Artfully Feminine

You had to know this was coming, right?

The infamous NARS Orgasm blush has been touted as one of the most versatile and univerally flattering colours. However, for all the hype swirling around its rubbery pan, the colour really isn't all that unique. In the images below, I have sifted through my (immense) collection of blushes and emerged clutching the original Orgasm blush and eight dupes! Most, if not all of these are easily available locally and won't break the bank. :)

Just a note: I have swatched these blushes onto a sheet of standard printing paper so as to better showcase the colour and for the benefit of tanned and darker ladies. When swatched on my hand, the shades are almost indistinguishable from each other! :D Two of the shades still have their names written in Japanese as they're from Daiso. I thought it quite pointless to translate since they don't have a name given in English written on the packaging for you to match it with. Also, be aware that the colours swatch far sheerer on paper as they cannot adhere to paper fibers as well as to skin (the matte blushes are genuinely visible on the skin).

Top to bottom: Under natural light, under incandescent light, under white light

From the images above, you may or may not be able to tell that Majolica Majorca is a dead-ringer down to the shimmer, while Milani and Cargo tie for second place. The Ellefar blush in Beige is a tad pinker with neutral (instead of gold) shimmers whilst the Neo Color is a tad peachier and less shimmery.

For the matte blushes, Revlon veers pink and sheer (but beautiful on the skin!) but Ever Bilena's a little closer, though still with a touch more peach than Orgasm. What I could not picture in this post is the swatch for Shu Uemura's P Red 13 blush, which I have left back on my bathroom counter in Japan. :p However, I do know it to be very close indeed to Orgasm, but far more matte.

I'm aware that the swatch from the 28 piece blush palette appears as if it sticks out like a sore thumb. However, the colour is more ruddy and rosy in reality, but the camera somehow made it seem orange. On the other hand though, this shade is virtually a replica of Guerlain's Abricot Souffle D'or!

Of course, there are many more blushes that I do not own that have been likened to Orgasm. For one, Mark's Good Glowing Blush in AfterGlo is just as famous as Milani's Luminous in the US for being a drugstore dupe. The same goes from Rimmel's blush in Apricot. Locally, an acquaintance of mine who owns both NARS and I Nuovi's blush in Future opined that both are very similar in hue, though Future is quite matte. A last close match I can name is the Hot Mama blush from The Balm Cosmetics, which Sarah has swatched here.

For those overseas: Here's what Mark's blush looks like. I've marked out Afterglo, which looks like Orgasm even when in the pan! :D

Thanks for reading and I hope it has saved you some splurging! ;)