Makeup Review: Candydoll & Canmake Blush Comparison

Today I'm gonna be doing a comparison and a review of sorts of the 3 blushes that I constantly use in my makeup kit. The 3 blushes in this comparison are: Candydoll blush in Strawberry Pink, Canmake Cheek Powder in PW20 "Lollipop Pink" and Canmake Cream Cheek in Shade 03 "Strawberry Whip".

A short background on each blush:

• Candydoll is produced by Gyaru model, Tsubasa Masuwaka. The Strawberry Pink colour shade is a rather unique colour that cannot be easily duplicated and is often shown being paired with the lighter Peach Pink blush or Marshmallow Purple highlighter.
  


• Canmake is a Japanese drugstore brand that sells pretty good quality products for reasonable prices. The Cheek Powder in shade PW20 is the most popular in the range and is often ranked in top 3 favourite blush category in alot of gyaru magazines especially Popteen. The Cream Cheek shade on the otherhand, is a newer product hence it hasn't gained as much recognition as its powder cousin.
  
  

The 3 blush in today's comparison. It was only after putting these 3 side by side did I realise that the 2 Canmake colours have a peachy undertone as compared to the pure pink colour of the Candydoll blush

Left is without flash and right is with flash

From left: Candydoll blush, followed by Canmake's powder blush and finally Canmake's cream blush. Also note that it took 4-5 swipes of the Canmake powder blush for the colour to appear this way, whereas Canmake cream blush took 3 swipes and Candydoll only took 2 swipes.

As the picture shows, Candydoll is the most pigmented of the 3 blushes, the 2 Canmake blush are lighter in shade in comparison. Hence, when it comes to application, Candydoll usually requires just a single swirl of the brush that often picks up enough blush for each side of the cheek. Canmake Powder blush on the other hand, requires multiple applications before you actually see a build up of colour on the cheek, but that can be useful if you want just a light pink of colour that is barely there or you wanna slowly build up the colour. I apply the Canmake cream blush and blend it out gently with my fingers and upon application, the cream becomes slowly develops a powdery finish. Like the powder versions, the colour is buildable and can easily be blended out with other shades.

However, between the 3, Canmake's powder blush is my least favourite, because, it requires a great number of applications before I see any colour on my cheeks and considering how small the palette is, I need to constantly swirl my brush around causing a great deal of fallout of the product. The colour is pretty nonetheless and lasts for a fairly long time, but it would help if it was a tad more pigmented so that I needn't get a workout everytime I apply it. My last palette took me about a year to finish it and that was after daily use.

Canmake's Cream blush is a cosplayer's/model's best friend. The colour is light in real life and unlike most powder blushes, it actually shows up pretty well in pictures even if one is subjected to awful strong flashes from the camera. It's a must for me to apply it at every single cosplay event or shoot to achieve the sweet anime look most of the anime girls seem to have. The cream blush gives one a glowy blush that seems to radiate from within and the colour lasts for hours, also it doesn't dry out quickly unlike cheek stains so you needn't worry about getting uneven patches of blush on your cheeks. With that, this blush has a permanent place in my makeup kit and I'm getting a new palette pretty soon (I'm scraping off the edges from my current palette). A palette will be able to last for about a year, even if you apply it everyday.

Candydoll's Strawberry pink blush is my latest addition to my collection and I've loved it from the first application. The colour is vibrant but blends well with the rest of my makeup and vcan easily be toned up or down with the amount applied. I use it alone for simpler makeup or combined with the Canmake cream blush when applying heavier makeup. However, my gripes for this product is that firstly, being so pigmented means that you have to be extremely careful when applying the product. If you go crazy and swirl the blush like mad with a brush, you're gonna end up looking like a cartoon character. Go light and easy with the product application and you'll have a very nice pink blush. Also, the palette size is rather small so be careful of product fallout, but with its high pigmentation and containing 5g of the product inside that small palette, the blush would probably last more then a year of daily application.

In summary:

Canmake Cheek Powder in PW20 "Lollipop Pink":

• Colour Intensity: 5/10


• Price: 8/10 (can't remember exact price but I know it isn't very expensive)


• Lasts for about a year


• Barely shows up in pictures whne applied on its own

Canmake Cream Cheek in 03 "Strawberry Whip" :

• Colour Intensity: 7/10


• Price: 8/10 ($17.90 per palette)


• Also lasts for about a year


• Bonus points for showing up extremely well in pictures

Candydoll Blush in Strawberry Pink:

• Colour Intensity: 11/10 (unlike the other 2 which you can apply them quite liberally, apply this blush with a light hand to avoid looking like a clown)


• Price: 7/10 (can't remember the exact price but I remember paying over $20 for it)


• Will definitely last over a year if applied with a light hand


• Shows up fairly well in pictures but results are best when its combined with the Canmake cream blush

Okay, that's the end of this post that ended up far longer then I had intended. I might do a comparison between my peachy/orange shades of blush next time, we'll see....