I first found out about this product from my friend Lili and she had the same experience that I did with shade 60 Warm Plum. In Lili’s review, she also tested the shade 30 Warm Coral and had a much better experience. Her review was my basis for trying this product, so if you want more details and to see both of the shades on someone darker than me, please check that out by clicking here.
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The brand uses words like airy and creamy to describe the Melting Color Balms** and I would say they missed the mark for the shade 60 warm plum. I found this formula to be quite dry. It actually feels like you are not getting any product regardless of the tool, but eventually, somehow you do get pigment. From there it is buildable as the brand promises but the darker you are the more work you’ll have to put in to get your desired intensity. Lucky for me, I didn’t feel like I needed to build it much. After I manage to get the product on my brush, I felt like I only needed that one application for one cheek. So I did need to load my brush with the product again for the other cheek. I don’t need to build beyond that one layer to be satisfied with the color. When I build this shade too much, it starts to look like a bruise on my skin tone. So the light, buildable nature of this shade ends up working out for me personally.
Giorgio Armani Melting Color Balm, $38.00**
I want to point out that in the pan, 60 Warm Plum looks darker and cooler in tone than the product images showcase. So if it is possible to check these out in person, that may be the way to go.
The formula of this does dry down to a powder feeling finish. There is no tacky feeling left on the skin, which I like. Giorgio Armani describes the Melting Color Balms** as having a natural matte finish, and I can agree with that. At first impression, it does seem to have a radiant look to it. However, once I stopped wearing it and switched to wearing a radiant blush, I could absolutely tell it is matte.
The formula for this particular shade reminds me a lot of working with the MAC Glow Play Blush in the Shade Groovy. The MAC Glow Play Blush has a radiant finish in contrast to the matte finish of the Armani Color Balm. Another big difference is that the Giorgio Armani Melting Color Balm formula is hard to be precise with finger application. The difficulty in picking up the product makes it hard to know how much you are about to apply. The MAC Glow Play in Groovy does work with fingers, but it can pick up some foundation which I didn’t experience with the Giorgio Armani Color Balm. I prefer to use a brush (Smashbox Cream Cheek Brush**) to apply this blush, it seems to save me from overapplying since as I mentioned, this shade can look like a bruise when overapplied.
This one is hard to say whether or not I would recommend because while I do like it, I think that $38.00 is a lot to pay for this level of quality. However, I know that other shades in the lineup have better formulas than the shade I purchased. Also, if you have a lighter skin tone than mine, you may not even experience as much trouble because this shade won’t really need to be built up. So I don’t know guys. Maybe the best advice is to check this one out in-store for yourselves to see how you feel about the texture.
The Giorgio Armani Neo Nude Melting Color Balm comes in 9 shades and is available at Sephora.**
I think this is the 4th not quite cream, but not quite powder formula that I’ve tried. Maybe it is time to try a more traditional cream blush. Let me know your favorite and why you love it in the comments.
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Nikki From HR 
Even in your photos I can definitely tell the texture looks exactly as my warm plum did. That’s neat that you’re thinking of trying traditional cream blushes! My favorite is of course LYS but I know you don’t like that triangle packaging. I don’t have a huge collection of cream blushes but another that I really like are the ones from Fenty. They look natural on the skin, are available in flattering tones, they aren’t sticky or over pigmented, and blend easily. I’ve also liked all the liquid blushes I’ve tried (Rare Beauty, Glossier, and Flower Beauty Blush Bomb Color Drops).
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I do like the look of Fenty rose latte and summertime wine. I also like the look when I see people using the rare beauty blushes, might have to take a closer look. Thanks for the recommendations!
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No problem! Rose Latte is very nice and natural. And the Rare Beauty blushes (liquid) are super pigmented so a little goes a long way. I hear nice things about Rare Beauty’s cream version in the egg looking compact but also hear that one fades super fast.
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I can’t remember seeing much about the cream version, so that’s good to know. It does seem that people are loving most things from rare beauty.
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I’m curious to hear how Rare Beauty’s new stick bronzers perform! Because I have a weird aversion to most cream products in stick form, I probably won’t get it myself. But I’m curious.
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I‘ve heard some complaints about the shade range, but that was based on swatches. So it’ll be interesting to see how they look when actually worn on the face.
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