Makeup Revolution Ultra Blush and Contour Palette in Hot Spice Review

As I'm sure anyone who follows me now knows, I'm a huge fan of Makeup Revolution. They're sort of like fast fashion for makeup: they're always bringing out new and exciting products. They're mainly talked about for their dupes but they've really branched out with their own original products. So I decided to try one of them: the Ultra Blush and Contour Palette in Hot Spice (£6).

There are two options with the Blush and Contour Palette: Sugar and Spice, which is full of bright pink shades or Hot Spice, which is more muted peach colours. I went for Hot Spice, as it's just more me and I wanted some everyday shades. You get an impressive 8 shades for your £6. The packaging is black and shiny, it feels sturdy and shuts securely. Also when you open it up there's a really big mirror; perfect for on-the-go touch-ups!

Unfortunately the shades aren't named, so I'm going to number them off left to right as they appear in the pan below, 1-4 being the top row and 5-8 being the bottom row. There are two baked merged shades, one a highlight and one a blush; most of the others all have at least a little shimmer in them but some are more shimmery than others.

So, from the top left: Shade 1, Shade 2, Shade 3 and Shade 4

From the bottom left: Shade 5, Shade 6, Shade 7 and Shade 8

 So here are my swatches, plus a shade-by-shade breakdown of this palette:

(Shade 1 - Shade 4, from left to right)

No Flash:

Shade 1

This is one of the more shimmery shades so you can see a little glitter when you apply it. It's a pigmented dark peachy-orange colour. It applies quite will but I did find it went a little patchy after around 3-4 hours. If you're quite pale this would probably be your contour shade.

3/5

Shade 2

This is one of two matte shades. This is my personal favourite as it's nicely pigmented, but not too much: you can wear it quite subtly or build on it. I'd say the colour is halfway between peach and pink. It lasts me the whole of the day and doesn't go patchy. It's also really creamy and blended very easily.

5/5

Shade 3

This is one of the brightest shades in the palette: a vivid pink with a similar level of shimmer running through it as Shade 1. This is probably the shade with the best colour pay-off. It applies nice and evenly. It wears a little better than Shade 1; I'd say you can get up to 6 hours wear (which is pretty reasonable!). It does go a little patchy, but again not to the extent that Shade 1 does.

4/5

Shade 4

This is a frosty white baked merged highlight shade with a peachy sheen. Again, it has a nice creamy texture so is really easy to apply. I was surprised at how much I liked this. Even on my skin-tone it didn't look to white and shimmery. It adds a nice, subtle highlight to the face.

5/5

And here they are with Flash:

So, again left to right, we have Shade 5 through to Shade 8

No Flash:

Shade 5

This is probably my least favourite shade. The base is a nice bright orange (sort of the orange equivalent of Shade 3) but this one is super glittery. I'm not keen on how much the glitter shows once you apply to your face, and it probably applies the least nicely in the palette as it's a little crumbly. Although this stayed on my face all day; it had gone streaky within a couple of hours, despite applying OK. I think if you like shimmer this is best used on top of one of the more subtle shades like 2 or 6.

2.5/5

Shade 6

This is pretty similar to Shade 2 but a lot less pink and a lot more peach. Again it's matte and has a similar colour pay-off to Shade 2 and as with almost all the others, it has a nice texture so blends 
evenly on the face. This colour doesn't wear quite as well as Shade 2; I'd say it lasts maybe 4 hours.
4/5

Shade 7

This is a slightly brighter, lighter and more shimmery version of Shade 2. The shimmer isn't overwhelming but it's slightly less creamy and easy-to-apply than most of the others. You can blend it so it doesn't look patchy however. The pigmentation is strong but as it's a light colour you won't risk looking like a clown. This wore fairly well; I'd say 6 hours, though around halfway through it went a tiny bit streaky.

3.5/5

Shade 8

This is another highlight of the palette for me (sorry for the lame pun), so I'll definitely be looking into getting more of Makeup Revolution's baked blushers. It's probably the most subtle shade but it's a beautiful highlight colour, perfect for the top of the cheekbones to acts as both a blusher and a highlight. It lasts me throughout the day and doesn't go streaky. It's also really nice to apply.

5/5

And here they are with Flash:

I thought it'd be a little indulgent to post a selfie of me wearing each of these! So here is me wearing my favourite colour: Shade 2 :)

Overall, though there's maybe 1 shade I just don't see myself wearing, I really love this palette! It's fantastic value for money even if you only like half of them so 7/8 really isn't bad. I think in photos some of the shades look a little same-y, but hopefully now you've seen them swatched you can tell that (whilst there's definitely a pink and peach theme) the colours are distinct. I think the shades I will reach for most are 2, 4, 6 and 8, but it depends whether you prefer matte or glitter or baked. 

There's a really great selection of finishes, some brights and some muted shades. My only negative is that I don't really see any of these shades as suitable for contouring. I bought it as a blusher palette, so this doesn't bother me, but as it's in the name of the product, I thought it was worth mentioning! The highlighter was really lovely too. I can't believe you can get 6 shades for the price that most drugstore brands charge for a single! 

Hot Spice Overall

Overall Pigmentation:             *****
Overall Durability:                    ***.5
Overall Ease of Application:    ****.5
Selection of Shades:                 ****
Selection of Finishes:               ****.5
Value for Money:                   *****

***.5/5

Do you like blusher palettes or do you prefer picking up singles? 
Jasmine x