I.M.O.: CORALLINA BAKED BLUSH

back in August before I went M.I.A., I mentioned about ordering one of the baked blushes from the Milani website (see blog post HERE)... to follow up on that, I wanna share my thoughts on this product...

let's start with the packaging

I personally like that they did a plastic wrap instead of the sticky seal that some buyers tend to peel off at the store in order to do a quick swatch of the product, which we all know is very unhygienic...

the big bold name written around the wrap is also a plus.. this way we don't have to flip it over to get the name of the shade or guess by looking at the product... it says it right durrrr... CORALLINAAA... (in a giant monstrous voice)

the packaging looks so fancy at first... it's gold, it's shiny it doesn't look cheap at all... 

but then when you open it...

you'll see a caramel colored plastic rim.. suddenly it looks cheap.. much like their minerals blushes... 

they should've at least maintained a match of the plastic material used in the backing of the packaging 

& then when you open the bottom part, it'll reveal the compartment for the small brush which of course is a useless piece of doodoo... 

I mean tell me that you can't feel the hardness of this brush just by staring at the picture... it poked me while I was editing this post.... LOL

I mean, it's cute & all but really what's the point of including the brush if you can't really use it?? if I could, I would ask Milani for the $0.99 portion of what I paid & return this brush...

yeah, the whole dual compartment feature is cool, but usually if a product has dual compartment, aren't we supposed to have access to the product itself first before the extra stuff that came in the packaging?? well what made it pointless is that there's more access to the part we don't use a.k.a. 'the stiff brush' than the part we really need..

why? 

because the middle part that holds the blush powder does not sit securely & tightly onto the bottom part...   

& because the latch/opening requires a little pressure, you're gonna have to open the pan with the latch/opening upward facing you... & this will cause the pan with the blush to gravitate towards the top part which will then reveal the mirror &... you guessed it, the 'stiff brush'!!!

this is a comparison of the opening of the two blushes from Milani... as you can see with the minerals blush, you just press the button & it'll easily open the top cover versus the baked blush where you have to pull the tab to open the packaging... 

one advantage that the minerals blush has over the baked blush...

as for the mirror, I don't really care for it... if I have to have a mirror on it, I would rather have it right when you open the package.... I don't need to be surprised with it in a secret compartment....  &besides who would want to keep flipping it over while applying their blush on??? 

I would take back another $1 for the mirror & the dual compartment that is not so necessary...

  

so, technically, in my opinion, this blush should only be worth $6 instead of the MSRP $7.99

other than my rant on the packaging, I'm fairly satisfied with this product

it is uberly pigmented! 

while some might find this excessive, I say it's better that way than for the color to not show up at all...

you just have to remember to use it sparingly... 

the powder is very finely milled but the shimmery gold flecks sit very loosely on top of the powder... 

I personally am not a fan of shimmer on my cheeks because I have a very oily skin & the shimmers emphasize that some more... just by looking at the product from the pan, it looks like it could make your face look like a disco ball... but I was impressed that it didn't do that to my face at all... 

you can control the amount of product that you want to go on your cheeks... with very little product on your brush & a very light hand, you can achieve the natural glowy, rosy flushed cheeks... or do a few extra swipes if you wanna be bold & have bright cheeks!

here's the blush on my cheeks the night I received my Corallina...

 please excuse my face.. I only had a tinted moisturizer on, no concealer, only tightlined my eyes, no mascara, nothing on lips... 

I just couldn't wait to try out the blush 

I'd say the application I did was in between natural & bold.... 

they have tons of different shades to choose from

so definitely all skin tones can benefit from the range of colors...

I would probably repurchase, I have my eye on Luminoso next... but I heard it might be a dupe for MAC's Warm Soul which I already have... so if you have both of these, can you let me know if they are exact dupes?? thanks! =)

do you own any of the baked blushes from Milani?? 

what shade/s do you have?? 

do you like it/love it/hate it???