Sleek Blush By 3 in Lace and Rose Gold Blush ¦¦ Review and Comparison

For the final instalment of my Sleek reviews, I am going to do the final two products together, for comparison purposes. The products are the Rose Gold blush from Sleek, which has obtained famed status for its alleged similarity to Nars Orgasm. I can’t comment on this, because I don’t own Nars Orgasm, but I will be comparing it to the Blush By 3 palette in Lace, also from Sleek, which contains a shade very similar to Rose Gold.

Sleek Rose Gold blush

First, a quick review of the Rose Gold blush. This comes in a generous sized pan with, you guessed it, a full size mirror. The colour is pretty much what it says on the tin, with a nice natural looking rosy colour as the main shade and then a gold shimmer running through it. This one is really very shimmery, verging on glittery, and you do have to be careful not to overdo it. 

Sleek Rose Gold blush in sunlight

However, once you do use it you can dispense with the highlighter as it’s not at all necessary once you have this baby on, so it’s a good multi use product or one you can reach for if you are in a hurry. The colours and quality of the blush are great, but I had a few minor gripes. The first being that, strangely for Sleek blushes, the rose itself isn't super pigmented. This meant I had to work my brush into the pan quite hard to pick up enough colour to show up on my cheek. That’s not so much of a problem in itself (although can be amusing if you forget which colour you’re working with and then do that for one of their more pigmented blushes….) however it does mean that I then get an awful lot of shimmer on my brush. So I can easily end up with a look that is more shimmer than rose. Some people may love this but for me, it’s generally not the look I'm going for. But as long as you are a bit careful, this is a gorgeous blush.

Sleek Blush By 3 palette in Lace

Moving on to the Blush By 3 palette in Lace. This contains two striking colours; Crochet, an orange toned shade, and Chantilly, a pink, which both look pretty daring in the palette. The third colour, Guipure, looks very similar to Rose Gold. 

Shades contained within the Blush By 3 palette

Starting with Crochet and Chantilly first, these are really pretty colours and suuuuuper pigmented. I like that they’re a bit different than the standard blush colours and certainly different than any other colours I have. In general I enjoy using these two colours and they do brighten up a  boring face.

Moving on to Guipure, which in the pan looks extremely similar to Rose Gold. In direct sunshine, you can see a slight difference in the undertone colour starts to come through. This is further shown in the swatches, where if you look very closely you can see that Guipure has a slightly more coral undertone than Rose Gold, which is more pinky. However, functionally they are much the same and look extremely similar unless you are really looking hard for a difference. 

Swatches of Guipure and Rose Gold in natural light

Swatches of Guipure and Rose Gold in flash photography

So should you go out and buy Rose Gold if you also have the Blush By 3 palette? I’d say probably not, as they are fairly indistinguishable from each other even when peering closely at a swatch, so they aren't going to look much difference from afar on a cheek. However, there is a subtle difference in undertone and they are such good value that I’d say if you really want it…. Why not?!

I'm off to take my enabling ways elsewhere. Sit tight everyone, It's nearly the weekend....

-Rachel