MUA Blusher - A Review

MUA is a brand which intrigues me. It lurks away in the back corner of my local Superdrug. The display is frankly festering - there is never any stock and what is there is just bashed up testers or things people have opened and used.

MUA Blusher in Lolly and Candyfloss

After that glowing review you are probably wondering why on earth you would look twice at the brand. I have mainly blogged about high end products so far, but I love a good high street / drugstore offering too. I have to say that the MUA products I have tried are actually quite good. They are also unbelievably cheap!

There are lipsticks for £1, eyeshadow palettes for £4, foundation for £2. Incredible - but I do think you have to choose carefully, although at those prices perhaps you can just take a punt! I haven't tried everything (remember the shoddy out of stock display I just mentioned...?). But most recently I picked up a couple of MUA Blushers in Lolly and Candyfloss.

Top: Lolly, Bottom: Candyfloss

Unlike my eyeshadow & lipstick stash, I only have a couple of blushers in my collection. It is one area where I manage restraint - how many do you need? However, I normally choose peachier tones to warm up my complexion.

I had been wondering whether I could pull off a paler rosier pink. Blue toned pink lipsticks terrify me, but for some reason I thought it would be a good wintery blush option. Picking up a cheapie seemed like an ideal way to experiment. Seeing as these are only £1 each I thought I may as well also pick up one closer to the normal shade I would wear (did I just say how many do you need? ahem...) - and so I chose Lolly, a peachier warm tone and Candyfloss a cool blue toned pink.

My main gripe with these are the practicalities. The blushes are quite small which makes it harder to get a normal sized blush brush evenly covered without risking overloading it. That is of course if you can get the damn thing open in the first place! I broke 2 nails trying to prise mine open, but I guess once you've got the knack...

After that things got better. The powder isn't as tightly pressed as some other blushes meaning a lot goes onto the brush. I discovered this the first time I used the blue-pink one and instantly looked like I'd developed a rash. Warning - its easy to over-apply!

MUA Blusher in Lolly and Candyfloss

That said, the colour pay-off is good. I compared the two shades to the pinkest blusher I already owned - Benefit Dandelion and found it quite hard to get a good swatch of the Benefit one.

Swatch comparison of MUA vs Benefit

It is a little tricky to see in this picture, but MUA Candyfloss is a deeper blue-pink than Benefit Dandelion, and MUA Lolly is a peachier shade. In fact I would say that Benefit's Dandelion is a cross of the two MUA shades.

I'm not sure that wear time is as good as other blushers I have tried, and I still prefer my favourite Bourjois Cream Blush (HERE) in Nude Velvet but for the price difference the MUA Blushers did well.

Overall I am impressed with these. I can't believe they only cost £1 each where as the Benefit Dandelion blusher was £23.50 (HERE if you are interested). It is definitely worth picking up a couple to try different shades or to just throw in various bags in case you want them on the go.

MUA Blusher comes in 6 original shades (just numbered 1-6 but no names) and 6 new shades were released last year which are: Marshmallow (Pink), Bon Bon (Apricot), Lolly (Soft Orange), Cupcake (Soft Peach), Candyfloss (Pink Shimmer) & Bubblegum (Coral Rose Pink).

MUA Blushers are available from Superdrug HERE or direct from MUA HERE.