Review: Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in Coral Reef

I heard about the new Revlon cream blushes from Canadian beauty bloggers, so I've been on the lookout for them for weeks with no luck.  And then yesterday I stopped by Ulta to pick up some things and lo and behold, they had a couple of them (though, of course, not the one I was most interested in).

These blushes are part of Revlon's summer Escapism collection.  I have no idea if they will be part of the permanent Revlon line or not.  The blushes come in three colors:  Flushed (blue based pink), Pinched (nudey peach) and Coral Reef (neon orange-peach).  The official Revlon press says:

• Creamy blush provides buildable, beautiful flush of color

• Lightweight formula with silky soft feel on skin

• Blends evenly over cheeks for smooth application

• Photochromatic pigments bend and reflect light to provide cheeks with a beautiful glow

NEW Revlon PhotoReady™ Cream Blush was created by Global Artistic Director Gucci Westman for the Spring 2012 collection. Inspired by the glowing skin of a beach beauty, these silky cream blushes glide on smoothly provide a dewy flush of color for a healthy, gorgeous glow. 

Anyway, on to the review ...

This is the Revlon PhotoReady Cream Blush in #300 Coral Reef.

Though the name "Coral Reef" would imply this is a coral colored blush, it really doesn't scream coral to me.  There really isn't any pink at all.  It's a pretty full on neon orange-peach.

I have one of of the regular Revlon cream blushes (not the PhotoReady line) and the texture is really different.  The texture of the regular Revlon cream blushes is very dry for a cream product.  The texture on the PhotoReady cream blushes is much more gel like.  They apply very sheer and aren't the easiest to build up.  They go on very strong at first, but quickly (and I mean, under 2 minutes) fade so they really are a sort of watercolor wash as opposed to a full on blush.  I'm not sure how well they would work for someone with deeper skintones.

As for the "beautiful glow" the product is supposed to impart, I really think that's just the sheen from the gel consistency.  It doesn't really seem to have any glitter, shimmer or pearl finish.

They don't really dry down at all.  They're not a cream-to-powder product at all and like I said, they fade really quickly.  You could set them with a powder to get better wear.  I think that sort of defeats the purpose of the gel consistency in the first place, but that's your call.

Here it is applied fairly heavily on the cheeks.  As you can see, it's very sheer.  Because they are so sheer, I think they would work on both warm and cool skintones, but if you are much darker than me, I'm not sure they'll show up at all.


I don't know.  I'm not really blown away by this product.  I really like a blush that looks like a blush as opposed to just a tint.  I doubt this will be a staple for me, but I guess time will tell.

The blush contains 12.4 grams of product.  I picked them up at Ulta as part of the BOGO1/2Off sale.

Overall: 6/10