Review: Hard Candy Smooth Talker Blush vs Benefit Sugarbomb

Today I am comparing Hard Candy's Smooth Talker to Benefit's Sugarbomb. There has been a lot of hype about the Hardy Candy Fox in a Box blushes because they look so similar. When I picked up Smooth Talker (on left) I definitely thought it looked like Sugarbomb, no question about it. Both blushes have very similar colours in the mosaic pan, the HC has squares and the Benefit as triangles. I was excited to test it out today and see if they really are dupes.

The packaging is very similar, both products come in cardboard square boxes. On the benefit one the top part comes right off whereas the Benefit is attached (much like the new packaging on Benefit's Bella Bamba blush), I prefer the HC packaging. The HC blush is much lighter in weight, it's important to note that it also has less than half the product, the HC comes with 5.7g (0.20oz) whereas the Benefit comes with 12.0g (0.42oz). The HC retails for about $6 US and the Benefit is $28US on Sephora's website. In Canada, I paid $35 for the Benefit last year at Shoppers Drug Mart and I think $8 for the HC.

Both come with a brush, which I find useless in both cases, the Benefit is much nicer, but mine is untouched, the HC is cute, but I would never use it, it does come attached to the back of the lid though, so it doesn't bother me at all.

Here I have swatched each individual square/triangle on the blushes. The HC is at the top and the Benefit at the bottom. I have matched up the similar colours here. I was surprised to see that the Benefit actually required more work to get swatches, I had to really dig at it and destroy my blush to get any sort of colour payoff, Sugarbomb is really more of a highlighter than blush. The colours show up more true to life in the HC I think, the orange shows up orange, the purple shows up more purple and so on. The dark pink is more pigmented in the Sugarbomb though. The Benefit is more shimmery as well, I had shimmers all over my hand after taking these swatches, the HC is more of a satin finish I would say.

All swirled together here, you see the Sugarbomb is much more pink (because the pink squares are more pigmented) whereas the HC is more peachy. I prefer the colour of the HC to be completely honest with you. I think if you haven't picked up Sugarbomb and want it, don't bother, get the HC Smooth Talker instead! In terms of consistency, I find the Benefit is smoother, but the HC isn't overly powdery.

The only other difference is that Sugarbomb is scented, and the HC just smells like makeup, but you only notice it while you are applying it and I wouldn't pay $20 more just to have a blush smell better personally. I will definitely be picking up more HC blushes, I really want Skinny Dipping (orange two sided one) but haven't been able to find it yet.

Have you picked up Hard Candy's Smooth Talker? What do you think of my comparison?