ColourPop Instant Crush Cheek Dew Serum Blush Review & Swatches

Instant Crush

ColourPop Instant Crush Cheek Dew Serum Blush ($7.00 for 0.48 oz.) is a muted, medium brown with subtle, warm reddish undertones and a soft sheen. It had sheer color coverage, which I didn’t find to be that buildable (as it was intended to be). It was an achievement just to get sheer coverage as the formula was so emollient and slippery that the product just wanted to slide around rather than adhere or layer up.

The texture was very runny and fluid, so I tried squeezing out product on the back of my hand and then picking up product from there, including swirling my brush in it to help dry the product out prior to applying it to my cheeks. These little things led to marginal improvement, but it still was difficult to apply evenly. I felt like I had one shot–the first shot–to get it mostly even and then had to leave it. Whenever I tried to blend out the edges, the product slid around or lifted away.

This occurred over bare skin as well as over foundation; the latter felt particularly difficult. I actually had some luck when I patted it over set foundation as the powder finish seemed to absorb some of the slip and helped the color adhere better. The formula dried down somewhat, so it retained some dewiness and was never tacky, but it did not fully dry down (which is not a pro nor a con). The color that translated seemed to fade around the six-hour mark.

FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).

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Formula Overview

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View Swatches

Formula Overview

$7.00/0.48 oz. - $14.58 Per Ounce

The formula is supposed to have "buildable coverage" with a "hint" of dewiness that can be applied with fingertips, sponge, or a duo fiber brush and is recommended to be applied prior to powder products. I struggled to apply the formula, and I tried using fingertips, sponges, and various brushes both over foundation, under foundation, over bare skin, and even over powder (which is the opposite of what they say to do!).

For me, it seemed like the issue was that there was way too much slip in the product, so instead of applying and blending out, the color just pushed around. It had the worst application when I used fingertips to apply, which I'd apply by patting and pressing the color (gently!) onto my cheeks and using the edge of my fingertip to soften. This is my go-to method with cream-based cheek colors, and it usually works, but I couldn't get the color to stay and place.

I tried using a sponge, but the sponge seemed to absorb a lot of the color that it made it hard to get detectable coverage out of it. I found a stippling brush to work better, and I gently flicked the brush against my cheeks to deposit color, waited 10 seconds, and then tried to diffuse and even out the color. This worked somewhat and sometimes, but it did not always work, unfortunately, and when it didn't, there was almost no visible color.

Since it seemed overly emollient, for the majority of my application attempts, I squeezed out product on the back of my hand, so I could swirl or pick up product as it had dried out a little bit, but this did not help much! The "best" method I found was to gently dab the product onto my cheeks using fingertips, let it sit for five to 10 seconds, then use a synthetic brush to soften the edges with the gentlest touch and only do each area once, and then leave it alone and accept whatever the outcome was.

It did not play well with the various base products I tried--a mix of liquid foundations and tinted moisturizers, both set and unset--as it was prone to sliding them around or lifting them up. They were better over bare skin, but they were a real challenge to work with. They were also not buildable in my experience as this resulted in the first layer moving around and lifting away from the main area and leaving a raised edge of product.

The consistency was very fluid to the point where it felt runny; it would slide down the back of my hand with the aid of gravity and do so quickly. It took awhile to dry down, and it was somewhat movable with light dewiness in its finish but wasn't tacky. They lasted around six hours on me before fading visibly.

Browse all of our ColourPop Cheek Dew Serum Blush swatches.