Stila Love at First Blush Palette

Along with a few tubes of Maybelline ColorSensational Color Whispers (will get to soon I hope...), I bought this Stila Love at First Blush Palette when Ulta had the Spring 2013 GWP promotion. The blush was the 2012 Valentine's Day limited edition with a cute design of 3 layers of floating hearts in 3 different colors, which I couldn't resist.

Love at First Blush Palette. All pictures taken in natural light without flash. 

The good news is that this blush is neither chalky or waxy like the Positively Pink Cheek Palette. The bad news is that it feels dry and somewhat gritty, thanks to the larger shimmer particles. The same shimmers are also scattered, leaving them looking like they're floating in the matte base pressed powder. So despite the pretty colors with sparkles, the blush doesn't have that nice glowy effect like most shimmery blushes.

- Cloud pink, top: a super sheer highlighter with larger shimmer particles that makes it somewhat glittery instead of nicely sparkly. The shimmers cause the powder blush to become gritty and dry. I'm most disappointed with this "color" - it barely shows up at all on the back of my hand even after several layers! That makes it a crappy highlighter and renders the top third of the compact pretty much useless :(
- Warm pink, middle: the best and smoothest color in this compact is also the toughest to get to, being sandwiched in the middle. It has shimmers so fine it goes on satiny and gives me a very fresh and healthy glow.
- Cool rose, bottom: with gold shimmers. I also like this color very much, but sadly the larger gold shimmer particles take much away from the color instead of adding to it. Again it's a little gritty and not as smooth, and at the same time the shimmers are sparse and scattered, floating around in the seemingly matte color. Too bad...

The Ulta Spring 2013 GWP. This promotion was what that got me endured the overwhelming perfumey Avaha Dea Sea Water Mineral Body Lotion, ha...

***Screencap from Ulta.com.