A bargain so good, it’ll make you blush

I don’t exactly live in a "metropolitan" area.  Most of the time, that has its benefits.

Less traffic.

Less congestion.

Slower pace of life.

But, for the times I’d like to escape hide from my kids take a little break, living in the sticks has its limitations.

There’s nowhere to head for "retail therapy," if you catch my drift. No shopping malls.  No department stores.  No Sephora.

So, when I try and steal a few minutes of "alone time," I’m often found wandering the aisles of CVS, checking out the latest and greatest in drugstore makeup.

Whenever I did this in the past, I’d always spend several minutes in the Revlon section.  Several more in the L’oreal section.  Even a few minutes checking out Cover Girl.

But I’d always walk right past Rimmel.

Kate Moss notwithstanding, I always viewed Rimmel on par with Wet ‘n Wild — inexpensive makeup that’s great when you’re 14, but not so great when you’re over twice that age.

One particular CVS evening, however, I was leafing through a copy of In Style Magazine and happened across a makeup feature.  The article featured one makeup "look" done two ways — one with expensive, designer products and one with drugstore finds.  I immediately began scanning the list of "bargain" products to see what was used.

For blush, they used Rimmel.

Hmmmmm.

When a well-known makeup artist recommends a product, you kind of take notice. 

So, I walked over to the Rimmel display and picked up the exact color used — Santa Rose (a medium rosy pink) — for about $3.

In short, I love it.

The color is well-suited to my skin tone.  When I apply it along with bronzer, it adds great, natural-looking color to my face.  The blush itself is finely-milled and contains just a hint of shimmer.  Like most blush, you can control the amount of color — the more you apply, the darker it is.  I find that a quick swipe on the apples of my cheeks is all I need, and lasts about four or five hours. 

The only drawback is the packaging.  When I hold the tiny compact in the palm of my hand, I often get blush overspill into my palm because there’s no extra packaging to catch the overflow the brush creates.  Also, the blush does not come with its own brush.  This didn’t concern me as much (I usually pitch those little brushes anyway), but if you like to take your makeup with you, you’ll need to tote along a blush brush. 

I’m sure the reduced packaging is one of the ways Rimmel is able to keep the price of the product down.  And honestly, the drawbacks are pretty minimal.  I am more than able to deal with them in exchange for a great blush that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Rimmel offers a wide palette of blush colors, and at $3 a pop, you can easily afford to experiment with a couple new shades to find the one that’s perfect for you.

Think of it as getting a handful of new blushes for the price of one.

That’s a good deal, no matter where you live.

Michelle blogs regularly about life and family at her personal blog, Life with Three.