GH Review: MAC's Briar Rose Beauty Powder

Released as part of the MAC Venemous Villains collection from Fall/Winter 2010, MAC's Briar Rose beauty powder is a beautiful cool-toned blush that's perfect for fair skin.

In the palette it looks like a pink-y violet, but on the skin it does show up as merely being a soft, blue-based pink color.

My one issue with MAC beauty powders has always been that you need to work them up a bit. They don't sit on the skin and they aren't chalky, but you also don't get a good color payoff without really swirling your brush around in the pan first. I'm aware that they're meant to be subtler than blushes, but honestly what else would you really use these for? I'd rather be able to tap my brush and get a good bit of color that I can build up than have to really scrape around with my brush and risk over-doing it.

With that said, Briar Rose is such a pretty color and gives such a China Doll look to pale skin that I'm willing to forgive the small pigmentation issues.

Unfortunately they don't sell this anymore -- at least not in the Maleficent packaging, but from what I've seen, MAC's Well Dressed blush might be the closest dupe to the Briar Rose beauty powder. And since Well Dressed is a blush, you wouldn't deal with the same pigmentation and color payoff issues.

What's your take? Do you know of a better dupe, or have you tried Briar Rose itself?