Review: Benefit Sugarbomb

This is my first foray into Benefit powders. I've heard both good things and bad things about them, and I have been wanting to try the luminizing ones (such as Dandelion or Georgia) out for a while. However, when Sugarbomb came out, I thought I'd try it for review purposes so that people could read a review about a new product. Everyone's written about Dandelion and Georgia, so I'll save these two for another time.

First of all, the packaging. It's sleek, it's small. I like it well enough, but it's not outstanding. It seems durable and it's very portable AND it packs tons of products in. In fact, you may have to work with it a bit with a brush before it'll show up. Speaking of brushes, I am not a huge fan of this one. It's streaky and kind of rough.

The product itself is filed into the bronzer category on Sephora, which I think is inaccurate. On my NC35 skin, it does more like what Dior's Diamond powders do (such as Rose Diamond). It's an even more finely milled powder than the Dior, and shows up as this amazing pink/peach highlighter. On my skin it shows up as the barest peach-pink, but it lends such a soft and pretty glow. I think it's really good for people with my skin tone or lighter as a natural my-face-but-better day make up as a bare hint of blush. Otherwise it's good as a lightly shimmering all over powder/highlighter, or as a way to diffuse your blush and blend out your blush and give your skin a healthy glow.

Comparing this to Dior's Diamond powders or Bobbi Brown's Shimmer Bricks... I think this is the best of them all. Seriously. I'm not a die hard fan of shimmering powders, since I have pretty big pores and they really accentuate pores, but this is the most finely milled shimmer I've seen in a while, beating even Dior's powders for a subtle and soft glow rather than a disco-ball face. I love it!

I would use this with a kabuki brush or with a fluffy but dense bronzer or blush brush (ie. MAC 169 or Bobbi Brown's bronzer brush). Review of all of the above brushes here.

To sum it up...

The Pros:
- Amazing glow. I've gotten compliments!
- Is buildable to being a light blush on light-to-medium skintones.
- Portable packaging, lots of product packed in for the price.
- Very finely milled.
- This is a pretty universal shade, I think.

The Cons:
- The brush is useless to me.
- Can be considered too sheer for many people, including me for a blush.

The final verdict: A-
Great product, but I would probably like Benefit's actual blush powders instead of just these sheer powders better. I have several highlighting powders. Good value for price. Get it if you are looking for a great highligher or all over powder that's subtle and pink.