Gyaru on a Budget - Candydoll Strawberry Pink dupe?

Hey, Beauties!

I adore the Gyaru style, in all its incarnations, but I have neither the time or the extra money to maintain such an intricate fashion. The cult 'gyaru' products, such as Candy Doll and Dolly Wink (both designed by top Gyaru model, Tsubasa Masuwaka), can get pretty expensive outside of Japan and when you have a family in this economy... well you get the picture. That's why I decided to do a series on cheaper and more easily accessible alternatives to these popular products. And here is the first Gyaru on a Budget post - Candy Pink blush!



This is my favourite colour in the Candy Doll Cheek Color line, Strawberry Pink.

Pic from Pinky Paradise.

It looks extremely pigmented in the pan, but from the review on A little bit of eki (click the link for pics) it imparts a soft, dewy baby pink colour on the cheeks which is buildable. I love this soft baby pink colour, it looks so feminine and cute. 

While I would absolutely love to own this prepackaged cuteness personified, the cheapest I have found it is $19.95+s&h at Pinky Paradise. This is a great store with lots of hard to find asian beauty items, so if you can afford to spend a little more to get the real deal, I would recommend them! For myself, I wanted a similar look without the heftier price tag so I set about researching online for a drugstore brand blush in the same colour.

You have NO idea how hard it is to find a candy pink blush in this country!! I mean, come on... who doesn't want softly glowing baby pink cheeks? Most of the pink blush that I found was a more neutral beige-y pink.

I finally found the Boots No7 Natural Blush Cheek Colour in Candy Pink online at Target.com for $8.99.

In natural light;

With flash;

You can see the shimmer in the flash picture.

Now in the pan they look quite different, the Candy Doll blush looks like a hot pink whereas the Boots No7 is a more muted, soft pink. However, from looking at these swatches of the Candy Doll -Strawberry Pink, they look very similar on the skin.

In natural light;

With flash;

The Boots No7 blush is a gorgeous shade of cool baby pink with a slight shimmer. It has a pretty nice formula, it is smooth and blends easily with a brush. It is a little difficult to blend using fingers, I found that it would stick and look blotchy. It has enough pigmentation that you are able to build up the color from a natural pink flush, to a more vibrant pop of pink.

Unfortunately I don't have the Candy Doll Cheek Color in Strawberry Pink to do a proper comparison, but I really do think Boots No7 Candy Pink is a decent dupe. For $8.99 it's definitely a good substitute until I can justify buying the original. I will be doing a FOTD with this very soon!

What do you think? Is it close enough to make do? Or do you prefer to only buy the real thing?

Ishah xx