I, along with many others jumped on the bandwagon with buying Dainty Doll products from Fragrance Direct. As soon as I heard that they were selling for just £1.99 each, I hotfooted it over to the website straight away. Considering I was late to the party, there was an impressive amount of stock left and I came away feeling pretty chuffed with my purchases. One of the things I did was scope out reviews for each product, and when I saw the swatches for this blusher it had to go into my basket!

If you didn't already know, Dainty Doll is a make up range designed and created by Nicola Roberts, of Girls Aloud fame. I remember reading about the range in a magazine quite a long while ago and thinking finally, a range just for us pale and proud girls. I don't consider myself to be the palest of pale girls but I was hopeful that I would still find some gems in the range. However, once I saw the price I banished the idea of ever purchasing any to the bin - until now! This is just one of the four powder blush shades that Dainty Doll sell, and by far and away my favourite.


I was surprisingly impressed with the packaging for this product. For some reason, I had a vision in my mind of cheap-feeling, gimmicky cases that hinders usage but that wasn't the case at all. It's possibly the celebrity association that made me think that, and I am glad to be proved wrong on this occasion! For one, the box is beautifully designed, with a drawing of a flame-haired lady who I can only presume to be Nicola Roberts - but it is tasteful and far more preferable to a photograph. Her name is subtly included within the brand name and isn't in your face in the slightest. With the blusher compact itself, I was pleased to discover that the pan is quite large, giving you plenty of room to swirl your brush around the product. A good-sized mirror is also included in the lid, which for me is incredibly handy! My only criticism is that the shade name is not written on the underside, just the number.


Dainty Doll describe this shade as peach, and whilst I agree I have to say that I think it has a definite pink undertone to it too. That is to say, it is not a true peach shade like other blushers I have seen. This is a definite plus for me; I'm not quite ready to experiment with a true peach blush just yet, and this is a perfect go-between for the two primary blusher shades. You Are My Sunshine contains a beautiful golden shimmer, that is not glittery in the slightest. It catches the light beautifully and makes my skin look positively radiant and glowing.


Whilst this blush, along with the whole range of course, is created for the paler ones of us I think this would be a beautiful blusher on every skin tone, even the very dark. It is incredibly well pigmented - almost to the point where you could end up looking a little clown-like if you're heavy handed with the blusher brush! However, with a little time and care this can be avoided and shows up beautifully on the skin. The swatch you see above was just two swipes with the pad of my finger. Being finely milled, it blends beautifully even with such high pigmentation and I have had no problem with that element at all.


One question I asked myself when I started to use this product on a regular basis was, would I have paid full price for it? The RRP is £13.50, which is pretty steep for a small brand that has been created by a celebrity. Ordinarily I would have said no, but with this particular blusher I have to say yes. The quality is very impressive, and definitely on a par with MAC and Nars (Some say this is a great dupe for "Orgasm"), which retail for considerably more. I now have high hopes for the cream blusher I bought, Billion Dollar Babies - it's got a lot to live up to!

Final verdict: This blusher packs a punch, but is easy to work with and is a must-have for anyone's blusher collection. I have ended up reaching for it every day since I bought it!

I bought Dainty Doll Powder Blusher in 004 You Are My Sunshine from Fragrance Direct for £1.99, but this particular shade is no longer available on there. The cheapest I have managed to find it online is eBay for £3.79, which is still an incredible bargain compared to the RRP.