FROM starring in Wizards Of Waverly Place to winning a Grammy, Selena Gomez has worn a lot of hats in her career – but her role as multibillion- dollar- brand founder is arguably the most impressive.
Celeb-founded beauty brands are an ever-polarising subject, thanks to questionable endorsements and typically high price tags, but Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty has cracked the code.
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Boasting a range of blushers, lipsticks, and body lotions, the five-year-old beauty brand is going from strength to strength.
With its viral Soft Pinch Liquid Blush recently crowned as Sephora‘s best-selling blush ever, Rare Beauty has become one of the biggest beauty brands of the decade.
And it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
This month, Selena announced the launch of Soft Pinch Matte Bouncy Blush, a cushioned, hybrid putty, promising to strike the perfect balance between a powder and cream.
We’ve seen several bouncy, cushioning blushers launch in the last year – including Mac’s Glow Play Cushiony Blush and No7’s Velvet Cloud Cream To Powder Blush – but powder blush remains our favourite formula (with 88% of blush users agreeing).
So, can Selena sway us? Team Fabulous have put Soft Pinch Matte Bouncy Blush to the test…
Beauty Writer Mia Lyndon
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Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Bouncy Blush in Grateful, £26
I have dry, itchy patches under my eyes, meaning using a blusher has been a no-go recently.
Powder blush sits into dryness and accentuates chapped skin, while liquid blush’s thicker, viscous texture often irritates the area.
Due to this, I haven’t picked up a blusher in a while, but Rare Beauty’s new “bouncy” texture tempted me.
In the pan, it looks like a balm blush, but once swatched, it has a delicate finely milled powder texture, and is also very pigmented.
I used my fingers to tap it into my skin, avoiding the dry areas, and was impressed by how easily it blends into a soft, airbrushed look, without crumbling or looking uneven.
It diffuses soft, seamless colour across my cheeks, striking the perfect balance between balm and powder – it’s beautiful!
Sub-editor Milcah Fajardo
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Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Bouncy Blush in Truth, £26
I swatched the blush on the back of my hand, and the product was still there the next morning, despite washing my hands multiple times – talk about staying power!
When applied to my cheekbones, the formula glides on like silk and a little really goes a long way – just a few light taps with a brush and it’s blended nicely.
It blurred away any excess shine and left me with a soft matte glow – perfect for those who have oily skin like me, but who want a natural flush that lasts all day!
Beauty Editor Tara Ledden
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Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Bouncy Blush in Worth, £26
I’m a die-hard cream blush fan – I haven’t had a powder formula in my regular rotation for years, save for an occasional cameo from Mac’s Glow Play Cushiony Blush, £28, which has a similar, putty-like consistency, but hasn’t toppled my go-to Merit Beauty Flush Balm Cream Blush, £26, off top spot.
If a powder blush was going to win me over, it would probably be one with a putty-consistency similar to that of Mac’s, so I had high hopes for the Rare Beauty offering.
Swiping my fingers across the pan, it feels like a cream formula, but when I used a stippling brush with a flat top to apply the blush – as that’s what I always use, and I’m a creature of habit – it acts like a powder.
On initial application, it was far less pigmented than I expected – an antidote to the brand’s liquid blushes, which deposit a heavy dose of colour with the smallest dot.
This made it easier to be precise with my application, and would be great for blush newbies who don’t want to look like a clown.
I had to dip my brush back into the pan three or four times to layer enough colour – but once on, it locks in place, so it was still visible at the end of the day, which almost never happens on my oily skin!
Editor in Chief Sinead McIntyre
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Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Bouncy Blush in Happy, £26
This blush is very easy to apply – I used a brush and it went on evenly without any dropping on to my clothes.
I liked the smooth texture and it is not too powdery.
It lasted all day, and I even got some compliments, with a couple of people saying they liked my make-up and wondering if I’d tried something different!
