e.l.f. Halo Glow Beauty Wand Blush
It's a highlighter, not a blush
It’s been an exciting, treacherous beauty release season for me, as brands have doubled and tripled down on releasing my two favorite products: blush and lip balms/glosses/oils/treatments. I wear these things on a near-daily basis, so it feels like there is always room for one more. My self-control around spending hasn’t been great across the board, but I’ve been so happy with my current collection of blush that it’s been easy to say no to most new releases. I feel like I have everything I need already.
Finding a cream blush formula that truly suits me has really satisfied my curiosity about cream blush in a big way. The Phytosurgence Skin Spark Blush Balms are just the best. The best! I have three shades that I’m using regularly: Fume, Smolder, and Evaporate. I’ve been really happy with how these three shades cover my favorite blush color categories: pink, peach, and brown. And knowing that they will eventually expire reminds me to use them and love them today.
My newest “innovation” for my daily makeup has been pairing Smolder with the e.l.f. Halo Glow Beauty Wand Blush in Candlelit. The latter is a very shimmery, peachy-pink liquid blush that, on my face, works better as a highlighter. It’s a little too shimmery and not pigmented enough to be a blush, but as a highlighter, over a Phytosurgence cream blush? It’s absolutely beautiful! Fresh dewy summer cheeks.
I find the Halo Glow product to be very easy to control and apply. It has a sponge tip applicator, and I apply it directly to the face, one or two dots. I blend it with the e.l.f. stipple brush, after I’ve blended out my blush.
The e.l.f. Beauty Wand line is a very obvious dupe of the Charlotte Tilbury wands for liquid blush, highlighter, and contour. I don’t know how I feel about this. Outside of beauty reviewers, are the same people who buy the Charlotte Tilbury original also the people who will buy the e.l.f. beauty wands? Does it matter if a consumer goes to CT for their first wand but turns to e.l.f. for a refill later because of the price point? Neither of these companies is a little independent operation like Phytosurgence (who, notably, sells their cream blush pots for about $16 American. Compare that to $42 for Charlotte Tilbury’s cheek wands!). And as far as I can tell, Phytosurgence has done an absolutely remarkable job as a company in so many ways—the quality of their products, their delightful Instagram, their line expansions, and their soft encouragement to all of us to use what we have in our makeup collections. I really admire them.
Even though I don’t have a strong position about the dupe wars (and e.l.f. is among the most famous/egregious battlestars in that war), I felt I had to say something. I myself am unlikely to buy much of anything from Charlotte Tilbury; I just find the pricepoint to be too high and I dislike her gaudy gold packaging. I never say never, but I probably would have skipped the wand cheek products altogether if e.l.f. hadn’t come out with an inexpensive line of them.
What about you? Do you purchase the luxury beauty originals, or do you wait until a drugstore dupe hits the market?
Product Details: e.l.f. Halo Glow Beauty Wand Blush
Sold at: Target, among other places
Shade Featured: Candlelit
Price: $9.00 for 0.33 fl. oz.