I do think you have to choose carefully, although at those prices perhaps you can just take a punt! I haven't tried everything (remember the shoddy out of stock display I just mentioned...?). But most recently I picked up a couple of
MUA Blushers in
Lolly and
Candyfloss.
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| Top: Lolly, Bottom: Candyfloss |
Unlike my eyeshadow & lipstick stash, I only have a couple of blushers in my collection. It is one area where I manage restraint - how many do you need? However, I normally choose peachier tones to warm up my complexion.
I had been wondering whether I could pull off a paler rosier pink. Blue toned pink lipsticks terrify me, but for some reason I thought it would be a good wintery blush option. Picking up a cheapie seemed like an ideal way to experiment. Seeing as these are only £1 each I thought I may as well also pick up one closer to the normal shade I would wear (did I just say how many do you need? ahem...) - and so I chose
Lolly, a peachier warm tone and
Candyfloss a cool blue toned pink.
My main gripe with these are the practicalities. The blushes are quite small which makes it harder to get a normal sized blush brush evenly covered without risking overloading it. That is of course if you can get the damn thing open in the first place! I broke 2 nails trying to prise mine open, but I guess once you've got the knack...
After that things got better. The powder isn't as tightly pressed as some other blushes meaning a lot goes onto the brush. I discovered this the first time I used the blue-pink one and instantly looked like I'd developed a rash. Warning - its easy to over-apply!
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| MUA Blusher in Lolly and Candyfloss |
That said, the colour pay-off is good. I compared the two shades to the pinkest blusher I already owned -
Benefit Dandelion and found it quite hard to get a good swatch of the Benefit one.
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| Swatch comparison of MUA vs Benefit |
It is a little tricky to see in this picture, but
MUA Candyfloss is a deeper blue-pink than
Benefit Dandelion, and
MUA Lolly is a peachier shade. In fact I would say that
Benefit's
Dandelion is a cross of the two
MUA shades.
I'm not sure that wear time is as good as other blushers I have tried, and I still prefer my favourite
Bourjois Cream Blush (
HERE) in
Nude Velvet but for the price difference the
MUA Blushers did well.
Overall I am impressed with these. I can't believe they only cost £1 each where as the
Benefit Dandelion blusher was £23.50 (
HERE if you are interested). It is definitely worth picking up a couple to try different shades or to just throw in various bags in case you want them on the go.
MUA Blusher comes in 6 original shades (just numbered 1-6 but no names) and 6 new shades were released last year which are:
Marshmallow (Pink),
Bon Bon (Apricot),
Lolly (Soft Orange),
Cupcake
(Soft Peach),
Candyfloss (Pink Shimmer) &
Bubblegum (Coral Rose
Pink).
MUA Blushers are available from
Superdrug HERE or direct from
MUA HERE.
