Building off the hype of their large Zodiac Palettes, BH Cosmetics released website exclusive individual mini zodiac palettes during each month of the year. In 2021, they decided to do that again through birthstone palettes. One unfortunate thing to note is that each palette contains a pressed glitter, which I will not be swatching on my arm or wearing on my eyes.

Sometimes, US customers who purchased the palettes at launch were able to get free shipping as an incentive to pay full price rather than waiting for one of their frequent sales. Ordinarily, shipping is free with purchases at or above $40. For the low price of only $9 USD per palette, having six usable shades was still worth getting in my favorite color stories, plus my own birth month.

BH Cosmetics Emerald Palette

Emerald and Peridot are the two green-centric palettes out of twelve, but I chose this one because these particular tones are more my speed. The shades Emerald and Artsy AF look quite similar on my eyes, but the main differences are that Emerald is a satin-like shimmer that is a slightly brighter green in tone, while Artsy AF has a medium-dark green base with gold and silver shimmer. Restless didn’t swatch very well, but that shadow and Stubborn both blend easily and are opaque on the eyes. They both deepen up slightly, but Restless remains olive whereas Stubborn comes off a little more brown than the red-brown shade appears in the pan. I learned the hard way that Total Package was far too sparkly to look nice as a brow highlighting shade for my tastes, but it makes an excellent inner corner and pinpoint brightening shade. Lastly, Hard Working is a stunning warm brown shimmer shadow. Overall, the quality in this palette is great and I am so impressed by the cohesive color story. I don’t have to worry about clashing shades when I put any combination of them together.

This is a fantastic alternative to the Nars Climax Palette. Emerald has less shades and is warmer in tone whereas Climax is more neutral and a little more subdued. Another alternative is the Oden’s Eye Urd Palette which has shimmers that are even more intensely sparkly than Emerald, as well as a light green matte instead of a closely similar green shimmer. For this reason, I think Urd is an even better planned color story. The listed prices are quite different though at Emerald’s $9, Urd’s $20, and Climax’s $49. The two pricier palettes are a bit more refined in mill and texture, but I had no issues with Emerald whatsoever and it was a pleasure to use, so I’d even be willing to pay $15 for this one.

BH Cosmetics Sapphire Palette

It might have been silly of me to want more purples out of a Sapphire palette, but I saw images of this product online that led me to believe Sympathetic had more of a purple tone to it and that Sapphire was a true purple-blue duochrome rather than a blue satin-shimmer shadow with a blue and purple base. I also expected Confidence to lean a little more green than it does. I went from expecting to love this color selection the most to rating it my least favorite of the three I bought. In hindsight, I should have gone with the Amethyst palette.

These mattes are on the thin side and can look patchy in swatches, but they can be built up to full opacity. In a way, I’m glad to have this formula in these particular shades because sometimes brands going for more pigmented shadows overdo it on the ultramarines and oxides (pure pigments) which are much harder to blend if the ratio is off in the formula. Of the mattes, Organized AF didn’t apply as well on top of the others, so my eye looks weren’t as smoky as I wanted.

Cool is even prettier in person than my swatches and eye looks demonstrate. Although I’m not the biggest fan of silver eyeshadows, Sporty was necessary with this color story. I prefer it over other alternatives they could have chosen such as a baby blue shimmer. After adding some fantastic blues to my collection like the Kaleidos Club Nebula and Oden’s Eye Hummingbird Palettes, Sapphire falls short. It’s still not that bad for the price though, but knowing myself, I doubt I would reach for this again if I felt like doing a blue look.

BH Cosmetics Citrine Palette

I bought this palette purely because November is my birthday month. I’m rarely impressed by bright yellow mattes because they either blend into my skin or find some other way to disappear from my eyes, but I quite like this one! Because Unique is on the thinner side, it can look patchy though and even if I build up the shadow, it still isn’t perfect. Generous and Inquisitive are the tones and depths I was hoping to get out of Transition and Crease from the Natasha Denona Glam Face Palette in Dark. If Inquisitive was the tiniest bit darker, it would be perfect, but it still gives me a decent amount of depth to the outer corner. The two brown mattes are opaque and blend well without much effort.

Determined is a peachy gold that is a bit lighter than I like for a lid shade, but it doesn’t look too bad on the inner corner. Citrine is the shimmer-satin version of Unique. Both Citrine and Dynamic aren’t the prettiest or most exciting shadows, but all the shades (except perhaps Determined) look nice when paired together.

Overall, this palette ranks second of the three because it got me re-inspired to give yellow mattes a chance, as well as yellow eye looks altogether.

That’s all I can think to include in this post. The BH Cosmetics formula has proven yet again to be not just great for the price, but great quality overall.

That’s all for today! If you celebrate Christmas or other holidays during this time, I hope you had a great one! Thank you for reading! See you in the next year!

-Lili ❤