Laneige Love in Bloom Sculpting Blusher in 001

With the trend of contouring on the rise, I want to introduce a dear product of mine -- the Laneige Love in Bloom Sculpting Blusher in 001. It is one of my true hoards because I actually bought multiples of this item since it's limited edition (don't freight though, it is still available to purchase at a fair price through online sources). This was released on spring of 2012, and the case illustration was done by Sanna Annukka. I love the design of this blusher, it reminds me of those Russian Matryoshka dolls. 

The compact is square and opens up to two layers, one for the blush and the other for the flat blusher brush; which I find very convenient for travel. The blush cake itself is divided into three sections: the blush (top), the highlighter (middle), and the bronzer (bottom).

The brush that is featured in this blusher is a rectangle flat brush, perfect for brushing horizontally to obtain the shade you want, but also tall enough to sweep up all three. The colour of the blush cake is the most accurate out of the three I've placed within this post. I want to apologize for the terrible swatch though, the sun was going down when I took that picture, which did not come out quite correctly on camera. The bronzer is a beautiful matte light brown shade with no hints of orange; I find that any bronzer with tints of orange in them will give you a very unnatural contour (think fake tan). The highlighter is a subtle shimmery white, which can be applied via brush for the nose bridge, forehead, cheekbones, and chin, and also with fingers to dab it on the inner corners of the eyes and the cupids bow. I do have to complain about the size of the highlighter, it is such a thin strip of colour, and since I usually use the three blocks separately, I could easily pick up either the brush or bronzer. I was not too impressed with the blush, it was far too light in my opinion. It is a shimmery pink colour that is almost close to white (see swatch). If you are looking for a rosy cheek colour, this is definitely not the right blush to use. I find I usually just brush through both the 'blush' and highlighter altogether when applying to my cheekbones, and add layer another blush on top. 

Overall, this is a great product for contouring, but so great as a blush. Using this product is definitely a lot easier than blending shades of concealer or foundation together. The flat rectangle brush is especially great for brining definition to your nose bridge. However, this is a product that requires you to build it up, you need to load your brush up with product (three to four sweeps) to see any initial difference, but at the same time, it is very forgiving for first time learners for contouring. I would definitely recommend this product for anyone (with fair to medium shade) having trouble finding a right shade when learning how to contour.