Milani Baked Blush in Corallina Luminoso

Ever since its first appearance back in spring 2011, Milani Baked Blush has been spreading like wildfire among beauty blogs, (It's almost felt like deja-vu, after reading about them over and over again, especially all the blogs have that "clean and professional" white background)soon it achieved what seems like a semi-cult status, standing right next to products like Revlon lip butter (you all know how that went) and Hard Candy Glamoflauge concealer (a disaster for me).

Despite my initial interest, I was quickly put off but the price (8-dollars plus tax and never goes on sale at Walgreens) and the bulkier-than-usual packaging (It has been baffling me forever, how there are so many brands doing that under-compartment-with-flip-mirror-and-useless-brush thing) but when the Milani thanksgiving sale rolled up, I finally caved in and ordered two shades, both seems to be the popular choices (by the time my mind have been e-poked by far too many times).
Luminoso seems like a true peach with a satin finish (it provides a very soft, silvery glow without giving off any frostiness), it's (as expected from all the Milani powder products I have tried) rather pigmented and goes on smooth and evenly. Corallina is an reddish orange coral with tons of silver sparkle (which gives off a stronger glow instead of frosty cheeks) that can be dusted away easily, the formula of this seems dryer, chunkier but it's still rather fine in texture.

Nars Luster, Luminoso, Jane Blush Earth Sheer, Luminous, Corallina and Benefit Coralista
While these baked blushes definitely seem well-formula and shaded (nuanced or whatever that's called), my problem lies in the actual colors: Luminoso (which by the way is nothing similar to Luminous, a peachy pink with lots of gold in it), for some reasons, turns sallow on my face and made me looks like I just got blown by a sandstorm...The yellowing effect is especially obvious during winter (God forbid I like wearing warm blush during cooler seasons), when my skin gets a little purple. Corallina, in the other hand, is totally harmless and shows up as a pretty warm red flush...Guess what, a good chunk (90%) of my orange blushes ended up looking like this, many of them have better formula/staying power and less of an annoying packaging...

Overall: I wouldn't be a complete naysayer (that I normally am) about these since the formula is rather nice...If you don't have funky skin like mine (Nars luster is a lot warmer/golden than Luminoso yet it shows up peachy on me) and haven't gotten 10 different reddish-orange blushes already, the Milani Baked Blushes are well worth a look. Just make sure you are not OCD about packaging as well.

Comments

  1. Thanks for the swatch! Man, I been looking for a peach blush ofr the longesy, but havent got any that actually shows up as a peach color on my cheecks! Very fustrating.. from this review, I really want to try the Nars Luster now

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    1. I love nars luster because it shows up as a peachy flush during winter and when I am in my deepest summer tan, it gives me a nice soft gold glow. For a peach & cream kind of peach, the orange side of Canmake cheek & cheek 01 (candy flower) is spot on. Actually, luminous looks really peachy on me as well (since it has a lot of gold in it).

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  2. Corallina looks very pretty! And I really wish companies stopped including a compartment underneath with a brush and mirror too. They're usually useless and make the packaging unnecessarily bulky.

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  3. Corallina is one of my favorite coral blushes :) The amount of shimmer is a little crazy but i love the coral flush it brings on the cheeks :D

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  4. Hi there..
    New reader/follower here.. i like ur pics btw.. :)
    and im really searching for coral blushes and i think il look in milani next time i hit CVS

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    1. The baked blush are actually not available in CVS (at least in the stores I visit normally), so far I can find them at grocery store, Walgreens and some target.

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  5. I had both blushers and i gave both away. Was really excited about them but the shimmer and like you said, bad packaging, just kept me from reaching for them. If I had to choose, I kinda prefer the older mineral blushes that they are phasing out.:S

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    1. I like the old ones as well (I got three of them right before they went on clearance...) and I found a way to deal with the bulky packaging by just depot one of the pans and put it down under.

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  6. These ended up being quite complimentary on me - but they're a bit sparkly for my tastes. Every time I use them I accidentally flip them over to the brush side...which frustrates me. I've been using Luminoso a bit just so that I can use these up. I don't LOVE them but they look good on me, kind of thing. You know?

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    1. What? You actually intend to use a blush up? (When I "use up" cheek product I usually mean depot-then-destroy...which I kind of did with luminoso.

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