Why Smashbox should be ashamed of O-Glow Blush

Tamara’s Intrigued: Smashbox’s O-Glow gel claims to generate a natural blushing effect by stimulating skin circulation. I’m intrigued, but the thought of intentionally inflaming my cheeks with a foreign substance strikes me as a bit weird. Does this really work?

The Right Brain Blushes:

Let’s take a look, shall we? According to Smashbox: “This revolutionary silicone-based clear gel works on every skin tone and is microcirculating and skin energizing to keep cheeks naturally flushed for hours.” O-Glow does change to a pink color, but not for the reasons Smashbox gives us. We captured our evaluation of this product in the following pictures:

Every picture tells a story

Picture #1 shows that O-Glow is a clear, colorless gel when it comes out of the tube.

In Picture #2 you see that when rubbed on your cheek, it does turn from colorless to a lovely shade of pink. But is a “micro-circulatory effect” really causing the color?

Picture #3 has the answer: the product changes color even when it’s applied to a piece of white paper. Since paper doesn’t have blood vessels, it’s obvious that the effect has nothing to do with the circulatory system.

How does it really work?

So how does it change color? Could it be the Red Dye #27 that’s listed as one of the ingredients? Yep. I’ll spare you the gory chemical details but essentially the red dye is colorless when dissolved in a waterless base. When it comes in contact with moisture, the change in solubility and pH causes the dye to turn bright pink. That moisture can come from your skin, or even just the humidity in the air. So really, this product uses a dye to stain your cheeks just like any other blush.

While we appreciate the clever formulation work required to make a color changing product, we say shame on Smashbox for presenting it in such a misleading way. It’s a cool gimmick, but this product does NOT do what they say it does.

Considering how they’re blatantly lying to us about this blush, Smashbox should be the ones with the red face!