Another Adorned With Grace Haul

After playing around with AWG blushes, last month I decided to purchase a 6-pack and grab a couple of GWPs (gift-with-purchase). They came in yesterday!

I love Franchesca's blushes! I was thinking of getting all of her shimmer blushes but thought I couldn't let her matte blushes get away too. And I also had to show SOME restraint, so I purchased a 6-pack instead of the also limited 8- and 10-pack of blushes.

I spent at least $29 so my free GWP was a FS of Illuminated blush. I forgot to swatch it, but it's a neutral, pale golden blush, that can be used to highlight cheekbones or as an overall glow.






Swatches are dry, with no primer, taken in natural sunlight.

Sensational and Ardent are part of the Shimmer Blush collection while the others are not, but the shimmer is still subtle for any-time use.

Sensational would be my neutral shimmer blush, Serene if I wanted a more matte look. Ardent is a great shimmer if I want a bit more colour. I'd use Sultry for evening or if I wanted a bronze just-in-the-sun look. Curious and Sassy are my mauve and pink blushes, Curious being a bit more muted to Sassy's pink. I love Curious, but after trying Sassy out today, it's winning my heart too.

I also bought the Blog Special brush for $5.99. It's a long-handled duo fiber brush similar to the Ingenue Petite Duo Fiber Franchesca carries (but I bought mine at Silk Naturals - it's the same brush). She's testing it out to see if she'll start selling this item in the future. Here's my quick visual comparison:




The new brush is obviously longer, and has a tapered matte black handle and black ferrule. It's almost as long as my MAC 129 blush brush, just 1/2 head shy of its full-length. Sorry for the annoying pink bristles...like I said, I tried out Sassy this morning. I don't know if it's because I just washed my Ingenue brush (I used my dollar store brush guard dupe to dry -- thanks, Janice!), but it appears to have a smaller head. This new brush also shed like crazy when I washed it, so hopefully it won't anymore.

Overall, I like the brush. It feels good in my hand, though I think I'll have to get used to it. The shortness of the Ingenue brush is nice when applying my mineral blushes, but it looks cheaply made (well, it WAS cheaper!). The new brush looks more attractive, though for the length of the handle, it's almost like you should be working with a larger, denser brush. It's easier to find amongst my brushes because it's taller. I'm glad I bought the brush, because it works similar to the Ingenue (which I love!) but I don't know if I would shell out extra money for it (it will probably retail between $7-8) unless I specifically want a longer handled brush. The little-bit of extra denseness you get with the new brush may be worth more to some.

I also bought myself two empty 30g sifter jars, large enough to swirl my brush in. I have my Earthen Glow mineral foundations in Helena and Soon which I have to mix each time, and this will definitely save me some time.

Along with 4 more blush samples, Radiant, Vibrant, Passionate and Felicity (I told you, I love her blushes!), I got 3 free eyeshadow samples in Thoughtful, Optimistic, and Resolute. Swatches to follow in another post.

With every purchase, buyers were given a special Earth Day bamboo brush that has interchangeable heads.

Image courtesy of definingtruebeauty.blogspot.com

And I received a lovely surprise too...a free tube of Luscious Lip Balm, AWG's vegan, organic lip balm. I love lip balms more than blushes, any day!

Stay beautiful!