New Blessing of Sanctuary animation is intended?

A Paladin was going around casting it on people in Ironforge like usual. He hadn't casted it on himself, so I decided to cast Blessing of Freedom on him (because I don't have Sanctuary). You know what I discovered? The Blessing of Freedom animation is slightly lighter. This isn't a lighting issue: it clearly is more white in color.

Combining this with the fact that it was not removed throughout the duration of the 1.6 beta which lasted for 1+ week... The new animation for Sanctuary must be intended. Yikes!