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cr: 13 August 2024; lu: 21 September 2024 – updated contents image: A promotional image for the Heart Blush Duo by Chu Chu Beauty.

Chu Chu Beauty Heart Blush Duo

an in-depth review of the cutest local powder blush

I’ve seen people regard Chu Chu Beauty’s Heart Blush Duo as the best powder blush in the local Philippine makeup market. The packaging is very cute and attractive, as well as the shades. Many also claim it to be long-lasting. Its main marketing point is that it contains two shades that you can mix to get a third shade.

They have a regular price of 299 PHP (although I think they raised it to 349 PHP recently). I have three shades of the Heart Blush Duo: Pretty Betty, Sweet Missy and Dear Lily.

(left to right: Pretty Betty and Sweet Missy)

Packaging

The packaging is super cute and perhaps the only of its kind among Filipino makeup brands. It’s an adorable little heart compact! Others have a negative opinion on it, saying they’re copying Colourpop, Lilybyred, Too Faced even, but it’s literally just the heart compact they’re copying. Chu Chu Beauty has a really cute and original minimalistic design language and branding in general. Hearts are its primary motif which I really like.

Although, being aesthetically pleasing might be the only good part of the packaging. The compact has a mirror, and I love little compact mirrors but I never used it for touching up. The shape of the mirror when open is an upside down heart which can be a little awkward to use. The compact can open up to around 135° which is pretty good, but I just don’t find using the mirror that pleasant. The thick and embossed bevels may be a contributor to that. It may be also because of the fear of accidentally dropping the blush and shattering it since I’m clumsy.

Another thing about it is that it’s really hard to open which kind of makes it feel cheap. The packaging is pretty but what’s the point if the experience isn’t? What’s worse is though the lock is hard to open, it’s really fragile and tiny. I dropped my Pretty Betty Heart Blush once, and thankfully the blush pan didn’t shatter, but the lock broke off so it can’t hold itself shut anymore. I use rubber bands to keep it closed now.

image: The broken lock on one of my Heart Blush Duo compacts. The lock is very small.

Formula

The blush itself is pretty good.

It’s very pigmented. It may be difficult to control the amount upon application, so it’s good that it blends nice too. I can also vouch for the blush’s longevity. I don’t see much point in bringing the blush compact with me when I’m on the go since the blush stays on well and I don’t need to retouch anything; not that it never fades— it does— but the wear is barely noticeable even if it’s been hours since I’ve put it on. Granted, I have combination skin, meaning the skin on my cheeks are drier than the skin on my T-zone. It stays well on my cheeks, but fades at a significantly faster rate on my oily nose, but overall they last almost the whole day. I’ve done pretty sweaty tasks with this on and was delighted to see it still on my face having only faded slighty.

One bad thing about the formula is that it’s very powdery. I’m very gentle with it when using my brush since it produces a lot of fallout when you swipe. I only dab on it with my brush since a little goes a long way after all.

I think the brunt of the Heart Blush Duo’s popularity comes mainly from its cute packaging (which, as I’ve said previously, isn’t practically impressive) and the shades it comes in.

Shades

The Heart Blush Duo comes in six shades: Miss Dolly, Pretty Betty, Dear Lily, Love Candy, Sweet Missy and Darling Baby.

image: Another promotional image for the Heart Blush Duo by Chu Chu Beauty presenting the first three initial shades. (left to right: Miss Dolly, Dear Lily, Pretty Betty)
Another promotional image for the Heart Blush Duo by Chu Chu Beauty presenting the next three recently released shades. (left to right: Darling Baby, Sweet Missy, Love Candy)

Its shade Miss Dolly went viral for featuring a cool bright pink that’s similar to the trendy pink Dior Glow Blush. Many found it a more affordable and accessible way to hop onto the trend. And definitely, there is no other powder blush in the local market that is as bright of a cool pink as Miss from Miss Dolly. I can’t however speak much on how accurate of a Dior Glow Blush dupe it is.

image: The Heart Blush Duo in the shade Miss Dolly. (shade: Miss Dolly)

There’s much to appreciate with the other shades though. I really like how they have shades that accommodate those with darker skin. The high pigmentedness may be a con for some, but it really allows the blush to have versatility. The shades work well for both dark and fair skin tones since you can control the blush’s opacity.

Many people say Chu Chu Beauty seems to be greatly inspired by K-Beauty and I think it’s true for their Heart Blush Duos. The Duos are marketed for their bonus third shade that you get from mixing the two shades, but in my opinion, it’s not the product’s strongest point regarding its shade availability. Each duo consists of an expanding shade and a contouring shade which I think is the best selling point you could market about these blushes. Realizing this completely changed my opinion from “I love it” to “I really love it”. I think this aspect of the Heart Blushes can be a huge selling point especially for those who like East Asian makeup techniques.

Expanding and contouring blush shades (source ⧉)

The concept of expanding and contouring blush shades are most popular in East Asian makeup.

An expanding shade gives the illusion of expanding the face due to its light color relative to the wearer’s skin tone. A contouring shade gives the illusion of shrinking or slimming down the face due to its dark color relative to the wearer’s skin tone.

image: Pretty Betty and Sweet Missy compacts opened side by side. image: Pretty Betty and Sweet Missy compacts opened side by side with a black and white filter over the picture. Pretty Betty is a lighter pair compared to Sweet Missy in terms of value. (left to right: Pretty Betty and Sweet Missy in black and white to demonstrate each shade's different lightness value.)

The reason why this is barely talked about by PR influencers for Chu Chu Beauty probably comes from the fact that the makeup culture in the Philippines doesn’t really look into these complicated little things when it comes to makeup unlike cultures in Korea and China. Aside the lightness value, the shades aren’t too similar and complement each other well too.

I’ve seen a lot of swatching videos for every shade in types of different lighting and own at least two shades, another thing I want to note is how bright these shades are in terms of chroma or saturation. It appears that Darling Baby is their only muted and nude-y shade. It’s ok considering Filipinos probably don’t care, but the Heart Blush Duos may not be for people who care about their low chroma values (people whose personal color seasons are Autumn or Summer).

I write more about the shades Pretty Betty and Sweet Missy in makeup pouch entries.

Overall thoughts

8/10 – I would recommend it to anyone who wants to splurge on a locally available powder blush. I think the hype for this product is well-earned because the formula and shades are quite good, and despite its practical downsides, the packaging is indeed cute. I'm glad I was able to buy two of them before they raised the price from 299 PHP to 349 PHP. The Heart Blush Duo made me learn to love blush. I never liked putting on blush until I purchased this product. Admittedly, the cute heart-shaped packaging is probably a huge contributor to why.