Review of Cover Girl Instant Cheekbones Contouring Blush in Sophisticated Sable by AndreaJunelle
This blush is an oldie but goodie friend of mine ;) This was the first drugstore blush I ever purchased, and also the first blush I ever completely used up then repurchased (several times). When I first began wearing makeup in HighSchool, my mother took me to our local mall/dept.store to pick out things I needed/wanted. She was a bit of a Clinique, EsteeLauder, & Lancome makeup snob, so those were the only products she'd purchase for me as well. When I was in my 2nd or 3rd year of high school, and had my first job I started experimenting with makeup of all price ranges, including Cover Girl. One of my girlfriends had this blush in her purse, I thought the color looked pretty, so I purchased one of my own and fell in love :) I feel like this blush has so many different ways it can be worn, that you can reach for it daily and not always look *exactally* the same.
The middle (actual "blush" shade) is a muted rosey pink with a slight hint of shimmer. But the shimmer is more noticeable in the palette/pans than it is once applied on the face. It's an absolutely beautiful shade of blush, and out of the 20+ blushes from many different brands that I own, this one is unique in color and I really have nothing else like it.
To the left of the blush shade is a contour/darker shade. I can best describe it as a dark pink shade with plum undertones, and it also has some glitter/shimmer that appears in the pan, but is not as noticeable once applied. It's one of those contour shades that we can actually use with the blush. There are times I purchase duos/trios like this and the contour and highlight shades are pretty, but don't match the blush color well. That is *not* the case with Sophisticated Sable :)
Lastly the lightest/highlight color, to the right of the blush, is a frosty light baby pink. Not my favorite highlighting color in the world, but I am rather picky with highlighting since I have very fair skin that is oily with large, visible pores-(my large pores can make highlighting quite difficult at times..) I prefer this shade on the inner corners of my eyes and browbone, but have used it many times in a pinch on my face (upper cheekbones, cupids bow, around my eye brows) -and it does the job.
For reference I have 30yr old, pale, neutral leaning warm toned skin (NC15ish in MAC) that is acne/clog-prone and oily. This blush (and other CG Cheekers blushes I own) last all day on me, rarely need any touching up, and have never given me an issue with breakouts. This is not insanely pigmented, but it's not something you have to bathe your brush in either - I'd call it like a medium pigmentation. I don't have to be super careful with it is what I like best about this blush. Having pale skin, those mega pigmented ones take a lot of time and blending to apply. This is quick and easy (which works well for me being a mother of two ;D).
I imagine Sophisticated Sable will look flattering on other skin tones as well because as I said above, I began using this in high school when my skin was *much* darker. (due to tanning. -shame on me, I know, I know.. but since then I've quit sunbathing and bathe in sunscreen instead :D) So I'd really reccomend this to anyone and everyone. I think we all need natural looking blushes for times that we need natural makeup looks, and this is my Holy Grail natural blush.
There are a couple of cons too..(as with most anything) -The packaging..Not the greatest. This comes in a square/rectangle silver compact with a clear lid. It looks very flimsy (although I carry this in my purse often and I've never had a CG Cheekers blush break on me so it's really not flimsy, just cheap/flimsy looking)
The enclosed brush is useless and kind of pathetic.. Not even worth keeping in the compact for touch ups as it doesn't apply evenly and is just a *bad* brush overall Lol.
Also the blush pans are shaped kind of awkwardly, making it hard to use a large blush brush and really get in there to each shade.
But these are very minor complaints (in my opinion) for such a lovely product. I've already repurchased countless times and plan to continue :)