Orange Overview - Finding the Tangerine of My Dream (and How They all Turned Coral)

So...I have been hauling quite bit of orange cheek product for the past year and instead of have them clogging up my dashboard (it usually takes me anywhere from 5 months to 2 years to review a cheek product...) then have them spew out all at once, here is an overview on all the not-so-recent orange purchases (coupled with some oldies). I guess I am spewing them all out at once...

Paul and Joe Face Color in Moroccan Orange (08) - Looks golden orange in the pan but applies like a bright neon coral. With a careful application (involving a skunk brush, lighter-than-light brushing and concealed acne marks), it gives me a bright orange-soda cheek/warm red flush hybrid. When I am not as careful, it appears rash-like and enhances my freshly picked scabs (You know, oxygenated blood also looks coral-red...)

Paul and Joe Face Color in Harvest Moon (from a fall 2010 limited edition)- What started the whole orange obsession. The golden matte orange (with a shimmery pinkish highlighter), really works all year round : Giving a sweet apricot-orange flush during winter and mimic a mild sunburn (the pretty kind) during summer.

Canmake Cream Cheek in Sweet Orange - An orange coral with fine golden shimmer (kind of like the blush version of Maybelline coral lustre), the finish is cream-to-powder (or stain-like, good pigmentation without any dewiness) and the color shows up like a warm reddish flush...

Canmake Powder Cheek Sugar Orange - Orange coral (my camera makes it looks so much redder)  with negligible silver shimmer. The powder has a dry and thin (not brittle, it's just not smooth, soft and silicone-y like the Paul & Joe) texture that makes it apply sheer on the face, so a normal swipe on dry clean face looks like...urgh...warm red flush.

On a dampened canvas (thanks to Garnier moisturizer, which gives you a dewy face no matter you like it or not), it appears way more intense and warmer and brighter, giving you a bit of a cute sweet orange soda cheeks.


Stila Convertible Color in Gladiola - A reddish orange with a gel-cream formula, while it looks scary bright in the pan, it blends down to a very natural, lit-from-within kind of...warm red flush (see where this review is heading?).
Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Candy Coral -  More of a novelty product than anything else. The sheer orange coral has a slippery texture that's fun to poke (but not as fun to smear allover the cheeks) and a more-than-natural look (as the color doesn't really build up).
Physicians Formula Cashmere Wear Blush in Warm - More of a salmon pink than orange (but it looks so similar to all those "oranges" so I might as well put it up here), the texture is silky, smooth (silicone, I guess?)  and very powdery. The color itself appears bright-pink/coral red and can be overdone very easily. (Side note: Flimsiest packaging from PF ever...even worse than those organic wear paper compact so it just ruins it for me even the blush itself is decent).

Milani Baked Blush in Corallina - A product without much fault by itself but the color is nothing special in my stash (shows up as a red flush, just like the rest of the orange blushers I own) and the compact is unnecessarily clunky.

Nars Powder Blush in Luster -  A golden apricot that might look a little out of place in this post. Once swatched, it's actually looks closer to orange bench mark (Harvest Moon)  than most of those "supposedly orange". Or maybe I should say that a natural, flattering orange blush should resemble an apricot instead of actually looking orange?
After all these hauling, it turns out that Harvest Moon remains the only orange blush I have...So, time to look for more oranges!
What used to be my orange-lemming list - I stopped wanting them as soon as I saw them in person (They just don't look that inviting, the packaging and the pans) ... 
Another insanely popular orange blush that's on my radar - Shiseido Majolica Majorca in Apricot Macaron OR302 (Which has won several magazine awards, one of them being the "most popular blush for women in their 30s"...)

Then I got successfully distracted by their summer (not LE!) releases - Raspberry and Cherry Macarons

The newly introduced Les Merveilleuses (your highness?) de Ladurée (from the same maker of Paul & Joe and Anna Sui!) has an extensive cheek color range, including...Wait, is that a yellow blush? Anyway, the price is way out of my league (3900 yen for a refill only...which is around 50 bucks?) that I will only be admiring it from afar...

Comments

  1. Im in love with my orange blush from a brand called "fred farrugia", bought in a sephora-store. The dose is mad ugly but the color really is a pretty orange! heres a good picture of it: http://www.coisasdediva.com.br/2012/05/blush-fred-farrugia-cor-2-orange-brulee/

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  2. Ooh, the raspberry macaron looks nice! may have to check them out.

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  3. will you plz review your new philosophy powder and the Canmake toys?

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    Replies
    1. I might put the review for Philosophy powder in a week or two (no guarantee though, as this is a personal blog and I do it in a personal pace).

      As for the Canmake blush mentioned here, I won't be putting up a super detailed reviews anytime soon, because I literally just reviewed and swatched these (I don't do face swatch either because I never use enough for them to show in photo anyway).

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  4. Oh Loving all these swatches! ^_^

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