Benefit Thrrrob Face Powder/ Blush swatch/ review

Benefit initially started with the Dandelion face powder , then gradually expanded over the years into other shades of face powders. They are meant to be either all over face powder, or blush/ bronzer (depending on which color).  They are not eye safe though.

Comes in the standard paper box packaging much like Dandelion. I don't mind the box but it does get worn down very quickly- I've barely used mine like 4 or 5 times and it really looks slightly battered already!

Made in USA, comes in a really generous size 12g (0.42 oz).

The powder is essentially in a pan stuck to the bottom of the cardboard box. It's just glued on.

Comes in a pink bristle flat brush, I don't really use it often. While I use the brush in Dandelion powder, but that's because Dandelion is a bit less pigmented so it won't look as streaky as when I use the same brush on Thrrrob.

In addition, Thrrrob is a bit more loosely pressed than Dandelion, I get a lot of flyaway, and the brush is too scratchy for the surface of this blush and I tend to pick up a lot of loosened powder, which means I have to shake it off before application.

Here's the swatch on my skin, I did a big swatch and tried to swatch almost 3 layers on the left, and 1 or 2 on the right. You can see even if you build it up, it's still quite similar.

Here's the interesting bit about this powder- I would actually not call it sheer or unpigmented, for such a light colored blush it is very pigmented, so what goes on swatch below is what it looks like on my cheeks.

It's a very baby pink and cutesy pale pink. I know some people will say it won't melt into your skin, but I love how 'cute' the color is on the cheeks.  A bit like those Japanese beauty magazine cover model's dolly pink sort of shades.

I would say it's closer to being slightly matte, but because it's so finely milled it just blurrs everything (see how smooth it makes my skin look) and imparts a sort of inner glow.

Overall 4/5. I really don't have any blush with comparable colors and I love the pop of cute pink it gives me. I think benefit could easily repackage this as a normal blush making it more portable and reduce the size, as I cannot really see many people using this as an overall face powder, it should just be a blush.

YSL Palette Collection Collector Powder for the Complexion Autumn Winter 2008

I forgot since when, but YSL started releasing a collector's face powder every year usually during autumn/winter collection or Christmas. They feature wonderful prints and are usually a little bit luminous.

This was the one from 2008, yes took me a while to review this...

It comes in 3 color stripes, with the YSL Collection text as a gold overspray on top. One single swipe and the beautiful text is gone.

Comes in the standard YSL shiny gold mirrored compact, with YSL font on top.

There's also a pretty average brush included. It does ok as portable brush but if given any other choices, I'd just go with my regular powder brushes.

The three colors are a soft luminous pink, an ivory with very fine gold shimmers, then a velvet (almost matte) light beige.

Here's a swatch- you can see the color is barely picked up, because this face powder really does have minimal color. On the very right is all the colors mixed together, which is a soft pinky-glowy beige face powder. The golden shimmers are more prominent there because of the YSL golden text overspray. Once that goes, I expect a lot less visible shimmer.

The powders are mostly 'luminous', which works well as an overall face powder after regular foundation just to finish the face off. It doesn't provide any coverage, but just seems to even the skintone out.

I like the very subtle tint, because some foundations can go on a bit mask like or too pale, then this helps to bring some 'natural' color back into my face.

Overall 4/5.

It's definitely not essential and if you actually hunt this down you'd probably be disappointed, because it is a pretty basic simple overall face powder, does not quite double as a highlighter either given the luminousity is so subtle. No way would this work as a blush due to the lack of pigmentation too.

The compact only contains 9g of powder, (most pressed powders or powder foundations 8g (e.g. Burberry powder foundation, to 9g, e.g. Fancl lucent pressed powder). With the powder being so finely milled, I actually do think you need a few extra swipes to get enough quantity, so 9g would probably not last all that long.

However, I do like this, after all half the thing about using makeup is being able to look at pretty things, and this is very pretty indeed.