Nars Gina blush

I'm head over heels with this blush. Over the past year I've become increasingly obsessed with peaches as I've realised they just suit my skintone more, and Gina has instantly been elevated to top five status.

I adore the texture of Nars matt blushes - they are so soft and silky on and never leave me feeling too made up as they sit so naturally on the skin. They somehow manage to be highly pigmented yet quite sheer and are easily buildable.

I'd describe Gina as a medium peach (Nars describes it as 'tangerine' which sounds a little more alarming!).

Here it is applied in natural light. I've applied it quite heavily to ensure I could get an decent representation of the colour (the perils of taking blog photos on grey winter mornings!).

And here I've photographed it with flash. The shots were actually take at the same time though they look wildly different!

Just a beautiful shade and works with a variety of looks. I am not wearing anything on my lips in these pictures but I like this colour with Nars Dolce Vita and Barbarella lipsticks. I'm really looking forward to getting lots of wear out of Gina this spring and summer.

I was especially happy when I discovered Gina as its the closest Nars blush in shade to the old Amour, which was a lovely, soft, light peach. The new Amour is a louder reddish peach and is a little bright for my skin tone - I love that Gina is quite subdued and doesn't scream blusher.

What peach blushers would you recommend?

Becca Fallen Angel palette

Well it's taken me a while to review this little beauty - I photographed it when it was shiny and new about 6 months ago and its in nowhere near as pristine a condition now. One of my favourite make up purchases ever I think.

I've been spurred on to finally write this review as I've just written a post on a peachy lipgloss and cheek colour from Laura Mercier's new Lingerie Collection (view here), and thought it would be interesting to compare the shades.

The palette contains a lip and cheek creme (Nectar), a lipgloss (Sunrise) and a highlighter (Narcissus). The shades are quite subdued and I would say they veer more orange / apricot in colour than peach or coral.

The palette makes it a breeze to create a pretty and polished five minute face. All the products can be applied with finger tips - i usually just add a tinted moisturiser, tidy my brows and curl my lashes and am good to go.

As I mentioned in the aforementioned LM post, the texture of Laura Mercier's creme cheek colours and Becca's lip and cheek cremes are quite similar - both apply really easily, are soft and smooth rather than sticky and blend well - and have similar lasting power (average). The lipgloss is lovely - its so soft (not at all sticky) and feels really moisturising on the lips, though as expected doesn't last very long. The colour is actually quite nude.

The highlighter is really nice too - similar to Nars multiples in consistency. I usually add it to the browbone, cupids bow and sometimes the cheekbones and bridge of nose.

Here are the shades swatched on the inner arm (from left, Narcissus, Sunrise and Nectar) with the more pinkish Innocent Peach creme blush and  Naked Apricot lip tint from Laura Mercier (right two), for comparison.

And here's a v quick look I did this morning, without the highlighter for some daft reason.

I purchased my Fallen Angel palette from Beauty Expert - I don't think its widely sold now but you should be able to pick it up on eBay or elsewhere online if you have a hunt around.