Fab or flub? Maybelline’s Baby Skin Instant Cheek Flush promises easy pop of color
For this week’s Fab or Flub, I’m taking a look at a new face product from Maybelline’s popular Baby Skin line.
Available in two flattering shades (Pinking of You and Pop of Peach), the Baby Skin Instant Cheek Flush is a sheer gel blush marketed as a foolproof way to add a pop of color to your cheeks. The product costs $6.99 at Walgreens and is suitable for all skin types.
First impressions
When I first spotted Maybelline’s Baby Skin Instant Cheek Flush, I thought it was a lip product.
Colorful and cute, the product’s packaging combines the look of a traditional lip balm pot and an EOS lip balm. The blush is also very small, especially when compared to other blushes I’ve purchased in the past. While the size of the blush makes it ideal for traveling, I assumed there might be a downside to it: that $7 might not give you a lot of product in return.
More lip balm similarities were evident after I got the product home. As I swatched the blush on the back of my hand, I couldn’t help but notice how much it reminded me of another Maybelline product, the Baby Lips tinted lip balms.
Like Baby Lips balms, Baby Skin Instant Cheek Flush does not produce much color. Immediately, I could tell this would not be ideal for someone who prefers a more dramatic look (ahem, Kim Kardashian).
Because the color is so subtle, blending is a challenge. Blend too much and the blush is undetectable. Don’t blend enough and the product looks streaky. Overall, the product seemed to be easy to use, though, and I liked the way it applied smoothly to the skin.
Fab or flub?
Flub! Next time you find yourself in the beauty aisle, I suggest saving your precious pennies and skipping Maybelline’s Baby Skin Instant Cheek.
The blush turned out to be extremely sheer and left barely a hint of color behind on my cheeks. To offset this, I tried a more heavy-handed approach and applied multiple layers to see if that would give a more intense look. While this strategy did provide more color initially, it still ended up fading away by midday.
To make matters worse, the blush also turned out to be greasy and left my cheeks looking extremely shiny.
What stood out most to me about this product was how similar it seemed to Maybelline’s tinted Baby Lips lip balms. In truth, I felt like the brand had merely repackaged the Baby Lips product as a blush in order to make more money.
The only people I would recommend this product to are young children who love messing with Mommy’s makeup and to preteens who have yet to discover the merits of a high-quality blush.
This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Fab or flub? Maybelline’s Baby Skin Instant Cheek Flush promises easy pop of color."