Gel (or jelly) blushes are a strange thing. Although many brands do make them, I haven't noticed many people actually raving about them, or even using them. Did you know that MAC makes a gel blush? And YSL? And Clinique? And Canmake? And TheBalm? Well, I didn't know that either. I only knew about one gel blush & that was Essence's Vampire's Love which was actually one of the first products I ever reviewed on this blog (click here to see me hash tagging in a blog post and being overly newbie-weird, ha!). Then I want to Manchester to see Terri & like right beauty bloggers we went to check out Poundland for some cool quality bargains - there we both snapped a bottle of Revlon Pinch Me, the number two gel blush in my life. But something went horribly, HORRIBLY wrong...      

Revlon Pinch Me looks like a decent product - at first sight. It's got quite a nice design - a large pump for convenient use, lid that sits on the bottle tightly, well nothing you would complain about. For a quid, from Revlon, why not, right? Oh, the shade is called Peach Afterglow, but not that it really matters after all.  


If I wasn't familiar with gel blushes at least as much as I am, I would have had a little desperate freak out thinkin I must be doin something wrong. Look at the friggin consistency! It comes out as a blob of... God knows what, and when you try to rub it in, it doesn't un-blob, it just makes strange sticky layer on your skin with no colour whatsoever, leaving just the hard pieces of... poo (yup, Revlon, I'm callin this a poo, that's how upset it made me!) everywhere. WHERE IS THE PEACH AFTERGLOW? I absolutely agree with Terri's review, where she described this as a gone-off jam. Vom.


Now I'll show you what an actual gel blush should look like, because I don't think it's fair to leave you discouraged from buying one in the future. Essence Vampire's Love could probably be classed as a dupe of the Revlon one when it comes to packaging, however already at first glance you can see that the colour is not as dark & daunting as the Revlon one is. It actually has got a really funky look with jelly bubbles in it (looks stunning against the light).    


Once applied you have to quickly work it into your skin, because it dries real fast and could possibly leave you with streaks. But once you master the speed, it's actually a really lovely blush! I would compare the colour it gives you to Benefit's Benetint, however it's easier to work with than it is with Benetint (at least for me). It costs around £1 in Germany/Czech Republic, however it was a limited edition last year, so you most likely won't be able to get it anymore. Sayin that, Essence keeps bringing out new gel blushes in their limited editions every now and then, so you probably will be able to get a slightly different version of this.   

To sum it up, Revlon is goin in the bin with a label 'the worst product of the century' & my trusty Essence is going back into my blush drawer. Au Revoir, Revlon! 

What's the most disappointing product you've ever tried?