Author Archives: ghekate

MAC Black Panther, Holiday ’22, and More

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We’ve got ourselves another MAC Cosmetics post! These are the products from MAC that I purchased during the final few months of 2022. I’ll begin with the two item types I haven’t purchased or reviewed from MAC before, but the blushes and highlighters are formulas I’m very familiar with and will probably not have much new to add. For those interested in my previous MAC posts, the list with links can be found on this index page here.

Additional MAC Items

MAC Glow Play Lip Balm in Floral Coral

This is one of a few items I redeemed as a free birthday gift from MAC’s Reward Program. It’s a sheer product in a soft formula. The top layer of the bullet instantly melts when it touches my lips. If I apply the amount of balm to my lips based on how it feels, I get almost no color. I can build it up to show a pink tinge, but the amount I need to apply for that leaves my lips feeling excessively wet in a way that isn’t quite greasy or oily, but it’s a similar enough sensation that is uncomfortable for me. After I wear it for a short time, it gives me the feeling of dripping around the edges and a strong urge to wipe it off.

For this reason, I haven’t been using this beyond the handful of times I wore it to test it out. And even though it feels moisturizing, my lips aren’t actually being conditioned. The moisture lasts a few hours before I feel like I need to reapply, even if there’s still some balm left on my lips.
If I want to wear a slightly colorful balm for a short time, like in photos, this is fine. If I want a balm that’s actually lip conditioning and having color isn’t a necessity, I’d reach for plenty of other balms instead. So, I don’t really recommend this. According to a sneak peek I saw on IG, MAC might be releasing a Valentine collection of new and/or existing shades of Glow Play Lip Balms and other lipsticks. I won’t be purchasing them.

MAC Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation in NC47

This was a Black Friday purchase when MAC had 40% off complexion. The pump for this foundation is sold separately, and unfortunately was full price. I wish the package with the pump came with an extra cap that could fit over the foundation instead of the little dispenser cover piece because I always lose tiny parts to makeup and skincare (like the little spoons to scoop out products in jars).

With “fluid” in the name, I expected this foundation to be watery like the Uoma Beauty Say What Foundation or Kosas Tinted Face Oil, but it’s more viscous than those while still managing to feel lightweight on the skin. MAC describes it as being a, “buildable, medium to full coverage [foundation] in a natural matte finish.” While I agree with the buildable claim, the amount I would normally pump out and blend in with my Blendiful gives me light coverage, and I have to use quite a bit more product in order to get a solid medium. I can technically build it up to nearly full, but I have to focus on targeting my areas of discoloration specifically, and at that point it can look a little mask-like since it’s not my absolute perfect shade. So, I keep it at a nice medium and use concealer in the areas I need more coverage.

Additional photos of me wearing this foundation, under a different lighting situation (using my ring light), is in the highlighter section.

When I wore it the first time, I thought it was a pretty good color match, but upon subsequent usage and building it up to medium-full coverage, I realized it’s about a half a shade off in depth and it’s my correct undertone family but not perfect. The fact that I can wear it at all is quite surprising because I remember a time when I tried a sample of NC47 and it was too light for me, but the next shade NC50 was way too dark. I figured the hypothetical NC48 shade (if it existed) would be my perfect shade, but apparently NC47 can work for me in winter. Since I plan on wearing this at medium coverage level, it’s good enough of a match for me to keep it in rotation.

I do like the natural-matte finish of the foundation. It’s supposed to be sweat and humidity resistant, but I challenge that as well, since I managed to look sweaty on a day that was only 75 degrees Fahrenheit outside (and even colder in the house) when all I was doing was taking blog photos and rearranging my makeup drawers in the span of under two hours. It makes me wonder how this will look on me in the summertime when it’s between 85-98 degrees.
After I noticed how it was looking, I powdered my face (I initially skipped that step) and that helped to take away the extra shine. The other days I wore it were not hot days and I wasn’t doing anything that would make me produce sweat, so my face remained looking matte even without powder. So, I’m not sure what to make of those results. I will say that I love the fact that this sets on me to the point of being dry to the touch without a trace of wetness/creaminess and no transfer on my fingers that I can see. I love my natural and dewy foundations, but those usually come at the price of various levels of being transferable. I’ve had to train myself to just not touch my face and to be careful when switching outfits and hugging people. It’s actually a relief to have a foundation with some coverage again that I don’t have to be so careful with. I just wish they had my full on perfect shade in depth and undertone.

This is a pretty nice foundation. I like it, but I still prefer my Rose Inc and Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra. I can also think of past Nars Foundations and the original Makeup Up For Ever HD and Ultra HD that I preferred as well when I owned them. I haven’t been using this very long, and normally I don’t review a foundation until I’ve worn it at least 10 times, so there’s still room for my opinion to change. If that happens, I will try to remember to update this post.

My Latest MAC Highlighters

I make it a point now to try and make my MAC purchases via Selfridges because of the price difference being in favor of USD, or from MAC’s website when they have a sale of 30% off or higher. However, it was only the MAC Indulgent Glow Face Kits that came to Selfridges, so I had to purchase the others elsewhere. Of course, I could have waited until a potential sale for the collaboration items, but I didn’t want to take the chance of them selling out, so I purchased the Black Panther Royal Challenge and Whitney Houston ones at launch. I did at least get 20% off on Black Panther’s Royal Vibrancy when I bought that one from Ulta. At the time I’m posting this, the Black Panther Collection is on a deeper discount on MAC’s website, along with last year’s holiday items.

For those who may be curious, in all four highlighter photos I’m wearing the MAC foundation in NC47, The Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta (newest shade addition to the line that came out after my review), and the Pat Mcgrath Divine Rose III blush.

MAC Indulgent Glow Face Kit/Set in Sparkling Wine

These kits came in two versions: Sparkling Wine and Rosé. I was impressed by the presentation of the box in a beautiful creamy light pink color and with a raised pattern on the surface.

The bag the items come in is quite cute. I haven’t found a purpose for it yet, but it’s a nice “free” addition considering MAC Extra Dimension Highlighters have risen in price to $40 (or $44 for collaboration versions). This set being $44 normally, means the bag and brush that come with it are essentially free. I paid $35 for it from Selfridges, so the deal was even better.

I didn’t have high expectations for this brush, but it actually surprised me!
The more deeply shaped and intricate the embossed pans are from MAC, the harder it will have been pressed. That makes the top layer a bit tougher to pick up product from when using softer bristle brushes. This one feels soft, but the strands themselves are strong enough to really dig into the highlighter while still dispersing the product softly across the skin. Rather than following the direction of the brush, I swirled it roughly in the pan in a circular motion to get the most product pickup with the least effort.
I’ve used this brush enough times that it softened the surface of Sparkling Wine, so I can now pick up the product with my natural hair brushes. Prior to that top layer being broken into, it was extremely difficult.

I’ve also used this brush to apply blush and bronzer in a sweeping motion and it’s pretty good with those as well!

The highlighter embossing encapsulates the “Bubbles and Bows” theme MAC chose for holiday 2022.
MAC Highlighters tend to be smooth to the touch, but even when I rub my finger across the smoother part of the bow, it feels slightly rough and dry. However, it has such a healthy glowy sheen with a few twinkling sparkles that are just enough for me to feel like this is a festive highlighter I would want to wear to a holiday event, and not enough to be considered glittery. This contains medium size sparkles instead of large ones, which is probably why I actually find them to be quite pretty and wearable.

Ever since Fenty’s Trophy Wife highlighter came into being, I have feared pigmented deep yellow highlighters because of how terrible they look on me. So, I was afraid this one might be too yellow because of the way it looks in the pan, but then my fear switched to worrying it might be too light after seeing the swatch. However, on the face, it looks so pretty to me! Sparkling Wine has a semi-transparent base with just a hint of a yellow tinge to it. The color that peeks through blends with the undertone of my skin while not being pigmented enough to cause a stripe with the low amount of product I apply to my face. It also balances out the pearly looking particles within the highlighter. It looks lighter than Royal Challenge in swatches because the color of the inside of my arm is lighter than my face, but on my cheeks, the fact that Royal Challenge has a more pigmented and lighter base color gives it the lighter appearance, whereas Sparkling Wine’s slightly tinted base allows my darker cheekbone color to show underneath which makes it look darker than Royal Challenge overall. I really like this! As the embossing starts to wear down, I know I’m going to struggle with that part of me that doesn’t want to ruin it versus the side that wants to make sure I get good use out of the products I own. However, this embossing is lingering quite well so far, so I guess I have a ways to go before I need to start worrying!

MAC x Whitney Houston Extra Diminision Skinfinish in Just Whitney

This is another highlighter that was hard-pressed in a way that just affected the very topmost layer and is now getting easier to use as the print is fading. And, once again, I’m reaching the point where I want to keep it intact, but want to be able to wear it. This is slightly smoother and less drying feeling than Sparkling Wine. It’s certainly closer to the kind of deep golden highlighter shades I tend to prefer to wear. Just like all my other highlighters from the brand, this lasts all day and remains shiny without losing its reflectivity as the day goes on. It’s a solid product, but because it’s the most common type of color in my collection, I instinctively compare it to everything else I own, and then it doesn’t seem quite worth the $44 price tag. If the highlighter was in standard packaging, I believe it should be within the $28-$35 range. Because of the collaboration with such a powerhouse of an icon (or at least Whitney’s Estate on her behalf), the pretty limited edition packaging, and the highlighter embossing, the special factor is there. So, I don’t mind it being the price I paid, but I’m just not sure this particular color being added to my collection would be worth it otherwise. For anyone else though, I would recommend it with the acknowledgement that it could be considered a bit overpriced.

MAC x Black Panther Extra Dimension Skinfinishes in Royal Challenge and Royal Vibrancy

I still haven’t watched the Black Panther sequel, but I loved the first one, so I felt an inward obligation to purchase at least one thing from the collection. I tried to purchase the Black Panther Cosmetic Bag, but that was an utter mess. Even though I purchased it at 2am EST (I assume it launched at midnight), my order ended up canceled due to being “sold out,” but they didn’t cancel it until three weeks later after it was sold out at other retailers too. The most irritating part is that I called them about nine days in to ask them about the fact that they priced it at $35 whereas everywhere else had it for $25 and then they later changed the price to $25, but I hadn’t been reimbursed. That call, had the bags truly been out of stock, would have been the prime moment for them to let me know there weren’t any left and to cancel my order so I could have time to buy it somewhere else. However, they didn’t do that, so I don’t believe their statement to me about the bag being out of stock since the launch day, yet it somehow took weeks until it read “sold out” on the website.

Anyway, these two shades are gorgeous, but a better combination for me is to have Royal Challenge on the bottom and a little bit of Royal Vibrancy added on top. That way, I can get some of that darker shimmer without the dark cast when I turn my head at certain angles. In photos, Royal Vibrancy looks perfect for me, but I’ve been unsuccessful in capturing the dark cast I’m referring to from it being a little too deep bronze-red for me.

The texture feels soft and smooth. It’s softer than the others, but it’s also not as hard pressed because the embossing isn’t as detailed/intricate. Also, it’s lasting me quite a while. I forgot to take a photo of Royal Vibrancy prior to being used (or at least I lost the photos of it if I took them) so the picture I included above shows it after about eight uses and it looks nearly untouched! Granted, I was swiping highlighter across the entire pan and not just zeroing in on one specific spot in order to keep it looking even.

At the same time that I purchased these two, I also bought the Tom Ford Shade Illuminate Highlighting Duo in Tanlight that reminded me of a combination of those shades. However, in swatching them together, I see that the tones are slightly different. The lighter shade in Tanlight is more flattering on me than Royal Challenge and the deeper shade is not as dark, and therefore works on its own for me better than Royal Vibrancy. Most of the time I just mix the two Tanlight shades together for a highlighter shade I love a lot and it’s in an even smoother finish than the ones from MAC. Considering I paid around the same price for Tanlight (it was slightly discounted at Nordstrom) as the two MAC highlighters combined, it’s funny that the Tom Ford one was the better purchase for me. However, I also bought these as Black Panther/Wakanda Forever merchandise, so I don’t regret it.

While I could have waited for these highlighters to go on a deeper discount, I like the franchise and didn’t want to chance missing out. So, for me, these were worth having. I think I will stop using Royal Vibrancy though, in order to keep one looking pristine, and just start using Royal Challenge mixed with a different darker highlighter, such as the R.E.M. Interstellar Highlight in Miss Mars.

My Latest MAC Blushes

I currently have 35 MAC blushes in my collection (this number fluctuates as I get rid of some and purchase others) which is by far the most blushes I own from a single brand. Despite having so many, I can’t help but remain interested in them because MAC makes some of my favorite finishes, plus they’re pigmented, and are very long wearing. These four I’m discussing today are the remaining few that hadn’t been reviewed yet on this blog.

MAC Glow Play Blushes in Just Peachy and Groovy

That’s Peachy was the other free birthday item I chose. Based on how it looks, I thought there was no way it would show up on my skin. However, I felt the same way about Peaches ‘N’ Dreams, which ended up working on me too, so I tried it on a whim and was floored! Granted, I have to build it up a ton to get a flush of peach, but it still works and I think it’s beautiful!

Groovy looks like a deep coral-orange on me, and thankfully not a pure orange. As much as I love Heat Index, which was previously my favorite shade, Groovy dethroned it after just once use. I avoided getting this color for a long time because Nikki and a few others mentioned the formula difference in Groovy compared to the other Glow Play Blushes. It’s been a few years now since the Glow Plays launched (January 2020), so I think the original disappointing batch of Groovy are no longer being sold. Or at the very least, I was lucky and got one with the same texture as the others. I was more willing to chance it because I waited for a 40% off sale on blushes.

The Glow Play line remains one of my favorites from MAC and in general because they have the softness and sheen of a cream/putty with the benefit of drying down. They’re buildable and blend right into the skin. It’s a really gorgeous product that I highly recommend trying for those who haven’t.

Because there are such subtle differences among the shades I own, I figured it would be helpful to show the ones I own all together and in swatches.

And for those who like limited edition packaging, MAC currently has the shades Heat Index and So Natural in their Lunar New Year 2023 packaging for their “New Year Shine” collection.

MAC Mineralize Blush in Hey, Coral, Hey…

I included a picture of how the blush looks on my finger, plus a swatch that isn’t fully blended, to demonstrate my issue with this particular Mineralize Blush. The deep reddish-coral pigment is gorgeous and is a tone that looks pretty and suitable for me when I pick it up, but it’s got a light base powder that when blended lightens the shade overall and turns it ashy on my skin. This is even evident looking at the surface of the blush itself between the darker and lighter patches. It’s not super ashy, but just enough on the cusp to make me not want to wear it.

I’ve had issues with most of the Mineralize Blush shades I’ve tried in the past (and said it looked too matte and dry and lighter on my skin than it looks in the compact), and now I’m starting to wonder if the base color in this particular line of blushes from MAC is the reason most don’t work for me. Love Thing and Flirting with Danger are currently the only two that I’ve liked and don’t look ashy on me because the pigment is deeper than I’d normally wear, but is more toned down and lighter when blended on my actual cheeks. It’s unfortunate that it took me buying six of them to finally realize why some shades of Mineralize Blushes work for me, yet others don’t. But, I’m happy that now I know that if MAC creates more colors in this formula, it’ll be safe for me to get them as long as they are the deepest ones (and deeper colors than I normally go for). Any of the colors that look medium-dark or lighter in the compacts just won’t work for my skin tone.

Hey, Coral, Hey… isn’t staying in my collection, but I still recommend the Mineralize Blush line overall, as long as it’s well established to be careful selecting the right colors if you have a dark/deep skin tone. The two shades that work for me are in my top favorites, not just among MAC blushes but among my blush collection as a whole.

MAC x Stranger Things Powder Blush in He Likes It Cold

This color makes me think of MAC’s Flirting with Danger and Frankly Scarlet blush shades. I’ve tried several times to capture the variations in undertone, but they barely show a difference on my skin tone. I retook the photos again, but had to do brush swatches because my older powder blushes from MAC really don’t like to be finger swatched anymore. Nikki, who I’ve mentioned several times here, did a clear comparison of those three shades that can be found here on her blog for those interested, as well as a ton of other MAC content and more. Essentially, the undertone of those shades are going to make a bigger difference if you’re lighter than me (and then perhaps on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re much deeper).

I tried my hardest to skip buying this blush because I had similar enough shades to it, but I think I ended up paying $15 for it when it went on sale, so I couldn’t resist. This release celebrates Stranger Things Season 4, but I only watched seasons 1-3, so I don’t understand the “He Likes it Cold” reference (but it sounds creepy). It’s a pretty color, applies smoothly (even smoother than MAC’s older matte powder formula), and performs as fantastically as I expect from a MAC blush, so I’m happy I bought it. I just caution using a light hand with this particular shade.

That’s everything for today! I’m on another year long low-buy, so I would love to say it will be a long time before I do another MAC post, but that feels unrealistic as it’s one of the brands I purchase from the most. It can be expected that additional new releases from MAC will be reviewed here at some point, if not at launch, then perhaps after a big sale.

Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Disclaimer: Other than free birthday gift items everyone who joins MAC’s free reward program is entitled to (I can’t recall if you need to be a certain tier for it though), I purchased all the other items with my own money. I am not affiliated with the brand. There are no affiliate links in this specific post.

Reviewing Coloured Raine After a Two Year Break

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From 2018 until 2020, Coloured Raine used to be my number one favorite brand for non-multichrome eyeshadows. What made me take a long break from buying their palettes was them discontinuing their eyeshadows to go full vegan.
I’ve had issues with some vegan formulas blending away to nothing, or being too hard to blend, and being patchy. Some of the ones that did perform decently didn’t have an acceptable preservation method (tying in with the “clean beauty” anti-parabens movement), so I’d get hardly a year before the performance of the shadows changed and/or went bad.
So, I was already skeptical about whether or not Coloured Raine’s new vegan formula could measure up to their old one. When they released their Juicy Boost Collection in August 2020, the reviews I watched with the demos were terrible! That was enough for me to want to steer clear of their eyeshadows until their 2022 Memorial Day sale in May. I figured that should be enough time for the brand to fix whatever formula issues they had, so I decided to give them another chance.

The formulas, textures, and how the makeup performs turned out to be different depending on the collection. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing my observations and experiences with these products. Just keep reading to find out which items I loved and which ones I should have avoided!

Coloured Raine Cream Blushes in Spicy (Original), Stiletto Rose and Copper Rose (Botanical Collection)

The first thing to know about these blushes is that despite them all sharing the description of “cream blush,” the original four that launched, which includes Spicy, are completely different from the two blushes from the Botanical Collection. The ingredient lists are different, along with the textures and pigmentation. The container of the originals are larger than the Botanical Blushes too!

Spicy has a waxy consistency that’s so tacky it lifts up when touched. It’s thicker and more opaque. Picking up a little is still too much, so I put it on the back of my hand and warm up a small section first before applying it to my cheeks with that finger in tapping motions and then a final light sweep of the finger across the cheeks to ensure it’s fully smoothe. A little product comes off underneath, but it’s so pigmented that it will cover up the missing spot anyway. A brush will pick up way too much, but it’s still possible to use by putting it on the back of the hand or a makeup palette first (or even tapping the excess off on a towel) to get a lighter even layer across the bristles before applying it to the cheeks. I still prefer fingers because I have more control that way and can also warm up the product.

The Botanical Blushes have a higher concentration of slip agents (various silicones) that feel a little more gel-like, but still like a softer wax once the heat of a finger melts that top layer. I keep my finger on top of a spot for several seconds before I start to rub to pick up the blush onto my finger and tap it onto the cheeks. It looks like it will be just as pigmented as the original line of blushes, but when blended, it sheers out a fair amount. So, it takes a few light layers to build up to my satisfaction. This product also lifts what’s underneath, but it still looks fine to me as a veil of color. In the spots with discoloration that lifts, I put concealer back on top of the discolored spot and pack a little more blush on top, and those additional layers help it to stay.
I can use a brush with these, but it doesn’t pick up as much product without warmth.

These blushes remain creamy on the face. If I’m wearing something like the Rose Inc Luminous Foundation Serum, that wetter products tend to set well on top of, and apply the Botanical blushes in a thin layer with a brush, it can mostly set down. However, for the amount of pigmentation I want that isn’t just a flush, it’s going to remain creamy feeling on the skin unless I set it with powder. Spicy will absolutely not set on its own, plus easily transfers, so I only wear it powder-set. Setting all three of them with powder only temporarily makes them feel dry but at least does take down the creaminess enough that it won’t feel sticky or tacky. Powder-setting also makes the Botanical Blushes more transfer-resistant, but when it comes to Spicy it will definitely still transfer when touched, just a little less. Setting with powder has the final benefit of toning down the intensity level of Spicy, and even Stiletto Rose if I go overboard with that color.

These blushes will last all day, even without powder, as long as they aren’t touched. However, it’s just my preference to set them with powder, especially with a powder blush on top to add some nuance to the shades.

The photos above demonstrate the blushes with different foundations and at different times of the year. The middle three with the dark blue shirt were under the lighting conditions of my ring light. The others were with indoor lighting and some natural light coming in from behind the window blinds.

Had I completed this review three months ago, I’d have said, “These blushes require a little more effort, but are nice enough that I may still reach for them from time to time.” However, I’ve been going through my cream and liquid blush collection a lot more lately, and in comparison, these rank so low on the list. They still aren’t bad products, but I have so many options that don’t pick up product underneath, don’t require warmth or having to baby the formula, or do any other extra steps. Plus, my other blushes are in far more interesting colors. I’ve realized that I don’t like standard crayola type of blush colors like a pure orange, pure red, or pure pink. I love reddish browns, terracottas, pinky-orange corals, pinkish-browns, etc. Those type of colors look more natural on me. I expected Spicy to be a reddish orange with some brown, but it’s actually a slightly yellow leaning orange that may as well just be “orange.” Copper Rose sounded like it would be a fun copper-pink, but most of its warmth just comes from being picked up and mixed with my foundation and concealer while being blended on my cheeks. It’s not a very unique pink by itself. Stiletto Rose is a very common rosy red, although it’s the prettiest to me of them all.
I always wore a combination of Stiletto Rose and Copper Rose (on the apples) together anyway, which is why I initially had a better impression of those blushes. However, if I view these as individual products, they’re not something I want in my collection anymore.

Coloured Raine Lip Liners in Pine (Secret Garden), The Bee’s Knees (Queen Bee), and Decadent (Botanical)

It was very difficult to tell the differences among the selection of lip liner shades on the website. I now realize it’s because the ones I wanted are so incredibly similar! Pine was the first one from Coloured Raine I tried and later bought a backup of because it’s the first shade I ever found that I can actually cover my full lip-line with and have it look normal. I have a very thick and pronounced lip line (Vermilion border) that is way lighter than my lips and surrounding mouth color. So, when I have used lip liners on my actual lip line (and not just the edge between the lip and lip line), it always emphasized that thickness and looked like I attempted to overline my lips because it sticks out, even when it’s still within the lines. The color is described as a “spiced brown” and I consider it like a caramel-pink-brown.

The Bee’s Knees is described as a “brick” color, but it looks more like a neutral brown to me on my arm. In fact, I looked at the website photos again comparing the other shade in the Queen Bee collection and The Buzz is supposed to be the neutral brown. I almost wondered if some got swapped in the manufacturing process because my lip pencil stick doesn’t have any red in it that I can see, like the ones below, and instead looks like the brown ones near it. However, on my actual lips I think I see some red tones after building up the color? Like maybe a splash? If so, it’s certainly not as red as I expected and less red than I’d expect from a brick color. When built up, it’s also darker than Pine. It’s pretty regardless.

The third and final lip liner shade is the darkest of the three and also the creamiest, which I find interesting since it’s the one that launched first. I’m guessing the brand decided to switch formulas after this collection, which is a very plausible theory based on a comparison of the ingredient lists. The other two glide across the lips nicely and aren’t too soft or too stiff, but I do prefer the feel of Decadent. This color is described as, “neutral brown with slightly cool undertones” and I can see that in the squiggle swatch. Also, the lip liners from the Botanical collection came with sharpeners at the bottom. The newer lip liners do not. Perhaps the brand didn’t feel it was necessary because of the formula differences.

I haven’t noticed any issues or differences with the longevity among them all. They suit my needs and because they’re all so similar in color, they all work for me and give me that ability to line my lips in a way that others I’ve tried haven’t. It’s very specific to me, but it’s a huge deal. In general, objectively, I still believe these are a nice comfortable long lasting product.

Coloured Raine Paint Base Eyeshadow Base in Wheat

I first tried this primer underneath the eyeshadows from the Coloured Raine Botanical Palette and was disappointed to see the shadows creased. After all, the eyeshadow primer is expected to work the best with the brand’s own eyeshadows, so that wasn’t a good sign for anything else I planned to use with it.
However, in using it with my well behaved and favorite eyeshadows, and then as an alternative primer for eyeshadows I was testing that didn’t perform as well with my MAC Paint Pot, I realized it actually wasn’t the fault of the Paint Base! I’ll get back to the Botanical Palette in the next section, but basically every palette I tried with the Paint Base performed better or at least equal to my other primers! It quickly became one of the primers I keep in rotation along with the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas and MAC Paint Pot. In fact, I bought a backup of it during the brand’s Black Friday sale.

I really like the ABH eye primer, but it is quite drying. That one helps to combat the oils that produce on my eyelids, but that’s sometimes to the detriment of buildable type of eyeshadows being able to stick properly. This Coloured Raine primer is similar to the ABH primer, but is less drying, which makes it the better of both worlds between combating the oils but still ensuring the eyeshadows can adhere properly. It’s fantastic! Because I bought the shade Wheat, it matches the color of my eyelids better and isn’t so stark against my skin, but still helps the shadows to pop. As with most primers, a little goes a long way (though not as long as the ABH and Gerard Cosmetics ones which are even more pigmented and thicker in consistency). Wheat still provides a good amount of coverage over the discoloration on my eyelids.

It’s interesting that the brand touts the squalane and sodium hyaluronate because I would have expected that to not go well with oily prone lids and would produce too much moisture for me, but it works somehow! The Paint Base sets on my lids to a natural finish. Perhaps those ingredients are what keeps it from being as drying as the ABH one.

When I’m working with an eyeshadow formula that’s not very creamy with a rougher texture, this primer can take a little longer to blend the shadows on it, but it’s a minor difference in time. That’s the extent of the negatives I’ve found in using this primer throughout the year, which made it an almost entirely positive experience.

Coloured Raine Botanical Eyeshadow Palette

I mentioned in the Eye Base review section that despite it being from the same brand, the Coloured Raine eye primer and this palette worked fine, except that it could not keep the shimmers from retreating from the deep line I have on my lid/crease. I have since used this palette with all my tried and true primers, and none of them stop this from happening. The best results I get though is if I set the primer with powder first. Then I’m much less prone to movement and creasing, but it’s not foolproof.

Cream Gerbera barely shows despite packing it on. I don’t mind, as I’d prefer a shade that light to be subtle rather than stark. Iberis and Leonidas have a decent amount of pigment and all three are decently blendable, but that’s a little bit of a letdown in itself because I remember how rich in color and buttery feeling Coloured Raine’s mattes used to be before they got rid of their single shadows. These are fine but not particularly special. The same goes for the shimmers. They are pretty and shimmery enough for my taste, but the formula is so much thinner, less smooth, way less impactful, less pigmented, and not vibrant like their single shadows once were. I mean, Coloured Raine shimmers used to be S-tier. Being “just fine” is going to be hugely disappointing by comparison. The quality of this palette reminds me of Colourpop, which is mostly good, but it’s not even like the best of Colourpop’s formulas.

These types of colors and this overall color story is a lot softer compared to what the brand used to release. I commend them going outside of their comfort zones. However, it isn’t just the color selection and lack of color saturation that makes it slightly underwhelming for me. There are so many brands that make satin shadows and have palettes with soft colors that still somehow look elegant and beautiful on the eyes. The literal texture of the eyeshadows themselves are so soft and buildable. These shadows don’t have those same qualities. They aren’t made the same way.

I also thought it was quite strange that the colors I expected based on how they looked in the pan did not look the same on my skin. Iberis was much more red than plum. Leonidas was a truer orange instead of terracotta. Rose Gold also had a stronger red tone, like a burgundy, when I was expecting a shimmering plum. The colors are still pretty, but when other eyeshadows like from Oden’s Eye and Sydney Grace give me a visceral excited reaction to using their palettes, I don’t see why I would want to reach for this one that doesn’t spark joy. It’s a new year. Being a decent, nice, workable palette isn’t enough. On the bright side, this isn’t one of Coloured Raine’s newest palettes and I believe they’ve continued to work on their formulas since the next palette is one that I actually will be keeping in my collection.

I forgot to mention in the last look that a tiny spot of Primavera is in the center of the lower lash line too.

Coloured Raine Queen Bee Palette

Unlike the Botanical Eyeshadow Palette, this one does not have “Eyeshadow” in the name, which is because it contains pressed pigments. Considering my experience with the previous palette, I was so nervous that the bump up in intensity with the mattes would mean the shadows would perform worse, but that’s not the case. Honeycomb is actually very soft and smooth feeling. I absolutely love this color of orange. Beehave and Pollen in Love are a little rougher to the touch, but they pack on the lids well and blend fairly well. I’ve had a little trouble building Bee-Witched on the other shadows at times, but it just takes a little more effort to get the definition I want without overdoing it or having it look unblended. It’s definitely not my favorite black matte, but it’s workable.
Using Honeycomb and Beehave together in the same eye look can be a bit tricky because I get a lot more pigment from Beehave right off the bat and it can easily overshadow/overpower Honeycomb, so I have to be careful with its placement.

The two shimmers look like they would have the same texture, but they’re definitely not the same formula. Unbeelievable is a chunkier and flakier shimmer that gives me a lot of fallout. It’s a foil shadow, but even applying it damp doesn’t give me the smoothness I want. I don’t enjoy that shadow at all and won’t be using it again when I open this palette. It’s a shame because the color is so pretty.
On the other hand, Mind Your Beesness is an almost glowing green-gold duochrome with more slip to it so that it glides easier across the lids. Because the binding solution is better, I get less fallout with this one. Honeycomb, Mind Your Beesness, and Pollen in Love are the colors that make this palette memorable and make me excited whenever I use it. This is the one that gives me hope for even better palettes in Coloured Raine’s future.

Black liner was also added to the upper lash line of the last look.

The eyeshadow primer and lip liners are absolute wins for Coloured Raine. The blushes aren’t the best and I have mixed views on the palettes. Considering what I paid, it was worth it to me to give them a chance and figure out how I feel about what the brand produced in 2022. At this point in time, I have hope for them in 2023 and I am truly rooting for them. However, the competition among indie and mainstream brands alike is the toughest it’s ever been. I recognize that they’ve lowered their price point, but I’d rather spend more for better quality. For me to continue purchasing from them, their products have to be truly special or incredibly appealing to my tastes. I look forward to seeing what they’ll release this year and I hope others will still give them a try. I heard positive reviews about their Rebellious Nudes palette, so I feel they’re on the right track. Here’s hoping!

Thank you for reading and Happy New Year!

-Lili ❤

Failed Low-Buy for 2022?

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My next post will be a makeup review, but before this year is over, I wanted to do one final bit of reflecting.

When I took on the challenge of reviewing my monthly purchases, I did not anticipate buying so many products that it would take at least three months to properly test all the items and complete each post. I failed to finish my Low-Buy Series in time, but the review aspect was not my main goal. In today’s post, I’d like to revisit the points I made in my Beauty Resolutions to see which limitations I was successful at sticking to, which areas were my weaknesses, and what I learned during the course of a year. In this analysis, some products I still haven’t reviewed yet are bound to come up. I’d also like to iron out the details of my game plan for 2023 because I’m not going to stop buying beauty products, but I still need to cut back.

No Buy Items With Zero Exceptions: Mascaras, False Lashes, Face Primers, Brow Products, and Eye Primers.

These items were the easiest to stick to because they aren’t very exciting categories of makeup for me. To the best of my knowledge, I only bought one full-size mascara and two minis: the Colourpop x Hocus Pocus 2 mascara which I threw out because it was terribly formulated, a mini of the MAC Macstack Superstack with the Mega brush that I finished and a mini of the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Push Up Lashes that I finished. I also used up a decent chunk of mascaras in my stash, but I still own enough to last me the next two years! So, as well as I stuck to my goal, those few purchases did prevent me from getting through even more of the mascaras in my drawer.
I don’t think I wore false lashes at all this year, and that fact continuously kept me from buying more.

I used up three brow pencils and three eye primers were used up or needed replacing, so I replenished those, plus bought the Makeup by Mario Master Eye Prep & Set (which technically is replacing the MAC Foundation Stick I used as primer) and the Coloured Raine Eye Base (plus a backup). It’s more eye primers than I planned to buy, but not too bad. As for face primers, I did alright. I purchased on sale the Rituel de Fille Thorn oil, a mini of the Nyx Marshmallow primer (allowed as an exception), and a Benefit primer set. I used up most of my deluxe sample primers, so I will start using my new ones more regularly soon.

Overall, I was pretty proud of how I did with this one. However, those few purchases have me set for all of 2023! I will be back on my no-buy for these types of items and will allow no exceptions.

Lips: “I will purchase no more than 5 additional lip products in 2022,” is what I said.

I bought 4 Kaleidos Lip Clays right at the beginning of the year, but those were the allowed exceptions. From January to April I only purchased the clear Fenty Gloss Bomb as a replacement for my old ones (which was also allowed) and a Pat Mcgrath Bridgerton lipstick. So, right there, I broke my rule of 5 because even though I had exceptions that were allowed, they were still counting towards my five. May to August I didn’t buy any lip products, and I was so happy with myself. I don’t consider myself a lipstick aficionado, but I do love lip glosses, so I figured I would struggle a little bit in this category. However, I went on a little retail therapy binge in September and bought two Nars Afterglow balms, two Too Faced Pillow Balms (and later in the future the mini holiday trio set of them), and a Laneige mini balm set (I only kept one and gifted the rest). If I gave myself leeway and didn’t count the exclusions in my 5 lip products tally, by this point I would have hit my maximum. I wish I could say I stopped there, but it only got worse! From October and onward I bought a Nars Afterglow lip gloss and Nars Satin Lip pencil in Rikugien since I was happy to see that shade return and thought it was discontinued. I also bought the Colourpop x Hocus Pocus 2 black gloss, Colourpop Velvet Luxe Lip, the Colourpop x Winnie the Pooh lip care set, 3 Coloured Raine lip liners plus a backup, 3 Pat Mcgrath lip glosses, 2 Makeup by Mario Moistureglow lip serums, a Lunar Beauty gloss and a lip oil, 3 mini Tarte Maracuja balms, a Lisa Eldridge lipstick and a lip gloss, a Juvia’s Place lipstick, Suqqu Sheer Matte Lipstick, and 5 more Kaleidos lip clays. That’s 39 in total between 4 minis and 35 full-size lip products!

These technically aren’t even all the new ones I got this year since a few other lip products made their way to my collection as free gifts. I did so well in the beginning, but it’s really the last quarter of the year that I dropped the ball. I was tempted by all the Black Friday deals, so I know to really be extra careful of that next year because I’m absolutely going on a lip product no-buy again! I will put two exclusions though, which I know is a dangerous game, but I have to be realistic. There are some Lisa Eldridge lipsticks I wanted but they were sold out. I also had a Dior lip product on my bucket list for a long time, so if the opportunity arises for it, I may get it. Otherwise, I’m set for a long time. And I will be decluttering nearly all of the lip products I owned prior to this year. This is probably the most overboard on lip products I’ve ever gone in a single year, and it might seem like the no-buy had the opposite effect, but when I look at the dates of my purchases, it’s really just these last few months that did me in. So, it can be successful as long as I am properly prepared and on guard for the sales next time and seeing such small numbers.

Foundations: “My goal is zero, but I will not buy more than 3 foundations for the entire year (despite having 5 listed exceptions…Charlotte Tilbury, Pat Mcgrath, Make Up For Ever, MAC, or Nars).”

I didn’t think I did too badly in terms of foundation purchases until I had to compile this list. I purchased two different shades of Rose Inc Luminous Foundation Serum, two shades of the Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow foundation, a replacement Estee Lauder Futurist Hydra Foundation, one final attempt to buy my correct shade of the Uoma Beauty Say What?! Foundation (failed as the line is just too orange within the Bronze Venus category), MUFE Matte Velvet Powder Foundation, the Sephora Best Skin Ever Liquid Foundation, and MAC Studio Fix Fluid.

I would have preferred to have bought the best match from Rose Inc the first time or for Hourglass to have made the perfect shade for me, as that would have knocked my number down to seven this year. And once again, it wasn’t until the last quarter of the year that I got into trouble. I didn’t buy a single one until June, which was the initial shade from Rose Inc. I didn’t get the next foundation until September with the EL Futurist Hydra replacement. The third was the initial shade of foundation from Hourglass in October. It was once again Black Friday that I bought literally all the rest of the foundations, including the additional shades. The Uoma, MAC, and MUFE were impulse purchases trying to see if I finally had a decent shade match after various changes were made. I could and should have just left those a mystery. The Sephora foundation was at least something I had been curious about since it was released.

In the grand scheme of things, I didn’t do the worst, but I certainly could have done better. Next year, I don’t want to buy any foundations at all, with the exceptions of PML, MUFE, MAC, or Nars. I’m confident I will do better next year with this category and I will very much be on guard with foundations during Black Friday.

Contours: “NO-BUY with Charlotte Tilbury and Pat Mcgrath Labs as exceptions.”

Those two brands didn’t make contours and I did very well sticking to this one. It probably had a lot to do with me hardly contouring at all this year, or doing brontouring instead. I also am still very satisfied with using the Hindash Beautopsy palette for contouring. The only contour products I went out of my way to purchase were the Kaleidos Symphony Contour Trio and KVD ModCon Liquid-Gel Contour. I received a contour stack in my Melt Mystery bag, so technically that was partly paid to own. The two other contours I bought were duos that also came with bronzers that I bought mainly for the bronzers in them: the Wayne Goss Radiance Boosting Face Palette and Vieve Modern Bronzer Duo. So, the ones from Kaleidos and KVD are what I count (and the duos will count in the bronzer categories instead).

I did well! And I will continue with the no-buy with the same exceptions. I don’t need to own multiple contour products and I will be decluttering almost all my old ones not mentioned in this post. I can’t give myself too much credit though, as there were hardly any contour launches this year and I can’t be confident that I would have had as easy of a time sticking to my goal if more had been made. It’s still a relief to know I didn’t completely bomb my low-buy.

Face Powders: “NO-BUY except if Hourglass releases a single Ambient Lighting Powder to match me or if I get the Chantecaille Blur Finishing Powder in Med/Dark at a good enough deal.”

I did, in fact, get that darker Chantecaille powder and for $33. Hourglass did not produce any new powder singles, but I bought two of their Holiday palettes and am counting those in the Face Palette section. Other than sample minis, the only setting and finishing powders I bought were the Colourpop Pretty Fresh Face Powder and MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural. I’m quite satisfied with that outcome, and since I don’t always set my face, I have no need to buy additional ones next year either. I will still give myself an allowance next year of no more than 3, but aiming for 0. There actually were quite a lot of tempting powder releases and I’m pleased with being able to talk myself out of them.

Eyeliners: NO-BUY except Stila’s liquid liners if they are half price or Sephora’s if I run out of Stila liners, but I know I have enough backups that, “I should be set for the rest of this year.”

I bought two Oden’s Eye colorful liners, three Melt Cosmetics pot liners plus two that I got in mystery bundles, I got a Danessa Myricks multichrome eyeliner in a Trendmood box, and I bought a multichrome eyeliner from Kaleidos. However, when it comes to black eyeliners, which is what I had really focused on in the limits of my low-buy, I only purchased one. It was the One/Size x Disney Fantasia one on sale. This is a lot more than I anticipated, but I don’t have a ton of colorful liners and I still resisted buying a lot more of them that launched this year, so I think I did very well on this one. I used up two black liner pens and the fact that I only bought one new one is where I really feel I’ve been successful. Since I still have black eyeliner backups, I intend to continue being on an eyeliner no-buy in the new year with no exceptions.

Bronzers: “If I can end 2022 with under 3 new bronzers, I would still consider the No-Buy a partial success,” is what I wrote. Bronzers are a NO-BUY except PML, Hourglass, CT if the brand created a 4.5 shade between Tan and Deep. Other exceptions were MAC, Make Up For Ever, and Nars since they may be too difficult to resist if they produce bronzers that are part of a special collection.

Well, I certainly failed on keeping it under 3 bronzers when I bought two shades each of the Colourpop Super Shock Bronzers and the Jaclyn Cosmetics Sun Bathe Bronzers alone! I already mentioned the Wayne Goss and Vieve ones in the contour section, but those count here. I also bought the Melt Cosmetics Ultra-Matte Bronzer, a Huda Glowish Blurring Pressed Powder deep enough to use as bronzer, Charlotte Tilbury Cream Bronzer in Tan (which technically fills the role of being the inbetween shade I wanted), Nars Laguna Cream Bronzer, Rose Inc Cream Bronzer, Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta this time, Nars Bronzing Powder in Punta Cana, Sigma Matte Bronzer, Fenty Sun Stalk’r Bronzer Palette, Gucci Éclat Soleil Bronzer, Covergirl TruBlend So Flushed High Pigment Bronzer, and Makeup by Mario SoftSculpt Transforming Skin Perfector for the bronzer strip.
If I remembered them all, that’s 18 new bronzers added to my collection.

Considering how many launched this year, I don’t view this as a fail, but I admittedly did pretty badly on this one. However, bronzing products have only been in my collection for a few years. It’s still a new category of makeup for me to play in, so I’ll cut myself some slack on having trouble sticking to a reasonable amount. I plan to do a declutter soon though and I feel confident in my ability to do better and keep it under 5 next year. I’m still going to aim for zero with Pat Mcgrath being an exception, plus bronzers falling under the Face Palette category.

Blushes: “I would be proud of myself if I could keep my blush purchases under 15 this year. My plan is to stick to powders unless the blush in question is available as a mini.” Blushes are a NO-BUY except MAC, Nabla, PML, Patrick Ta, Nars, Huda Beauty, Makeup by Mario, Rare Beauty liquid blushes in a mini form or if they introduce a powder version, Fenty, Clionadh, Oden’s Eye, Glossier, LYS Beauty, CT, Chanel, and Dior.

I’ll cut right to the chase…I bought 65 blushes this year.
I knew this category would be my biggest fail, but counting it out was quite the shock. The very tiniest defense I have for myself is that I bought 84 blushes last year, so at least I bought less this year.

It never seems like much at first because I only buy 1-3 at a time and don’t pay attention to how many more shades I have from a line by the end of the year. Even after I do my reviews, I sometimes buy more. For example, I ended 2022 with 6 new Suqqu blushes, 6 Benefit blushes, 5 MAC blushes, 5 Colourpop Blushes, etc. That’s how they all just caught up to me before I knew it from among 28 different brands!

This was the year of the blushes. It seemed like every brand was coming out with cream versions or I bought additional shades of powder blushes. In the last two years it became my favorite category of makeup, even surpassing eyeshadows. So, I admit, this will probably be my hardest category to have a low-buy for next year. I will of course try my best to buy as few as possible because I have so many that I love and want to have the time to actually get around to using. I’ll be doing a blush declutter in 2023, though I haven’t decided if I’ll make a dedicated post about it or not. It would be quite the daunting task!

Out of the 16 brand exceptions, I bought blushes from 9 of them. So, next year, I don’t even want to give myself a set number or set brands. I’m just going to try and resist them all as much as I can! At this point, with my solidified favorite brands and formulas, I think I’m the most in danger of trying blushes from brands I haven’t had blush from for the first time, as well as additional shades being released in my favorite formulas. Otherwise, I am still hopeful I’ll get way less in the future.

Highlighters: “I want to keep my highlighter number as close to zero as possible. That’s the goal, without putting an actual figure cap on it.” These are a NO-BUY excluding PML, Dior, and if there’s a limited edition collection of something that I’m absolutely salivating over to purchase from, but there’s nothing in the collection I would actually use except the highlighter.

I also did worse than I thought for the highlighter category. I bought 43.

Five are Colourpop Super Shocks plus two powder ones, Four are from MAC, three from Melt Cosmetics, etc. So it’s easy to see how it got out of hand among the 24 different brands. 15 highlighters were from collabs and/or limited edition collections, so that exclusion didn’t contribute to as many additional highlighters as I expected. I think regular brand packaging (if it was pretty) and pan embossing were some of the biggest temptations.

What will make things different next year is that I have quite a few holy grails now, including the ones I was crazy about last year but got swept up in all the new releases and didn’t have time to play with almost at all. The fact that I have so many now that are neglected is making me really not want to add anymore to my collection, and I plan to do quite the declutter.

Face Palettes: “This category is a LOW-BUY, but allowing for brands like CT, PML, Huda Beauty, Uoma Beauty, Hindash, and Hourglass. I’ve always wanted one of those CT Instant Look in a Palette or face quads but there hasn’t been one that would suit my skin tone. PML would be an immediate purchase. Uoma Beauty already had a face palette from 2021 but neither the light or dark palettes were really perfect for me. Hourglass makes the exceptions list because of their annual holiday palettes, provided they still make one this year and if it’s truly dark-skin friendly (but also not too deep for me).”

I got 12 face palettes. All things considered, that’s not too bad for me.

Charlotte Tilbury did not create one that met my needs, so that brand was not one of them. Uoma Beauty didn’t create a new face palette either. The two I bought from Pat Mcgrath were blush and highlighter palettes, so they weren’t exactly what I had in mind. In the instance of the PML x Bridgerton 2 Blushing Delights Palette and Divine Blush and Glow, I wasn’t the biggest fan of either highlighter and it was the blushes that I continue to reach for, so they technically belong in this category, but they are functionally just blush palettes for me. I got the Monochromance Palette from Hindash and put it in this category because I never use it for the eyeshadows, just as face products. Hourglass did not make the perfect holiday palette for me, yet I bought two of them to create a better mix. Out of the 12 face palettes I bought, the only one that truly suited my needs (as is) in shades and formulas I loved and had the blush, highlighter, and bronzer that I picture the perfect face palette should have, was the Sephora Collection Microsmooth Multi-Tasking Baked Face Palette in Captivate. I got that palette in April, yet I still continued to chase after more of them.

I really want to do some damage to the Sephora palette, so I’m planning to aim for zero face palettes next year, with the exceptions of CT, PML, Huda Beauty, and Hindash. When it comes to Hourglass, I still don’t want to buy another holiday palette unless it contains an actual deep bronzer with other shades that work for me, or it has the At Night blush plus everything else I think would be flattering on me.

Concealers: Concealers are a LOW-BUY, but realistically, I’m content with the ones I have, “and I will likely only buy two additional concealers this year: Tarte Shape Tape when it’s half price and Pat Mcgrath’s shade 23. The only concealer I already purchased in 2022 was the KVD Good Apple concealer.” Concealers are my least restrictive category because my needs are so particular that so few out there meet all criteria. So, I don’t mind buying several of them if I can actually find some to match all my personal requirements.

As I expected, I naturally did not gravitate to many concealers this year because so few full coverage ones were released. I finished my KVD Good Apple Concealer that I bought in February and only recently opened my backup tube that I bought in March. That made me feel pretty good about having a backup handy. I’m also currently using my last backup of the Tarte Shape Tape. I did purchase the PML Concealer in shade 23 and tossed out my other two that had changed in consistency but were mostly used up as well. 23 is still too olive toned for my liking, so I won’t get anymore in the future. I bought a mini of the Tarte Flex concealer and hated the formula. I also recently bought the Sephora Best Skin Ever Concealer, but I can’t remember my thoughts on it. The Smashbox X Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector technically falls under this category. I bought one near the end of last year and I recently bought a replacement for it.

In summation, I bought 7 concealers. I used up one of them this year and won’t reach for two others. So, I’ll be going into 2023 with 4 fresh concealers plus a few older ones I have left in my collection that will likely be tossed out soon. For that reason, I’m going to allow myself to purchase as many full coverage, non-drying, and low-creasing ones I can find in the future. Chances are low that anything new that’s out there will work for me, so I’m likely going to end up sticking with my favorites.

Eyeshadows: “I will likely only get one or two single eyeshadows from different indie brand collection launches because I’m pretty satisfied with my single eyeshadow collection. Clionadh is the only exception and I will just trust my self control and not get everything from them.”

I stuck to my guns even better than I expected regarding only getting a few single eyeshadows from different indie brands, but I absolutely went overboard on the Clionadh shadows. First, with the positives, I purchased 7 Lethal Cosmetic Singles, 3 Terra Moons singles, and 3 Sydney Grace singles. Even though they are called “refills,” I technically did buy 5 Lisa Eldridge singles. For the holidays, I also bought a Charlotte Tilbury Pop Shot.

As for Clionadh Stained Glass Expansion shadows, I bought 25 and still haven’t even reviewed the newest ones yet, nor posted them on Instagram. I also bought both Fruitlighter highlighters from the Dragonfruit Collection which I use exclusively as eyeshadows as well. I also bought the Birthday Trilogy and Holiday Trio, which makes 6 standard eyeshadows too.

I think the best course of action is to actually put a limit on what I buy from Clionadh next year for budgetary reasons and for allowing myself time to actually use what I just bought. I always buy the Charity bundles, so that will likely continue. If they finally bring back their matte shadows, I will also get those too. Everything else in the single shadow realm is off the table, excluding for an allowance of only 1 or 2 Stained Glass shadows the same as all the other brands. And when it comes to other brands’ single shadows, I’m going to have the same 1 or 2 limit.

Eyeshadow Palettes: “I will purchase no more than 2 each month (and yes they can roll over). In 2020, I bought a whopping 52 palettes which is basically one a week. In 2021, I bought somewhere between 38-40 palettes. This year, I’m hoping to make it no more than 24. I consider a palette to be anything with 4 or more eyeshadows.”

I failed. I did so well in the beginning. I was right on target from January to October, having bought just 22 new palettes. I really could have reached my goal if I’d kept that same pace for the rest of the year. It just got completely out of hand from all the sales. Black Friday came and went, and my total became 49.

Side note, only 4 of them would have sold out if I didn’t get them at launch. So, I made the right decision waiting for a sale in most cases, but I overdid it. I held off waiting for them instead of properly talking myself out of wanting them. That was a crucial mistake. At this point, I can’t even say whether they were worth it because I haven’t even touched 24 of them! Four of those still haven’t arrived though (from PML and Melt).

Of the palettes I did try, I liked a lot of them, but so few were truly special. This is something I really need to hone in on next year, the fact that plenty of brands are making fantastic eyeshadows nowadays, so I’m very likely to enjoy all of it, but I should only buy the ones that are really going to feel like worthy additions to my collection and that I would actively miss if I skipped them. I should only have palettes that are inspiring and make me want to do tons of looks with it, not just the ones that are appealing because of the colors but aren’t something I’d wear. This kind of thinking did get me through most of the year, so I know I can do way better next year if I truly stick to my guns and don’t lose my mind when the prices start to drop.

Skincare, Hair Care, and Fragrances: “I’m on a low-buy for those and intend to buy as little new products in those categories as possible.”

I bought a few fragrance samplers and travel size perfumes, so the total fragrances purchased this year is higher than last year, but the total of it all was perhaps around $100. I don’t believe that’s too unreasonable, especially when what I really wanted was a travel size of the Tom Ford Lost Cherry which costs $80. Instead, I got a travel size Kayali’s Lovefest on sale, which has a cherry note that’s similar enough. I purchased hardly any new hair care and I kept the skincare purchases to a very reasonable and minimal amount. I’m quite pleased with how I did. I don’t want any new perfumes next year, but I want to keep the hair and skin products to my same small amount as this year.

Stance on Buying Multiples

  • Don’t Buy Backups
  • Don’t Buy Multiple Shades/Versions of a Product I Like
  • *Let the Chikuhodo MK-KO Be My Most Expensive Maki-e Brush

I did a fairly decent job of not buying that many backups of makeup, but not so much with makeup brushes. Technically, the Chikuhodo MK-KO is still my most expensive single brush (which I had bought in part with a promo code and reward points not long after it arrived at CDJapan), but the difference wasn’t by much when I bought the Koyudo Makie Gray Squirrel Powder Brush with the Cherry Blossom design and red handle that’s normally 300,000 YEN but I got it for 180,000 YEN while the exchange rate was at its most favorable for USD all year.
And as for not buying multiples of shades, I absolutely failed with this specifically in the blush category and technically in buying all those Clionadh Stained Glass multichromes.

I really want to double-down on this philosophy next year and only buy the one perfect shade out of a bunch of options. If I stuck to that, I wouldn’t have overdone it on blush purchases. I did also overdo it with the brush purchases because I wasn’t used to CDJapan having so many outlet brush options. Unlike my spending pattern for all the other beauty categories, when it came to brushes, I went on a spending spree in the beginning half of the year, but started to get a handle on it in the latter half. Towards the end, I was a lot more particular and thoughtful about the final brushes I bought and skipped several Outlet buying opportunities and passed on the last four or so promo code offers. I’m confident I will have my Fude obsession much more under control next year. I also still have so many more brushes yet to be reviewed and posted on this blog!

Stance on Limited Edition/Limited Quantity Items

  • Skip Birth Specific Things Except Ones Pertaining to Me (Lunar Dragon Sign, November-born, Water Sign, Scorpio, etc)
  • Don’t Buy Items Now to Avoid Price Hikes Later, Fear of Discontinuation, and Long Restock Times

I didn’t want to risk Clionadh’s shadows being out of stock during Black Friday, so I very specifically chose not to wait for a better deal for fear of a long restock when I bought all the Stained Glass ones that I did. I also placed multiple orders and wasted a lot of money in shipping fees because I couldn’t stick to just my initial purchase after narrowing the list down to my top 15 favorites of the new shades. So, that wasn’t very smart on my part.

There weren’t many birth specific things released this year, other than Lunar New Year items, so I was mostly safe on this front. The collection that I absolutely did not stick to buying the ones pertaining to me was when I purchased the Air and Earth mini palettes from Melt’s Bad Side Zodiac Collection. On the other hand, I did well by not buying the Water palette just because it’s my sign’s attribute when I had no interest in the color story.

I like bunnies, so we will see how well I fare in the Year of the Rabbit. I’m not feeling very confident about this one.

Stance on Buying Things at Full Price

“I’ll only allow myself to buy things I think are worth full price, but I will still wait whenever possible to get those items when they’re on sale.”

I purchased a lot more items from luxury brands this year, and it’s difficult to feel anything in that category is worth the price to me at full retail when I know the most desirable thing is probably the packaging. When I made this rule for myself about only buying products worth full price, I had affordable to mid-range makeup brands in mind. I didn’t anticipate how buying luxury items at mid-range prices was going to feel like I was living up to this rule. Many times, because of the significant discount, those luxury items were suddenly worth those mid-tier prices in my mind, so I went forward with buying them without stopping to think about whether I truly wanted the makeup or if I was just trying to get it at those prices while I could. For instance, the Guerlain Quads released this year are $85-$90 depending on the retailer. I got mine for $65 from Selfridges. Natasha Denona palettes (which I admittedly consider high-end and not mid-tier) are $69, so I reasoned it was fine. I didn’t think about how one has only 4 shades and the other has 15. Or that my rule was to acknowledge the worth at the original price first before waiting for the discount.

As I mentioned in the eyeshadow palette section, I overdid the Black Friday shopping because I was waiting for items to go on sale instead of spending that time figuring out if it was something I should really be buying, wanting legitimately, and then properly talking myself out of most of them. That way, when a sale did come around, I wouldn’t just buy everything that had been pushed onto my wishlist for later. My rules for myself on item limits kept going out the window once discounts became a factor. So, I need to focus more on talking myself out of things by looking through what I already own and pulling out dupes if necessary. I also need to focus more on the item number limits I set as a reason to not buy something instead trying to determine if it’s worth buying at a specific price.

Stance on Stance on Buying Makeup from “New to Me” Brands

  • Purchase Only One Item for the Year from a Luxury Brand I Haven’t Tried Yet
  • Avoid Buying From All Other Brands That Are New to Me

I don’t know if I did well or terribly at avoiding buying from brands for the first time, considering how many new ones popped up this year, in addition to certain brands having items that finally interested me enough to want to try them. Some of the new and new to me brands I purchased from this year are One/Size, Victoria Beckham Beauty, Olivia Palermo Beauty, Vieve, Florasis, Alamar Cosmetics, MOB Beauty, rms beauty, Valentino Beauty, the Beauty Bay brand, Lisa Eldridge, and r.e.m. Beauty. I even tried the Eihodo (outlet), Surratt, and Mizuho brush brands for the first time. I do regret bothering to purchase from 3 out of those 12. I spent a lot of money creating a custom palette of MOB Beauty products for it to not be absolutely perfect for me. The Florasis palette is beautiful, but it’s too beautiful for me to want to use and mess up the pan designs, plus I wasn’t thrilled with the formulas. The rms beauty blush is just okay. I don’t get the hype. MAC Extra Dimension blushes are way better. Also, in trying out One/Size and Lisa Eldridge, they became brands I couldn’t stop making additional purchases with and will continue to keep my eye on in the coming year. I also have no regrets buying solely one product type from r.e.m, the Interstellar Highlighter Topper, but I do wish I stopped at Miss Mars because that is the perfect shade for me and is one of my holy grail products now. Miss Saturn was the other shade I bought, which is nice, but I don’t think I’ll reach for it again now that I’ve got Miss Mars. Funny enough, regarding r.e.m., it’s one of the rare times that loving one item from the brand didn’t make me go down the rabbit hole of wanting to try everything else they’ve got.

The rule about only buying one item from a luxury brand, I stuck to with Victoria Beckham Beauty and Olivia Palermo Beauty, but it wasn’t of my own accord. Had the brand created other items that interested me or put up a good enough sale, I’d have purchased additional things.

This rule stopped me from trying out a decent number of other brands for the first time, so I think it will still be necessary to keep this one for next year. I’m just not sure the one item per luxury brand thought process is sound anymore. It was intended for me to cherish that one product, but if that first one was a dud, that should be enough to make me more cautious naturally in the future without feeling like I have to punish myself by only getting to experience that one product for the rest of the year that I won’t be cherishing anyway.

Knowing/Hearing Something Has an Amazing Formula but Isn’t Available in a Shade I Like

  • Remember: “Just because something is good, does not mean I must own it.”
  • Wait For the Brand to Expand the Range for a Shade I Actually Love
  • Don’t Buy Things for Curiosity’s Sake or Reviewing Purposes

The first two rules did successfully help me in some cases, as I discussed in my Anti-Haul post, but hearing something was good and not buying it only worked until the product dropped in price. Then, I felt like I was missing out by skipping the deal and a good formula. Of course, very few things were actually revolutionary, so I really need to remember most things will be as good as what I already own and almost none will surpass it. That means I should just stick to what I already have and not keep buying more of the same.

As for waiting for a brand’s range to expand, I kept that in mind a lot and it did help me to stick to my low-buy. My bigger issue, ironically, is that brands were more inclusive this year and many times there were too many shades that I really wanted! That’s how I ended up buying so many blushes at a time. I only regret 10 out of 65, because 7 were me not needing those shades and I could have skipped them without actually missing out, whereas only 3 of the 65 didn’t work on me. Waiting for the perfect shade is a good rule because I’m having greater success with getting products I like, but I like too many things, so I have to really work on the whole “just because something is good doesn’t mean I need to own it,” mentality.

Self-Tips to Avoid Temptation

  • If I Decide Not to Buy Something, Stop Watching Videos About It
  • Don’t Buy Things That Don’t Suit Me Just to Support a Cause/Brand Owner With A Specific Background
  • Don’t Make Purchases as Retail Therapy
  • Don’t Make Purchases in the Early Morning Hours

Not watching videos about items I planned to anti-haul ended up being helpful in limiting my exposure to the product’s hype, but also a detriment when I was in a random shopping mood and didn’t have a list of negatives accrued from videos that would have aided me in talking myself out of making the purchase. Of course, I wasn’t supposed to be making retail therapy purchases at all, but there were three specific moments this year that my will-power wasn’t strong enough. One was post-surgery and another was after Hurricane Ian when power was finally restored but my boyfriend and I were sick. I at least did better at avoiding early morning shopping by convincing myself to make the purchases later in the morning when inhibitions weren’t so low.

When it came to deciding to buy something at full or near full price, that’s when supporting a cause or brand owner/collaborator with a specific background played a role. However, I was much better this year at not buying things that I knew weren’t my preference just to be supportive.

Final Thoughts

My low-buy efforts were abysmal in specific makeup categories, but I wouldn’t call this a complete fail because I was in the ballpark of my goals for the rest of the categories. In taking on this project, I learned even more about my consumer habits and personal impulses. I have to give myself some credit for doing well up until the remaining few months of the year, which was also the most difficult part of the year on a personal level emotionally and physically after my surgery.
I’ll need to be a lot stronger at saying no to the shiny new things next year, and I am certain I’ll do better. I still have so many products that haven’t been reviewed from my collection that I want to get posted to this blog in 2023. So, despite going on another low-buy, there will be plenty of beauty content to come! Thank you for reading and I wish you a very happy New Year!

-Lili ❤

Anti-Haul: Hyped Up Makeup I Skipped Buying And Why

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We had a plethora of new launches in 2022. I found myself caving and buying a ton of them despite my low-buy efforts detailed in my Beauty Resolutions post. In fact, I felt as though I was constantly having to mention in my reviews that I had broken my low-buy over and over again, whereas I never spoke about all the times I actually did hold strong.

So, for a change of pace, I’d like to talk about some of the most hyped up products that were released this year and how I was able to talk myself out of buying them. My goal with this discussion is to point out the ways I tried to rationalize making a purchase that I knew I shouldn’t make, so that myself and anyone reading who is on a no-buy/low-buy/or just wants to consume less makeup can see the ways to counteract that kind of thinking and recognize the signs when the next exciting product inevitably catches everyone’s attention.

Disclaimer: This is an anti-haul, so it’s safe to say I am not being sponsored to talk about the products in this post. I put the retailer logos on the images as a way of showing whose websites those images were taken from to give them ownership credit. I also chose the websites based on where I would most likely have purchased the items myself based on where I’d have gotten the best deals on them.
There is only one link in this post that is affiliated, and that’s the Bisyodo brush near the bottom of this post. Non-highlighted links in bold blue font (Example) are regular standard non-affiliate links. Links marked in bold black font with a light blue background (Example) are affiliate links. Affiliate links allow me to get a commission if purchases are made directly using my link.

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Beautifying Face Palette

I’ve been wanting a face palette from Charlotte Tilbury for ages! The ideal palette for me would be the ones with a blush, bronzer, and highlighter. I even added a CT face palette to my exceptions list for my low-buy. So, when the Pillow Talk Face Palette in Medium/Deep was sneak peeked, I was instantly swept up by the hype and caught up in the excitement of having one intended to suit me. However, when I saw the swatches and the way the palette looked on the cheeks of purchasers of my skin tone and darker, I didn’t think the top two shades would work for me.

I have learned in the last year or so that just, “showing up on the skin,” doesn’t equate with being flattering. There is a reason that the majority of pastel eyeshadows don’t flatter me, and that’s because so many have a strong opaque white base to them. This gives the eyeshadows a chalky look on dark skin, the deeper the chalkier. This is the reason Clionadh Cosmetics came out with their Deep Iridescent line of multichromes with a tan base, because of how their original line of multichromes looked on those with dark skin (I had to blend them in super well to get the white to not show).
This issue crops up again with blushes. If the color is too light for someone, it can look chalky or ashy, but if a brand’s blush has too strong of a white base, it will also look chalky (like those Tom Ford Shade & Illuminate Blush Duos). So, even though I’ve worn blushes with the same depth as the lighter blush shade from Charlotte Tilbury, it wouldn’t be to my preference based on how it appeared on the cheeks of other ladies with deep skin. There are some people who like that effect because it gives a “soft appearance” the way pastels are soft muted colors, but it’s not how I want blush to appear on me. When I see that arm in the promo images, none look nice to me except that deep red/pink, though I think the deeper highlighter looked way prettier in the reviews on YouTube that I watched.

So, my brain wanted to rationalize the fact that I would at least enjoy the bottom half of the palette. I could get this for $60 from Selfridges versus $75 at US retailers. Charlotte’s single blushes and highlighters start at $40, so I would still be getting a savings on having two usable products, plus being able to mix them with the other two shades. However, I had to think about my preferences again. I have the hardest time reaching for face palettes that don’t have every product perfectly suited for me.
When I’m in a rush (which when I’m putting on makeup, I’m almost always in a rush), I think of a single favorite shade and then grab it. I don’t think about blush palettes or face palettes because they usually contain other products that didn’t work, which puts a mental note in the back of my mind that this product isn’t as great as I thought. So, when I’m going off instinct trying to quickly think of what I want to grab, I think of that single product that I have already made a mental note, “Yes, this one is perfect.” That’s what I grab instead. There are only two palettes in my entire collection that became a go-to: my custom palette of MAC blushes and the Hindash Beautopsy Palette. The custom palette works because I made sure every shade in there is a favorite. Beautopsy works because I can do nearly every makeup task with it.

The final point I had to remember was the motivating reason for wanting a Charlotte Tilbury Face Palette in the first place. I like a lot of Charlotte’s products and my dream palette from her would be something I could do most of my face with and not ever have to purchase additional palettes because I’d have my perfect one. Had I bought the Pillow Talk Face Palette with only blushes and highlighters, I would absolutely want to purchase another one if Charlotte came out with a version that had at least a highlighter, blush, and bronzer with all three suitable for me. So, then what would happen to the Pillow Talk Face Palette? I’d completely abandon it in favor of the better one. It makes no sense to buy something that is kind of what a want when I should just wait to get something that is everything I want. It’s a lesson that has a hard time sticking with me when I’m really drawn in to a pretty shade or I’m in a retail therapy type of mood or I don’t want to feel like I’m missing out on the biggest/hottest product of the year. But chances are high that the same palette I foresee as being perfect for me in the future will have plenty of other people hyping it up and buying that one too. So, I won’t be missing out if I just wait for a better one.

I don’t want another Hourglass situation where I keep buying the holiday palettes when only some of them work for me and the others don’t, so before I know it, I’ve ended up owning four of them. That’s why I depotted mine to create a version I’d finally get use out of by having it conveniently in one place!

I really agonized over getting this face palette, but eventually the hype died down. I saw it end up in several “2022 Beauty Favorites” videos, but I hardly saw it being used after the first few months of it launching. I have my doubts on how long it will continue to be talked about starting next year, and especially because the brand is bound to release another one of these in 2023 and the old will be forgotten.

Gucci Luminous Matte Beauty Blush (Blush de Beauté Cheeks and Eyes Powder)

Packaging tends to be my kryptonite, but I’m thrilled to say I don’t find the packaging of these appealing. I love stars, but I prefer dynamic intricate patterns like some examples I found via a Google Search.

What had me second, third, and quadruple guessing my decision to pass on this launch is the fact that the formula was said to be comparable to my favorite blushes! People were saying these were guaranteed to be on a lot of end of the year favorites lists because they were said to be incredibly soft, smooth to the touch, and “blend like a dream.” Plus, I could get it from Selfridges for $41 each instead of $49 at US retailers.

Initially, what stopped me from buying one was my uncertainty about the shade range. I wanted a medium pink or coral, but I doubted if any besides the deepest shade, Warm Berry, would work for me. Even when I saw the blushes applied to the cheeks of those around my skintone, sometimes Radiant Pink would look better or too cool toned for my preference, and on some people Bright Coral looked better or it didn’t show up enough on the skin. The safest bet would be Warm Berry, but I have so many shades of that similar color. It’s gorgeous, but when I have Rose Latte from Fenty, Paradise Venus from Pat Mcgrath, Yoiurushi from Suqqu, and a few others that I love and want to use up, it wouldn’t make sense to get Warm Berry when I still don’t have a holy grail formula for peach, coral, or medium pink blushes.

The next step in my thought process was to take a chance on buying Bright Coral anyway. What helped me to resist was the fact that I had already gone through the same anti-haul process with the holiday blushes from Dior. I saw enough reviews to feel confident that Cosmic Coral could work for me. However, I still preferred the tone of the Fall 2021 Blush that I missed out on called Coral Flight. So, I felt very silly buying a blush now that I knew still didn’t compare to a blush I wanted before and had talked myself out of. It would have felt like I was settling for something worse, and I didn’t think I would be able to appreciate Cosmic Coral if I was viewing it as the consolation prize. Then, Galactic Red was again too similar to blushes I own in abundance and looked as though it contained silver sparkles, which I really don’t like in a blush. The fact that Cosmic Coral and Galactic Red looked so similar to Bright Coral and Warm Berry, and I already had the strength to turn down that launch, helped me be able to turn down the Gucci one as well.

What makes me feel secure in my decision is thinking about how hyped up the Hermes blushes were last year, yet I’ve only seen them talked about less than a handful of times this year. I also really enjoyed the performance and the Hermes blush was a precious thing to me. I even wanted more shades, but ran into the same issue as many of these luxury blush collections where there’s only one clear shade that will work for those with dark skin and the rest are iffy. And despite me liking it in 2021, even more exciting blush formulas and shades have been released this year that I prefer to use over that one. It stands to reason that the Gucci blushes would have ended up the same way if I caved and bought them.

Natasha Denona Retro Glam Eyeshadow Palette

This particular photo isn’t the most flattering picture I’ve seen of this palette, but it helps to illustrate the point I try to remind myself about, which is to consider my personal tastes before buying something. I love greens, and that’s all I could initially think about when I first saw this palette. Evergreen, Oz, Jazzy, Sage, and Belle were the shades calling to me the most. But, as I mentioned before, I’m extremely selective when it comes to pastels, and this palette has a ton of them.

Unlike the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Face Palette, opinions from the dark skin ladies and gents were split on this one. Quite a few said too many shades looked ashy on them or that the deepest shades in the palette were just mid-tone on the lids and lacked the ability to create depth. One of the biggest issues for me was the redundancy. YouTubers across the skin tone spectrum said that quite a few of the shadows looked too similar to one another when applied to the eye and not just the way they look in the pan, especially Jazzy and Maxi plus Marlin and Oz. If those with light skin tones had trouble building depth and feeling the color story was repetitive, there was just no way I’d have better success.

Ultimately, when I really thought hard about it, there were so many other green palettes that I loved and bought. Did I really need another after purchasing the Anastasia Beverly Hills Nouveau Palette, Nars Climax Eyeshadow Palette, and Bobbi Brown Jadestone Eye Shadow Palette? Considering my struggle to make pink and green go together when I bought the Colourpop x Tinkerbell Sprinkle A Little Magic Eyeshadow Palette, I had no business even considering buying the Retro Glam. In the end, even my love of the Cream Powder shadows wasn’t strong enough to outweigh the serious reasons why buying a palette with so few shades I actually liked would have been a bad idea.

Isamaya Industrial Colour Pigment Eyeshadow Palette

I saw this palette sneak peeked before knowing the price. The aesthetic was so cool to me and my immense interest in the greens and browns made me want this palette badly. However, once I discovered the price, I just couldn’t justify it. I’ve never paid full price for a Natasha Denona $129 palette or Pat Mcgrath large mothership palette, and those brands have been around long enough to prove their worth. Even with the $95 Selfridge price instead of $115, I couldn’t bite the bullet on a brand new makeup company where I had zero clue how good their shadows were. Knowing Isamaya was professionally connected to Byredo didn’t help, considering the fact that I hadn’t tried their shadows myself either and reviews were mixed between people saying it was or wasn’t worth the price tag. So, the price alone deterred me. However, at one point I could have gotten it for $80.50 using a 30% off discount code I found via the Google Shopping tab. Suddenly, the excitement at the possibility of owning it returned once I knew it was a little more attainable. I tried to reason with myself about how it was only a few dollars more than the Hindash palettes or that Guerlain and Tom Ford charge more than that at full price for only 4 eyeshadows versus 14 from Isamaya. I had it added to my cart and ready to go, but just before I checked out, I vaguely remembered the Hannah Louise Poston video on the brand and how that had helped to stop me from feeling like I missed out the first time I initially thought I wouldn’t be able to get my hands on the palette. I watched it again as a refresher, but I was suddenly reminded of the deeply troubling formula and performance issues she mentions in her video. For anyone having issues resisting this palette, I recommend giving it a watch because it thoroughly cured me.

Byredo Purple Echo Eyeshadow Palette

Another video saved me from disaster, and that was by Lexi Jong. However, I still give myself credit for holding off on buying it for as long as I did prior to watching her video. What made it appealing in the first place is that absolutely stunning packaging! My goodness, how I yearned to buy it for the packaging alone! I’d have just assumed it was out of my price range until I saw the note in the pre-launch post on IG that it would be available for $58 from Selfridges when their palettes are normally $75 at US retailers. Interestingly enough, Purple Echo isn’t currently available online in the US, other than purchasing it from the Selfridge US website. It is listed as a Limited Edition palette, and when I saw the brand’s own swatches, there was a brief moment that I wondered if it was limited edition because the quality was bad. I quickly dismissed that musing.
Swatches don’t tell the whole story, just like the case with Viseart and their poor swatches but much better quality. There’s no way a big luxury brand would release a terribly formulated palette for that high a price tag, right? Well, from the few videos I’ve seen (and not just from Lexi), this palette is atrocious! They get hard-pan. Some shadows don’t want to stick to the eyes while others don’t even want to be picked up with a brush or fingers. To be honest, these tones of purples aren’t even the kinds of purples that I like. The power of the packaging was the most at play with this one, but I just could not bring myself to spend that much on what would end up being a glorified paper weight. In addition, I have a weird aversion to using palettes with long thin rectangular pans. I could hardly use my Urban Decay Naked Palettes for that reason, and this one would have been the same even if the eyeshadows were good. Anyone else have a quirk like that too?

NARS Rising Star Cheek Palette

Nars releases cheek palettes annually, sometimes even multiple times a year, and often times with repromoted shades. This makes them having a limited edition palette that much easier to resist when you know that even if you skip one, they’ll just come out with another one that could possibly be even more to your taste. When it comes to this color story, I was in love with the way it looked in the promo photos, but how it looks in person is completely different! The shades are much lighter, vibrant, and cool-tone. The two on the bottom left turned out to be far less likely to work for my skin tone, and the top right blush shade is literally a hot pinky purple shade I despise.
So, had I purchased this immediately when it released, I would have been disappointed. Especially because I saw several videos where one of the blushes popped out of the palette. One such example is in the video by Morgan Turner. It’s one of the things that drive me nuts about baked products on a plastic mesh because so many pop out on me after a few uses or during shipping. It’s so much rarer that I have a product pop out of a metal pan, unlike plastic mesh.

Also, the same way I wasn’t impressed by the simple star pattern of the Gucci blushes, I don’t find this packaging to be appealing either.

The ultimate reason to skip this palette came down to how seldom I reach for blush and face palettes, and more specifically, how infrequently I reach for my two other Nars cheek palettes. One is now on my “retirement shelf” because it’s so old and probably went four years untouched before I remembered I had it. The other, I lost after reviewing it and only recently found it again. I told myself that I need to prove to myself that I’ll actually use one of the Nars cheek palettes before I’ll be allowed to buy another one. However, that pact doesn’t pertain to this holiday launch. This one is fully being skipped, but I might potentially buy another in the future if all shades in it are the types of colors I wear.

Tom Ford Eye Color Crème Eyeshadow Quad in 38 Velours Kaki

I could have sworn I very briefly saw this available at Selfridges for $68 instead of $90, but it was taken off the website after a few days and has not returned to the Selfridges US site since. However, this wasn’t much of a factor in skipping this quad because the Tom Ford palettes that don’t sell well or are overstocked end up at the Cosmetics Company Store (aka CCO or CCS) for a significant discount, and I can expect at some point this will be more affordable.

The real reason I decided to talk myself out of getting this forever are the shade choices. I love greens, but the two deepest ones on the bottom half look so similar on the eyes. That gives even more limitation on the different types of looks one could do with these few of shades. In addition, I have to admit that something like the Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals palette with their greener greens and extended shade variety makes me far happier than this one likely would. When a brand produces tons of palette that are uninteresting to me, I sometimes get swept up in the excitement when one finally catches my eye, and I tend to ignore the fact that it has colors I don’t want in there as well, which makes it less worth the price to buy. My curiosity with a formula I haven’t tried from the brand, in this case the creamier ones, is another enticing aspect. This is the first time I’ve been interested in a color combination in this finish from Tom Ford. However, it would be much more satisfying if I waited for my perfect quad. With so few shade options, every one should be something you like if you’re going to buy it, out of pure principle.

Urban Decay Wild Greens Eyeshadow Palette and Urban Decay Naked x Robin Eisenberg Eyeshadow Palette

Oh, how I really wanted that Wild Greens palette! It was released early enough in the year when we weren’t as bombarded with green palettes. Several things made me hesitate on buying it: knowing it will highly likely go on sale for half price if I wait long enough, the abundance of green palettes I already own, the lack of a deep matte greens in this palette, and the darkest shade not being as deep as it looks in the pan and therefore lacking the ability to create the depth on the eyes that I want. The Robin Eisenberg collab palette was so exciting and colorful for an Urban Decay Naked palette, so I was instantly drawn in and planned to buy it when it would be inevitably 50% off. However, the more I looked at it, the more I realized it was only exciting because it was part of the Naked series. Had this color story been put in a different palette form for Urban Decay, it wouldn’t have been as intriguing to me. Plus, I am still in a phase of not being interested in blue eyeshadows, and this palette has so many of them. I also still have that hangup of the long thin rectangular eyeshadow pans and my aversion to wanting to use them.

So, for the same reasons I’ve talked myself out of the other palettes, I was able to apply it to this situation. As of right now, both palettes are indeed on sale for 50% off at Ulta, Sephora, and other US retailers. In fact, I had the option to get the Wild Greens Palette for only $17 via Amazon! However, waiting so long for a sale gave me time to think it over and carefully consider my options. I realized I liked the color stories of other palettes more than this one. Also, the quality of Urban Decay eyeshadows isn’t what it used to be. The Foxy palette that I did end up getting this year is nice enough, but isn’t stellar. I would much rather use the money I’m not spending on these to go towards a different makeup item that will bring me much more excitement to own.

Danessa Myricks Beauty Lightwork Vol. IV: Transcendence Palette – Illuminating Eye & Face Pigments

This was perhaps the most difficult eyeshadow palette to anti-haul this year. My love of multichromes is endless and I like the Danessa Myricks brand. I know how expensive these types of eyeshadows can be, so the whopping $125 price tag isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds, especially considering the price of PML palettes where usually only 1 or 2 “special” shades from her 10 pan mothership palettes are a true multichrome and for the same palette price.

The issue is that I already own more multichromes than a normal person should, and several shades are near dupes to each other when compared to my multichromes from other brands. So, I’m really not missing out. I shades I own are close enough to these.

Image credit to LBD Beauty on YouTube in her video reviewing the palette.

All of the shades above are from Clionadh, with the exception of Paradise, which is an actual shade from the Lightwork IV palette. I got it as a sample in a Trendmood box and only used it once because I rarely enjoy the “scattered effect” type of look in any form of makeup. Surprisingly, I had an easier time getting the shadow on my eyes than getting it to apply smoothly on my arm (perhaps because my eyelids are oily, but my skin is dry elsewhere), but I hate the actual large flakes within this. So, I know I would enjoy the Velvet chromes, but the larger pans in the middle of the palette would go virtually unused in my collection.

I don’t just want to cut down on my purchases because of money. I want to feel like I’m getting enough usage out of the products I buy and if I buy something that I have one or several duplicates of, it will prevent me from making a dent in any of them. I like having my makeup in clean condition by wiping off the surface of the compact or palette, wiping around the rims of the pans, and picking up the product in different sections of the pans with my brush so it gets used up in a more even fashion. However, I don’t want them to actually look untouched. By purchasing less, the chances are much higher that I get to spend adequate time with at least my top favorite products.

When I want multichromes, that’s what having my Clionadh collection was for…and my Devinah shadows…and my Terra Moons. I also have them scattered among several mainstream palettes. When is enough going to be enough? I hope that time is now.

Bisyodo Grand Series G-P-01 Powder Brush

Bisyodo is one of my favorite Fude brands, but I only have their goat hair brushes. Then, for what I believe is the first time, Bisyodo released their line of Gray Squirrel brushes in the new Grand Series with their pretty gold ferrules and gorgeous ebony wood. Of course I wanted one of them, but this series is even more expensive the the Chikuhodo Z series, which I consider the crème de la crème of gray squirrel brushes where they give the best quality for the most reasonable prices, and anything more expensive is either due to the price of upgraded/pricier materials, more bristles, or paying for the brand name. In this case, the (possibly plated gold) ferrule and ebony wood differ from Chikuhodo, but isn’t worth the price difference in my eyes, especially with the comparable shapes or comparable functions of the brushes from Bisyodo having less hair than the Chikuhodo Z alternatives. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

After looking through the whole series, the one brush I felt might be worth saving up for was the G-P-01 because it has a round ferrule and brush head (which is my preferred shape in a face brush) and isn’t quite as drastic of a price jump, unlike the smaller brushes in the line. In addition, I don’t have a brush in this shape from Bisyodo, but I have similar goat hair versions from Bisyodo to the highlight and blush brushes. That’s how I ended up with only this brush on my wishlist since it came out in July ’22.

These were the prices on December 25, 2022. They change day to day because of the exchange rate and are subject to overall price increases by the brand. Please view the website for the most accurate cost information.

I just couldn’t bring myself to blindly buy it, so I waited for a video and Alicia Archer came through. The collage below are images from her video.

The brush doesn’t match my preference with it being so easily splayed like that, so it’s not dense enough for my liking and I can’t help but feel like they skimped out on the amount of hairs. It doesn’t look uniformly bundled as it looks like it’s staggered up in parts to the section that tapers around. One section in particular looks choppy and not perfectly round, as if someone took a pair of scissors to the side of it. I’m sure the hair itself is ridiculously soft, since that other brush in the photo compared to it has hair that looks so fragile at the base and I can see that stray hair that’s coming out of the top.

If this was an inexpensive brush, the way the hair looks would be fine, but if I actually paid for one that looked like that, I’d be disappointed. Alicia was sent the brush set by Fude Beauty, and I would think that the absolute best would be sent in PR, so that makes me a little afraid that if I tried to buy it at any retailer it may look better or even worse than that one. That’s quite the gamble. These brushes are handmade, so not every one of them will be identical, but I decided that it would be best for me to anti-haul this particular line. I made this decision when the exchange rate between USD and YEN was much more favorable to dollars and the brush was as low as $139 or $142. Now that it’s back up to $158, It’s absolutely a skip. Part of me wonders if I missed my chance on getting it for as low as it was ever going to be, but I have plenty of beautifully crafted gray squirrel brushes from other brands in my collection, including outlet brushes that only have tiny cosmetic flaws but are otherwise perfect. I also considered just saving up my own points I earn through purchases, along with the points I get when others have so kindly used my links when purchasing from CDJapan, but I couldn’t bring myself to use those points on something I may not like. I’d rather spend it on something I know for certain I will cherish.

So, these are the reasons I ultimately decided to skip this one. And I can guarantee there will be other opportunities to buy different and equally beautiful brushes from Bisyodo in the future. I can be a fan of them (at least with their goat hair brushes) without needing to own everything they make.

In the event that someone would still like to purchase this brush or any other item that’s available at CDJapan using my affiliate link, it can be done by clicking HERE, and if so, thank you for monetarily supporting this blog!

Sonia G Niji Pro and The Hinoki Set

Sonia G is another one of my favorite brush brands (Chikuhodo, Sonia G, and Bisyodo are the top three). Every launch of hers is tempting, even if it’s for brushes that aren’t my usual style. When it comes to the Hinoki Set, I loved the detail of the cranes on the handles and I really wanted the uniquely shaped smaller brush. The larger brush head was not as unique, but was a shape I enjoyed. I just had to think about my preferences and remember that I tend to not like the undyed goat hair from Sonia G. Yes, the bristles are super soft, but the way they splay out after being washed and their tendency to be wispier than their dyed counterparts is what I don’t like about them. To me, it’s as if the dyed hairs are thicker, but I don’t know if it’s a coating or perhaps if the thicker hairs are selected intentionally to withstand the dye process. Or maybe she intentionally chooses undyed hair brushes to be the airier brushes. I don’t know for sure, but I remember how I ended up giving my Lotus Cheek to my friend because I preferred the denseness of the regular Cheek Pro (so much that I have a backup of the Cheek Pro too after the Lotus Cheek didn’t have the same performance benefits). Had the Hinoki brushes been available individually, I might have purchased the smaller one. However, it’s my rule that I shouldn’t buy full sets of brushes if I don’t like nearly all of them, unless I intend to sell the ones I won’t use. I did that once with the Lotus Set prior to them being available individually and I don’t want to have to do that again. These brushes are not just tools; they are like art to me.

The rationale for keeping sets bundled is that it’s a way to keep the cost lower (the way eyeshadow palettes are cheaper per shadow than a brand’s singles cost individually) or that these more intricate designs are intended for collectors, which implies people having the finances to afford more extravagant and luxurious brushes. Granted, there are plenty who fall into that category. However, there are some who are like me and consider themselves fans enough to be a Fude Collector that will skip out on buying other things (like jewelry, designer clothes and shoes and accessories, etc) in order to fund that collection. It would be nice to have the option to solely buy the ones we can love and use without being stuck with additional ones that aren’t going to get any love. I think it’s okay to own a collector piece and have it on display for its beauty and not for use, like art, but it’s another thing to own a collector item and not appreciate it enough to want to display it and not want to use it either, so it just sits in the back of a drawer or in a box serving no purpose. That feels wasteful considering all the time and effort by the artisans to create it and the ever growing limited resource of that animal hair. It would be a shame to have something I don’t want, when it could have been purchased by someone else who would have actually cherished it if only they had the option to buy it as a single too. After all, the Hinoki set is limited edition and for each person who buys the two without loving them both, that potentially takes away from someone else’s ability to own it.
No judgements to those who have. It’s just what keeps me from doing it too.

Regarding the Niji Pro, the salt and pepper look of the hair is beautiful! There is something so pleasing about it. I like this type of shape for bronzer and contour, but I thought it looked a bit too large. I had already sold my Lotus Base. I owned the Scott Barnes #65 Flawless Face Brush and the Patrick Ta Contour Brush. Just because this is a gorgeous mix of dyed and undyed Saikoho goat hair and would be a more luxurious addition to my collection, doesn’t mean I need to own it. I can admire it from afar is what I told myself. It was hard, but I’m glad I did, because eventually Sonia released the Jumbo Bronzer brush which, based on the descriptions, is even more suited to me than the Niji Pro! The Niji Pro is denser for a heavier application and stronger buffing power. The Jumbo Bronzer brush has a good amount of density while still giving an airy result due to the flexible and longer hair. When I want something more precise or to use with a more subtle product that requires packing, I have my Patrick Ta Contour Brush for that. However, with use of my powder bronzers that are a little deep and need a lighter application combined with good blending ability, the Jumbo Bronzer is everything I wanted. So, I was rewarded for waiting for my ideal brush rather than settling for one that sounded nice, but wasn’t filling any voids in my collection.

There are a few more items I considered adding to this list, but truth be told, I might cave on those if the price is right. There are also some new launches that I’m planning to anti-haul, like the Colourpop Sage the Day palette (which is too similar to The Child palette plus I swore off buying CP Palettes because I never use them), but it’s too soon after the launch to feel like I successfully got that one out of my system. I have held strong to what I wrote in that post though and haven’t purchased another one since. I also haven’t used a single one of my CP palettes since that post either, further reinforcing the point that I made the right decision to stop buying them.

That’s all I’ve got for this week’s post. I wish you a very happy holiday! Thank you for reading.

-Lili ❤

Lisa Eldridge Eyeshadow Palettes and Lippies

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Today’s post will be a long one. There are tons of other reviews about this new holiday launch, but I believe I can add a little more to the conversation with all the comparisons of colors, textures, sizes, pricing, and more that I’m including. There are a few additional items that I wanted to purchase from the brand, but they’re out of stock and will not be available again until 2023. I’ve heard that the brand also intends to expand on the eyeshadow range (along with making the eyeshadow system fully customizable with some form of empty palette option), so there will be a Part 2 at some point next year.

Whenever I review an Influencer/MUA/Celebrity owned brand on this blog for the first time, I include a disclosure for those concerned about possible biases. So, first, I will say that I’ve been a subscriber of Lisa’s YouTube channel for eight or nine years. I’m not a very consistent watcher, but I’ve had a long time respect for her makeup knowledge, skills, and I own her Face Paint book. Her love of Suqqu, Hakuhodo, and other natural hair brushes is part of the reason (along with Wayne Goss, Tati, etc) that I was motivated to try Japanese brushes for the first time. I’m not following Lisa Eldridge on other social media platforms. I’ve had no personal interaction with her. When it comes to the cosmetics brand, I have only begun purchasing things as of a month ago despite it being around for about four years. So, while I do respect her and like her, I feel I’m still detached enough to review these products objectively. However, the Lisa Eldridge brand is a luxury one and whether I believe the items from a luxury brand are worth the money or not is a lot more subjective due to the nature of things like packaging, special ingredients/formulas, ordering experience, and other extras factoring into the cost. In other words, the value placed on packaging (for example) and its usefulness vs its worth in beauty is going to differ from person to person.

Lisa Eldridge Eyeshadow Formulas

When it comes to these shadows, the colors are secondary to the finish, which is the best indication for whether or not they’re worth buying. There are a few outliers, but the formulas are overall consistent. So, I recommend deciding on the finish and then choosing the shades within those categories that are the most appealing. The single shadows I chose to buy are a hint to my personal preferences: the Velvets and Seamless Mattes.

*The numbers next to the finishes indicate how many I own out of the total of each type available.

Velvets (7 of 9) – I can’t think of any other brand’s eyeshadows that feel like this. The closest comparison is Natasha Denona’s Cream Powder formula, but smoother (or as the name suggests, more velvety). These give an even but thin layer of color. A soft look is fast to achieve. If I want the shadows built up to the full color displayed in the pans, that takes a little extra time and sometimes needing to reapply one shade over the other. However, this is worth it to me because of how perfectly they blend into each other and blend on the eyes. The darker shades are great for adding a smoky effect and definition, but the overall look will still mostly be soft, even with the more vibrant shades, like Victorian Trim.

I alternate between using my fingers and brushes with these eyeshadows, and using a finger sometimes causes too much product to bunch up and gives the surface of the pan a mottled looking texture, but it doesn’t seem to be effecting my ability to use them.

Seamless Mattes (2 of 6) – These feel even closer to the Natasha Denona Cream Powder shadows, but ND’s older formula that’s creamy on the surface but isn’t as wet as her newer ones. This means that the Seamless Mattes are similar to the Velvets, but with more color payoff. Ironically, the Velvets have a more matte looking texture than the Seamless Mattes, which have a little bit of a sheen to them. Although I use certain Velvets to create depth, I think the Seamless Mattes are better suited to that task because of the increased pigmentation and that sheen which looks better when applied on top of the shimmers/metallics I use on the lids.

I also alternate between using a brush and my fingers. I prefer to use a brush for precision and quicker concentrated packing of the shadows. With repeated use of my fingers, the surfaces look like they are forming hard-pan, but they haven’t actually solidified, so I don’t think they will. My older Cream Powder ones are like that too and haven’t become hard-panned either.

Luminous (1 of 3) – Mercurial is the only Luminous finish shadow I have, but it’s a duochrome. I don’t know if the others are as sparkly as this one, but the website description about giving either a light wash or intense top coat effect is accurate. This finish is way more impressive as a topper than the actual Top Coat shadows and is a bit grittier (just in comparison to the insanely smooth texture of some of the other shadows). It’s also easier to build up the opacity than the shade Grotto, which is supposed to be “full on [and] glittery.” I usually prefer to apply shimmers with my fingers, but I get a little fallout with Mercurial, so I tend to start with a brush and then pack on an extra layer with my fingers. Sometimes, I’ll just use it on top of Glitter Glue/Primer.

Metallic (2 of 2) – The Metallic category, at launch, didn’t have the Satin/Metallic subcategory, but I’m glad the brand updated that distinction on the website because I immediately noticed a difference the first time I tried Grotto and Madrigal versus Swansong and Mage within my Sorcery palette. Grotto and Madrigal have a visibly sparkly texture and are more reflective. Madrigal is the most special of the Metallics and Satin/Metallics, but that’s because of the tone of it and being more impactful and shiny on the eyes than the Satin/Metallics. It’s good, but I can name tons of shadows that can do the same or better at a better price. Plus, the glimmer effect dims a little as the day goes on. I’m glad it doesn’t dim down completely or fade off the eyes, but for $16 each, I expect more. Grotto is a shadow I really despised in the beginning. It’s much thinner than Madrigal and I have to apply more layers to get it to show the color and not just the sparkle. The website says, “Both metallics can be applied with fingers for full opacity, or as a wash with a brush,” and Grotto is much more prone to being a wash. I hated that quality at first because it was getting lost in my eye looks and blending too much into the other shades, but I’ve grown to appreciate it slightly more with time. The main reason being that it makes it easier to transition between other shades and also can add a greenish tinge to shadows for an interesting twist. I don’t like that this one fades, but it stays pretty for a while. I would still prefer to use many other greens in my collection over Grotto, so that one isn’t worth it. Madrigal, may be an exception. I still haven’t decided.

Satin/Metallic (4 of 7) – What makes the Satin/Metallics different is the smaller glitter particle size and smoother (satin) texture. These have much lower reflect than the shimmers and metallic shadows I’m used to, though they are a little more sparkly than satins from most other brands. The shimmering quality isn’t intense enough for my liking at all. What they have going for them are the pretty shade offerings and the opacity level. They aren’t “chunky” but a little goes a long way in spreading across the lids, but trying to build it up won’t make it any more intense. As flattering as the tones are, they’re not worth the single shadow price to me.

Top Coat (1 of 2) – This one I genuinely hate, and I don’t use the word “hate” lightly. It’s so difficult to pick up the product. Then, it hardly adds anything to the look after packing it on the lids, no matter how many times I try to build up the layers or even if I apply it wet or with a glitter primer. To be fair, in the website description and in Lisa’s launch video, it’s made very clear that the Top Coats are intended to be subtle. However, a good top coat eyeshadow for me is one that is the opposite and is the most glittery and sparkly type of finish of them all. I didn’t even wait for this review to be posted before I replaced it with Cherubim in my Myth palette. I will never buy one as a single from the brand.

Illusionism also keeps giving the appearance of being about to hard-pan, but since I’ve had trouble packing on the shadow from the beginning, I can’t tell if it actually is starting to or not.

Lustre (0 of 1) – This one I don’t own, so I cannot say what it’s like. I would have purchased Taffeta Fan to try out if the refill option hadn’t sold out. According to the website, “The densely packed, smooth and extra small pearls gives this texture a soft lustrous, pearly finish.” Since the “soft” shadows or shadows with the option to be applied softly haven’t been entirely worth it to me to purchase, I may have lucked out in not being able to buy it, as it sounds like it won’t be my preference.

I’ve had the most success using these shadows with the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas and Coloured Raine Eye Base. MAC Paint Pot and the Makeup by Mario Eye Prep had a tiny bit of creasing, but nothing that obvious. They worked better when set with powder though. So, I recommend using a primer that fully sets but isn’t too drying either. This prevents creasing and aids in longevity. In addition, wetting the non-mattes helps to bring out the shine in the eyeshadows, but it’s a temporary fix. After a while, it goes back to looking however intense it was prior to being dampened.

Also, I have been enjoying using the Velvets and Seamless Mattes with eyeshadows from other brands too. They layer well and the Velvets work like paint in being able to make shadows a little more pink, purple, etc when added on top.

Sorcery Eyeshadow Palette

Just looking at the pans, the textural differences between the Seamless Matte, Luminous Duo, the two Metallics, and two Satin/Metallics are evident. The Luminous is most sparkly of all and the Metallics have larger particles than the Satin/Metallics.

Sorcery was the first palette to sell out, which is unsurprising to me because it contains the brand’s only duochrome and this has been the year of the green eyeshadow palettes. All of these shades appeal to me (although I’m still in an anti-blue phase but I can still even appreciate the beauty in the vibrancy of Swansong).

I understand that the inspiration for this palette was a peacock tail, and so the blue was necessary. The fact that Troubadour is a very blue leaning green helps to tie Swansong to this palette, but that makes both deepening shades in here blue. I found myself wishing I had either a dark brown to tie in with the greens and gold, or wishing for a true deep green. That’s why I ended up purchasing Deep Ochre and Fired Earth in the event that I wish to remove Swansong entirely.

As a standalone palette though, Sorcery is fantastic and the one I recommend the most. Having such a special shade like Mercurial, plus a unique tone of gold in Madrigal, getting an uncommon (at least in my collection) color like Mage, and one of my favorite formulas in Troubadour makes this especially desirable out of the premade palette options from the brand.

The first four eye looks were using the Sorcery palette alone. I felt that Swansong was quite overpowering in making the blue the focus point when the other shades were the ones I wanted to stand out. So, in the future, if I use Swansong, it will be as a slight pop of color on the outer corner or lower lash line.

Since I purchased the brown shades, I wanted to show how I would likely use them with Sorcery. I then wanted Madrigal to look a little more green, so I added Grotto to one of the looks for a subtle tinge difference. Also, I didn’t feel that I showed off Mercurial enough, so I made sure to include an eye look using it by itself and then as a topper with other shades.

Myth Eyeshadow Palette

I bought Myth later in a separate order. Once I tried the Seamless Matte from Sorcery and heard other people saying the Velvets were like it, but even creamier, I knew I had to buy this palette. Doing it this way was the easiest (and most cost effective) option to get the majority of the Velvet Mattes from the brand. Natasha Denona’s Cream Powder shadows are one of my top favorite formulas, which I’m often tempted to buy whole palettes just to get. So, even though I have shades like Victorian Trim, Violet Stone, and Nocturama a hundred times over in my collection, it was worth getting Myth to have those shades in the Velvet finish. I didn’t own Natasha Denona’s My Dream Palette at the time though, so I didn’t realize I’d be getting two shades similar to Victorian Trim, but more on that in the comparison section later.

Mauve Decade is a shadow I barely have in my collection. The only shade I can think of that’s comparable to it is Naaru from the Kaleidos x Angelic Nyqvist Club Nebula palette. Anything else that looks remotely similar has too much white base in it, turning it pastel, and then it ends up looking ashy and unflattering on my eyes. So, Mauve Decade is extra special and unsurprisingly one of the first single refill shadows to sell out.

I don’t have a lot of shades like Faded Amethyst either, but that’s because I’m not usually interested in that color. I can admit that it looks pretty with the others in this palette though, so I don’t mind having it. Illusionism is the only shadow I knew I wouldn’t want ahead of time, but it was coming with the others anyway. I could see in the launch video that it just wouldn’t give me the oomph I wanted. Even if someone wants a sheer and subtle topper, I can’t see how it’s worth the refill price with the myriad of other indie brands that make phenomenal topper shadows that can be applied sheer or more impactful if built up. Toppers with duochromatic features. I will give Illusionism praise though for not leaving me with much fallout. Perhaps that is enough to make someone desire the Top Coat formula from the brand, but the trouble I had picking up the product to get it on my eyes is a bigger deal to me.

The look above was inspired by the one Lisa did in her launch video. I tried to create some variety in the examples below, but I would realistically do the same one above every time I open this palette (minus Illusionism and just applying Faded Amethyst wet for more impact). I’m obsessed with the combination! I would have never thought to do a magenta pop of color in that spot had it not been for that video. Lisa’s look in the launch video pretty much sold me on the palette.

Since the Muse palette leans pink, the shades from there pair very well with the ones from Myth. So, I wanted to include an example of that in the final eye look above. Also, I wasn’t sure which section I should put this message in, but I wanted to warn about the reddish purple type of shades in this palette. I get teary eyes often and when I’ve worn the shades Vintage Mulberry and Victorian Trim, and had to wipe the corners of my eyes, the tears were pink. It happens every time my eyes decide to be watery. Those two shades basically run on me like non-waterproof mascara can. They haven’t hurt my eyes, but I just wanted to forewarn those in rainy climates or who have watery eyes like me that it could happen. I’ve continued to wear those two shades in my outer corner for depth, but I no longer put them on my lower lash line.
Because my eye shape makes me prone to easily getting mascara and shimmer particles in my eyes while taking off my makeup, I’m not quite as concerned when the pink from Victorian Trim gets in my eyes as well, but I felt it was important to mention that the color is easily transferred to the liquid when wet.

Eyeshadow Palette Refills:

Cherubim and Vintage Mulberry (Muse) plus Deep Ochre, Fired Earth, and Bronzite (Cinnabar)

I didn’t buy these shades all in one order. I started with Cherubim first because I was in love with that color. Most pinks look lighter on my skin, and finding a light-medium pink that will show up looking like a soft pink and not ashy isn’t that easy for me to find. I also knew this was the shade I wanted to replace Illusionism with in the Myth palette. Then, because I wanted a shade to add depth without looking so dark and plum like Nocturama, I bought Vintage Mulberry. Vintage Mulberry ended up not looking as dark on my eyes as I expected, so it’s darker but not enough to add as much structure as I wanted. Considering it’s a Velvet, I’m still glad I got it. Then, I couldn’t decide which brown I wanted to use with the Sorcery palette that wasn’t cool-toned, so I added both Deep Ochre and Fired Earth to another order.
By the time I bought Bronzite, I already knew the Satin/Metallic finish wasn’t my favorite, but I wanted to give it one more chance and also I wanted a neutral shimmer option. I didn’t realize it would be so orange in person and also so intense! That was a surprise, but still a nice one.

The singles came in their own individual boxes. There are no magnets or plastic used. I just peeled off the sticker keeping the flap securely closed, lifted the flap, and flipped the eyeshadow pan out into my palm. Most of them I had to clean off excess shadow powder around the edges and bottoms of the pans. They are not labeled, so I added my own handwritten sticker labels to them. Some pans are fully flat whereas others have bumps on the bottom. I’m not sure why they aren’t all the same. I can’t help but wonder if the bumped ones were intended for the palettes in the early stages of developing the eyeshadows, but then they decided to offer refills individually and just made all the rest smooth? Or maybe the bumped ones come from a different lab? Perhaps stock of one type of pans were purchased first and the others were found at a better price and purchased after? I’m throwing out complete guesses in the dark. It’s a curious thing that really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. They both stick just fine to magnetic palettes, so that’s what counts.

For the eye looks using my refills, I felt it necessary to show the step by step process because the shade and depth differences are so subtle and I felt it would be too difficult to tell which shades had the most dominance over the look if I only showed the end results.

Shade Comparisons to Natasha Denona’s Cream Powder Eyeshadows

To make things a little easier in this section, I color coded the shade names.

Yellow = Lisa Eldridge
Green = Natasha Denona Metropolis Palette
Purple = Natasha Denona My Dream Palette
Red = Natasha Denona Love Palette
Orange = Natasha Denona Bronze Palette

Troubadour, the “deep inky teal,” looks exactly like Symbol in the pan, but it’s much closer to looking like Enigma because it’s closer to blue than green. I would love for Lisa Eldridge to come out with a green like Royal. Actually, I’d love a dupe for Lethal and Troop too.

I didn’t realize the Cream Powders from the My Dream Palette were so similar looking. Instinct is the closer dupe for Victorian Trim, but it’s more pigmented. Had I realized this ahead of time, I might have reconsidered buying the My Dream Palette since I already owned Myth. At the same time, I can see that an argument could be made in favor of the Natasha Palette at $69 (around $58 with the 20% off discount at Sephora plus tax) for 15 shadows versus the Myth Palette at $68 for 6 shadows. I can’t say which one I prefer because I’ve yet to use the My Dream Palette other than swatching Instinct and Edgy.

The shades from Metropolis are the oldest of the Cream Powders I have in this pan size. They are starting to not swatch as well, but they are a month shy of being two years old, so they aren’t that bad in terms of age. However, I have been wishing for a replacement and I’m thrilled to be able to get them from Lisa Eldridge as an alternative.

Having Chrism is why I didn’t buy Raw Sienna or Tea Room, since I thought those two might be too light for my liking and Chrism is right on that border and can be used in place of those two in the eye looks I wanted to create.
Deep Ochre and Antique are quite similar but, again, it’s from my Metropolis Palette that is getting up there in age. So, I don’t regret buying Deep Ochre. Fired Earth is a great choice since I didn’t have a dark neutral brown in this type of formula.

The Cream Powder shadows and the ones from Lisa blend and build perfectly together. So, I’m feeling a lot more with satisfied with the amount I have and feel like I can even skip buying Natasha’s Palettes (especially in light of the many controversies the ND brand has had even just this year alone). I’m more content with waiting for Lisa to release even more shadows with these finishes.

After comparing all these swatches, I see that I’d love to have some yellows, an orange, and more green tones as Velvets or Seamless Mattes from Lisa Eldridge. These are the ones where I feel the refill price is worth it for me. I also see the potential usefulness of having Lamp Black and Smoke & Mirrors, the only two shades from the Vega Palette that caught my interest. Perhaps those will end up being reviewed in Part 2 next year, if I get them during a restock.

Eyeshadow Pan Size and Palette Size Comparisons

I was extremely interested in the idea of being able to use the gorgeous eyeshadow palette container for traveling with Lisa’s shadows, plus shadows from other brands, but the wells are too short to fit my Clionadh shadows and even my medium sized Viseart pans. The Natasha Denona midi pan sizes can fit though, so there’s one saving grace. All the other square pan single shadows in my collection are far too large to bother trying to fit them in. Technically, I could put the small size Viseart pans in here, but that would feel like wasted space.

The “Extra Large” size of Make Up For Ever Artist Color Refillable Makeup Palette from Sephora (only 4 inches wide), not to be confused with the Refillable Pro Makeup Palette which is much larger and from MUFE’s website, is slightly bigger than the Lisa Eldridge palettes. For the sake of storing the two Lisa palettes and refills together, the Extra Large MUFE palette came in handy. I don’t know if Lisa Eldridge will make the empty palettes themselves be available for purchase, or if customers will have to buy six refills in order to get the palette with it. If I end up not being able to buy the empty palette alone, the MUFE one will have to suffice.

The comparisons of Lisa’s eyeshadow price per gram to Pat Mcgrath, Charlotte Tilbury, Natasha Denona, etc have been done by others. There’s no denying her shadows are extremely expensive. The palette I feel compelled to discuss instead is the Olivia Palermo Eyeshadow Palette in Regalia, since the Olivia Palermo brand is also in the luxury sphere, has similar sized palettes with six shadows, and is at a near enough price point (on the surface).

Regalia is $58 for 7 total grams of product at around $8.29 per gram. Sorcery is $68 for 5.7 total grams of product at approximately $11.93 per gram. I’d like to note that the industry standard is at least 1 gram per shadow and Lisa’s are slightly under that at 0.95 grams. So, this math just doubles down on what we already know about not getting one’s money’s worth in terms of the amount of product contained within these palettes. The customer’s view on the formulas, shades, likeliness to use up the eyeshadows, and more are the determining factors in the “worth” of them for the price. Honestly, I don’t mind having eyeshadows with less product because my collection is too large to ever hit pan on them anyway.

Then, regarding the packaging itself, they are both beautiful luxurious looking gold palettes. Lisa’s are aluminum or some other kind of lightweight metal. The shadows are interchangeable and that’s a bonus factor in being able to use them for travel and take up less space and weight in a travel bag or purse. Olivia’s is weighty like a brick! It’s some form of very heavy metal. Two of Lisa’s palettes are literally still lighter on the scale than a single one of Olivia’s palettes. In fact, it would take three of Lisa’s to surpass the weight of Regalia alone. However, this is kind of like a display piece. It wasn’t intended for travel or being on-the-go. Whether someone wants a custom designed weighty luxurious product to keep on the vanity or a bespoke unique and functional product is up to the customer to decide which factor is most appealing. I personally love the weightiness of Olivia’s palette because it screams luxury, but I can’t deny that Lisa found a way to make hers elegant while being a lot more practical.

Weight depicted on the scale above is in ounces, not grams.

For the price point, Olivia’s palette is what I expected from Lisa, but I think I’m happier with how Lisa’s actually ended up being. I still don’t think it would have been worth the price without the Velvets and Seamless Mattes though.

Palettes Rearranged

Of course, now that I have the extra shadows, I played around with the different color story possibilities. Below are my favorites.

The first palette of the bunch is what my Myth palette currently looks like. For now, I left Sorcery as is. However, I am the most likely to change it to the last arrangement out of my examples above.

Lisa Eldridge Lip Products

I have to post the disclaimer that I am NOT a lipstick person. I buy them and most of the time end up not wearing them. I’m a gloss person through and through, but it’s really difficult for me to want to shell out anything above $20 for a gloss and I usually wait for a sale that I can buy a higher end gloss below my $20 preference. However, for the sake of science and my interest in the way the Gloss Embrace formula was described as being nourishing for the lips, I bought one. As for lipsticks, anything over $25 is…well it just doesn’t happen! Prior to my purchase of the True Velvet Lip Colour, the most expensive lipsticks I ever bought were from Bite Beauty for I think $26. I never expected to be so drawn in by the rave reviews, massive hype, and my growing curiosity in the brand that I would spend $36 on one from Lisa before even trying the other luxury lipstick brands I’ve had for ages on my beauty bucket list. But here we are!

True Velvet Lip Colour in Velvet Affair and Gloss Embrace Lip Gloss in Blush

I love the gold on both the lipstick and lip gloss. 10 out of 10 for packaging. I especially like the magnetic closure of the lipstick cap which adds to the weightiness of the product (but isn’t too heavy to make it inconvenient to take on-the-go). I also like the embossing around the bullet in the attempt to make it look like actual velvet.

Despite how dark the bullet of Velvet Affair looks, it’s too light for my comfort level to wear by itself. I saw the wonderful array of model photos on the website and purposely intended to get a near-nude lipstick shade. It just ended up being the kind of color that I only like when paired with a darker lip liner.
I heard the lipsticks can be used on the cheeks for blush, and when I really pack the color on, I think it does work nicely for that purpose. I’ve only tried it twice and didn’t do a full wear test, so I’m not sure if there are any issues with transferring or fading when using the lipstick on the cheeks. However, I liked it for the short times I wore it that way. On my lips, I also have only worn it so far for a short time and haven’t done a full day’s wear test. I intend to update this post with my thoughts once I do.* At this moment in time, I see why people like it because of how comfortable it is to wear a lipstick this matte. I may one day try another color if it’s the perfect shade that I can wear without lip liner, but as a non-lipstick person, I don’t think it’ll be worth it for me to have more than one of these Velvet lipsticks. The times I’ve actually loved lipsticks have been with more satin type of formulas and sheer buildable ones. So, perhaps the Lucents will capture my heart even though they are less hyped up.

*UPDATE Dec 26th, 2022: It remains comfortable feeling all day, and surprisingly there’s a lot left on the lips after a meal. Despite it not feeling drying, it does still dry my lips. I still like it, but this isn’t the product that will somehow turn me into a lipstick lover, unfortunately!

The lip gloss is really nice! I love how long I can feel the sealed hydration effect on my lips, even after the top layer of the gloss is gone. I have only worn it a few times, but I do like it. I wish I had more colors, but that price tag is deterring me. I haven’t yet decided for myself whether the gloss was worth it. I would say yes if it was the only one in my collection, but considering the others I own and love like from Fenty and Pat Mcgrath, perhaps it’s not.

In addition to photos of lip swatches up close, I like to also show a pulled back photo to show how well or not the lip products compliment my complexion. In these photos, I’m wearing the Hourglass Ambient Soft Glow Foundation, Lisa Eldridge eyeshadows on both eyes, Velvet Affair lipstick on the lips and cheeks, my mix of lip liners around my lips. I also have on the Melt Cosmetics Ultra-Matte Bronzer and the MAC x Whitney Houston highlighter.

I have the Luxuriously Lucent Lip Colour in Meet Me in Berlin on my wishlist for the same reason as the Liquid Lurex Eyeshadow in Liza…because of my difficulty with resisting products that I have a personal connection to. In the case of the lippie, it’s because of my boyfriend in Germany. In the case of the liquid eyeshadow, it’s because it’s my sister’s name (though pronounced differently). Truth be told, I’m not a single eyeshadow (unless depotted) or liquid shadow type of gal, but if I were, it would be Titania and Zora that would be more my speed. So, it’s very likely that a review of the Liquid Lurex, Luxuriously Lucent Lip Colour, and additional Eye Shadows from a future launch can be expected in Part 2 in 2023.

Velvet Makeup Pouches

These can normally be purchased for $25 each in various colors. However, there is currently a deal that a free bag will come with every purchase of three or more items. The Pompadour color was available with the eyeshadow launch. At some point they ran out and I saw the blue one there for a short time, the cherry red one for a short time, the Emerald which I made a purchase to get, and then the Pompadour shade returned. There was one point where no bags were in stock at all and therefore no gift with purchase option with it.

I didn’t think these were that special until I actually got the first one in my hands. I love the luxurious texture of the bag, the pretty logo, the variety of colors, and the zipper. I actually keep my Lisa Eldridge products together in one because of how well they fit in it. I can see why these are collectable to some people and if a purple variation was released, I would likely be willing to buy it outright!
For Oden Eye’s Saga of Freja collection, they had an exclusive sage green velvet makeup bag for those who bought the entire bundle and I just couldn’t do that when I didn’t want the majority of the collection. So, I’ve had the dreaded feeling of having missed out. In a way, the Emerald bag from Lisa Eldridge has finally filled that void even though they are different sizes and shapes entirely.

Ordering Experience

Apparently, the brand has a distributor in the US and worked out some kind of deal to keep the shipping free for US customers. That has been one of the reasons it’s been so much easier for me to talk myself into making the additional purchases (when I told myself I’d only buy the Sorcery palette and nothing else).

Ordering from the website was hassle free. The shipping is fairly quick and so far has taken anywhere from 3-7 days to arrive. It only tends to be longer if I made a purchase just before the weekend.

The items are well packed and instead of generic cardboard boxes, they are white with the brand’s logo on the inside. I haven’t had any order mixups and everything has arrived intact. For that reason, I’ve had no need to interact with customer service, but I’ve heard they’re great.

The only thing I wish was that I could actually create a customer account so I could see my order history in one place and keep a wishlist on the website. However, it might be for the best not to have that kind of thing stored.

So, overall, my ordering experience has been great with this brand. The prices are a bit hard to swallow, but my interest in Lisa Eldridge makeup has increased a lot and I look forward to seeing more.

That’s everything I’ve got! Thank you for reading! Also, if I messed up the shade names, please excuse that. I have been calling several shade names the wrong thing for three weeks and only in this past week I realized my mistake and had to fix all the errors I could spot.

-Lili ❤

Viseart Palettes: Violetta, London Étoile, Grand Pro 1x, Bijouxette and Peridot

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This post has been in the works since I purchased three of the palettes during Viseart’s annual Spring Sale in May. I was having some issues with the Grande Pro 1x, which is why this review got so delayed. Then, I bought London Etoile during the Beautylish Gift Card Event in October, and Violetta in November. So, this post is now featuring all the Viseart palettes I purchased in 2022!

Before we dive into the reviews, I just want to get the discussion of the pan sizes out of the way. I think it’s important to know for those who like to customize/rearrange their palettes. The standard original eyeshadow pans Viseart launched their brand with is their largest size and are part of the newly named “SlimPro” palettes. Their medium size pans are part of the Petits Fours and Étendu palette lines. The smallest pan sizes are part of the Petites, Petit Pro, and EDIT palette lines. Also, the original Grande Pro 1-3 palettes were in that largest/standard pan size, but the Grande Pro 1x has the medium pans. Below is a photo showing the standard, medium, and small.

PETITS FOURS – VIOLETTA

Violetta is one of the three holiday quads and one of Viseart’s newest releases, which I purchased from Beautylish at full price. I’m not going to downplay how much I love this palette. It is literally the best offering of finishes Viseart has ever put together in a quad, the most cohesive and unique color selection, and their best eyeshadow quality yet! It also happens to swatch better than a lot of Viseart’s other palettes.

I normally despise mattes with random flecks of glitter, but Couperin is such a gorgeous mauve-pink shade that I don’t mind. Plus, one of the reasons I don’t like sequin type shadows (Viseart calls it a “matte hybrid finish”) is that when applied, the shimmer is mostly gone but it looks out of place having a few individual specks on the eye unless I pair it with a shimmer. With a color like Couperin, I don’t see myself using it in an all-matte look anyway. I have been such a fan of this shade that I’ve paired it with other eyeshadow looks I’ve done lately, and that is not a usual thing for me to do. I will usually only reach for additional palettes to pull out specific shimmers, so a matte shadow being memorable for me is rare. Also, a shade this light to show up pigmented on me and remain looking mauve without looking ashy is not that common, even among similar Viseart shades in other palettes.

Verrerie is described as a, “midnight-purple with a duochromatic metallic finish,” and I am obsessed! It has beautiful bright reflective shimmer that is more impactful than Viseart shimmers I’ve used in the past. In fact, the sparkle quality and duochromatic nature is on par with some of my favorite smaller indie brand’s duochromes! I haven’t felt the need to even apply it damp, though I recommend glitter glue because I have gotten some fallout without it. This shade and Couperin together is a dream for creating a light ethereal look. The base color is in the same family as Châtelet, which makes them go well together too, and the blue shimmer on top of that deep gunmetal with a greenish tinge really pops. This is an amazing lid shade, but also makes for a very pretty and popping inner corner shade and highlighting shade.

Châtelet is the least unique color of the bunch, but it goes so well with the others that it makes sense to be included. This matte is pigmented, but easy to blend and layer with the other shades. It’s great for adding depth, but also can be sheered out and not look too dramatic if it’s also in the crease.  

Lastly, we have Perchoir, which is a slightly green leaning “gunmetal with a metallic pearl finish.” I have to be a bit more careful with this one as it’s so pigmented and intense, but that makes it great for adding depth, smokiness, drama, and lining the eyes.

How the intial three eye looks came about is that I essentially took photos at each stopping point that I felt I could have been pleased with how it was and could have left it alone. The first one is the lighter look for minimal daytime makeup. The second one is where I would usually stop after adding a little more depth and tiny bit of smokiness. The third is a more dramatic going-out-at-night type of look. They are three similar looks that I love equally for different situations. It’s a truly special quad with no longevity issues, no blending issues, and I’ve been able to use them effectively with all my primers. This gets a glowing recommendation from me!

PETITS FOURS – PERIDOT

I love greens, olives, and golds, so I knew this quad would end up in my collection. Illusion is the only matte and unfortunately it barely shows on my eyes. Having a shade like this doesn’t add any value to me in a quad, but it will be just fine with my other Viseart shadows.

I’m a little confused by Viseart’s metallics because sometimes they are shimmery and wonderful even in their dry state, but at other times they are like Gatsby and are more like satins until they are wet. Gatsby is described as a “khaki with a metallic finish.” When wet, the intensity is raised, but it’s still a tame shadow. I like the color, but I prefer the shade called Khaki from the Dior Backstage 008 Khaki Neutrals palette because it has a stronger green hue to it.

Greenlight is the darkest shade, but it’s not as deep as I would normally prefer for my outer corners. So, I feel like this quad still lacks a depth-providing shade. Being viewed as an individual shadow though, it’s a beautiful color that’s bright and shimmery. It beats out the Emerald shade from that Dior Backstage Khaki Palette I reviewed here before, but not Pine Green which is along the lines of how deep I wanted Greenlight to be.

Gimlet is the last shade. It’s a nice bright yellowy green that goes well with Greenlight and for highlighting purposes. However, I prefer a deeper yellow shimmer or the green to be stronger to wear Gimlet as a lid color. The middle ground limits things for my personal preference, but I needed a bright shade for my inner corner, so I see its purpose in the quad.

I got the Charlotte Tilbury Eyeshadow Quad in Green Lights around the same time as Peridot. Essentially, because I wasn’t completely satisfied with the khaki shade and I had long been lusting after Green Lights since it was released, I decided to just get it after all. I only recently learned the story behind it (thanks to Temptalia’s blog), that began with a quad called The Rebel which had a pale shade, deep teal-green, olive, and spring green. That palette was discontinued. Then in 2020, the brand released the same color story as the Green Lights palette, but called it The Rebel even though the shades were different from the original The Rebel palette. Then, later that same year, “Green Lights” was released despite it being essentially identical to the current iteration of The Rebel quad. I don’t know what the point was in doing that, especially since Green Lights is apparently limited edition and so once it’s gone, The Rebel will continue to be sold with the Green Lights color story instead of the original. Strange choice.

This screenshot was taken from the Charlotte Tilbury US website.

CT quads are swatched by the brand in a clockwise direction, but I stick to my typical left to right and top to bottom.

Even though Peridot gives me the most variety as a curated quad, I actually prefer the Charlotte Tilbury quad. When I’m craving olives, I’m craving something with a more toned down color, but with amped up sparkle, and paired with neutrals. I don’t usually want a bright shade to go with it like how bright of a green that Greenlight is or with something as lemon-lime green as Gimlet. I would have preferred a traditional gold instead. Plus, Illusion hardly shows up on me, so it adds nothing to the quad. The upside is that Peridot is half the price of Charlotte’s Green Lights quad. The shadows don’t feel the same, as they’re very different formulas, but they’re both still high quality performers. So, even though I don’t like the Peridot color story, I like the satin and shimmer shades individually and had already planned to swap around the shadows within my Viseart collection to create a green quad I prefer. For that reason, I’m still glad I bought it (especially at the $17.50 sale price).

PETIT PRO LONDON ÉTOILE

I knew I absolutely did not need London Étoile. I have similar enough shades within my Viseart collection, but I just couldn’t skip it. With purples, green-brown, and gold, this palette may as well have been named Lili Étoile because of how often I’m drawn to these type of colors.

Now, Carnaby is the exception. It’s a pale cream beige that’s too light for me and looks ashy wherever I use it. The brand says it can be used, “for highlighting the brow bone for all skin tones,” but I politely disagree. It only looks passable on me if I blend it out so that there’s barely any pigment left, and then I even add a little Piccadilly to tone it down. So, I even prefer to skip using Carnaby entirely and just use Piccadilly in the crease with another shade added to deepen the look.

Camden is a traditional dark gold, but it’s much needed in this palette because of how many deep shades there are in comparison to the wearable lighter colors. It’s the pop of brightness to most of my looks. It’s got a lot more intensity to it than the other shimmers, so I don’t need to use it wet, but if I do, it gives off an intense metallic finish.

Brixton is a matte, “Boysenberry purple,” and looks especially similar to Blackened Honey from the Grand Pro 1x and Beaujolais from the Dark Mattes. This shade blends decently enough, but not as easily as the other mattes we’ve discussed so far. It takes a bit more work and is a little troublesome to get it to show distinctly if there are too many shades already packed underneath it.

Tottenham is described as a “muted sage taupe with a metallic duochromactic shimmer finish,” which is close enough to the golden olive that I expected when I ordered the palette. However, I don’t know how this is considered a duochrome. Irrespective of that, it’s still my favorite shadow in the palette and has a satisfactory amount of sparkle to it.

I don’t have any Viseart dupes of Dalston, but reddish burgundy shimmers and metallics are very common in my collection. I think it’s quite beautiful in person, but for some reason, my camera has a very difficult time capturing how vivid it looks on my eyes. How Viseart shadows can sometimes look on camera, particularly the deeper purples, is an issue I will get more into in the Grande Pro 1x section. So, I just want to reiterate that it looks even better in person than my eye looks below suggest.

Portobello is a medium tone matte fuchsia shade that in the pan looks so similar to many other shades in my collection, but how it looks on the eyes and swatched is much more vibrant than I expected, which is a quality I like about it. Sometimes a purple like this can be tricky to formulate, but this one gives me no issues building and buffing.

Shoreditch is the final shade in the palette and described as a “soft metallic plum with a shimmer finish,” and it’s my go-to shadow to deepen up any of the looks in the palette. It naturally goes well with the purples, but it takes on a dark brown appearance when it’s next to the neutrals, so it works with shades like Tottenham and Piccadilly too.  

I’ve enjoyed every look I’ve created with this little palette. The quality is solid. Although I still believe I didn’t need this palette since I have enough shades close to the colors in this one, I’m glad I bought it anyway. Considering how tiny the pan sizes are, I probably should have waited for a sale to get it so it could feel a little more worth the price ($25 is what I’d have preferred), but I still got a deal of sorts because I bought it during the Beautylish Gift Card Event.

BIJOUXETTE ÉTENDU

Viseart has a rainbow palette in the form of their Editorial Brights, but I view Bijouxette as the brand’s jewel toned rainbow. To me, this is the ultimate Viseart palette for people who like a matte neutral eye base with a pop of color on the lids. I tried to create a wide variety of looks further down to show off every color in this palette, but I could keep it simple with Nouveau, Sidecar, and Speakeasy and then add Prohibition on the lid and be perfectly happy with that.

Every matte in this palette is pigmented, but blends and layers well. They’re buildable and long lasting on the lids. I would prefer Carnelian to not have that sparkle added to the orange, but most of that comes off by the time I’m finished applying it to my eyes. I don’t know for sure if Viseart tweaked their matte formula, but these seem to be even better performing than the ones I own that were released prior to October 2021.

For a long time, Viseart’s shimmers weren’t praised among consumers because they were an artist brand known for making things that work beautifully in the television and film industry, which meant small less reflective shimmer particles and basically being glorified satins. However, around the time of the launch of the Grand Pro 2 palette, they started amping up their shimmer intensity. In the past year or two in particular, they’ve also gotten more pigmented and colorful. The shimmers in Bijouxette are, in my opinion, Viseart’s best shimmer quality yet. I feel that these can actually compete now with Clionadh’s standard circle pan shadows and Devinah’s shimmers. Granted, some are still on the satin side like Scandalous, or not completely opaque unless built up heavily like Jade and Cubism, but after Verrerie from the Violetta palette, every shimmer in Bijouxette ranks higher in my books than all the other shimmers in this post. They’re quite good. They apply smoothly across the lids, but they don’t have that dimethicone slip to them that other creamy/buttery formulas often have, which means I don’t need to worry about creasing and I don’t need glitter primer either.

I’m very glad Viseart started releasing smaller and more “affordable” palettes. I got this for $26, but based on my experiences with it, I’d have been happy paying full price. I don’t know that the original 12-pan palettes in the standard sizes were necessarily worth the retail price for non-makeup artists or those with extensive eyeshadow collections, but if there was ever a Viseart palette that I would recommend to a colorful shadow lover wanting to try the brand for the first time, this is the one I would suggest. Color preferences aside, if the quality in this one isn’t to someone’s liking, I don’t think any other palette from Viseart can top it.

GRANDE PRO 1X

When I saw this on sale for half price, I was so excited because I lusted after the original Grande Pro for years, but it was never in a price range that I could justify to myself. Then it sold out and was discontinued. I planned to mix and rearrange my older standard size Viseart shadows with the ones in Grande Pro 1x instead, but completely forgot that the pan sizes in 1x are medium! So, there went that idea, but I can at least interchange them with the other palettes in this review (excluding London Etoile).

This mega palette is the reason I’ve delayed posting a Viseart review for ages. My experience with the mattes in here has been so inconsistent. The biggest issue has been that so many eye looks (deleted and not posted here) looked horrible on my camera. They were so beautiful and well blended in person, but for whatever reason, they just do not translate on my camera. They looked so patchy as if my skin was showing through. I kept trying to add more to cover up spots that I saw on camera that looked odd (though I still couldn’t see it that way in my mirror) but it never helped. I literally started to question if my optometrist was wrong and if my eyesight had suddenly gotten worse, though I didn’t have this issue with palettes from any other brand! I would add additional product over the spot in question and it would then look unblended, but if I blended it in, then it would cover up too much of the other shade in the look or turn a different color. It drove me mad! No matter what primer I used, it kept happening with back to back eye looks. I would be so happy with how they looked in the mirror and then take the photo and feel that sense of pride deflate. Considering these are meant to look great on camera, it boggled my mind as to why this was happening. I still don’t have an answer. Perhaps it’s just something that happens without a high quality camera and/or professional lighting. Again though, this issue is exclusive to the Grande Pro 1x and Dark Matte Edit palettes. My other Viseart eyeshadows look great in various lighting situations and with the devices I use.

To put this in perspective, I’ve been using Viseart shadows since January 2016. My first palette was the original Dark Mattes. Some of the shadows in that palette had to be tossed out by now, but most are still performing wonderfully to this day. However, I started to feel uncomfortable at the idea of using a palette so old. So, in April 2021, I purchased the Dark Mattes Edit palette as a partial replacement with the bonus of some shimmers. I had no issues with Viseart’s mattes prior to this purchase, and my last purchase from them had been the Boheme Dream in December 2019 when they still had the original sharp edge palettes and not the curved SlimPro ones. The Dark Edit palette gave me such a rough time using the purples and black matte, that it put me off buying another product from Viseart until this year. The Dark Edit palette had the same issue with it that I was dealing with regarding the Grande Pro 1x, so by this point I started to question whether the Viseart matte quality had dropped considerably at some point between 2020 and 2022. I hadn’t used the other two palettes I got in the sale by that point because I was so disheartened by my experience with Grande Pro 1x. I spoke with Queisyani who is one of the two biggest Viseart fans I follow on IG (murderingjellybabies being the other) and she reminded me that Viseart previously had a difficult transitional period adjusting to expanding from France to the US and that this may account for the time in which Viseart’s matte quality wasn’t measuring up for some people. This issue with the mattes did appear to be a temporary thing considering the Bijouxette and Peridot palettes I bought at the same time worked perfectly fine. Then I started to think about how the Dark Matte Edit palette had been newly launched when I bought it in April 2021 and that even though I bought the Grande Pro 1x in May 2022, it originally launched in February 2021. It’s possible my Grande Pro 1x was from that original batch. Bijouxette was released in October 2021 and Peridot in November 2021, so it started to seem more likely that palettes produced between 2020 to mid 2021 (or at least released in February 2021 to April 2021) could have been the ones affected.

I’m happy to say that the mattes in palettes with launch dates from October 2021 and onward seem to have consistent quality again! In fact, I love the mattes I bought between 2016-2019, but the ones from the end of 2021 and onward are as good as they used to be or arguably even better!

The eyeshadow examples above aren’t to my satisfaction, but they were the best of everything I had with the Grande Pro 1x. As I mentioned, they all looked so pretty in person, but looked worse on camera. However, this palette is not a complete dud. I had less trouble with most of the lighter and mid-tone shades. They are on the thin side, so building up the opacity level was a challenge with some of the shadows in the 1st and 2nd columns, but columns 3-5 were perfect. The darker shades took a little more time getting them to layer on the other shadows, but the outcome of the blend was so pretty in person. The shadows that were most problematic were the truly vibrant shades: Red Coral, Bougainvillea, and Cobalt Blue. They even felt drier to the touch than the other shadows. I didn’t expect Pumpkin to cooperate, but that one is colorful and performs well. I shouldn’t have been surprised though, as Viseart really nails orange.

When there’s an issue with the blend of a matte, it can usually be covered up with a shimmer, so that’s where this palette is at a disadvantage. There aren’t any shimmers to hide the flaws.

Based on the palette in front of me, I cannot recommend it to others. However, this comes with the note that newer batches of the Grande Pro 1x are possibly better performing than the one I’ve got. For the time being, I’m not going to declutter this palette. I plan to reduce the number of lighter shades, especially the ones that just look white on my skin or look too similar to each other. Then, I’m also going to remove the troublesome darker shades and fill the empty spots with shimmers! Or completely rearrange all the medium sized pans. I just have to remember not to wear a Grande Pro 1x all-matte eye look when I’m taking photos!

Wow, this was a monster of a post.

I hope this has been helpful and that you’ll return to visit this blog again next week!

-Lili ❤

Benefit Cosmetics Wanderful World Blushes and Limited Edition Set

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Benefit’s new collection of blushes in the full-size and minis launched in May of 2022, and I bought them as soon as they were released on Benefit’s website, with the exception of Starlaa. Starlaa was the shade I wanted the most, so I planned to wait until it was available for purchase before posting this review. I figured it was delayed in shipping and would be ready in a few weeks, but rumor has it that Starlaa was pressed too softly and was shattering in transit, so Benefit had to remake them, which caused a four month delay! These powder blushes are on the softer side, so even my original mini of the Terra blush arrived broken. Granted, Benefit’s packaging of it was abysmal in the flimsiest recycled paper envelope in the world’s thinnest padding I’ve ever seen. It’s a miracle the other two didn’t break with it! The customer service exchange was tedious and required my email to be forwarded and to wait for the initial response back before trading multiple additional exchanges of information including photos, providing the lot number (only found by peeling back the sticker off the bottom), etc. The customer service rep(s) were polite, but the hassle of this instance and knowing what kind of horrible packaging such a delicate product was put in, makes me not want to order from Benefit’s website again. I opted for a replacement instead of a refund, and feel lucky that the second one made it safely.

In September, I saw Starlaa first available in the UK in one of Benefit’s holiday sets called the, “Blushin Benetint Bundle,” but in the mini size. I decided that since I waited so many months already, it couldn’t hurt to wait to get the full-size when it would eventually come to the US. I ended up buying it from QVC and got a discount with a promo code.

The holiday set called “Beauty Mail Blush n Brush gift set” (or “Blush ‘n Brush Delivery” later in the US), with the limited edition blush called Terra Spark, was also available in the UK first. I loved the original Terra blush, so I grew too impatient to wait for Terra Spark to come to the US and immediately ordered it from Selfridges. Imagine my surprise when I found out the shimmery red-gold blush I planned to use as a highlighter was basically Terra with a gold overspray!

The left swatch shows the first swipe with the gold overspray. The right swatch shows the second swipe from the same spot.

Terra is a “golden brick-red blush,” listed as having a shimmer finish, though the gold shimmer running through it isn’t nearly as obvious as other shimmer blushes I own. The only difference between Terra and Terra Spark (when the overspray is gone) is that Terra Spark has a stronger golden sheen, which alters the tone from brick-red to a slightly orange hue. They essentially look the same on my cheeks, though perhaps on someone with a lighter skin tone, the differences may be more significant. Those two blushes are so close that I had to double-check my files to make sure I didn’t get them confused in the cropping and labeling process because Terra can still look a bit terracotta if the light hits that shimmer a certain way too.

I put a photo with no blush next to Starlaa to emphasize how subtle the color is on me, but that it does show up.

Photos of Crystah, Terra, and Java (while I’m wearing a ponytail in the section further down) were taken on the same day in June. The photo of Starlaa in the grey shirt was from October. The photos in this section were taken in November. I had to resort to using my ring light to get consistency in showing the way the blushes look on me. Previous attempts to retake these photos without it resulted in vast differences due to foundation choices, problems with my camera, and lighting issues. The highlighter and bronzer I’m wearing in this batch of photos above is the R.E.M Beauty Interstellar Highlighter Topper in Miss Mars and Huda Glowish Lightweight Blurring Pressed Powder (as bronzer) in Deep Tan.

Though they are technically different, I feel that the promo images for Terra Spark are misleading in representing how much of an impact the gold shimmer will have on the look of the blush.

I bought this primarily for Terra Spark, though the set also came in a cute tin with a sheet of stickers and a retractable synthetic fiber blush brush. The tin can be reused for anything like storing pens, makeup brushes, liners, candy, holiday treats, and more. I haven’t decided yet how I will be repurposing mine.

I didn’t expect to get much use out of the Benefit Multitasking Brush, and most of its value to me was the fact that it’s a limited edition version (same brush with painted white dots). However, it’s quite a bit handier than I expected because of the adjustable aspect! When the bristles are fully out, it’s the most floppy and least dense. To me, it’s almost unusable with the blushes in that state, but it’s perfect for something like a face powder that I’d want applied in a sheer layer and to be able to blend without needing to buff. With the head retracted a little further (about a third down) is the sweet spot for using this brush with the blushes. I get the amount of density I like for buffing them in. With most of the bristles pushed below, the brush is at its densest and strongest buffing power, suitable for something I want extra blended like sculpting powder products.

I have also used this brush with the Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blushes, Glossier Solar Paint Bronzer, and the Nars Laguna Bronzing Cream in order to test out how this brush works with cream and liquid products. It works beautifully with them because of that ability to control how tightly or loosely the bristles are compacted, and therefore adjust to what each individual product requires. It stays in the position I set it, for the mostpart, but if I apply too much pressure it does start to slide down. However, I’m still very pleased with this brush and the fact that it came in this set for $30, which is the same price the non-limited edition brush retails for anyway.

I’ll get back to the blushes now.

There are three different finishes among the permanent blushes: Crystah and Terra are shimmers, Starlaa is a satin, and Java is a matte. The shimmery affect in Terra is on the subtle side, though the base color is pigmented. I only need one dip in the pan to get the amount of blush I would normally want; two dips makes the blush prominent, but not garish. I would not exceed two dips into the pan with the brush. With Crystah, the gold shimmer is more abundant and brighter. It’s like Benefit’s version of Nars Orgasm X, but better in my eyes. One layer of blush is all I need to give me a vibrant flush of pink. I can see it straight on, but when I turn my head to the side, the gold reflects brightly and literally makes the pink less visible wherever the light is hitting it. So, at certain angles, it looks like I just have a golden cheek with the barest amount of pink tinge underneath. A lot of coral blushes with gold shimmer that I’ve used in the past have ended up looking silly on me because of the way light reflects off the shimmer, but in the case of Crystah, Benefit made the base color so pigmented that it still ends up looking pretty to me, especially since the shimmer is so fine in size. If I add a second layer, I can definitely see more of the pink color even when light hits it, but that means it’s also very intense when looking at it head on. I prefer to just stick to a light layer when using it alone, or it looks fantastic on top of Benefit’s blushes and as a topper for other blushes in my collection.
When it comes to Terra Spark, just like Crystah, the base color also pulls a disappearing act wherever a certain intensity of light hits the shimmer, but because the surrounding blush area is a much darker color than Crystah, it makes those camouflaged sections look patchy or poorly blended. So, I prefer to now use Terra Spark as a blush topper instead. That isn’t to say the Benefit shimmer formula isn’t opaque enough to be standalone blushes, it’s just the reflection issue that makes me prefer to mix them with other blushes.

Starlaa, in my eyes, is like a sheerer and slightly lighter version of Terra. This “rosy bronze” satin blush is mattifying, but it does have a sheen to it that keeps it from looking flat and adds a pretty finish to the skin without detectable shimmer. I have to build up this color a lot as the brown in it blends in so much with my skin tone. However, I love the slightest whisper of rosy pink that’s visible on my cheeks in person. It’s especially great for no-makeup makeup days. For that reason, I get a fair amount of use out of Starlaa, which is my second most used blush, while Terra reigns as the favorite.

Lastly is Java, which is thankfully not the kind of matte that will look powdery or heavy on my dry skin. In fact, it doesn’t look like a flat matte to me, but I wear mostly natural/dewy/glowy foundations, so that could be a factor. Java is described as a “rosy mocha” and one layer is more than enough product for each cheek since it, like most of the others, is so pigmented.

All of these blushes, no matter the finish, are long lasting on the cheeks. I love the fact that there are options to buy a decent amount of these in mini sizes. It makes it easier to afford owning multiple shades and is less wasteful, since I would be surprised if I used up all of even the mini sizes. Although I’m over Benefit putting their pressed powder products in the box packaging, this launch is when they introduced the slimmed down packaging that no longer included those mini brushes that a lot of us never used anyway. Also, I was glad to see that although the mini size is quite small for the $17 retail price, the pans are wide enough that I don’t have an issue fitting the blush brushes I want to use with them into those boxes.

Those who don’t like fragrance may not like these as they have an orange blossom or some other kind of sweet floral scent. Because I like this formula so much, I overlook the fragrance, and thankfully I am able to stop smelling it on my face after a few minutes. I thought I would post some comparison swatches of these to other brands that don’t include fragrance in their blushes.

Starting with MAC, Ambering Rose is nearly identical to Terra, but with a little more gold shimmer. Ambering Rose is in my top three favorite blush shades from MAC, so I understand now why I love Terra so much. Unfortunately, Ambering Rose is discontinued, but at least Terra is a good alternative. Peachtwist from MAC is also still available. It’s not an exact dupe, as it leans more peachy-pink, but it’s quite close.

I’m sure I could find more dupes for Java, since I have quite a few pink and red leaning brown blushes now in my collection, but since MAC makes my favorite blushes, a dupe for it would be my top recommendation. MAC’s Format has the same base color as Java, but it’s like the shimmer version with fine golden specks. MAC’s Raizin is matte and quite similar, but with a stronger red tone to it. Raizin had too much red in it for my liking, and I always thought it would be perfect if the brown was stronger in that shade, so I’m happy to have gotten my wish in the form of Java.

The closest dupe I have for Starlaa is MAC’s Sunbasque. I never use it because it’s too light for me to work as a blush. Starlaa is just barely dark enough with just enough of a deeper pink for it to show on my skin.

Swatching Crystah and Nars’ Orgasm X side by side, I now see why Crystah is a better fit for me. It’s more coral leaning in the base color rather than pink. With my undertone, I find corals to be more flattering.

So, those are all the new Benefit Blushes in my collection! When I love a blush formula, I tend to want to buy all the shades that work for me (or appear as though they would work), so I’m still tempted by Butterfly and PomPom, but those are currently only available in the full-sizes, which is why I haven’t taken the plunge. And when it comes to which finish I prefer, I’m so thoroughly impressed by how smooth and blendable Java is and how natural it looks on my face, so the mattes are my favorite. Then, when it comes to the satins or shimmers, the satin is the safer bet, because it doesn’t have as reflective of shimmer in it, but at the same time I can’t help but wish it was either firmly in the matte or shimmer categories. The slight shimmer effect in the satin feels almost pointless. I prefer the look of the shimmers over the satin, but Terra Spark and Crystah had that reflective issue while Terra did not. So, it would be riskier for me to blindly purchase another shimmer blush in the hopes that it will perform more like Terra.

Also, regarding the formulas, Benefit Powder products tend to get hard-pan easily if swatched too much. I was surprised to see that I don’t have this issue with the matte and shimmer blushes, but for some reason Starlaa does have that problem. So, I scraped off the top layer lightly and began using brushes for the remainder of the swatches I needed to do.

Well, I believe that’s everything I have to say about the Wanderful World Blushes! I love them and recommend them (but I personally would wait for at least 20% off which is easy to find between all the retailers that carry Benefit products).
Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Artist Couture Love Sprung 3 and Quickie Palette Review

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The brand had a 40% off sitewide sale on Labor Day, so I used that as an opportunity to buy two items I’ve been unable to get out of my head. Love Sprung III had a blush that looked similar to Love Sprung II that I own and reviewed before and the Quickie palette admittedly has four repeat shades already present in the original Supreme Nudes palette, so I talked myself out of buying them until this all too enticing deal.

Love Sprung Face Palette 3 (listed as VIII for version three)

It turned out that despite how similar Infatuated and Divine Amour looked in their pans, they are different enough on the cheeks. I’m happy to say version III is the perfect one for me and the formula seems even better than the previous version II! The highlighter is certainly not as wet and is easier to apply and blend smoothly on the face.

I find it fascinating that Divine Amour and Infatuated look similar in the pans, but Infatuated is closer to Peach Blossom on the skin.

These blushes are very pigmented but easy to blend out, smooth looking on the skin, and the kind of tones I love. There’s a lot of kickup in the pan, but I don’t mind that when it’s so easy to clean because all the edges are smooth plastic. Peach Blossom surprised me that it showed so easily on my cheeks and deepened slightly, but it still maintained the peachy look I wanted. I had to build it up even more for the photo, so it looks a bit darker, especially next to the bronzer I’m wearing, but I think it will still look nice on a wide range of skin tones. Golden Aura is not very far off to my skin tone in terms of depth, so I can get a subtle look easily (which I prefer) or I can build it up to about a medium amount of shine. The shimmer isn’t light enough on me to be intensely bright. With Divine Amour, I barely need any product for it to show, but I don’t need to worry about being light-handed with it if I’m using one of my softer, looser, more delicate bristle brushes.

Even though I originally questioned why the brand would make such similar looking peach and pink leaning blushes among the three Love Sprung blush and highlight trios, this new one is my favorite! It’s the one I will actually get use out of and its slim compact packaging makes it easily portable. I’m very happy with this one!

Supreme Nudes: The Quickie Palette

I was relieved to discover that the quality in the Quickie palette is the same as Supreme Nudes. Artist Couture’s palettes do not get consistently positive reviews. The Caliente, Ethereal Bloom, and Supreme Mauves palettes spring to mind as some I’ve heard people assume had a different formula based on the performance of those palettes. So, I’m glad that the mattes in Quickie are the pigmented and soft shadows that I’m familiar with and because of the amped up sparkle level of these shimmers, those have been upgraded in my book.

In my review of Supreme Nudes, I mentioned that all I see among the mattes are a bunch of brow bone shades, Aesthetic, and Mink. So, I support the decision to cut out some of those transition/crease shades, especially since Nudist, Transcend, and Eccentric had the same effect on my eyes. However, the cooler toned taupe called Undressed in Quickie replaced Silhouette which was a more neutral version and I would have preferred to keep Silhouette. However, because Undressed can take the look in a more cool toned direction, I understand why the brand wanted to swap it out in this mini palette.

The four new shades in this palette are Iconic, Brilliance, Supreme 2.0, and Undressed that we discussed above. I knew I was getting repeat shadows when I bought this palette, but I wasn’t expecting the new ones to be so similar to the full size. I do like the extra shimmer in Iconic over Lavish and the fact that it’s more of a true gold. Brilliance has no dupe, but it looks silvery white on my eyes, so that limits how I’d use it. I tried using it as a lid shade in the demo to do something different, but I don’t think it looks good. It’s just a spotlight shade for me. As for Supreme 2.0, I like that it has more sparkle and is a darker olive than Supreme, but with that silver shimmer, it gives the shade a cool toned look when I usually prefer to do a warm toned one if I’m wearing “natural” colors.

I thought having this mini would be handy for travel, but since it’s still not my perfect palette and by now I have many other green and neutral palettes I prefer, I would be more likely to take something else on vacation instead. I thought that I might like having a condensed version of Supreme Nudes and get a lot of use out of it, but I have only reached for Quickie a handful of times while knowing there are still shades in Supreme Nudes that I prefer. I also thought that if I ended up favoring either the Supreme Nudes or Supreme Nudes Quickie, I could declutter the other one, but my enjoyment of Iconic and Supreme 2.0 with my favorite two mattes (Aesthetic and Mink) is so strong that I can’t give it up, even though it still feels like I bought two of the same thing, yet have no will power to get rid of either of them. At least I only paid around $18 for Quickie.

So for those who like the color story in Quickie, I think it’s a nice palette even if it wasn’t the best decision for me to buy it. Considering the price difference of Mini Supreme Nudes Quickie being $30 and Supreme Nudes being $45, getting the mini for full price doesn’t feel like it would be worth it to me. I recommend trying to wait for a sale, which I expect to be possible at least one more time this year. For those who love Artist Couture mattes, the brand recently released a Supreme Nudes Matte Masterpiece palette in the same size and packaging as the Quickie palette. I won’t be picking that one up.

That’s all for today! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Swatches of Previously Reviewed Makeup in New Shades

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With today being Black Friday and holiday sales approaching, now is the time it’d be the most useful for me to get as many reviews out as possible. I’m constantly testing new products, but it takes ages for me to get closeups, swatches, demos, and the written portion of posts completed to my level of satisfaction. I’m allergic to posting first impressions, but I think it may be helpful to share photos of the new makeup I purchased that are just new shades of things I’ve already reviewed for this blog. The formulas of everything should be the same, and therefore the performances should be no different, with the exception of the first item I’m showcasing below.

Fenty Beauty Double Cheek’d Up: Freestyle Cream Blush Duo

The compact color is stunning! I bought this partly for the packaging, along with liking Fenty’s permanent cream blush formula that I reviewed here. Since “Freestyle” is still in the name of the duo, I expected the formula to be the same, but it’s a little more emollient and slightly less pigmented. Because Peony Droppa is on the lighter side, it takes an extra few layers to build it up on me, but Mali’booze just needs one additional layer to build up to the level of opacity I get from the original shades. I was pleasantly surprised that Peony Droppa showed up on me and actually looked nice despite being cool-toned (warmer blushes look better with my undertone). I’ve only used this duo twice so far and I prefer how they look when I use the darker blush all over my cheek and keep the lighter one on just the apples. Trying to wear them mixed was a little tricky trying to find the tonal balance I liked, so I think I’ll stick to either using Mali’booze alone or applying both in those specific zones on the cheeks.

The compact is much bigger than the standard cream blushes and each half of the duo is 3g, meaning each shade in the duo has the same amount of product as the full size single cream blushes. The cream duo compact has the same dimensions as the full size bronzers, highlighter duos, etc. I get two products in one for $34 instead of $44 if they were sold separately, however, I still prefer Strawberry Drip to both of these shades because I get the bright popping color without it clashing with my skin tone. So, in my case, I’d still be better off buying a single blush. I got the duo at a discount via Ulta, and my single blushes from Fenty are two and a half years old by now, so this is a good time to have a replacement.

I was planning to make a dedicated Fenty update post, so I have photos already wearing this one, but I thought it would be best to just include them here.

Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk’R Face + Eye Bronzer & Highlighter Palette

I bought this one from Mercari. I have reviewed the Mocha Mami shade of Sun Stalk’r Instant Warmth Bronzer as an update to one of my bronzer posts here. I barely used it because the shade was more red than I liked, particularly for a matte formula. I suspected one of the other colors could work, or that I could mix the deepest two in this palette together as a better match. It turns out I was correct, as Coco Naughty works on me, or I can mix that one with Thick Mint for extra intensity. I was so concerned with knowing my correct shade that I failed to consider the fact that the formula is good but not great. There wasn’t a need to try and find a better color if I was still going to reach for my Huda Beauty Glowish Bronzer, Charlotte Tilbury, Kosas, and Nars bronzers first.

I find it interesting how much the color Private Island blended into my arm. At some point I’m going to test if that shade can be used as an all over setting powder or to set my under eyes. If so, that would be a nice way to make this palette even more useful.

The Phat Glass highlighter was a little broken, but I pressed it back. Also, that shade is way too light for me, so I don’t wear it alone anyway. The Gold Card color is very beautiful and suits me really well. I can wear it alone or mix it with Phat Glass for a little extra brightness. I’ve also used it on the cheekbones and then added Phat Glass to a tiny portion of the highest point to really emphasize the structured look I want in that area. It’s nice to finally have a Fenty highlighter that matches my preferences in terms of the smaller shimmer particle size. All others I tried from Fenty had some aspect that’s usually a negative, such as being in stick form in the MatchStix, an unnatural color as a Killawatt, or ultra glittery like the Diamond bombs. Even the Chocolate Swiller Fenty Toast’d Swirl Bronze Shimmer Powder with its smooth texture has some larger particle size shimmer specks that makes it something I only want to use periodically.

LYS Beauty Higher Standard 3-Piece Cream Blush Set

Grateful looks so much like Confident in the pan, but when swatched, it looks more like Self Love instead. This mini trio is $20, making it a really great option for trying out additional shades from the brand. The retail price of the single blushes is $16 and each individual “mini” has about 2/3 the product of the full size. The packaging isn’t as lux with the clear lid, but that also makes it easier to figure out which shade I’m grabbing. I only tried these out once so far, and don’t have pictures of each blush included, but that one time using it was enough to know the formula of the minis is the same. It’s one of my absolute favorite cream blush formulas, if not the top favorite, and I’ve felt like this long before I joined the LYS ambassador program. I’m technically still one, but I haven’t done anything for the brand in nearly a year. More about that is detailed here. As for my first review of this cream blush formula, that can be found here. All three included in this set show up on me.

Huda Beauty GloWish Cheeky Vegan Soft Glow Powder Blush in Sassy Saffron

This is another one of those situations where I was so enamored with the look of the new shades that I forgot how I actually felt about the formula being “not particularly special,” mentioned here. I thought this was colorful enough to work on my skin tone, especially with how much richer it looked online, but it was very ashy the first time I tried it. I will have to try it again focusing on the deeper swirl to see if that helps, but I have my doubts. I bought this during Sephora’s previous VIB sale, but Huda’s official website has an even better deal going on.

Chantecaille Perfect Blur Finishing Powder in Med/Dark

In my powder declutter post discussing the original shade here, I mentioned that I wasn’t getting the same amazing results that had been hyped up in all the reviews I’d seen, so perhaps a darker shade would work better on me. I planned to sell the original and get a darker version. The first iteration of the Med/Dark shade was from Chantecaille’s Flower Power line, but I hated that packaging and that wasn’t nice enough to make up for me having to sell that gorgeous hummingbird packaging. I contacted Chantecaille during that time, and they told me they wouldn’t bring the new shade in that hummingbird packaging, but it would at least come in the larger size of their “pebble” compacts, like their philanthropy blushes. After that, the Dior Powder-No-Powder was released and I got so much more blurring from that than I ever did with the original shade and at half the price, so I decided to just give up on this powder. Then, as luck should have it, Space NK had it deeply discounted during their sale in June this year. With shipping included, I only paid $33 for it!

The Med/Dark shade is much better suited to me. It looked invisible on my inner arm, so there was no point trying to post a swatch of it here. Even with the photo uploaded to my computer, I had a guess as to where it was based on my skin looking slightly more matte, but I wasn’t confident enough to mark it. Getting that new shade did work out better for me than the original. I could see a little bit of blurring, but it was nowhere near as good on me as the Dior Powder-No-Powder. So, I still recommend that one over this (though the Dior one has a sheen and this powder does not). I’m just glad I didn’t spend a fortune on it to figure that out!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes in Blissful and Natural Beauty

The Tarte blushes I owned were minis reviewed here. I really enjoyed them, so when Ulta had the full-size blushes on sale in September for $14 each, I couldn’t resist and bought several more. Since Exposed worked for me, I thought Seduce would be even better, but it doesn’t show on me at all. That one is out of my collection, so I couldn’t include it here. The tartelette blush in bloom Amazonian clay cheek palette didn’t work for me either, excluding the darkest shade, but it was too cool toned looking on me so that’s not in my collection anymore either. I’m glad Blissful and Natural Beauty worked out! Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Blushes have the issue of looking light in the pan but sometimes they work for me and sometimes they don’t, so I never know until I actually try them out.

One/Size Cheek Clapper 3D Blush Trio Palette in Phat Ass

I loved the Freaky Peach shade, reviewed here, and was always drawn to Phat Ass, but with how similar the cream and powder versions looked, I didn’t think it would be worth it to buy another trio from One/Size. However, I saw a good deal on Mercari and bought this. Unfortunately, the shimmer exploded in the package, so it took quite a while for me to repress it (not my best work) and clean off the cream which it had also gotten into despite the plastic flap. Unlike Freaky Peach where the shimmer blush was light enough for me to use as a highlighter, the BBL shade in this one is a bit too deep and pigmented in the base color for that. I can use this as an actual shimmer blush or blush topper though, the way it was intended. It’s the kind of shade that’s along the lines of a Nars Orgasm X, but I like this one better!

Pat Mcgrath Skin Fetish: Divine Glow Highlighter in Venus Nectar

Venus Nectar was another broken item I had to repair (dry pressing wasn’t an option with how broken it was). It’s on the pink side, but I love this formula from Pat Mcgrath. It’s a shame that I still can’t get the exact golden tone in this formula that I’m looking for with Bronze Mirage, reviewed here, being a bit deep for me. PML’s Ultra Glow Highlighter in the pink packaging still hasn’t been topped for me. Swatches of Venus Nectar and Bronze Mirage will be in the next section of PML highlighters lower down.

Pat Mcgrath x Bridgerton Skin Fetish: Sublime Skin Highlighter in Incandescent Gold 002

Don’t ask me why I bought a Bridgerton highlighter. I’m citing temporary insanity. I know I hate deep yellow highlighters (being scarred from Fenty’s Trophy Wife), so I opted for the other one instead because I heard it’s still gold but with a sheer base that’s technically supposed to work on the majority of skintones. The glitter level is my main issue with it, but I forgot that the highlighters in this particular formula, similar to my Lunar Nude highlighter (reviewed here), share this excessive sparkle feature. I only have this photo to show of it on my bare face. As much as I’d prefer not to show something like this, it’s all I’ve got at the moment.

As the swatches above show, the sparkle level and shimmer particle sizes are very different. I prefer the Divine Glow over the Sublime Skin, and I need to remember that in the future!

Rose INC Cream Blush Refillable Cheek & Lip in Wisteria

I’m sensing a pattern here. The pattern of trying to find the ultimate blush shade from every brand, despite how I feel about the formula. The Rose Inc blushes don’t dry down, as mentioned in my review here, so I have to be in a particular mood to wear them. I don’t know if I got confused while comparing the different shades on the Rose Inc website, but I could have sworn Wisteria looked darker in photos I saw. This shade does not work on me at all. It shows up, but is extremely ashy. I didn’t know it was going to be significantly lighter than Foxglove, which is already just a flush of color on my cheeks. In any case, I vow to myself that I will not buy another Rose Inc Cream Blush. Now, if they start making powder blushes, that will be another story.

Rose Inc Skin Enhance Luminous Tinted Serum in 100

In one of my Rose Inc orders, I got samples of additional foundation shades. Because of that, I was able to see that despite how much I loved the shade 110 (in that same review linked in the blush section), shade 100 is the better undertone match for me. So, I utilized Rose Inc’s fantastic Pre-Black Friday sale to get my better shade! I have to add though that I was shocked 100 is my shade considering the model photos on the website. Based on the model, 100 shouldn’t be for me at all. But it is!

Rose Inc Solar Radiance Hydrating Cream Highlighter in Prismatic and Lustrous

This is a bonus mention because I hadn’t shown these on the blog until now, and I don’t intend on including it in any other posts this year. I bought the two refills of the Rose Inc Cream highlighters because I wasn’t sure if this formula would be closer to the blushes or the bronzers. These fall somewhere in the middle. They don’t fully dry down like the bronzers, but they aren’t as emollient feeling on the skin as the blushes, but that may also be due to me needing less product to get the impact I want. Prismatic is too light for me and I don’t intend to keep it in my collection. Lustrous is the perfect shade for me though. I wasn’t sure if I should get it because it looks dark online and bronzes tend to be too deep on me, but this is a lot lighter in person and more golden leaning. I’ve only worn them a few times, but I still don’t know how I feel about this product. As of now, they don’t get a recommendation from me despite the color and wet look that I like. Towards the end of the night I notice more texture and I’m not sure if the product slightly picking up is user error yet or a formula issue.

Nars Blush in Dolce Vita

I saw a review somewhere that this blush would work on deeper skin, despite how light it appeared in other photos I had seen. It was so pretty that even though Nars blushes (reviewed here) don’t quite measure up to MAC blushes that I have no shortage of, I still wanted it. Sometimes when I see a Nars blush shade I don’t own, I think I should hold off on buying it because chances are high that it will end up in a palette with some other repromoted shades. But Ulta had another deal, so I went with it and have no regrets! I like it quite a lot!

Vieve Sunset Blush in Piazza

In my March purchases post, here, I said the blush formula was great quality and that I wanted the Piazza shade, but it was supposed to be too similar to others I already own in my collection. SpaceNK’s pre-Black Friday sale made me change my mind and I bought this, plus the bronzer I had been curious about since its launch. It takes a while to arrive from GB, so it only arrived a few days ago. I haven’t actually worn this shade yet or the bronzer on my face, but they all look like they’ll work for me. And I have no reason to think Piazza will not be great since I’ve enjoyed Sorbet so much.

Whew! That’s everything for today! I did way more talking than I expected, though this isn’t a typical Swatchfest.

I hope everyone had a great day yesterday and that this post will be helpful for all the sales going on! I tried to get this post out in a rush, so if there are typos or errors I missed, please excuse them! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Six New Luxury Palettes from Guerlain, Pat Mcgrath, Dior, and Bobbi Brown

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I typically buy makeup that is in the mid to high-end range, as well as from small indie brands. Purchasing this many luxury eye shadow palettes (and so neutral-heavy no less) is very unusual for me. I can’t explain why the sudden interest, but here we are!

Pat Mcgrath Labs Celestial Nirvana Eye Shadow Palette in Bronze Bliss

The quint picture above shows how La Vie En Noir and Lunar Luxury will look on the eyes. The quint photo below shows how the shadows actually look in the pans.

I was intrigued when I read these were new formulas for the brand, and that was confirmed as soon as I saw and felt the eye shadows for the first time. La Vie En Noir, the only matte, is not creamy like Natasha Denona’s Cream Powder shadows, but it still has a creamier texture than Pat Mcgrath’s traditional mattes. The shadow is easy to pick up with a brush and finger, easy to smudge, and almost too easy to blend out. When blended, I can see the blue tinge in the shade. Some people will like that this isn’t a pure black shadow, but this feature will prevent me from being able to use this palette solo in the future. Although I technically don’t need a transition or crease shade, I prefer having a shadow there to add definition and block off the roundest portion of my eyes and get the defined almond shape I’m nearly always trying to achieve. I don’t mind using blue for that purpose with cool toned shades, but I’m not the biggest fan of using it with the palette’s two bronzes. If I want the deep black appearance La Vie En Noir can provide, the shadow has to be drawn on or nearly unblended, giving it more of a graphic lined look. If I’m not interested in something that harsh, I have to either accept that it’s going to look blue-black or I’ll need to reach for a supplemental palette.

The first three looks above, using the Bronze Bliss palette exclusively, demonstrate the various blended states of La Vie En Noir in the crease. The fourth look involving mattes outside of this palette where I can just use the blue-black exclusively in the outer corner, shows how it’s a lot less blue looking on the eyes when I use it as just an outer corner deepening shade, the way I prefer to use my darkest shadows. The photo demonstration below shows the process of that transformation.

It’s so tricky using this shade when very few strokes of buffing mean the difference between the shadow looking blended versus it looking faded to a borderline patchy level (and/or too blue).

Color aside, I’d be interested in trying out more mattes like this from the brand in this formula. The unbelievable spreading ability comes from that creamy element, but it’s not actually emollient where it will move on the eye or crease with normal eye movements. It’s only when I touch the shadow with my brush or finger that it comes off. It’s still a powder formula and fully dry to the touch on my eyes.

As for the shimmer formulas, these are definitely different from any other Pat Mcgrath shimmers I’ve experienced. Lunar Luxury is the wettest of them all, and feels the most like a cream shadow. It’s an intense silver, spreads far, and a lot of product gets picked up in one tap. So, I recommend starting with that one dip into the pan and slowly building up to the desired amount to avoid a thick application on the lids. Bronzed Mink and Bronze Illusion aren’t quite as wet, which makes them easier to apply since I don’t have to worry about them looking chunky on the eyes. They contain a nice amount of sparkle, but these can still be sprayed on the brush to really bring out that foiled nature (though a foiled texture comes with it). Nude Moon has the same consistency as the bronze shades, but it’s less metallic and closer to a traditional shimmer. It applies smoothly with my finger, but a lot of product still gets picked up onto my brush and I always have to apply one swipe to my eyes, wipe off my brush completely, and then spread what’s on my eyes with that clean brush so that it doesn’t add more product and can be smoothed out and not look so heavy. Although the shimmers don’t feel wet once they’re on my skin, they will transfer when touched and always transfer to my crease area in the places where my eyes are partly hooded. This is another reason I don’t like using La Vie En Noir as my crease shade, because the shimmers transfer onto it in a very obvious way. It makes it look like my shadows are creasing even though they aren’t. When I’m using mattes from other palettes with these shimmers, I don’t mind that they transfer higher.

Visually, the shimmers are stunning. Every formula in this palettes is interesting to work with and I like that there are warm and cool toned options for eye looks. This is very much a glam oriented palette and there’s certainly a place for that in my collection. Although it’s not a perfect solo palette for me, I think it’s a great product and I would love to buy more variations in the future (other than Nude Allure).

Guerlain Ombres G Eyeshadow Quad in 940 Royal Jungle

Guerlain had some colorful options in their new Ombres G line of eyeshadows, but I actually wanted a “basic” quad that I would be able to create looks from without needing to think too hard about coordinating the right colors together. I never heard that much praise regarding Guerlain’s eye shadows in the past, so I thought neutrals would be the safest bet since those shadows are easier to get right. This palette isn’t cheap at $85 USD at most retailers, but I got it for $62 via Selfridges. The conversion rate between USD and GBP has been in the favor of USD for a while now, so I’ve been utilizing my Selfridges Global Shipping to my best advantage.

I think I threw out the box*, but the shades are 1-4 in a clockwise motion on Guerlain’s website. It’s very confusing seeing the top right shade as an orange that’s darker than the shadow below it when in reality, the top right corner shadow is the lightest of them all.

*Update: I found the box. The numbers written on it are the same as depicted on the website.

Photo from Guerlain’s site HERE.

Shades 1-3 have the same texture, which is similar to Tom Ford’s wet/dry formula, but drier. The Guerlain shadows are soft, but the shimmers add a little grit. #1 is a gorgeous chocolate brown metallic with a dark base plus red and bronze shimmer reflects. This is my favorite shade in the palette and the type of shadow I love to wear either all over the lid or as a smoky outer lid shade. #2 is a warm toned pale gold with a transparent base heavily packed with purple, pink, and gold micro shimmer. It is such a stunning topper type of shadow that my photos just can’t do justice in showing. It looks nothing like the deep golden orange depicted in the promo pictures, not just on my skin but in the compact as well. Because of that sheer base, it only works for me as a highlighting type of shade and wherever I want to amp up the sparkle level. Applying it damp is the way to go for more of an effect, but glitter glue is needed to make it look opaque and like an actual shadow, not just a topper. #3 is an orange-gold metallic. It’s very smooth and opaque, but it looks soft on the lids unless it’s applied damp or over glitter glue. Using these damp and dipping the wet brush back into the shadows will start to effect the way it looks in the compact in terms of creating an unflattering texture. I just wanted to mention that for people like me who actively try to keep their shadows looking new and don’t dip their brushes in the same spots over and over to try and “pan it.”

The wear time for these shadows is pretty good. They can look slightly worn at the end of the day, but it’s not that bad. Plus, I have a bit of trouble keeping the pale topper/shimmer lasting in my inner corner unless I apply glitter glue there. Essentially the shadows in that spot are susceptible to the frequent rubbing of my eyes in that spot.

In the third eye look, I had to use leftover concealer on my brush and sweep the edges of eyeshadow #4 to save time on blending.

#4 appears to be a baked eye shadow like the others, but it feels creamier to the touch. It’s like Guerlain’s version of a cream to powder formula. It looks nearly black in the quad, but it’s a dark espresso brown that applies in a sheer layer and takes quite the effort to get enough product onto the brush and fingers. Using my finger was the easiest application method, but it wasn’t the best experience. It darkens up the outer corners of my eyes, but it can take on a sooty appearance because of the lack of control since depositing the color off my finger and onto my eyes requires a bit of tugging. I think the formula of this fourth shadow is intended for makeup lovers that prefer to slowly build up their darker shades. That isn’t me, and though I had some critiques about the darkest shadow from the Pat Mcgrath Bronze Bliss palette, even that tricky one was easier to use than this because of it’s spreadability. This one smokes out, but at the cost of requiring friction. While using various brushes, I had the best results with dense brushes with sturdy bristles. This meant my dense synthetic or weasel/sable/kolinsky brushes in pencil, liner, and packing shapes. Wetting the brush minimally increases the opacity and still takes many passes to build up to the level that satisfies me. However, I still cannot make it intense. The problem isn’t about that first layer of color, which isn’t so bad to lay down, but after that first layer it’s tedious to build up to the depth I want. Every look with it is on the softer side. There’s a time and place for that kind of thing, so it’s not the end of the world, but it’s a bit of a letdown of a shadow. That first initial thin layer might be enough product for someone with a lighter skin tone, but I only get a sooty appearance if I don’t manage to pack more on with those brushes I mentioned. Then again, Theresa is Dead on YouTube still had a problem with #4. I couldn’t find her original first impressions video but I linked another one where she discussed it.
Lastly, the shimmers all work fine with any primer I use, but #4 is harder to work with on one of my holy grail primers (MAC Paint Pot), perhaps due to the semi emollient nature of both.

For this pricey quad, I got two great shades, an okay/nice shade, and a troublesome shadow. If I paid full price, I think I would have had regrets considering all the fantastic other neutral and less expensive palettes out there. Weirdly enough, I’m still happy with this purchase despite it not being perfect. However, Guerlain would have to create the absolute perfect color story in order for me to want to purchase anymore from them. I like the packaging and some shadows are a hit, but it’s too expensive to have such limited options of four shadows with one being guaranteed to be hard to work with. Pat Mcgrath’s velvet matte, Nathasha Denona’s cream powder, and Tom Ford’s wet/dry formulas are all better than shade #4 from Guerlain.

Dior Écrin Couture Iconic Eye Makeup

I recently fell down the rabbit hole into the world of Dior Beauty and its devoted following, and there was so much to learn! I hadn’t paid attention to the fact that Dior has special sets with special holiday packaging that changes every year. This year’s stunning floral and constellation design is by Pietro Ruffo. In addition to the box for the Écrin Couture palette, I also got a gift bag with the same design when I made this purchase via Dior’s website.

This (and technically the Dior Backstage Palette I’ll discuss after) is the only eyeshadow palette from Dior that I own. I always wondered what the quality was like of the brand’s traditionally packaged quints, but since this five pan palette is a special holiday release, I’m not sure if this quality is the same, better, or worse. I still plan on finding out one day, if Dior ever creates my dream color story. After using this palette, I’m even more interested in purchasing Dior’s eyeshadows if/when another color selection of theirs grabs my attention.

I’ve been interested in neutrals lately, but in using this palette, I very quickly realized that this is too basic of a color selection even for me. The shimmers are not as sparkly or reflective as I prefer for lid shades, though I appreciate how finely sized the shimmer particles are. In fact, the Iridescent Gold in particular has so fine a golden sheen that I can and have actually used it as a face highlighter. It’s very texture-friendly and despite being light for me as a face highlighter, it can still work if I’m on a trip or some other situation where I don’t have my usual variety of highlighters with me. I definitely can’t use Rosy Beige on my cheeks, not just because it’s too pale for me, but also because the texture of the particles are more visible in that shade.

The lightest color option is quite icy in contrast, but even the gold when used on my actual eyelids looks like a very pale yellow, so both are best as eye highlighting shades. If the shimmers were more intense, how pale they are would still limit how I’d want to use them in my eye looks anyway. Also, the shimmers are so thin that applying them damp or with glitter primer doesn’t intensify them enough for me; helping them along just makes them usable.

I’ve been enjoying the mattes more. It’s hard for me to see them as special, but objectively they are special in the sense that they don’t give me any problems to use them at all. They’re smooth, soft, and blend well into each other. I can build up the intensity of the Bold Brown to the level that’s deep enough for my needs. That shade and the Brick Red one are nicely pigmented and show up right away. The lighter Brown is only a few shades darker than the color around my eyes, so it’s a good transition shadow.

There really isn’t much to say. I’m not excited by these eyeshadows and they’re not very inspiring, but I can still see the value in having wearable everyday colors in a dependable easy to use formula. This palette is useful for transitioning between daytime and nighttime looks. It’s great to have as a supplemental palette to form a basic eye and pair it with another palette or single shadow for a lid shade with some added spice. This is the kind of palette that could be enticing to someone who wanted the Hindash Beautopsy palette, but with a focus on quality best suited for the eyes rather than a focus on the whole face (plus Écrin having the added bonus of shimmers). To clarify, the shadow formulas within Beautopsy and this one are completely different, but they have similar colors and both are fantastic quality in their own ways with differing strengths.

I don’t know if this palette was worth me getting, but I do really like the velour box packaging that I intend to repurpose for jewelry or something else long after the shadows expire. So, the keepsake element could be appealing for some people beyond just the makeup. In addition, the whole experience of unwrapping such extravagant packaging could make this a special gift for someone who owns very few eyeshadow palettes, neutral lovers, color-shadow-phobes, or those who just love luxury makeup.

One final random note I wanted to add is that the starry box was too cute to get rid of, but taking this palette in and out of the box was a pain, so I decided to use the dust bag that the perfume samples arrived in as a dust bag for the palette instead.

Dior BACKSTAGE Eyeshadow Palette in 008 Khaki Neutrals

Now, this is my kind of palette! It’s filled with so many varieties of greens in the kind of tones that I love, in addition to golds and a gorgeous brown. I’ve seen some comments around social media despising the addition of a primer in here, but because I don’t own multiple backstage palettes, this isn’t redundant or wasted space for me. The primer works well with the shadows, but my only gripe with it is the fact that it doesn’t have enough coverage to give me a blank canvas around my eyes. When used in the proper amount (and not as thick as a swatch) it’s quite sheer and all the discoloration on my lids and crease area show through. That’s fine if I’m using highly pigmented shadows, but these soft tones of shadows don’t do the best at covering them up. So, I prefer to use my own primers with this palette, but I solely used the primer included for the first two eyeshadow demo photos. In the bottom two, I used the Coloured Raine primer in the color Wheat.

Regarding Dior’s descriptions of the different finishes of these shades, it’s a bit confusing. Primer being an eye shadow primer and Top Coat having a sheer base but being the most sparkly and reflective of them all are straightforward descriptions. Golden Tan and Warm Gold are satins and just look like they have a sheen in their pans, but that sheen is quite reflective and gives them more of the look of being soft shimmers. However, I can accept their definitions of them as satins. Warm Brown is the final satin listed, but unlike the other two, this shade doesn’t have a strong sheen to it. It’s almost matte.
Pure Gold is a glitter and very similar in color to Golden Tan, except that Golden Tan is actually more reflective than Pure Gold, is more opaque, and ironically looks more golden because of the stronger sheen. Pure Gold’s base color is golden, but because the base is so sheer and the glitter is like a champagne, the shimmer overpowers it. So at certain angles, Pure Gold can look more champagne or more gold depending on the light. The very obvious glitter particles are why I accept this definition as a glitter. However, Khaki and Pine Green are the other two glitters listed in this palette. Pine Green does have dark green shimmer in it, but there’s so little visible sparkle that it may as well be matte. Even more matte than Pine Green is Khaki, which I can only see the gold sparkles in the pan. The sparkles just give a barely visible golden sheen and looks no more reflective than Warm Brown. I think of all the shade descriptions, Khaki should be considered a satin.
There’s only one metallic listed, and that’s Emerald, which does have a metallic reflect to it. However, Emerald has a golden sheen and so much visible gold shimmer that it takes away the smooth nearly foiled nature I expect when I think of metals and it looks like it should be considered a glitter shadow.

So, despite what Dior lists, I consider Top Coat to be a glitter, Golden Tan, Warm Gold, Emerald and Pure Gold to be shimmers, and Khaki, Warm Brown and Pine Green to be satins. That’s why I use that bottom row of the palette in place of mattes in the crease because the shimmer in the pans have such little effect on the eyes.

I love the color scheme, but the one aspect that doesn’t make sense to me is the fact that Top Coat is such a cool toned icy sparkle shadow when it clashes with all the gold shimmer and golden sheen that’s in the majority of these shadows. It doesn’t look right when I try to use it as an inner corner highlight shade either, so I doubt I will use it again once this review is posted. Also, Pine Green is seriously pigmented and a little more powdery to the touch than the rest, so I recommend using a precise brush with that shade, though it does still blend easily.

These shadows don’t swatch the best, but they blend well on the eyes and have a soft, pretty, smoothing, and sophisticated look to them. They’re more pigmented than I expected and I like the satins and glitters in this palette more than the shimmers in Dior Écrin Couture. If I want a little more drama, applying these damp gives me even more of what I want. Overall, I’ve really been enjoying this palette and the fact that it’s so compact in size makes it the kind of palette I can see myself packing as an extra travel palette. I can use them with any primer. I have no issues with creasing or longevity either.

Although I didn’t purchase this from Selfridges, I noticed it is cheaper there at the current price of $41 instead of $49.

Bobbi Brown Jadestone Eye Shadow Palette

I bought this palette for 25% off during a “play to win a discount” event that brands sometimes do. I got free shipping as well for being part of Bobbi Brown’s reward program. Bronze Forest arrived broken, but I just pressed it back.

This palette is fantastic! I like it even more than the Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals because I prioritize shimmers over satins and the shimmers in this palette are much more impactful, plus this has true mattes in it. This formula reminds me quite a lot of Lorac’s revamped PRO formula (Fairytale Forest in particular) with such buttery mattes and soft yet shiny shimmers. The shimmer particles are small in size, but nice and reflective. I also don’t have any issues with creasing or fading.

The mattes are buildable and blendable, but despite how pigmented Cream looks, it blended away and wouldn’t stick where I put it. So it left me with an ashy cast unless I mixed it with another shadow (like Champagne Quartz for my inner corner). As a brow highlighting shade, leaving a brightened cast wasn’t as much of an issue because it was so stark against my skin tone anyway. So, overall, I prefer to just avoid using that shade entirely and to use Buff instead as the matte highlighting eye shade.

Rich Caramel is essentially my skin tone and I love having a shade like that in here so I can make my eye area look natural again after using certain primers. For that reason, it’s among my favorite shades in the palette along with Bronze Forest and Jadestone. Electric City surprised me with how much brighter of a yellow tone in the gold that it has. Blonde also surprised me with how much darker of a taupe it looks when applied to my lids. It’s not dark enough to be a deepening shade on me, but it works as a transition shadow in the crease.

I forgot to mention that it’s not just Cream in the inner corner of the last demo photo, but a mixture of a bit of Champagne Quartz as well to make the shadow look purposefully added and not so ashy.

The brand calls all these shimmers metallic, but it’s only when they’re applied damp that I can see what they mean about that. For the price I paid, this was an absolute win. With Black Friday sales approaching, I recommend getting this palette for a deal if possible, for those who find these greens and neutrals appealing. The full price is a lot when I compare it to Lorac’s PRO prices and quality, but since I’m getting fantastic quality either way, I’m very happy to own this one. I have no regrets!

Bobbi Brown Luxe Eye & Cheek Palette in Copper Glow

This is the final palette in this review, but I purchased it even before Jadestone. I didn’t get as great of a deal at 15% off my first purchase from the brand’s website, but it still helped to soften the blow of that price tag. For the same price as Jadestone but with fewer individual products inside, I guess the dazzling outer packaging was a big factor into the cost. It admittedly reminds me of Smashbox’s Hoodwitch Collection highlighter, in particular, because they have the exact same feeling plastic around them and the raised plastic light refracting top. Both brands are under the Estee Lauder umbrella, so it’s possible the packaging was made by the same place. The main difference is the shapes of the textured top and the Bobbi Brown one being extremely holographic.

When I got my hands on this palette, I was surprised to see the reds look so orange on me and the matte brown, Hazel, gives me such little depth. It’s more of a rose-brown than the rich dark brown I expected and still feel this palette needs. Between Noho Glow and City Dawn, the former is a deeper orange with a hint of red while the latter is a medium toned warm orange. Despite me not minding the unexpected color, what throws me off is how similarly they look on my eyes, which makes them feel redundant in the palette despite them being two different finishes.

The stars of the show for me are the brownish-bronze shade called Sunset and the sparkly gold called Plated for the glittery impact it adds to eye looks.

Overheated is a little more interesting for an inner corner shade because it’s a pale gold that can go well with warm or cool looks, plus it has festive micro-fine green and red glitter that I only noticed upon close inspection within the palette. It just looks pale gold on the eyes though.

Just like with the Guerlain Quad, the makeup in this Luxe palette are baked shadows in a wet/dry formula. The shimmer and metallics are easy to pick up; they’re fine enough to use dry and to intensify when wet. The same goes for the red-orange matte, but Hazel is definitely less impactful when used dry. It doesn’t have the “deeply saturated shade intensity and clarity for dramatic payoff,” that is described on Bobbi Brown’s website. Using the non-mattes wet is easy, but with the matte shades I need to use only a tiny amount of liquid and spread it across the lid and/or crease in solid swipes or else it will dry strangely by literally looking like a discolored patch from thinning out the pigment and basically turning it into a watercolor shadow. Dampening Hazel doesn’t make it darker, but it does save time on needing to build it up in opacity and evenness.

As for the Copper Glow highlighter, it’s so smooth looking in the compact and gives me that wet look to my cheeks that I love. However, unlike the Bobbi Brown Highlighting powder I own with a similar texture, this one has additional larger size sparkles too. I’m a broken record about how I only want small particle sizes in my highlighters, but this is a bit of an exception. It’s not overly sparkly and there’s just enough twinkle to be the kind of highlighter I’d want to wear for festive occasions and even just for photos because it looks really nice on camera. In fact, in pictures it just catches the light and doesn’t show the dark cast that’s visible in person from the tone being a little too bronze-red for me. I can make it work in person if I pair it with the right blush.

Also, there is an Incandescent Glow version of this palette, which I do not own. However, I’ve heard the highlighter in that palette is extra glittery. Unlike Copper Glow, Incandescent Glow is a duochromatic highlighter, so perhaps the particles that make it a shifty pink to gold is responsible for it being sparkly, and perhaps even more sparkly than Copper Glow.

The brush I use makes a huge difference in the amount of product that gets picked up and the sparkle level. In the demonstration photos above, I used the Chikuhodo ZE-5 (silver fox hair) as a highlighting brush and it applied the amount I would normally want for a nice subtle, but not too subtle amount of product. In the photo on the right, I redid my eye makeup and cheek products (so the highlighter application isn’t two layers, just one) and I used my usual Bisyodo CH-HC (goat) which picked up and dispersed significantly more product. So, the tool will really make a difference in the intensity level. I haven’t applied this highlighter to damp skin, beyond the dewy level of my typical foundations, but I imagine this highlighter can get even more impactful.

I don’t give a grading scale because makeup is so subjective and my color preferences can even overshadow quality sometimes, but I will try to summarize how these rank compared to each other. In order of my most favorite to least favorite, it would be:

  • Bobbi Brown Jadestone
  • Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals
  • Pat Mcgrath Bronze Bliss
  • Dior Écrin Couture
  • Guerlain Royal Jungle
  • Bobbi Brown Copper Glow.

The highest quality, easiest to use, and most well rounded palette is technically the Dior Écrin Couture, even though it’s not in the #1 spot. In terms of quality, the Bobbi Brown Jadestone should be in second place, but I love the color story in this palette the most so it’s my favorite. The Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals comes next and is a great balance of quality, pigmentation, and color story, though it’s not a perfect palette with me not being thrilled to have the Top Coat shade and the Pine Green being a bit more powdery than the rest. I still ranked the Pat Mcgrath palette over the Dior Écrin Couture despite the tricky to use blue-black shadow and the transferring shimmers because of my love of the shimmer intensity on the lids, the tones of the bronzes, and the texture to the touch. Those two are the most polarizing to compare with one giving a very effortless, soft, and sophisticated glam look whereas the other bestows an intense, attention-grabbing, over-the-top glam look. The Guerlain palette ranked below the Pat Mcgrath palette because the issues with that deep brown shade is actually troublesome, not just tricky. Guerlain’s other shadows don’t have the transfer issues and are pretty hues too, but the amped up intensity from PML’s shadows is more important to me. Then, the last one on the list is Bobbi Brown Copper Glow because of the hassle with Hazel, the lack of variety with the color story despite having more shades to choose from than the Guerlain quad, and the shimmer/metallic intensity level.

I definitely love my top three of the six. Because of the packaging of the Dior Écrin Couture and my enjoyment of the non-mattes in the Guerlain quad, those are still going to stay in my collection. The only one that I’m unsure if I will keep for very long is the Bobbi Brown Copper Glow palette. It’s a decent product, but since I’m just one person that can only get a small percentage of use across my whole collection, being just “decent” means it’ll be on the chopping block during my next declutter.

That’s everything for today! Hopefully having six reviews in one post will make up for missing last Monday’s post. For those visiting my blog for the first time, be sure to click the follow button if you want to be notified of all future posts! My recovery is going really well, but as predicted, it’s going to be difficult for me to post on a consistent schedule for the rest of this year.

Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

DISCLOSURE: I haven’t posted one of these in a while, so just as a reminder, all products in this post were purchased by me. My opinions are my own and all links in this particular post are regular non-affiliated links. Any connections I have to brands and companies are detailed in the “About Me” section of my blog. Anything affiliated or sponsored in this blog and future posts will be clearly marked.