A Quartet of Peachy Pinks: Marcelle Quad Blush in Ultimate Pinks

One of the awesome things about having beauty blogging friends, besides being able to talk their ears off about all the latest make-up excitements without being completely ignored or hit in the face with a flying pillow, is that you can swap products that are not immediate loves between each other. Me and Kar Yi have recently taken to ferrying a couple goodies here and there between our make-up stashes, and thus I became a happy recipient of Marcelle's Quad Blush in Ultimate Pinks ($16 for 0.16 oz/ 4.6 g, in the US available at Birchbox.com).

 Eeeee, iz sooo pretteh! When I first laid my eyes on this sleek blush compact, I was super excited to swatch all the shades and play with different combinations on my face. Because what's not to love? I just love the idea of customizable blush with complimentary hues of pink, and I think the design of the product is really neat, although I could do without the brush compartment underneath - I don't ever use the implements that come with make-up products, and so I don't appreciate the added bulk.

The blush itself looks and swatches completely matte. While I do love my satins, a good matte is nice to pair with a more visible highlighter, or to wear on those days when you have some unwanted texture on the cheeks. The four quadrants look like very distinct shades in the pan, but I was surprised to find that the nude and the peachy shade right underneath it look very similar on the skin. Both the hot pink and the baby pink pull cooler, with the lightest shade having the least amount of pigmentation.

I'm not sure how well it's coming across in my close-up and arm swatches, but all of these shades have some amount of a white base to them, making them appear more pastel on the skin. This is probably the reason this blush didn't work for darker and warmer complected Kar Yi; but as you know, I love pastel shades on me. I will generalize here and say that Ultimate Pinks will probably work the best on a fair, cool skintones, and may appear too pale and chalky on darker skintones.

Speaking of chalky... This Marcelle Quad Blush is indeed a bit chalky. What a bummer, right? The pigmentation is medium at most in my opinion, and when you attempt to build up the color on the skin, it gets a bit powdery and obvious. You can probably see that a little bit in my heavy arm swatches.

Shades swatched separately clockwise from the close-up photo; the last swatch on the right is all the shades mixed together.

Ultimate Pinks still look pretty on the cheeks - as you know, I just love peachy pink blushes on me. But I do wish the formula was a bit better; it just doesn't meld into the skin as well as some of my other favorite matte or satin formulas. So ultimately (har har), I'm not sure if I'll keep this Quad Blush in my stash or pass it on to a more appreciative friend or relative.

Canadian friends, what do you recommend from Marcelle's make-up range? I think I've only ever tried their moisturizer with sunscreen when I lived in Vancouver, and it was just okay. Are there any hidden gems? Everyone else, what is your favorite multi-hued blush? I have to say Marcelle's Quad Blush is the first one I've ever tried!