My first ever face colour products: Joues Contraste Blush & Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer

This is technically a lie. The very, very first face colour product I ever had was a Lancôme blush. I remember my mother got one for herself and one for me when I was in my mid-teens, maybe younger. I simply didn’t know how to use it. I must have tried a few times but couldn’t find a way to make it work. I remember it being very peachy and extremely shiny. I didn’t want to admit I didn’t have any use for it, so I held on to it with optimistic thoughts of “some day”, as well as for the mirror, and carried it around in my bag until one day, I dropped my bag and the blush got smashed. In its crumbled condition it existed in a drawer until the mess it caused became overwhelming and it was thrown away, barely ever used =(. As a rule, I’ve stayed away from colourful face powders because of the amount of redness I have on my own and because I’d never had a foundation that matched my neck - on its own it’s a hideous enough look, layering on even more darkness and redness in my mind would be obscene. Well, in the past six months or so my skin has been improving and my knowledge expanding, I’ve almost managed to concoct a foundation that suits me perfectly (almost, but not yet) and after a careful process of research and selection, I decided it was time to reintroduce some colour to my face, choosing Chanel for blush and Guerlain for my first bronzer.

I chose Chanel’s Rose Ecrin because I wanted to have one blush and I wanted it to be almost a neutral nude, neither coral, peach or pink, something that was a little bit of everything and nothing in particular. Also, I didn’t want it to have any shine. My cheeks have suffered the most damage from acne, and anything shiny over the textural unevenness only makes it look worse. Now that I look at it, it certainly isn't matte, there is a swirly sheen, but I don't find it shows up once applied in any offensive way. It’s one of the lightest blushes in the line, if not the lightest, another reason I liked it. First of all, I’m very fair, and second of all, I wasn’t sure I’d be any good at applying it so I wanted to start out with something as forgiving as possible.

Chanel Joues Contraste, Rose Ecrin

When I got the blush, I didn't have a blush brush yet, and could only use the little brush that came with the compact. Obviously, it’s not the nicest brush in the worlds (step it up Chanel). It’s not a great shape, it doesn't feel soft and it’s quite terrible at blending. I mean, by the time I got anything blended, that brush will have removed a layer of foundation in the process.  When I finally did get my exquisitely soft blush brush, I realized my plan had a major fault, namely, the combination of a very light blush and a very soft brush. It will take a day of nonstop swirling before you get any colour payoff. I’m exaggerating, but only a tiny bit. Easily 60+ swirls (I counted!) twice or three times on either cheek and I’m still not sure if there’s any blush on me or if my cheeks have just slightly turned pinker because I’m rubbing them with a brush. It’s at times exasperating, the fact that it takes such effort to use and because ideally, the product would require a different brush – perhaps a goat and squirrel mix one or a full goat brush, to work best. However, given the choice, I’d rather change blushes than brushes, because I’m quite in love with the softness of a squirrel brush and seeing as my overall attitude (towards life I mean) is to be as sensible as possible, in the future, whenever this blush is all used up (there’s 4g of it, less by now), I would opt for a more pigmented one that would require much fewer motions to work, thus also prolonging its lifespan. Something I've done now, not that I’m in any hurry to replace my Rose Ecrin, is checking out blushes at counters and bringing the brush I intend to use them with me and actually trying them on with the brush I have, to see what the result would be should I purchase it and apply it with the tools I already have. For now though, my method of application for the most payoff and the least amount of stress, is to place the colour with the little brush in the compact and then blend it with my proper blush brush, that’s also been swirled in the product a few (dozen) times.

Now, if the idea of wearing blush was something I’d been easing myself into over the past year or so, then bronzer was not even on the radar for me. No, not even in the same room as the radar… “I’m too pale… It’ll look muddy… I won’t know how to apply it… It’s going to look like an utter mess…” is what all went through my mind, so after those couple of thoughts, I hardly gave the matter any further consideration. That is, until I read this post, which I hold fully accountable for the inevitable acquisition of my Guerlain bronzer. I briefly considered choosing one of the Terracotta Light Sheer Bronzing Powders, because a) they cost less and b) they’re shiny! I know, I just said that shiny for me is bad, but I happen to really like shiny things, it’s just that I can’t put them all on my face…  I enlisted the help of a makeup artist friend of mine to professionally apply the sheer bronzing powder in blondes and The Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer in nude on either cheek so I could compare and choose (I would worry about learning how to myself later). 

Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer, 00 Nude

I ended up choosing the 00 Nude for a couple of reasons. Apparently, even though I can’t see it, this too has sparkle in it, namely particles of gold (there had better be gold in it for that kind of money…). Upon closer inspection (by this I mean, I didn't have the products with me when writing this and I'm too much of a zombie in the morning to notice such things when applying makeup), there certainly is a fine golden sparkle in the product, especially in the pink sector. I didn't dislike the blondes, in fact (in the bad artificial lighting at the store) the two cheeks looked very similar. If I recall correctly, the blondes looked more pink/brown and the nude mustard/peach. I really preferred the pattern of the powder in 4 seasons, the 4 sections rather than the abstract mosaic of the other. I liked the idea of having control over which colours I used and what for. To be perfectly honest, the thing that attracted me most to the nude is the peachy pink sector I schemed could pass nicely for a blush. Let me paint the picture for you. Obviously, I have the Terracotta and the Joues Contraste at home, but when I jet set (in my mind, I’m always jet setting), I need only bring my Guerlain and have a blush, contour and bronzer, all in one at my disposal. I found the idea of that so completely chic the choice wasn't really made, it was confirmed.

The fine sparkle in the not aligned pan... Sob. I've numbered the sections to correspond with the swatches.

The 4 Seasons Bronzer comes packaged like nothing I currently or have previously owned. It’s pretty epic. The box is something you’d expect a perfume to be packaged in, in that it has a separate, thick cardboard structure inside to protect the compact. The compact itself comes in a little velvet pouch, nothing new here, but what did impress me (and maybe only me) is that the pouch is actually lined! It’s freakin LINED! With (a) satin (like material, I don’t actually know if it’s silk or polyester). Anyway, I was impressed, especially since I know how tedious it is to line things, not to mention teeny tiny things. What the bronzer does not come with is any means with which to apply it, at all, you’re completely on your own. But I already knew that.

I got both the blush and bronzer at the same time, meaning there was still no proper brush for me to use with either. I used the little Chanel brush to play a bit with the bronzer as well, but didn’t put much heart into it and thought I’d give it a proper go once my brush arrived. Since it has, I’ve made some observations about this product, similar to those of the blush. First, the good – unlike Rose Ecrin, the “blush(y)” sector of the 4 seasons is nicely pigmented, I barely tap my brush in a couple of times and get amazing colour payoff. I can’t say the same for the rest of the sectors. My ingenious plan to swipe my brush back and forth between the brown shades (the lighter combo or the darker combo depending on the time of year, as the product suggests) and use them as contour, didn't really pan out. Same as with the Chanel blush I can barely see anything on my face. It would appear that should I wish to use the bronzer for that purpose, I would need to get a brush with firmer, slightly rougher bristles, and I really don’t want to. I saw Lisa Eldridge do this lovely, soft bronzed look with her Suqqu cheek brush, and that’s really all I’d like to be able to achieve. Swirling all the colours together makes for another blush type shade in my opinion, certainly not contour (am I wrong?), which is lovely to apply slightly more liberally on the cheek than I would just the pink shade, either on its own or with a separate dab of pink for accent. Also nice on the temples and along the hairline. But still, I want to be able to venture in to legitimate contouring – cheekbones and jawline, I just haven’t figured out how or if I can with this particular bronzer.

Swatches of the bronzer's sections by numbers, and the "c" is for the Chanel blush. I'm wearing all of these: the blush on the apples of my cheeks, the swirled bronzer on my temples and I swear, I really did contour with just the brown shades. It's a work in progress.  

So there they are, my first (kind of) blush and bronzer. I'll mention briefly a couple of things that are a turnoff for me personally about both products, and perhaps something to consider before purchasing either. Number one, they are both very heavily perfumed. The Chanel has a rose scent and the Guerlain some sort of oriental fragrance. I'm not usually fussy about fragrance in product (or... Maybe I am), and they're not unpleasant scents, but in my opinion they are overly strong, to the point that it's annoying. Number two, I really don't like it when compacts don't open 180 degrees, as in completely level/flat. I find it so uncomfortable. Especially the blush, it barely goes past 90 degrees when open. It's so constricting to reach for the product with your tool, never mind twisting your arm when holding it to be able to see anything if you'd attempt to use the mirror (which I almost never do). I would find the packaging much more enjoyable if I didn't have to have my wrist constantly bent at an angle that compensated for the lack of theirs... And finally, it's probably a good idea to ask the actual product you're buying be shown for you. The pan of my bronzer sits in the compact slightly crooked, the sectors aren't aligned like they should be. That doesn't affect the quality of the product, but whenever I look at it, I just want to turn the pan ever so slightly to be just right, but I can't =(. 

As careful as I was in choosing these, it just goes to show that even “the best” doesn’t necessarily mean perfect, or meet your every expectation. I certainly don’t regret either, and am in no rush to look for replacements for when they’re gone (okay, I can look, just so I’ll be prepared for when the time comes). Frankly, I didn’t obtain these at the best possible time to properly play around with application. It’s cold, wet and snowy and I’ve been mildly sick, gravitating to “put me out of my misery” sick every now and then, almost three months now.  Whenever I step outside, I get a very runny nose and the moment I blow my nose once indoors, (nearly) all of the makeup I will have carefully applied on the center of my face will have rubbed off and I'll look properly scarlet. I like the idea of adding colour over a nice, evened out complexion, but when there's a patchy blob of redness right in the center of your face, I don't know about you, but I just want to give up, take a nap and wake up when it’s springtime…

Anyway, those were my thoughts on the Chanel Joues Contraste Blush in Rose Ecrin and the Guerlain Terracotta 4 Seasons Bronzer in 00 Nude. I hope you found this helpful and/or mildly entertaining =).