And so the chubby stick phenomenon continues. First lipsticks then came the blush sticks and now highlighters - the possibilities are endless! The Clinique Chubby Sticks came first but were quickly followed by a number of drugstore alternatives - Revlon, Bourjois, Barry M - so you'd have thought that they'd have been the first to jump on the blusher and highlighter versions... not the case! The first blush sticks I saw were from No7 and my collection is growing fast. Let's take a look.
First let's go through what's in that collection, shall we? I first bought No7 Pop and Glow Cream Blush in Classic Rose and the No7 Instant Radiance Highlighter a while back. I actually compared the Instant Radiance Highlighter to Benefit's Watts Up and I still stand by that. It's a beautifully creamy product that melts into the skin. It has more of a metallic finish than a glittery one which I much prefer and is quite cool toned - ideal for any skintone but especially fairer girls as it won't look too prominent. You can apply it straight from the bullet or, my preferred method, is to rub my finger over the stick and pat it onto my cheekbones. I find this gives a more natural, blended finish.
The Pop and Glow Cream Blush in Classic Rose is just as beautiful. The formula is near enough as creamy, maybe a little tackier but nothing to complain about, and it's super pigmented! A little goes a long way but it blends out so nicely that if you do go a little heavy handed it's easily corrected. The colour, Classic Rose, is exactly that - I love when brands correctly name their shades! Again, you can apply it straight from the bullet or use your fingers. My ideal is either to pat some on with my finger and blend out using a Real Techniques Stippling Brush or just try and get product from the bullet using the brush and stippling it on from there.
The latest addition to my collection is the Instant Radiance Bronzing Highlighter - a beautiful bronze toned metallic stick which is perfect for these summer months. Formula wise it's pretty much identical to the original Instant Radiance Highlighter - really creamy and blendable - and the shade is simply stunning. It's an ideal golden bronze that I've been enjoying using on my cheekbones when I've done a golden-goddess type of look - yeah, sure Amy. The colour looks scary when swatched but blends beautifully.
Now how do they compare to the upcoming Clinique Chubby Stick Cheek Colour Balms and, the very recently released, Beach Sticks by Charlotte Tilbury? Well, I've not got any of these high end ones myself, the Clinique Cheek Colour Balms aren't out till next month but see Ree's swatches here, but I can see similarities. The design is pretty much identical - a twist up stick with a rounded top - and the formulas are pretty much the same, too. Considering there's such a huge difference in price, the quality doesn't seem to falter in the No7 ones like you'd expect. The colour range is very similar too, I could pull dupes from each brand fairly easily. The No7 Pop and Glow in Classic Rose is very similar to Charlotte Tilbury's Beach Stick in Las Salinas, although Las Salinas is brighter, and it also looks similar to Clinique's Chubby Stick Cheek Colour Balm in Roly Poly Rosy. As for the highlighters, they pull similarities to Charlotte Tilbury's Beach Sticks in Moonbeach and Ibiza - a typical highlight shade and a bronze one.
The No7 offerings retail at £9.95 (using one of those £5 No7 vouchers would be ideal on these!) in comparison to Charlotte Tilbury's £30 and Clinique's which will be £19. For such a huge price difference, I'd seriously say to consider looking at the No7 ones in your next trip to Boots! There are also two other shades of the blushes, a peach and more of a bright pink. I'd love to know what you guys think of them!
Have you tried the No7 ones? Or are you high-end through and through?
Ax
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