NARS Gilda Blush Review, Photos, Swatches
NARS Gilda Blush
Gilda the Good Blush
NARS Gilda Blush ($28.00 for 0.16 oz.) is described as a “perfect coral with a hint of red.” It’s an orange-coral with a little burnt red tinge and matte finish. NARS Exhibit A is much more intense, deeper, and redder. MAC Modern Mandarin is brighter with a satin finish. Make Up For Ever #5 is richer in color but similar in color. MAC Out for Fun is a cream blush but very comparable in color.
The hint of red is readily apparent in this blush, and for some, it may bring out any underlying redness and give that sunburned look that’s less-than-lovely. If you don’t have a lot of natural redness in your cheeks, this should read prettily on your skin. The texture is soft, finely-milled, and looks natural against the skin. Despite the matte finish, it doesn’t look dry or flat, and it never accentuates pores or skin imperfections. Gilda has good color payoff, though you don’t have to fear too much about overdoing it–you don’t need a feathery hand like you do with Exhibit A. It’s buildable, blendable, and a good alternative to Exhibit A if it just seems too intense for you. When I wore this, Gilda lasted for a full eight hours and didn’t have any fading at all.
Permanent
NARS Gilda Blush
NARS Gilda Blush
NARS Gilda Blush
NARS Gilda Blush
NARS Gilda Blush
NARS Gilda Blush (Diffused Flash)
NARS Gilda Blush (Studio Lighting)
WOW, this is gorgeous!!!
RedLipsBlakHair Glad you liked it! 🙂
This looks beautiful. I have Exhibit A … Now I’m thinking I like this better.
Dinitchka The two can look really similar on, just easier to use Gilda, since it’s not as intense!
Love Gilda! The perfect coral for my NC45 skin.
NicholeH Likewise, but I haven’t met a NARS blush that hasn’t worked for me, if not for the apples but for contouring or highlighting.
Gotta have this one!
I love the sheen on this one. I’m surprised at how “natural” this one may look on my skin. I normally go for cooler, duskier shades, but I have found *another* product I must try. My poor bank account…
As usual, this looks great on you. But to be honest, I think you could pull of a acid green blush if you wanted to :-p Your cheeks are made for blush. That sucked u…errr…said, this is a gorgeous coral shade. I like it!
Just a heads up, that this particular color cannot be purchased as Sephora – I don’t have access to NARS counter and I have checked and double checked Sephora for this color and am sure they don’t carry it. Which is a bummer, since it looks like a gorgeous universal shade!
I want to love Gilda. I want to so, so badly. I had been excited to get it like no other blush but… no. Just no. My skin must have a lot more yellow and olive than yours because on me, this was very orange-y. Too orange-y for my liking. I think if I had a bit more pink in my skin, the pink-coral nature would come out but I don’t and it didn’t. It don’t know if it made my colouring look kinda flat and dulled, a bit jaundiced, or if I simply didn’t feel fresh and pretty, but either way, I really didn’t like it on me. At all! In fact, I’ve stuck it in a closet far away from my makeup after swatching it twice while I try to figure out what to do with it. Because, truly, I don’t see myself ever reaching for it given all the other blushes that I do love or that are prettier on me. :'(
Kafka so saaaddd! :* I was wondering while I was looking at Christine’s pictures whether or not it was indeed too orange or similar to Orgasm–sans frost–which is equally horrid on me as it is on you as we have previously discussed. But I thought it had enough pink to offset. How does this compare to Outlaw??
wwendalynne No comparison whatsoever to the stunning Outlaw. On my skintones, Gilda is orange! Not Taj Mahal orange but a definite tangerine-coral on my skin. And it is super intense in its pigmentation as compared to its closest counterpart, imo: the shimmery Torrid. Torrid has pigmentation but I think this one has it much, much more intensely, solidly and opaquely. I have no pink in my skin at all and a strong yellow undertone, so this was just terrible on me. I didn’t feel fresh or pretty in the slightest. I felt muddy, dirty, brown-yellow-sallow. You are much paler than I am and you don’t have those strong yellow undertones. I think you have a bit more of an olive-neutral-cool tinge that would totally work with this and make it very pretty on you. I can’t recall if you have Torrid though. This is a more intense (and matte) version of that with (supposedly) a wee bit more pink. I don’t see that when I compare my 2 side by side, but others say that a lot, so… <shrug> I don’t think Gilda is like Orgasm either; it’s much more intense and with actual, serious colour and pigmentation. It’s most definitely not like Outlaw which is a rosy-raspberry with a gold sheen. This is a non-shimmery, tangerine-coral with (supposed) pink tinges, though Christine sees red tinges instead. It’s a lot more pink in the swatches on my phone than on my computer, but either way, it just didn’t work on my actual *skin.* (I shudder to think what Gina would do because that one is pure and total tangerine.) But Gilda is one of the most loved NARS blushes so it clearly is magnificent on a lot of people.
Super lovely Christine! I will have to consider this one for certain!
Lovely! What is on your other cheek, though? I love that color!!
Gaiety!
This looks so beautiful on you, I see why corals in general are your favourite hue. They make your complexion glow.
I’ve been wanting Gilda forever! It’s such a gorgeous blush. Seeing how lovely it looks on you just makes me want to run out to my nearest NARS counter and buy it immediately!
GILDA! This is my absolute favorite coral blush, and it definitely falls into my top 5 favorite blushes. It just provides the most natural warm flush to my cheeks; it doesn’t scream, “HEY! I’M WEARING BLUSH!” I’m NC20-25, and I can use a stippling or “regular” blush brush with this – the blush is not something I have to be overly careful with at all, but it is very easily layered. This is one of my definite recommendations to WOC to check out, but this works on lighter skin, too. Gilda needs more love!
Sweetie, sorry I didn’t reply to your question in the Gaiety thread re Angelika -vs- Riviera. The whole thread vanished for me, except for the top 2 posts much later on. It was a Livefyre issue. I saw your posts on my phone but I can’t write properly replies that way. I hope you will forgive me. Now that it’s been fixed, I’ll reply to you there later tonight or tomorrow, so check tomorrow as I don’t think you/we will get notifications any more.
No worries, girl! I will check it tomorrow!
It looks really gorgeous on you!I think it might work fo me as well, and I love matte blushes. I really need to try it out.
Oh I love this blush, would it be too dark for pale pasty people? I love honey colors.
This looks so pretty on you, but I’m definitely scared that it’ll look like rosacea on me :/
I donno why but on my screen this blush looks candy pink on your left cheek but coral pink on right hand side. 😛
Gaiety on one cheek, Gilda on the other! I think the next review she’ll be doing will have Gina on one cheek and Liberte on the other. I get confused all the time seeing two colors on her cheeks; it always takes me a minute to be like “OH YEAH!”
Gilda is so pretty! Can’t wait to get it!
Thank you so much for reviewing this. I was worried Gilda might make me look red, and now that you mentioned that as well, I think I’ll pass!
This looks like the MAC blush from the Hey Sailor collection this year. I forgot the name…oh yeah…Fleet Fast. Maybe FF is more shimmery…
I cannot find it on Sephora website? is it new? How is does compare to Tipsy From TArte?/ Thanks for the amazing reviews as usual.
When are you going to review the new Guerlain blush does? I’m so tempted to order one of these but I’m waiting to see your take on them 😀
That is such a lovely color! It’s suits your skintone so nicely 🙂 This isn’t really related to the review, but maybe you should consider using a lighter hand when applying blush? It borders on clown-ish sometimes in your pictures 🙁
Gilda was my first high-end make up purchase. I waited for 2 months for the Friends and Family sale at Sephora and looked at about a million blogs for swatches of Gilda before I bought it. I still haven’t hit pan on it and it’s been 4 years using it at least once a week!
It was my my first high-end makeup purchase too!
I was lucky and found it on a blog sale.
This is very pretty, but looks like a slightly muted Illamasqua Excite, so I probably shouldn’t go for it due to dupeage.
How does Gilda compare to Mac Melba blush?
Gilda is more orange!
What about Peaches?
Lighter, peachier 🙂
I thought I would love this blush after seeing it on your cheek, but from the arm swatches I’m pretty sure it will be too muddy-yellow-orange on me. Brighter corals work so much better on my skin tone.
That’s almost exactly how it looks on me. 🙁
I don’t have a NARS counter in my state and the Sephora stores don’t carry Gilda, either, so I was so delighted to find it when I went to Mall of America. I’m very fair. I wear B-12 for Chanel Vitalumiere-Aqua, and this is the most natural shade for me…if I use a *light* hand…or else I look like a very sunburnt clown. A lot of fair girls love NARS’s Madly for a natural blush, but I find that to be a little overwhelming on my skin (probably due to a clash of undertones in the blush and my skin), but Gilda is PERFECT for that natural look. So, if you have a similar skin tone, I’d recommend it! Now on to lusting over Amore and Oasis…ahhh, NARS blushes… 🙂
Yes! Guerlain blushes!!
How would u compare this to Mac’s immortal flower? Looking for one very similar and hoping this is it! Thanks:)