I am always on the hunt for new affordable beauty brands to try because, I don't know about you guys, but lately I've been kind of bored and unimpressed with most drugstore makeup. Discovering brands like City Color, Profusion and Colourpop (to name a few) have made me wonder...why can't the drugstore brands keep up? Somehow these smaller brands manage to offer adorable packaging, innovative formulas, and amazing quality while still keeping the prices down (often even lower than brands like Maybelline, CoverGirl and Revlon).
I've seen the brand Beauty Treats around in places like Five Below but I hadn't tried anything from them before. Then I saw this Heart Love Blush Palette in Burlington Coat Factory earlier this week and it was $4.99. And it's blush. In heart shapes. So yes, I put it in my cart in about half a second and crossed my fingers that it's actually as good as it looks.
Looking at the back of the box, I was happy to see that Beauty Treats, which is based in Los Angeles, is a Cruelty Free brand...again these smaller companies are almost always cruelty free while some of the big drugstore brands aren't!
The palette itself is made of plastic that seems a bit on the flimsy side (like if I pressed down on top of the lid it would just crack. But for $4.99 I'm not complaining. There's no mirror or brushes included, but I never use brushes that come inside palettes anyway so I don't mind that part at all.
Inside are ten matte shades of blush, ranging from light peach and pink all the way up to darker red-pinks, corals and fuchsia. There's a great mix of warm and cool toned shades in here as well, so I really love that about it.
But the main thing I was dying to find out about this palette was how pigmented these shades were, and oh man...are they ever! I found myself saying things like, "holy crap" and "whoa" over and over again as I swatched these. I never expected them to be like this, but they're like pure pigment! And they stain, so we're talking all day wear here. I had to cleanse my arm with oil three times to get these swatches off!
I'm so impressed because usually matte shades are notoriously dry, patchy and streaky but these pick up so easily on a brush with almost no fallout whatsoever. A lot of these shades are very dark so I have to be careful not to venture into clown cheek territory since I have really light skin.
I tried one of the dark fuchsias to see if it would be wearable on me and just touching my brush to the pan picked up way more than I needed. So I tapped my brush a few times and was able to use that little bit of blush to do both of my cheeks. Then I blended like crazy. You have to be quick with these because since they're almost pure pigment, they do stain.
They also last all day long. My cheeks looked the same at 11pm when I was going to bed as they did around 11am when I first applied it.
Here's what all the shades look like unblended...how crazy is this pigmentation?!
Overall, my first Beauty Treats purchase totally exceeded my expectations of what I thought a $4.99 palette would be. I just want to caution those with fair to light skin like me...it's extremely easy to go overboard with these shades. You only need the tiniest bit on your brush and you have to blend quickly. But the payoff is a powder blush that literally lasts all day. If you live near a Burlington Coat Factory, I highly recommend heading over there to see if these are available in your area. I was also able to find it online at Blue Scandal for $5.99.
Final Summary:
Pros: Inexpensive, highly pigmented, little to no fallout, great range of shades
Cons: Somewhat flimsy packaging, very bold colors for fair and light skintones...use a very light hand.