Illamasqua Powder Blusher in Sophie

I've always been a huge fan of Illamasqua, so when I finally got a chance to peruse their new boutique at The Bay Yorkdale in November, I jumped at the chance to pick up some new goodies (especially since I had some gift cards that I got for my birthday). I have several of Illamasqua's blushes now, and all of them are matte shades because that's all they used to make, but they've since added a few shimmery options, so I picked up two of them. Each Illamasqua Powder Blusher comes in black plastic stylized square compacts with clear lids, contains 4.5 grams of product, and retails for $26. This particular shade is exclusive to Illamasqua boutiques.
Sophie

Sophie is a medium warm-toned grapefruit pink with gold shimmer-sheen in a frosted finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled, almost buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more pink and much more shimmery than Illamasqua Excite, more coral and much more shimmery than Illamasqua Hussy, similar to Tarte Glisten, similar though more shimmery than NARS Deep Throat, darker and more coral than NARS Orgasm and MAC Springsheen, and more coral than MAC Peachykeen.

Like all of Illamasqua's powder blushes, the formula on this is fantastic — smooth, buttery, ultra-pigmented. Sophie is the quintessential shimmery coral blush which looks more pink in certain lighting and more peach in others and always gives that perfect healthy flush, like you're actually super happy and well-rested and relaxed from vacation, even though you're stressed as hell and it's the middle of winter. Ultimately, though, this is an extremely dupeable shade and every single make-up brand out there has something similar (I call this the "Orgasm effect"), so it's really not a must-have by any means (and you very likely have this kind of shade already). But it is apart of the S.O.P.H.I.E. (Stamp Out Prejudice, Hatred, and Intolerance Everywhere) collection, and a portion of the proceeds from this product goes straight to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. So you can do a good deed and look gorgeous at the same time.