Make Up For Ever — Fifty Shades of Grey Desire Me: Cheeky Blush Trio

Make Up For Ever has launched four new and limited edition make-up sets as apart of their collection in collaboration with the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. The Desire Me Cheeky Blush Trio includes three shades of Artist Shadow in a palette and a travel-size 150W Precision Blush Brush. It comes in a black velvet keepsake drawstring bag with peach lining and a chain featuring a dog tag and a key charm that goes with the theme of the collection. Aside from the exterior box and the drawstring bag, the products are housed in regular Make Up For Ever packaging. The palette contains a total of 7.5 grams of product, and the set retails for $49 USD or $56 CAD.
I-526 Pearl Beige, I-808 English Pink, and S-748 Coral
I-526 Pearl Beige, I-808 English Pink, and S-748 Coral

I-526 Pearl Beige is a pale warm beige with a pearlescent shimmer-sheen in an Iridescent finish. It is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky 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 lighter and less peach than Make Up For Ever I-524 Pinky Beige, less pink than Make Up For Ever I-528 Pearl, lighter and less metallic than MAC Soft and Gentle, warmer and more frosted than MAC Lightscapade, and less metallic than Becca Opal.
I-808 English Pink is a medium slightly cool-toned carnation pink with a pearlescent shimmer-sheen in an Iridescent finish. It is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque to opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and cooler than Make Up For Ever I-804 Golden Pink, warmer and more muted than Make Up For Ever I-858 Flamingo, darker and more frosted than MAC Dame, lighter and cooler than MAC Dollymix, and lighter and much more muted than NARS Angelika.
S-748 Coral is a medium-dark brightened warm coral-orange with a subtle shimmer-sheen in a Satiny finish. It is a permanent shade. It has a soft, silky 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 brighter and more orange than Make Up For Ever S-800 Grenadine, lighter and less red than Make Up For Ever S-742 Tomato, less reddened than MAC Modern Mandarin, darker and brighter than MAC Style, and more shimmery than NARS Gilda.

All three shades in this palette perform beautifully: they're soft, smooth, blendable, and pigmented. There's been a few reviews that state that these go on sheer, and if you're swatching on a dry hand or arm, it's true that they won't give off a lot of colour. I want to note that I did swatch these shades over a primer on my forearm (as I do with most face products), because I feel like this gives a much more realistic colour pay-off and is the most similar on the face (where it's generally more moisturized and holds on to pigment differently than a dry arm; I tested these on my face as well, so I know this to be true). I think the three shades here work beautifully on their own and in tandem, and you can definitely blend two or more shades to create brighter or softer hues (I-526 and I-808 can be used as eyeshadows as well!). I also like that this palette includes one highlighter shade to create more dimension and glow to the face, rather than just straight blushes (hence "cheek trio" rather than "blush trio"), which so many cheek palettes do. 
The brush is okay and will do the job in a pinch to apply these powders, but I find that the bristles in it aren't porous enough to really hold on to the pigment, so execution is semi-sheer at best. And I think it's too small to use effectively as a blush brush. I would save it for applying liquid or cream product instead, or to use for contouring. As for the packaging, I think it was smart of them to leave the Fifty Shades of Grey theme to just the keepsake bag and the box — fans of the movie can appreciate the novelty of it, but those who want the set strictly for the make-up (or just don't like the movie, period) can breathe a sigh of relief that the product itself is in Make Up For Ever's regular black packaging. People have to note that Make Up For Ever put together these sets because they were inspired by the movie; they are not new and limited edition shades that were made for the movie. So if you don't care about the movie at all or if there's only one or two shades that interest you, you can rejoice because all three shades in this palette can be purchased separately.