Hard Candy Blush Crush Living Doll Review & Swatches

Hard Candy Blush Crush Baked Blush in Living Doll ($7 at Walmart) is a product that has a bit of a cult following and I've been wanting to try it for sooo long because I'm a total blush fanatic, but my Walmart is always sold out of it. A few weeks ago, I happened to get lucky and spotted one lonely blush sitting on the shelf and it was Living Doll, so I grabbed it right away. This is my second blush purchase from Hard Candy...you might remember that I reviewed their newly released Glow All The Way Baked Ombre Blush back in March (see that post here). The Blush Crush Baked Blushes, on the other hand, have actually been around for a few years, so I can't believe I'm just getting a chance to review this now! 

Blush Crush comes in four shades, one that looks more like a bronzer (Bombshell) and two lighter shades that look more like highlighters (Pin Up and Honeymoon). Living Doll is the only one that really looks like a true blush to me, but I still might buy the others to try as highlighters (because you know I can't resist those!).

The one that I purchased doesn't look like any of the other Living Doll photos I've seen online...most of them look bright pink with little bit of gold marbled through it. Mine seems to also have a darker, maroon shade running through it so I'm not sure if they changed the way it looks recently? Still, when I compare my swatches to others online, the color itself still looks the same. So as long as the overall blush shade hasn't changed, it's all good!

This formula is baked in an oven for over 8 hours and the end result is a soft powder that's easy to blend on the skin. I get the best results using a dense brush, such as a small kabuki because a larger, fluffier brush doesn't pick this up as easily. I've found that to be true of a lot of baked blushes, because they aren't as powdery and don't have as much fallout as pressed powder blushes. This is a good thing, but it means that you need a bit of a stiffer brush to get it out of the pan, but once you pick it up, the formula is super soft and silky!

The shade Living Doll is just so, so gorgeous! It's a cool-toned bright pink with a touch of gold. It's not quite as frosty as the Glow All The Way Ombre blushes but it definitely has some shimmer to it, so if you're more of a matte blush fan, it may not be for you. It adds a beautiful glow to your face, so you can skip the highlighter and just wear this by itself.  I find that in the summer, I'm not really looking to highlight/contour and get that sculpted look...I'm just trying to use the minimum amount of products I can get away with! A glowy blush like this is perfect for summer because I can just wear this on it's own and look like I used a highlighter with it. 

Living Doll Swatch

While this isn't as long-lasting as say, Tarte's Amazonian Clay blushes, it stayed on a lot longer than I thought it would, which was the majority of the day. So I think this definitely has more staying power than a lot of other drugstore blushes.

Living Doll Blended

Overall, I can definitely see why this shade is so popular! It warms up my face and gives my skin a beautiful glow without being glittery. Plus, I just can't get over how beautiful this color is...I tend to go for cool-toned shades since my skin has pink and blue undertones and this is like my perfect cool-toned pink- if I could create my own shade, it would be this! 

You can find Hard Candy Blush Crush Baked Blushes at Walmart stores and Walmart.com