a hoarder's blog

This box was waiting for me in the mailbox yesterday. I wasn't expecting it just yet as I wasn't sure of the estimated date of delivery. Coincidentally, I had been thinking of checking the EDD just so that I could update the people who had placed their order with me. Well, looks like there's no need to wait anymore. I'm also glad that the postal person decided to shove the box into my mailbox (it fit just nice!) instead of leaving me a delivery notice that would have required me to collect from the post office. (Btw if you're interested, delivery was estimated to be on Feb 15, that's like 3 weeks in advance. I placed my order on 10 Jan, and it was shipped out on 11 Jan and received on 20 Jan).

Now to the juicy stuff! Inside the package were 5 boxes of Bella Bamba (awesome holographic print), 1 box of Sugarbomb (oops didn't notice it was upside down during photo taking) and a few sales items that I had gotten for myself.

Bella Bamba is the latest to join Benefit's stable of boxed blushers and is described as a 3D brightening watermelon pink face powder laced with shimmering gold undertones. I believe it is currently being launched at Tangs and Sephora, and is retailing at SGD55. We got ours online for around SGD37, so that saves us quite a bit.

For me, it wasn't even a question of not getting it, just a matter of when. As you can see, I have quite a few of them Benefit box o' powder blushers and it would have been impossible not to add this one to my collection.

Bella Bamba (seriously though, I gotta say that I'm not a big fan of the name) is a bit different from the previous box of powders. The box has been redesigned and now comes with a flip-top cover with a magnetic clasp instead of the usual cover that you can remove and place aside. This makes it tons more secure than the removable lid which can just slip off if you're picking the box from the top without holding the bottom part as well. I read from makeupandbeautyblog that the old type of box will be phased out and that the other blushers will soon come in this new type of flip-top packaging.

The lid also contains a mirror, so you can touch up your cheek colour anywhere with the accompanying brush. This time round, the brush sports a rounded shape instead of the usual square one, and appears to be much softer. And omg, did I mention the smell of the blush yet? It smells sooo good. Totally in line with whole watermelon-y pink theme.

temptalia mentioned on her review of Bella Bamba that she was a little disappointed with the size of this new blush as compared to other Benefit blushers. Indeed, Bella Bamba only has 8g of product as compared to thrrrob, coralista, sugarbomb, dallas which have 12g each, hoola and georgia which have 11g each, and 10 and dandelion which have 10g each. They each have a different weight, yet they all cost the same price (USD28). Can't figure that one out.

Here's how the box looks like:

The blush sprinkled with gold

And here's a swatch, really pink and pretty. I tried looking for dupes. Gave up after a while, so I just swatched it against other Benefit blushers.