Beauty: my 3 HG blushes or searching for a UDxGwen Hush dupe


Hi there! Those that have been following my beauty posts may remember that I fell totally and utterly in love with the Hush pan of the Urban Decay x Gwen Stefani palette. It sounds totally hyperbolical but this blush totally turned my idea of what kind of blushes/highlighters I liked upside down. I always used to go for mostly cool toned pinks with an equally cool highlighter, but since Hush I know that a neutral blush that's quite close to my own skincolour looks best on me, and that I prefer the type of glow-from-within look you get from a blush with a sheen over the "make my cheekbone look like a mirror" type of popping highlight that's so trendy right now. I feel like Hush makes my face look amazing without being so present in my face that it might overpower whatever makeup look I was wearing. In short: the perfect everyday blush. 

However, Hush is limited edition, and nothing upsets a beauty lover more than running out of a limited edition product. In addition, I keep recommending Hush to everyone but the palette is sold out, which is super frustrating. Clearly, I had to start looking for the perfect dupe asap. I found two blushes that are quite similar:  Benefit Coralista and Coffret d'Or 02 Peach.


I picked up Benefit Coralista at Inno after googling for Hush dupes (also because I was anxious to try a Benefit product for the first time), and Coffret d'Or 02 Peach was a Japan buy. I actually fell so in love with  the Coffret d'Or blush that I brought back two extras for my sister and my bestie! I knew the three shades would be similar, but it's impossible to compare the three without taking pictures of them on my face with the same base makeup and the same lighting, so I was excited to get to it. First, arm swatches:

review: Benefit Coralista, Coffret d'Or 02 Peach, and UDxGwen Hush

On my arm, the three look quite similar although Hush is a bit darker, and 02 Peach is more sheer and more pink. All three are lovely, natural shades (no red, pink or orange in sight), and all three have a pearly sheen to them. Hush's powder is a bit softer, crumbling to the touch, so you only need a light brush swipe to get loads of product, while Coralista and 02 Peach require a bit more work but build up nicely. I usually apply Coralista with an angled blush brush because the orangey/gold can look a bit dirty on my cool/neutral skintone if I don't take care applying it only where I want it. The brush that comes with the product is cute but kind of worthless to me. 02 Peach needs a bit of building up, and I apply that one with a rounded, dense brush that allows for swirling in the pan to pick up a lot of product. Again, the brush that comes with it is no good. Let's compare them on my cheeks.

review: Benefit Coralista, Coffret d'Or 02 Peach, and UDxGwen Hush
review: Benefit Coralista
review: Coffret d'Or 02 Peach
review: UDxGwen Hush

The effect is very close, but I can still tell apart my Hush from the other two: Hush has a more frosted finish than Coralista which has a clearly warm, gold toned sheen to it, and 02 Peach is suuuuper similar but a bit less pigmented and less shimmery. I'm actually really happy with how similar these two perform for me, both last all day. Now that I'm a bit more tan I reach for Coralista more often because it looks amazing with a more bronzed look, while my Coffret d'Or blush looks a lot better on me than Coralista when I'm pale. Hush will continue to be the holy grail year round, but at least now I won't be gutted when I run out, and I can recommend dupes for those who missed out on buying the UD x Gwen blush palette.

Benefit's Coralista is available online or at Inno for about €33 (cheaper in the US!)
Coffret d'Or 02 Peach was sold at most Japanese drugstores I visited and retails at about €23 (more expensive online)

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