TheBalm Cabana Boy Shadow & Blush

So, remember when I bought all that stuff from TheBalm last summer? No? Well, I totally forgot about it, too. I played around with a couple of the eyeshadow palettes and one of the blushes, and then was totally consumed with all the other collections that were coming out... and my stash from TheBalm was soon forgotten. A damn shame, too, because they consistently impress me with the quality of their product, not to mention the cheeky packaging. I saw Cabana Boy just sitting there on my desk and was all, "Oooh, I really need to try this out ASAP." And that's what I did. All of TheBalm's blushes can also be used as eyeshadows, and are marketed as such. Cabana Boy comes in a slim cardstock case and has a magnetic close. It comes with a mirror that spans the length of the lid. The cover design of this palette features a '50s-style illustration of a girl in a leopard-print bikini with a cabana boy (presumably) handing her a drink poolside. Each blush contains 8.5 grams of product, and retails for $21 USD.

Cabana Boy (sheered out)

Cabana Boy is a medium-dark dusty raspberry pink with subtle gold shimmer-sheen. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. In terms of cheek colour, it is lighter and less red than MAC Breezy, lighter and less plum than Tarte Blushing Bride, and more pink than NARS Outlaw. In terms of eyeshadow, it is lighter and more pink than MAC Cranberry, and less bright and more plum than MAC Tease With Ease Pro Longwear Eyeshadow.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! It's so soft and so finely-milled, it's almost buttery. It goes on so smooth and so effortlessly, and is very easily blendable so it looks completely seamless. The pigmentation and colour pay-off are phenomenal. I do recommend using a light hand with this, though, applying it in light layers because it is easy to over-do and have clown cheeks. The colour itself isn't too dark and is fairly neutral, so it should work well on all skintones and undertones. It has a nice soft sheen without being too shimmery, so skin looks perfectly luminous. Stunning for this time of year, when that flushed-cheek-from-the-cold look is so in. And price-wise, it's a great value compared to other brands ($2.47/g vs. $4/g for MAC, $5.54/g for Tarte, and $7.05/g for NARS). For some reason, TheBalm is not widely available in Canada (it was previously being carried at Sephora, but has since been taken out), but I think it's still being carried at various PharmaPlus and Rexall locations in Canada. Either way, it's worth looking for.