Review: Wet n Wild Fergie Centerstage Collection Around-the-Clock Blushes (all Three Shades)

Press Sample 

I recently received all of the new Wet n Wild and Wet n Wild Fergie products for review and will be bringing you lots of reviews in the weeks to come! So today I'd like to start this little series with the new Fergie blushes, since this is the first time we've seen blushes in the Fergie line (I know some of you use the Shimmer Palettes as blush, but these are actual blushes).

These blushes are new, permanent additions to the Fergie line, and they are sold exclusively at Walgreens. As of the time of this post, these are not available for purchase on the Walgreens site, but I imagine they will be eventually. For now, you'll have to look for them in-store. So let's take a closer look!

Wet n Wild Fergie Centerstage Collection Around-the-Clock Blushes

(retail: $4.99 each, 0.2 oz)

Keep reading for my full review...

If you've seen these blushes in-store at Walgreens, you probably noticed that the name on the display is "La Vie En Rouge Around-the-Clock Blushes." But since that's not on the actual label, I'm referring to them as just "Around-the-Clock" blushes. Notice the "up to 10 hours" claim on the label, as well. 

As with most Wet n Wild products, these blushes come safety-sealed (yay!). There are three shades in this range and the pans are nice and big, which is great if you tend to use a bigger blush brush. There are no accompanying brushes in these compacts (which is fine by me since I almost never use the brushes that come with blush compacts).

Brush with Destiny

Brush with Destiny is a shimmery bronzey-peach with lots of golden glitter (I even detect a few specks of red glitter in this one, which is a nice change from just the solid gold glitter that you find in other blushes of this nature). The blush sort of reminds me of MAC Margin, in terms of color. You can't really see the glitter in my pic above, so here's another angle photographed in lower lighting:

Again, you can't really see the glitter in my swatches above, so here's a close-up taken in lower lighting, where you can see the glitter a bit more:

On the face, there is a fine shimmer to this blush, in addition to the glitter. I think this is the type of shade that would work well on those with medium-to-fair skintones, but if you have a deeper skintone, this might not work as well as blush. However, I think it would make for a nice highlighter on deeper skintones, to add some warmth to the skin.

I find the color to be buildable and it doesn't take much building to get it to show up on my NC20 skintone. I do want to note here that there is a good amount of glitter in this blush and it's not an overspray--the glitter runs throughout the blush. 

Brush with Brilliance

Brush with Brilliance is the shade in this range that is the most NARS Orgasm-ish to me. It has that same "Is it pink or is it peach?" type of feel to it that I get from NARS Orgasm. In certain lights, this can look a lot more pink, but in other lights it can look more peach, and I think it will really depend on your skintone in terms of which tone is brought out more on your particular skin. Overall, I'd describe this as a shimmery, glittery coral with heavy pink undertones. 

And yes, there is gold glitter in this shade which you can't really see in my pic above, so here's another angle taken in lower lighting:

Again, you can't really see the glitter in my swatches above, so here's a close-up taken in lower lighting (look to the bottom of the photo):

Just like with Brush with Destiny, Brush with Brilliance contains a good amount of glitter, and it's not an overspray--the glitter runs throughout the blush. This color is a bit more pigmented than Brush with Destiny on my NC20 skintone, and it only took one swirl with my stippling brush to get enough pigmentation on the first try (no building needed for me with this one). However, I am not sure the same could be said for those with deeper skintones. But I do want to point out that NARS Orgasm takes a LOT of building for me, which was something that shocked me when I first purchased it back in the day. I no longer own NARS Orgasm, so I cannot compare the two for you, but the fact that I needed to build that shade for more intensity is something that will forever stick in my head, so I thought it was worth mentioning that I do NOT have to build Brush with Brilliance.

Brush with Danger

Brush with Danger is a blue-toned, bubblegum pink matte (no glitter or shimmer in this blush). This shade reminds of Stila Custom Color Blush in Pink since it has that same blue undertone to it. 

On my NC20 skintone, Brush with Danger is very nicely pigmented and I require no building (just one swirl with my stippling brush is plenty for one cheek). Any splotchiness you see above is actually due to my skin, and not the blush itself (my skin was a little irritated at this point after all of the removing with makeup towelettes). This one is definitely my favorite of the three, since I tend to gravitate toward matte blushes and I love colors like this. It seems almost intimidating in the pan, but once you play around with this shade, I think you'll find it's quite easy to wear. 

Since I am a big fan of bright pink matte blushes, I thought it might be helpful to compare a few for you. I immediately thought of Milani Matte Blush in Delizioso Pink and theBalm InStain Blush in Lace when thinking about shades I own that might be similar to Brush with Danger, so here's a quick comp:

Well I was wrong! As you can see, no dupes here. Brush with Danger is cooler, and a bit brighter, than the Milani and theBalm shades. I hope that helps put it into perspective a bit.

Overall, I find the texture of all three of these blushes to be quite smooth and the powder is finely-milled. When I swipe each pan with my finger, these blushes all feel very silky and soft, with absolutely no coarseness, graininess or chunkiness. I have no issues with applying or blending these blushes--all three go on smoothly with no patchiness or streaks. They are all quite easy to blend, as well. That said, I do want to mention that all three shades tend to kick up a fair amount of dust when you're swirling your brush on the pan. I'm sort of used to that by now, since I use a lot of matte blushes that do this, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case you're sensitive to that.

I think the pigmentation of each shade is just as you'd expect (or hope) based on the colors in the pan. Brush with Destiny is a light shade in the pan, so it's natural to expect that you might have to build it for more intensity. Brush with Brilliance and Brush with Danger both appear more vivid in the pan, and they are vivid on my NC20 skintone as well (no building required). I am not sure if this will be the case for those of you with deeper skintones though, since I don't find these blushes to be crazy-pigmented in a "wow, I have to tone that down STAT" type of way. But for my NC20 skintone, I find the pigmentation to be exactly where I want it to be. I don't have to build like crazy, but I also don't have to worry about overdoing it after just one swipe.

As for the "up to 10 hours" staying power claims, I find that all three blushes last a minimum of 5-6 hours on my oily skin before I started to see some fading. When worn in conjunction with face primer, I can easily get 8-9 hours of wear.

There is no fragrance to these blushes, aside from a very faint talc scent.

FINAL VERDICT: I think that Wet n Wild did a nice job with their first Fergie blushes. The three shades in this range all have universal appeal, and I'm very happy to see that they included a matte shade in the range for those of us who prefer mattes to shimmers/glitters when it comes to blush. The texture of these blushes is quite lovely--so smooth and silky--and they apply very easily with no issues. These do kick up a fair amount of powder when you're swirling with your brush though, and I'm not sure deeper skintones will experience the same level of pigmentation that I get on my NC20 skintone. That said, I think that Brush with Destiny and Brush with Brilliance would make very nice highlight shades to add warmth to deeper skintones, so if you find that these aren't pigmented enough for you as blush, try them as an all-over warmth type of product. My favorite here is obviously the matte pink shade, but if you like glitter in your blushes, then I think the other two are worth a shot as well.

Do you own any of the new Fergie Centerstage blushes yet? If so, which shades do you own and how are they working for you?

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