Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Salma Hayek Nuance Flawless Mineral Cheek Trio

For the most part, I've stopped browsing the beauty section of my local CVS. Ever since they abolished the beauty manager position, it has been disorganized, and there are few displays of new products. Despite the unappealing nature of the offerings, Salma Hayek's newest display caught my eye as I breezed past to pick up my prescriptions. Pretty colors will grab me any day.

I'm sure I don't have to tell beauty-savvy gals that Salma Hayek has a relatively new beauty line. I had resisted until the four shade families of her Nuance Flawless Mineral Cheek Trio ($10.39 on sale at CVS online - look for in-store coupons) stopped me in my tracks. Pink, Apricot, Mauve, and Spice all looked lovely.

Having no experience with the Nuance line, I selected Pink. Mauve also looked like it would work with my coloring. Apricot and Spice looked too dark or too warm. The color names describe the blush shade, which is accompanied by a contour/bronzing shade and a highlighter. Even though there are no testers available in-store, you can see through the clear plastic top to get a good sense of the colors.

I swatched Pink with a sponge-tipped applicator, starting at the top of my arm with the shimmering highlighter, moving clockwise to the pink blush, and then swatching the contour shade. Then I used a dense blush brush to pick up all three shades, blended, and swatched below the individual shades. I took my photos in full sun.

The colors are very sheer. Those are heavy applications on my arm. That means you can build the color to suit your tastes. The highlighter is a slightly pink-tinted ivory with an overspray. Once the overspray is removed, the sparkles depart, leaving behind a beautifully shimmering shade. The pink is a warm pink - perfect for most pink lovers - with a satin finish.

The contour shade is a golden brown without noticeable shimmer. It's not my favorite contouring brown, but it would do in a pinch.  You can probably see in the blended swatch at the bottom of my arm that the brown dominates the blend, yielding a golden light peach result that makes the pink all but disappear.

Because of the size of the color wedges in the trio, you will need to use the right brush - a smaller one for the blush - to select only one shade. While the overall compact is relatively large, divided into three, it constrains a "sweep with abandon" approach.

All in all, I'm pleased with the Mineral Cheek Trio. I think it's a great value and I'd recommend it to anyone shopping for an inexpensive three-in-one face powder for summer. Now, I think I'm going to stay out of the beauty aisle. I don't really want to be snared again with all of the colors I've already purchased or reserved for summer.

Photo at top courtesy of CVS; other photos by Best Things in Beauty

12 comments:

Nemo said...

Her name is NOT Selma; it is Salma.

Charlestongirl said...

Oopsie. One of my "better" typos. Some of them are legendary.

Elysse said...

One does not need to use capitals over a typo, especially on such a lovely and polite blogger.

We don't have Salma Hayek anything in Europe, what a pitty! I realy like her and her make up. She's one of the people that always get it right so I'd love to have a look at her suggestions.

Charlestongirl said...

Thanks, Odyssey, for the support. I did mess up her name, but fixed it. Things happen when you're in a hurry.

Her makeup is so cool and such a value. Maybe some day it will make it to Europe?

Evelyn said...

In my CVS wanderings I did buy a lip 3 in 1 of hers. It has a small liner, small lipstick and sparkly gloss all attached together as a tube. It's...well, kind of odd but the colors are very nice at least.

Jessica said...

Great post! I was wondering about her other products because I didn't care for her tinted moisturizer

Carrie Meredith said...

I've heard some good things about Nuance. I need to spend a little time looking around next time I'm in CVS.

And, do your readers always rake you over the coals for typos, or is this a special occasion? :)

Charlestongirl said...

I saw that Evelyn! It looked like a lot of packaging for a little color.

Charlestongirl said...

This was my first, Jessica...way too early to evaluate her line.

Charlestongirl said...

Not usually, Carrie. :)

lov2read68 said...

I have only tried the lipsticks from this. Picked up two shortly after the line was released - BOGO Free. One is a pinky brown & the other a soft red. I was pleasantly surprised by the texture & quality. Not drying on the lips at all. Very nice for a drugstore line, IMO.

Charlestongirl said...

Hi Love2read, did they have a taste/fragrance? I've been curious. Thanks!