The Summer Fridays lip butter balm has been a beauty staple since its launch in 2020. The brand has now extended the beloved butter balm range, launching six shades of an all-new blush butter balm (£27, Sephora.co.uk).
Championing the same hero ingredient as the lip balms (shea butter), the new cream blushes add hydrating mango seed butter and nourishing illipe butter to help prevent product build-up on dry patches and promote a moisturising effect upon contact.
While blush in its powder format reigned supreme in the noughties (along with powder foundations, and the now-maligned powder lips), the past five years have seen lots of new cream blushes, from Rare Beauty’s soft pinch blush (£22, Spacenk.com) to Rhode’s pocket blush (£24, Rhodeskin.com). Where powder make-up can sink into fine lines and wrinkles, creams are more hydrating. Cream formulas are often easier to blend and, for those on a budget, can be applied with your fingers, bypassing the need for expensive make-up brushes.
That all sounds great, but we wanted to see if the butter balm blushes could match the hype around the lip butter balm. Scroll on to browse how the formulas fared across our four testers.
How we tested
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Splitting the six shades across four testers (two each, with a couple of crossovers), we applied the Summer Fridays blush butter balms to our cheeks, foreheads and chins for a sweep of all-over warmth. With fair and darker skin tones among us, we were able to establish how the formulas performed on a variety of complexions and note differences across skin type, too. We each wore the blushes for a full day, making note of the following criteria:
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Lucy Smith is The Independent’s beauty writer and has more than five years of experience product reviewing, including covering dupes for the Rare Beauty stay vulnerable melting blush and make-up brush sets for all things blush, bronzer and eyeshadow application.
Sabrina Sahota is IndyBest’s consumer editor and has been testing products since 2018. She’s well-versed in new beauty and effective formulas, having reviewed the latest Clinique nude honey formula and compared the Charlotte Tilbury and Urban Decay setting sprays.
Emilie Lavinia is our fitness and wellbeing editor and has written for numerous established publications across skincare, make-up and more. She’s frequently speaking with experts about the best ingredients for good skin and has covered a lot of the overlap between wellness and beauty, such as the recent buzz around neurocosmetics.
Lastly, Vanese Maddix has been testing for the team since 2020, reviewing everything from the Made By Mitchell range (including the curve case blush) to TikTok’s favourite Youthforia and Espressoh blushes.
Summer Fridays blush butter balm
Key ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, ceramides, mango butter, shea butter, illipe butter
Skin type: All, but those with oily skin types should apply with caution and add setting powder
Shades: Soft strawberry, pink sunset, sweet rose, toasted terracotta, dusty rose, berry spritz
Cruelty-free and vegan: Yes, both
Why we love it
- Effortlessly blends
- Doesn't budge make-up beneath
- A little goes a long way
- Gives a natural glow
Take note
- Some patchiness on oilier skin types
- Packaging can become scuffed
- Easy to apply too much
Lucy Smith
On paper, the new Summer Fridays blush butter balms are a perfect fit for normal to dry skin. This is thanks to their butter-based formulas with fatty acids and ceramides. As someone with oily skin with plenty of shine, I was nervous that the combination of moisturisers might leave the pigment sliding down my cheeks as the hours passed – something which I experienced with the Merit flush balm (£26, Sephora.co.uk). Thankfully, this wasn’t the case. When testing the pink sunset (above) and dusty rose (below) shades, I was floored by the sheer ease of application across both hues.
Butter is the appropriate term here, and these blushes were oh-so-silky, diffusing onto my skin as if airbrushed into place. The pink sunset gave my cheekbones a ‘just pinched’ pop of colour. In this shade, I had to return to the palette several times to achieve the desired pigment, whereas the dusty rose tint didn’t warrant as many passes. The rose tint is close to the colour my skin blushes, making for a natural, warm-weather glow.
Both shades felt weightless on my skin, and the finish remained constant after topping with setting spray. As the hours wore on, I noticed some patchiness atop my cheeks and could feel a sheen of excess oil in this area around 2-3pm. As predicted, this is down to the blush’s more occlusive ingredients, specifically the illipe butter. While it remains non-comedogenic, it may not work for oilier skin. The blush didn’t melt off my face entirely, but I’d exercise some caution and apply a second layer of translucent setting powder if using again.
Sabrina Sahota
Cream blush is a staple in my routine, so I was excited to see if the Summer Fridays blush balms would earn a place in my make-up bag. The formula is almost mousse-like, which makes application and blending a breeze. It packs a punch, so you don’t need to be heavy-handed when applying – a couple of light taps with my brush was enough to cover both cheeks. As they’re so creamy, they don’t last the whole day, so I’d recommend following up with a powder blush to set them in place.
I tested the shade toasted terracotta, which has a beautiful mix of pink and brown tones, and is really wearable for summer. It has the warmth of a bronzer and the pop of colour that you’d get from a blush, making it the perfect all-in-one shade from Summer Fridays. Next, I tried berry spritz, which is more of a deep purple. It looks like it’d have intense colour pay-off, but the final result is a gorgeous natural flush, which felt very flattering on my warm skin tone.
Emilie Lavinia
Both the soft strawberry and sweet rosé colours are great for pale skin, and both tones proved great for redheads.However, a little goes a long way, so beware blush blindness.
The texture was smooth and creamy with no clumping, and blended well over tinted moisturiser. It would be a great option for more mature skin with its hydrating properties, versus powder that can sit in and clump around smile lines. Speaking of hydration, the shea butter and mango seed butter add some moisture (and a little stickiness) but lend the finished result a nice sheen.
The synthetic waxes and polymers that contribute to that lovely glide might also clog pores, so be mindful of this if your skin is oily or prone to breakouts. It was excellent for dry skin like mine, and easy to apply with your fingers, so great for festivals, holidays, or whenever you’re on the go.
There are no fragrances or anything that might irritate your skin, and the formula is vegan and cruelty-free, so I’m definitely adding it to my make-up bag.
Vanese Maddix
Blushes are one of my top two desert island beauty products; I love the flush of colour they bring to the cheeks and how versatile they can be, whether used on the lips, cheeks or eyes.
As a big fan of Summer Fridays' current product offering, especially the Lip Butter Balms, I jumped at the chance to put the lip butter-inspired Blush Butter Balms to the test. I tried the shades Berry Spritz (a neutral berry) and Toasted Terracotta (a warm rose), and it’s safe to say it was love at first swipe.
Right off the bat, I was impressed by just how buttery and blendable the formula is. It melted into my skin, adding the perfect pop of colour to my cheeks. In terms of application, when I say a little goes a long way, I mean it. A light swipe of the brush gave me more than enough product.
The formula is packed with a trio of butters (shea, mango seed and illipe) for an ultra-creamy, hydrating texture, along with hyaluronic acid and ceramides. If you’re looking for a formula that offers a standout pop of colour with skin benefits, this launch is for you.
What surprised me most was just how much of a glow this blush provides. As someone who usually reaches for a highlighter, I haven’t had to apply any. The lit-from-within glow this blush gives has been more than enough. I tested both shades from 8am to 8pm with zero signs of fading, and my cheeks looked just as fresh as when first applied.
At £27, it’s definitely on the pricier side for a blush, but with skin benefits, long-wear time and flattering shades for every skin tone, I’d say it’s worth it.
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Buy now £27.00, Sephora.co.uk
The verdict: Summer Fridays blush butter balm
After testing across four different complexions and skin types from dry to oily, our reviewers were largely impressed with Summer Fridays’ latest pivot into the blush sphere.
Lucy loved how beginner-friendly the blush butter balm was to blend across her cheekbones, but had some teething problems regarding the formula’s suitability for oily skin – something she felt would be fixable with an extra sweep of setting powder. Sabrina praised how the berry spritz hue suited her warm skin tone and, likewise, found the toasted terracotta shade a great all-rounder.
Emilie enjoyed how easy it was to tap on with her fingers and found that the rosier tones worked well for redheads. Like other testers, Vanese found that little goes a long way, but loved that the deeper tones brought a glow that was almost like a highlighter.
All in all, the brand has done a stellar job of reimagining its lip butter balm as a blush. Just beware of blush blindness, because it’s easy to get carried away with this formula.
Need more blush recommendations? Check out our tests of the best cream blushes
