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Blushes | 2013 Editor's Favorites
I went through all of the blushes I’ve reviewed in 2013, which was around 200 in total, and these were some of my very, very favorites. I could have given you a much longer list, so when there was just a really amazing formula, I limited myself to picking just one shade, but I’ve included a link to the formula itself where you can also check out other shades available! Naturally, as these are my personal favorites, you’ll likely notice a warmer tone to most, plus an inclination towards coral… I cannot tell a lie: I love coral blushes!
- Chanel Presage (62) Le Blush Creme de Chanel — a warm-toned, medium-dark orange with a hint of pink, but I loved every single shade released in this formula (see them all here!)
- Illamasqua Peaked Velvet Blusher — an amazing cream-to-powder formula in a cool-toned berry-pink
- Kevyn Aucoin Natura Pure Powder Glow — or take your pick, as the formula was incredibly consistent and fantastic; Natura is a soft, medium brown with rose and peach tints
- NARS Boy Don’t Cry High Voltage Blush — an intensely pigmented coral-red that was as gorgeous to look at in the pan as it was applied
- Burberry Coral Pink Light Glow Natural Blush — a dark pink with a hint of coral and warmth and a soft, satiny finish
- MAC Ripe for Love Blush — a medium coral-orange with a satiny sheen
- Chanel Accent (84) Joues Contraste — a softened, medium-dark rosy brown with neutral-to-warm undertones
- Givenchy It-Girl Purple Le Prisme Blush — a light-medium, cool-toned pink with a hint of lilac and a barely-there satin finish
- Benefit Rockateur Box o’ Powder — a mix of pink, beige, and brown with warm undertones and a satiny finish–almost rose gold as described
- NARS Taj Mahal — bold, vibrant orange with a hint of red and a golden sheen–one of many choices as I reviewed most of the permanent shades from NARS this past year
I badly want CHANEL ACCENT blush but the collection is not launched in my city yet …
need to pick it ASAP 😀
the ones I tried this year , I lovedddd Burberry Beauty Hydrangea pink , MAC Pro blush Devil and CHANEL Frivole 😀
all the “best top 10” series are so exciting 🙂
I hope you can get it when it launches, Rashmi!
i really hope dear 🙂 its launched in Mumbai , I wait for a week else my frnd will pick that up for me 🙂
there is no Guerlain counter here , only one Givenchy counter which is opposite side of my city .. am living in desert and SAVING money i guess
i want to try CHANEL POWDER version 😀 you all are so lucky
I live in the middle of nowhere now as well, so I do all my shopping online!
I’m just outside of Los Angeles, and one would *think* it’d be easy to find things, considering it’s one of the largest cities in the US. However, because it’s so large, I could go to 5 counters of the same brand, in 5 different malls, and still not be able to find an entire collection at one, because they seem to spread the pieces out. One may get a ton of eye products, another may get bulk lip products, and so on. I also have to go very far to find a Nordstrom.
Sephora is even worse. The ones I go to most carry all carry completely different products/shades, so when there’s a discount, I have to figure out which location has the most of what I want at the time.
there is a new guerlain counter at phoenix mills, parel 🙂
Great blushes!
My favorites this year were Illamasqua Naked Rose, Tarte Exposed, Milani Luminoso, MAC Scene to be seen.
Love Naked Rose and Exposed – perfect neutral blushes!
The NARS Boy dont cry high Vintage blush looks super pretty! Loved this compilation of gorgeous blushes. Maybe i should ring in the new year by buying one of these 😉
Wouldn’t be a bad way to ring in the new year 😉
I think my only new blush this year was Bobbi Brown’s Pale Pink, which I got in a free palette from Sephora. I totally love it and will most certainly purchase a full sized one. Oh, I also got the blush that is at the centre of the Tarte for Aqualillies palette. It’s a bit peachy toned in the palette and that was almost enough to stop me buying the palette though I am so glad I did get it. And strangely, once applied,it looks really flattering.
I’m so glad you ended up liking the blush in the Aqualillies palette, Mariella!
Even if the blush hadn`t worked out, the shadows would have compensated (the highlighter and bronzer are okay too but I really bought this for the shadows, so everything else was a bonus). I`m surprised that Tarte doesn`t have more powder eye shadows. When I found the ones in this palette to be so great, I check out their eye shadow choices at Sephora and was surprised that there was basically nothing.
I think they just rely on the big sets they put out – because those seem to come with 10-20 eyeshadows each time!
MAC Dainty will always be my favourite blush every year!
Have you hit pan?!
I have too many that I love and my list would read like a book. But lately I’ve been loving the Chanel cream blushes I picked up along with MAC Format and Sweet as Cocoa. Especially the MAC because I always passed up the colors in-store only to actually take the time to check them out. It was like the angels started singing because I knew I had to take them both home. Its an awesome feeling to discover something that you immediately fall in love with and works so well.
I would read that book 😉
My top 3 at the moment are the Chanel Creme de la Creme in Revelation and the Chanel powder formula in Accent….also, Benefit’s Rockateur. I was afraid I had bought into a bunch of silly hype when I bought the Benefit blush on impulse but I reach for it all the time.
Phew! It’s great hearing how well Rockateur has worked out for you!
Nars Luster and Madly thanks to your reviews, Lancôme Cedar Rose.
Yay! Happy to help, Lily! 🙂
Killer picks! Chanel Presage is one of my favourites from the year too! 🙂
That formula is SO awesome.
i just got kevyn aucoin natura from haute look a couple of weeks ago. thanks to your review, i was confident in buying it. i have a lot of redness in my cheeks, so sometimes blush looks really bad on me, but this shade is perfect! i love it!
Woohoo!! I’m ecstatic that you’ve found a good blush for your skin tone, Beka!
Oooh I am drooling all over my keyboard here! Pretty overload! And you started off with the best one in my opinion!
Haha! 😉
NARS Lovejoy and Taos
I love the sheen of Taos!
This is a category where I’d really like to try all of the picks! The Givenchy one is especially appealing.
The texture on Givenchy’s Le Prisme is SO SO SO soft!
I love Accent and Présage. So. Much! I’ve been wearing Accent all week! And the formula of Chanel new cream blushes is just stellar. I’ve picked up Fantastic with Christmas money today!
Oooh, hope you love Fantastic as much as Presage!
I totally forgot I also discovered Tom Ford blushes earlier this year: I purchased Lovelust to celebrate an academic success in june or july and it has blended so seamlessly into my everyday routine it feels like I’ve owned it for much longer! If anything, it’s really the power of a good blush I’ve truly discovered this year (that, and face powders).
I’m so happy so many readers are loving Love Lust as much as me!
I went a bit crazy this year buying “face” products in general, and actually picked up a few winners! I hadn’t bought *any* for a few years, except what came in the occasional palette, but none were really right for me. This year, I picked up:
MAC Brit Wit
NARS Douceur
NARS Madly
NARS Sin
NARS Oasis
NARS Ninotchka
L’Oréal True Match Tender Rose C3-4
L’Oréal Celestial
L’Oréal Plume
Maybelline Fit Me Deep Mauve
*I have a bit of a Rose/Mauve theme, LOL! I stepped out of my comfort zone, though, and am quite surprised by how much I love Madly.
Sometimes I forget that buying 40 blushes in a year isn’t “normal,” LOL. Blogging has completely distorted my sense of beauty purchasing.
I’m happy that Madly is working out for you and that you picked a few shades that you wouldn’t normally go for!
It seems most people are more into blush than anything else, and I was actually feeling a bit out of sorts because I hardly wore ot, LOL! I can go all out with eye products, and I sometimes wear “unconventional” lip colors, but for me, I prefer my blush to look natural. I really only had those that came in palettes, and they never seemed “right”, so I kind of gave up. Playing with bronzers has also helped “warm” my complexion enough that I can actually wear more colors.
Tarte Off the Cuff Blush Palette – Every color in it is amazing!
That was a really nice palette!
I love all the blushes mentioned! my top ones would be NARS exhibit A, NARS Tajmahal,Kevyn Aucoin Fira, MAC Wordly wealth, NARS matahari. This year was all about deep shades! 😉 I am happy deep bright shades dont frighten me anymore and these can be worn as natural as any other shade!
I can tell you like your blushes bright and bold ;D
Rockateur was definitely my favorite new product of 2013!
Yay!
The Chanel cream blushes are the love of my life. I’m terrible at blush, and kind of secretly hate it, but the Chanel ones just make me happy!
YAY! Sometimes cream blush is easier, especially when they blend as beautifully as Chanel’s do!
Can’t buy that many of anything in one year! But I certainly can test them out at the stores. Kevin Aucouin’s Natura was recommended by one of your readers when I was bemoaning the difficulty in finding a dupe for ann old MAC blush/eye shadow called Spice. So this color has always been a favorite of mine. The closest I have been able to get to it is Nars’ Madly, which has a little more orange than I like, when I finish it off I’ll look to replace it with Natura or Benefit’s Dallas. Its not fair for you to list Accent on your list, I got one swatch of it at a Chanel counter, but no one ever had it in stock. That was one I would have bought no matter how many blushes I have, but there don’t seem to be any left in the world. I have the Bobbi Brown bronzer/blush from the fall 2021 Twighlight collection, the Bahama Brown is that pallette is the closest to Accent I’ve found,,and I have been trying to find a dupe for that!! So you hit on my second favorite color too. Now if only some of these limited edition colors would hang around long enough for us mere mortals to have a chance to get to them, or for some other companies to jump on the bandwagon when they see a winner, you can’t patent a color, so feel free to dupe away!!! Thanks for all your hard work this year, I never would have heard of the two above mentioned products if it hadn’t been for your reviews or your very well educated readers!
I hope Chanel will re-release Accent sometime – it was a really lovely shade that seemed to work well for a lot of people!
Always my pleasure to share the info and wealth, Ellen! Thanks for reading 🙂
Nars Taj Mahal and Tom Ford’s Savage are my HG blushes. I fell in love with Tarte’s Exposed and Nars Dolce Vita blush this year too. I want to try Benefit’s Rockateur … I don’t know if it will show up on my NC 50 chocolate/golden complexion, but it’s pretty!
If Exposed shows up, I think Rockateur would be pretty – with the shimmer, it would at least work as a highlighter/subtle blusher.
Thanks for the suggestion Christine!
I’ve never been one to splurge on high-end blush, but with a bday gift card to Ulta, I gave in a bought Rockateur. Hands down one of my best beauty purchases of the year (besides Naked 3 and my NYX eyeshadows)
Aww! Relieved and super happy that your blush splurge worked out so well for you, Vanessa!
A couple of months ago I got Dior’s Vibrant Color Blush in Mimi Bronze. It’s a great everyday blush that I’ve been reaching for often. Earlier in the year I also got Nars Liberte, which is also very beautiful. But I probably won’t reach for it too much until summer.
I haven’t tried the formula, but happy to hear this is a good shade! Might have to start with that one.
MAC’s Ripe for Love is my all time favourite blush – it’s just my absolute fave colour & happens to be the most flattering on my skin! The only other one I own on this list is the Illamasqua Peaked Velvet Blusher – and all of these are either on or going to be on my wish list! 😀
Fingers crossed they re-release it just in time for you when you need a new one!
This is a great list! I have Presage and I just adore the formula! It’s definitely one of the best cream blushes I’ve ever tried. I ended up getting Rotonde instead of Boys Don’t Cry but I still want it soo badly! It was such a gorgeous color! Ripe for Love was also a favorite of mine this year. It’s the perfect natural peachy blush on me. Accent and Taj Mahal are definitely on my list. They’re so beautiful!
When I was choosing, it was a toss up between Rotonde and Boys Don’t Cry! Both were great.
Mac’s Cream Soda from the Archie’s Girls collection! Love it for my fair skin!
That was a nice shade for fair skin!
Great picks! Nars Dolce Vita is my favorite out of over 50+ blushes I managed to collect over the years 🙂
Dolce Vita is a lovely everyday shade!
Ooh! I find this list hard to narrow down to just 10, but here goes mine… 😀
1) Chanel Le Blush Cremes in Destiny and Presage
2) Chanel Joues Contraste in Accent
3) Estee Lauder Pure Color Blush in Witty Peach
4) Laura Mercier Illuminating Powder Quad in Coral Red
5) Lancome Blush in Rose Desir
6) MAC Extra Dimension Blush in Fiery Impact
7) NARS Powder Blush in Daydream
8) Tom Ford Cheek Color in Love Lust
9) Yves Saint Laurent Blush Radiance in Pepper Rose
Lovelust <3 Would be on my top ten for life list!
That’s how I feel too! 😀 My list wouldn’t be complete without Love Lust in it.
Okay, I am getting all 10 this week 🙂
Haha 😉
Christine, loving the Top 10 series! Thanks for reviewing products the whole year round with such amazing details and beautiful crystal clear pics. I can imagine how much effort goes into it daily. And without sick leaves!! 😉
Extremely curious to know why Tom Ford blushes didn’t make the cut here…I thought Love Lust would definitely have been there…
My picks this year:
Tom Ford Wicked and Ravish,
Nars Torrid and Taj Mahal
Estee Lauder – Wild Sunset
YSL cream blush – Powdery Rose
The list is only products I’ve covered in 2013 – as in reviewed/tested, so they can be new in 2013 or just new-to-me in 2013. 🙂 These aren’t all-time, just from 2013!
Oh! Im sorry! Just because I discovered Tom Ford blushes this year – I presumed, so did everyone else!! LOL!! 😉
I have been loving Nars blushes this year!! My favs are
Nars silvana (most used blush and have hit pan on it!)
Nars Gina
Nars love joy
Mac Melba
Those are some nice NARS picks, Carmen!
You just reminded me that I have Presage and Accent and I haven’t used them yet!!! I also loved MAC Ripe for Love, so much so that I wish I had bought a back up! Although considering what I just said about the Chanel’s that I have yet to crack, my guess is I don’t really need duplicates.
Neeeed to use Accent!
After a few years wearing only cream rouge, this year I switched back to powders. This year, I really liked the sunset pink Chantecaille (Wild Horses palette) and Chanel Accent. Accent is so so neutral on me, great for shading/sculpting. I get tired of the Chanel rose scent in so many of their products, though! Next year, Id like to try Chanel cream blush, wait, is it rose scented too??
I didn’t notice any scent to the cream product, actually… not that I can recall.
For me it is MAC Cream Soda! This shade might also be my new all-time favorite blush and I think I wore it for a month straight when it first came out. Benefit Rockateur would come in second place for me.
I can see both of those looking so lovely on you, Danielle!
I purchased so many blushes this past year that I don’t even remember half of them. The one that clearly stands out, though, is Benefit Rockateur. I have worn Rockateur and Tom Ford Lovelust exclusively for the past two months (I think that speaks for itself coming from a total blush whore with 200+ blushes, lol). They both look amazing on my (currently) NW20 skin. They are so effortlesss to apply (right amount of pigmentation for a standard blush brush and easy to blend) and go with everything!
LOL! Someday, you have to show me your stash and how you keep it all organized 😉
My favorites this year:
Tarte Exposed
Burberry Cameo
Guerlain Madame Rougit
Dior Rosy Glow
Chanel Accent
BE Ready The Love Letter
Such gorgeous blushes you’ve chosen, Aida!
I really liked chanel rose initial and tom ford wicked & savage… purchased them after reading reviews here and on you tube and they are great. I also really liked nars luster and bobbi brown chocolate crème blush (great for lips and cheeks)
So glad you enjoyed those products, Roselyn! Phew 😀
My top 10, on my NC40-42 skin tone:
1) Sleek Sunrise
2) NARS Taj Mahal
3) Inglot Freedom System blush No. 25
4) Sleek Life’s a Peach
5) Sleek Guipure (from the Lace palette – the other two colours are amazing too)
6) NARS Lovejoy
7) Alverde cream-to-powder blush in Hot Flame
8) NARS Taos
9) Fashionista blushes – very cheap but good quality
10) MUA cream blushes – same
I don’t remember the specific shades for the MUA and Fashionista blushes, but I have several and was pleasantly surprised by the pigmentation on these.
Next year, I really want to get some La Femme blushes. I’ve been hearing so many good things about them!
Thanks for sharing your skin tone with your picks! 😀
These are all so refreshingly different. Great picks.
I recently repurchased Hourglass cheek stain in Flush. Used up the entire tube and just had to get it back in my lineup. Been enjoying my Tarte Exposed too. And a Too Faced blush/bronzer they sadly don’t make anymore (and mine is very close to needing to be tossed). Too Faced changes things so often, they keep discontinuing things I absolutely have to have: shadows, blushes… sigh.
Wow!! How long did it take to get through a tube of Flush?
ugh that NARS blush looks to die for! I’ve been eyeing it probably ever since you first reviewed, just haven’t been able to pick it up. I gravitate towards to the coral blushes too.. you can never have too many 🙂
No such thing as too many coral blushes 🙂
Thanks for all your hard work last year Christine! I got six blushes last year, and they were all from Nars. I got Orgasm, Deep Throat, Desire, Gaiety, Angelika, and Oasis. I love how they’re so pigmented!
Yay! Which is your favorite?
(I’ve signed up so I have a different profile now 😉 )
I think it has to be Orgasm, I didn’t think I would even like it based on all my research. But when I swatched in Sephora I really loved it!
That’s so funny! Orgasm is one of those shades people LOVE or are sick of. It’s a classic, so I’m happy you ended up loving it 🙂
I can see that now, and me too!
My favorite for the last few years has been Lorac’s Baked Matte Satin Blush in Exposed. It’s such a pretty color on and a little goes a long way. I’m afraid though, this product is about to expire and it looks like I’ve barely used it, even though I use it almost daily.
Nar’s blush in orgasm, dolce vita and sin.
Makeup Forever cream blush in
310 & 410. Shu uemura powder
glow on in p peach 47. Paula Dorf
Cream in Playmate. Benefit powder
In Bella Bamba, benefit sugarbomb.
Too faced pinch my cheeks. Cargo
Powder blush light pale soft pink.
Bobbi Brown shimmer brick in Rose.
Perricone no blusher liquid.
What pretty blushes you’ve chosen, Doreen!