The Perfect Spring Blush // Illamasqua Excite

Hi Ladies! I hope you're all well and having a great week so far. Before I get into my review I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who read or commented on my 'Blogging Basics Tips & Advice' post - I'm quite overwhelmed by the amazing response and all the tweets and emails I've received from fellow bloggers. So without getting all soppy on you, thank you very much - it means the world to me!

Okay, so now my thank you's are out of the way, let me get back to the focus of this post - a review of my first EVER Illamasqua blush. Illamasqua blushes are one of those products that have been on my wish list for such a long time but as I don't wear blush all that often, I never liked the idea of parting with £18.00 for a product I might not get much use from. The reason I'm not really into blush is because I don't think it particularly suits me and I've never found one thats made a massive difference to the overall appearance of my makeup. However, when I spotted this gorgeous coral Illamasqua blush in the shade 'Excite' on Coco from The Beauty Milk's blog sale, I thought 'what the hell' and immediately said I wanted it. Within minutes she'd sent me an invoice on Paypal and the blush was mine.

When it arrived for me in the post, I instantly fell in love with the packaging. The shiny black square with the Illamasqua logo embedded on the front is just beautiful. It feels very sturdy too and although I didn't pay the full £18.00 price tag for it, I was very happy to see a high-end brand reflect the price of their products in their packaging. After admiring the packaging for a while, my next thought was 'holy crap, this blush is bright, I'm going to end up looking like a clown'. However, although it does look bright (almost neon) Orange in the pan and is exceptionally pigmented, when applied with a light hand and blended out its the most beautiful peach blush I've ever used. Not only is it buttery soft to the touch and extremely easy to blend but when applied on top of my bronzer, it instantly brightens up my face. As I said earlier, blush I've used in the past has never made a great deal of difference to my makeup but this one finishes it off perfectly and adds a nice dimension to my face. I really like that its matte too so I can pair it with my matte bronzer for a natural look or add a bit of highlighter on top if I want to glam things up a touch.

Illamasqua describe the shade 'Excite' as a vivid apricot on their website which sounds scary but when blended out its truly beautiful and the perfect shade for this time of year. Who doesn't love a bit of peach when S/S comes around? The formula is absolutely divine too, I've never used a blush so soft to the touch and so incredibly pigmented. As you can see form my 'finger' swatch above, with one touch you get amazing colour pay-off. I really like this as I feel its a very high quality product and one that will last me a long time. However, it is important to be careful when using such a pigmented product - a heavy hand would definitely result in some bright orange cheeks. I've been applying it with my Real Techniques contour brush, dabbing it onto my cheeks and blending to create a soft peach effect.

I am SO impressed with this blush and its definitely the nicest I've ever used it. I now want to get my hands on a few more and I've got my eye on 'Lover' next - a muted peach which again is perfect for the Spring/Summer. 

Have you tried Illamasqua blush? Do you like them as much as I do? They're available to buy here on the Illamasqua website.

Lots of Love,