"There’s one thing I know to be true about makeup, and it’s that finding products that look good, feel good, and last all day is one of the most difficult triumphs. What works for one person might not work for the next, and what you like in one season probably won’t work the same way in the following one. It’s a seemingly never-ending search, which is why when it was time to do my wedding makeup, I didn’t venture too far out of my usual get-ready routine.
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I stand firm by the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” motto, so the products that I’ve tried, tested, and loved over the years were the ones I reached for; however, I did adopt a new blush mere days before one of the biggest days of my life—which was bold, to say the least—but it turned out to be the unsung hero of my entire look.
As a blush girlie through and through, the stakes were high for the wash of color I’d choose to wear on my cheeks, so when I landed on the blessing that is the e.l.f. putty blush, I was in shock that all it took to achieve the flush of my bridal dreams was a $7 blush I picked up at my trusty drugstore. Since I haven’t stopped wearing it and raving about it since I got hitched, I’m breaking down exactly what’s so good about the e.l.f. putty blush (besides the price, obviously) and why I put my trust into it on arguably the most important makeup day of my life.
The formula
The e.l.f. putty blush is the first cream blush I’ve ever tried, so I didn’t really know what to expect as far as formulation goes. Although it claims to be a lightweight, buildable formula that gives a natural glow, I was worried that it would be too creamy, thick, and hard to blend. As soon as I applied it to my skin, my worries went out the window. The shade I used, Bora Bora, is a very bright pink, which is intimidating to swatch, but it melts right into your skin giving you a natural wash of color immediately upon application. It gives just enough of a flush for a no-makeup makeup look but is also easy to build up when you want a deeper wash of color.
As someone who has oily skin, I appreciate that this blush is a putty-to-powder formula, meaning it goes on as a cream and finishes as a semi-matte blush with a powder finish. There’s nothing I hate more than looking too dewy (read: greasy), so I love the way that this blush transforms into the perfect glowy but not-too-shiny finish.
The pigmentation
If you’ve seen these blushes in the aisles of your local drugstore, you’ll know just how pigmented and bright they look in the pot, but at such an inexpensive price point, it can be hard to believe that they actually have any payoff. I’m here to tell you that they do. As I mentioned, the color is buildable, but how deep it is upon first application will vary depending on what you use to apply it. I love to use either the e.l.f. buffing brush or the putty blush brush to warm up the product in the pot, apply it directly to my cheeks, and add a little more at a time until I reach my desired level of bright pink. Since I have a heavy hand, using a brush to diffuse and blend the color is the best way to apply it IMO, but if you don’t have that problem and prefer to use your fingers to apply and blend, you can definitely get a more intense color right away. All this is to say that the color in the pot is the color that you get—whether you just want a light wash of it or want to build on for an intense pop of color.
The feel
The word “cream” translates directly to “thick” in my head, which is not what I’m interested in when it comes to makeup, but this cream blush is the opposite. It really is lightweight like it claims, and even after wearing it for hours upon hours, I never felt like it was sitting on top of my skin. I’m no scientist, but I think that the added argan oil and vitamin E make this formula feel a little more like wearing a comfortable skincare product instead of heavy makeup. The e.l.f. putty blush is one of my favorite products for a no-makeup look for this reason—I can put on a little sunscreen, this blush, some brow gel, mascara, and a lip balm, and feel like I look put-together without wearing too much makeup.
I despise feeling the weight of makeup on my skin, so it was really important for me to have comfortable makeup on on my wedding day wedding day. I know that people say “You have to wear more makeup so it shows up in pictures!” but I was determined to have my makeup look just as beautiful (in real life and in photos) without feeling like I was suffocating. This blush looked oh-so-natural in real life and gorgeous in photos, and for that, she’s my hero.
The lasting power
I love blush more than any other makeup product, but I know that it is the first to disappear on my face; maybe it’s just me, but it’s always the first thing to fade. Because of this, I’ve found myself putting clown-level color on just so my blush would stay on until at least mid-day. Somehow, though, I don’t have that problem with the e.l.f. putty blush—it stays on all day long.
On my wedding day, I did my makeup (yes, I did my own!) at around 10 a.m., and I took it off around midnight. The day was filled with taking pictures in the hot sun and getting sweaty on the dance floor (as all good wedding days go), and when I got back to the hotel room to take it off, I still had gorgeous Bora Bora pink cheeks. This day was the longest I had ever worn this blush, so to say I was shocked was an understatement, especially because it was perfectly in place and didn’t grossly settle into any of my pores. I didn’t look patchy or disheveled—just happy, exhausted, and indebted to e.l.f. for creating such a knockout blush.