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ck one happiness blush

I will never be able to hear the words, “Calvin Klein,” without immediately picturing Michael J. Fox’s purple underwear in Back to the Future, despite millions of dollars in marketing and hundreds of products released over more than four decades! Now that movie? That movie was happiness. 🙂

But not today — not according to CK One Color. Today, Happiness is a $25 blush duo, one of five in the new CK One Color makeup line.

The CK One Color Cream + Powder Blush Duo in Happiness pairs a hard-packed powder blush together with a softer cream blush. On my NC42 skin, the powder appears matte and peachy pink, while the cream looks like a peachy beige.

I think both are pretty — very pretty, in fact — but I’m still having a hard time falling in love with these colors… Hard, because that’s exactly how these colors have been to use (hard).

I usually like soft powder blushes, but this one here feels very hard. Like bedrock! It’s one of those powders that looks super sheer in swatches, but a little more pigmented when applied with a blush brush. Even using a brush, though, I think it’s still pretty sheer, and I find myself having to apply at least five layers to reach a level of pigment I’m happy with on my cheeks.

As for the cream half of the duo, it has a dry, silky, silicone-like texture that reminds me of solid balm primers like Benefit’s Dr. Feelgood. I like how it scoots across my cheeks, but I wish it stuck around a little longer, especially when I wear it by itself.

Worn alone, the cream side starts looking patchy on my skin after about three hours. Even so, that’s not my biggest concern about the product. That honor goes to the pores on my cheeks, which look BIG when I wear this. We’re talkin’ HUGE, as in super-sized.

Normally, I don’t feel like the pores on my cheeks are particularly large, but they certainly seem larger to me when I wear the cream half of Happiness. Just something to consider.

CK One says you can wear the cream and powder products separately or together, by layering the powder blush on top of the cream.

I get the best results when I layer them together, with the cream blush appearing less patchy, and the powder blush appearing a bit more pigmented and intense.

The wear time also improves. When I wear them together, I get about five hours, tops.

CK One Color Happiness Cream Powder Blush Duo

CK One Color Happiness Cream Powder Blush Duo 1
Powder blush on left and cream blush on right
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You know what’s better than eating an entire bag of Trader Joe’s Roasted Seaweed Snacks in one sitting?

So salty and delicious…

Eating an entire bag of Trader Joe’s Roasted Seaweed Snacks in one sitting while playing with Calvin Klein’s new CK One Color makeup line. 🙂

That’s right! Calvin has a new makeup line (not his first, but his first in a while), and it’s available now exclusively at Ulta. Officially, “the ck one color vision of beauty begins with revealing your authentic, real beauty and never hiding it.” The company says it’s about self-exploration, and not dramatic transformations. Their mantra: “look real, define yourself, add intensity.”

They call it a simplified approach to beauty that embraces individualism with boundary-pushing edginess, and the line, they say, is designed for all ages, cultures and genders.

That last bit sounds a lot like MAC, no? And the packaging looks a little sci-fi to me, like Apple Computer meets NASA at the International Space Station.

Of course, I like.

CK One Color all

I started out really jazzed about the eyeshadows, but now I’m not so sure. I had to build up the swatches with some of them to reach a level of pigment I liked, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things go better when I try them on my lids.

As for the lipglosses and nail polishes? YUM! I see a lot of promise there.

CK One Color Heat Eyeshadow Quad
Powder Eyeshadow Quad in Heat, $28
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