Author Archives: ghekate

Are Face Palettes Worth It? Ft. Nars

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This post is a review of the Nars Hot Escape Palette, but I think it’s also a good opportunity to discuss how much value (if any) face palettes truly add to a makeup collection. I didn’t include any face palettes in my Project Pan, since I didn’t think I had an overconsumption issue in that category, but my ever growing Hourglass collection has made me feel the need to reconsider this. In addition, my Project Pan was centered around trying to use my absolute top favorite makeup items, and so few face palettes would have even ranked high enough to be included.

Nars Hot Escape Cheek Palette in (Version III) Medium Deep

In the last few years, I’ve begun to think that face palettes aren’t something I should be buying, considering how infrequently I use them. The reason I made an exception for this Nars palette is because I thought the blush shades looked quite pretty and I have never tried a true Nars highlighter before. I have technically only used pale shimmery blushes from Nars as highlighters that came within their blush palettes, so I’ve been curious about the potential differences.

The highlighters from the Hot Escape palettes are what tempted me the most because shortly after this launch, Nars had also released their Light Reflecting Luminizing Powders. I wanted to try those as well, but I feared Ophelia would be too light and Total Eclipse might be too dark. Skinny Dip from this palette looked like it was right in-between those two and would be a closer shade match for me. I also assumed the formulas would be the same between the Light Reflecting Luminizing Powders and the highlighters in the Hot Escape Cheek Palettes because Volumes 1, 2, and 4 share the same names (Ophelia, Electra, and Total Eclipse). As it turns out, the highlighter formulas are not the same and the colors don’t seem to be correct either! Ophelia as an individual highlighter is the fourth darkest color and is a light bronze tone. The “Ophelia” from the Hot Escape Palette looks more like the shade Heavenly and is described as an opalescent pink. It’s even in the lightest palette to boot. So, I’m not sure why Nars would do something so confusing. Perhaps it was not intentional and an employee made a mistake when preparing the names for the packaging labels.

Photo Credits: Niche-Beauty.com

Photo Credits: Niche-Beauty.com

The confusion doesn’t stop there. Even though the ingredient lists are the same for the bronzers, I noticed Laguna 06 in the Hot Escape palette seemed much lighter than the individual shade I have in the mini size. I hope the differences are clear enough in the swatch photo below.

The thought crossed my mind that my mini could be darker because I’ve had it for longer, but the surface of mine is actually still lighter than normal because of how often I mixed Laguna shades 05 and 06 because of how red toned 06 was from the start! So, my mini of 06 will look even darker than the new one once I use it a few more times solo.
I don’t know why these two are different, and can only suspect they were made in different facilities even though they both say they’re made in the USA. It’s also possible Nars decided to tweak the shade a little in the palette, which doesn’t seem farfetched considering what they did with the Ophelia highlighter.
I actually don’t mind the new 06 bronzer being lighter and less red because it suits my complexion better. The quality and performance seems to be about the same as well. It’s still a buildable formula and long lasting. I wish it wasn’t quite so matte though.

Laguna 06 Bronzer (new)

Starting with the blush called Obsession, I think it’s a pretty color, but it having a matte finish is preventing me from liking it more. As much as I’m attracted to blush colors by Nars, and like them, them looking slightly dry on me is always the reason I don’t fall in love with them. It’s something I could never make sense of considering MAC’s matte powder blushes look similar to the Nars ones, yet the MAC blushes melt better into my skin and somehow just look more life-like and healthier. I have to say, Obsession still looks better on my skin than some of the Nars blushes I’ve used in the past. So, this isn’t quite a favorite, but I am happy enough to have it.

Night Swim turned out to be a little more berry toned than I expected, which is a color category I can be very picky about. Because it’s a lighter berry, that helps me to like it more, as I feel deep colored blushes can age me. It certainly doesn’t look drying due to the shimmer, but the reflect is a little metallic, and I’m not really a fan of that. It’s not enough to make me dislike the blush, just that it prevents it from being a favorite. I think I still like this color even more than Obsession!

My skin tone and everything else (except the blush) is more color accurate in the photo with the pink shirt. It was a cloudy day in my grey shirt photo, so everything looks greyer and cooler, but the blush color is more accurate.

The Skinny Dip highlighter is a suitable color for me, as I suspected it would be. My favorite highlighter brush picks up quite a bit of product, so I have to be careful how much I apply because a little goes a long way. In terms of intensity, it already reaches medium with the amount my brush picks up, so I don’t try to layer it further. It’s already a lot more than I’ve been wearing lately, outside of testing days.

The blue shirt photo is more color accurate for Obsession and Skinny Dip, but I wanted to show how the photo turned out on a cloudy day to better help show the difference in Night Swim’s cloudy photo.

Skinny Dip is not as refined as my Hindash, Charlotte Tilbury, or Prada highlighters, but it still has small enough shimmer particles to keep me happy. I don’t like when highlighters have shimmer specks large enough to look like glitter or when they’re spaced out too much and it looks more like accidental fallout rather than intentional. This highlighter is smooth enough to avoid leaving a stripe and blends nicely. The glow it gives isn’t that metallic either, though I suspect the newest individual ones could be. Overall, I’m quite pleased with this highlighter. This and the blush Night Swim are my favorite two products in the quad.

Because I can use all four colors and I like them all, this has a higher percentage of success rate among my face palette purchases. It also helps that I got it on sale for 33 Euros ($40 USD). However, I don’t know that I love it enough to reach for it over my individual makeup favorites. So, this might not have been a good purchase for me after all. I can at least recommend it as a good quality product for those that enjoy Nars cheek powders and past palettes, even if it’s something I personally could have skipped.

Returning back to the subject of whether face palettes are worth it, I have to state that I first of all consider a face palette to be a product with at least one highlighter, blush, and bronzer. So, duos, blush palettes, and something that has for instance only a highlighter, bronzer, and face powder is one that I don’t consider a true face palette. I don’t always use contour or face powders in a makeup look, but I almost always wear blush, highlighter, and bronzer. This is why I clasisfy face palettes this way.

I own more face palettes than is pictured above, but they are the only ones I considered worth bringing with me or buying once I moved. I would like to point out one of the palettes is custom and the one from Lethal Cosmetics used to qualify, but I prefer their highlighter and blush quality, so I replaced the bronzer with another highlighter.

The first point in determining whether a face palette is worth it is remembering the rule of thumb that the more shades it contains that suit someone, the more it’s worth. It is rare that I like every single face product in palettes, or that I can even use all of them. If a palette doesn’t have magnetic pans or a way to make it easy to mix and match for more options, it makes that product pretty much permanently imperfect. That limits how often I want to reach for it.
If there are premade, but customizable options, I have to consider the price and quality to determine if buying 2 or more palettes to create one perfect palette is really worth it.

The second thing to consider is whether there is even a single face palette that has quality that I consider a holy grail.
It’s one thing to have all usable products in nice shades, but can they even compete with my single blushes, highlighters, and bronzers as individual singles? Plus, there are some brands that use cheaper formulas in multi-functional palettes and sets (i.e., Too Faced holiday items allegedly). So, you might pay less than what the premium products would individually total up to, but it’s not a true deal if the quality is lower.
An example of this is when I had a few Tarte holiday sets containing mini blushes in a different formula versus their specifically labeled “Amazonian Clay” mini blushes set. The random blush formula was nice, but couldn’t compare to their claim to fame Amazonian ones, so I eventually decluttered them.

Within the Hourglass Ambient range, the At Night blush and finishing powders were once holy grails for me, but nothing else of theirs comes close. I wish the bronzers had a stronger sheen and the highlighters tend to be pretty, but have either too large of shimmer particles (even medium size is a lot to me) or too strong of a metallic reflect. There was a time that I considered their finishing powders to be unique, until Nikki told me about the Candleglow Sheer Perfecting Powders from Laura Mercier. As of late, the Ilia Soft Blurring Blushes (and I’ve heard even Kosas Baked Blushes) are giving Hourglass a run for their money.
Still, I do use my Hourglass palettes a fair amount specifically because they are near-holy grails in terms of formula and because I depotted and rearranged many of them. I know I wouldn’t reach for them enough if not for these two factors combined. Proof of that is the fact that I still left some of my palettes behind in the US.

I have four other blush and highlighter palettes from Nars (one of them is unreviewed), yet I still chose to keep a few of my individual Nars blushes instead of bringing those with me. I find that to be quite telling.

The Sephora Collection Microsmooth Multi-Tasking Baked Face Palette contains all beautiful colors, but the matte blush and bronzer are a little too matte and dry looking for me since moving to a different climate. That’s the main reason I don’t use it anymore.

The MAC Effervescence Extra Dimension Face Compact has baked gelee powders with shimmer or sheen, so my only excuse for not using it as soon as it was back in my possession is that I was in the midst of my Project Pan. It has only been a week since I started using it again.
The Sephora and MAC palettes have the highest chance of being favorites again because every shade in them work on me and have the kinds of tones I like.

Although I don’t consider the Hindash matte powder products to be more amazing than many of my matte blushes and bronzers, the brand makes my favorite and most used contour that’s within the Beautopsy palette. Plus, it’s really the tones and convenience of the powders being so multi-functional that causes me to continually reach for Beautopsy, especially when traveling. However, I haven’t stopped wanting to swap around Beautopsy and Monochromance shades to turn it into a perfect palette. Even if I did so, the next thing I would yearn for is to have a powder highlighter in that pan size, because that’s something I’m still missing to consider it a true face palette in my mind. So, this is why I haven’t bothered to depot and rearrange them yet.

My custom magnetic palette filled with face products also gets used a fair amount, specifically because my number one bronzer is in there. If I added my Prada highlighter and a MAC blush, I might seriously use that multiple times a week!
But this highlights my realization about face palettes: Every powder in there has to be a perfectly suiting tone for me, plus in a formula that is an absolute favorite.
So, I will have to either make my own custom face palette out of products from various brands in order to have one that I’ll use a ton, or I’ll have to commit to only buying new face palettes matching very high criteria in order for them to feel worth it.

I have come to this realization, but two things are in the forefront of my mind.
The first is that in the midst of working on the initial draft of this post, I technically already bought another face palette (the YSL All Hours Couture Face Palette), but it’s more of a blush/highlighter palette for me. So, it technically doesn’t count?
The second is that I am absolutely going to buy the Hourglass Ambient Light Fox Palette when it launches for the holidays. I have already established that this isn’t a holy grail formula, yet I am so hellbent on creating (through depotting) my ultimate Hourglass palette to somehow make it feel like I have finally reached perfection, which would finally make them all worth buying in my mind. In reality, I should quit while I’m behind, but this is a guilty pleasure of mine. I guess I can continue to make an exception for Hourglass.

Those are all my thoughts on face palettes, plus the Nars review. I hope it has been helpful!

-Lili ❤

Blush Sticks ft. Charlotte Tilbury and ABH

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So many brands are releasing blush sticks this year! I wasn’t supposed to buy any, as I mentioned in my Project Pan, but Dior, Charlotte Tilbury, and Anastasia Beverly Hills made me cave! I am determined for these to be the last ones I buy, because I’m more of a powder girlie!

Charlotte Tilbury Unreal Glow Blush Sticks in Peachy Glow and Cherry Glow

I have no problem with Peachy Glow showing up on my skintone in person, but between my lights, cell phone, and the shiny finish, it’s harder to detect in photos. It’s at least visible in the picture where it’s unblended on my cheek. If I’m not wearing foundation, and I blend this color to my bare skin, it looks a little pearly and ashy. So, Peachy Glow doesn’t work as well on me on minimal makeup days.

Fully blended (less light) vs less blended (and more direct light)

Unblended

Cherry Glow being the bolder color can be built up heavily, but I like how it looks when sheered out. It’s seamless on the skin, as most cream blushes are. This blush dries down to the point where it isn’t sticky, but I can still feel moisture on my cheeks.
If I don’t set this with powder, it looks a bit faded within six hours. It is still there in the eight hours the brand promises it will last, but what’s left is the barest flush of color. By 12 hours, there is nothing but mica/shimmer particles visible. The actual color is gone. Also, the dewy wet look disappears at some point earlier in the day. I would rather set my face with powder and top it with a highlighter, or use a glowy setting spray to bring back a dry kind of shine, so I don’t have to deal with a partly dewy cheek. Every touch to my cheek transfers when unset with powder, which is annoying.

Normal application vs light/sheer application

When set with powder, the remaining luminosity eventually disappears too, but at least it’s dry, transfers less, and holds more color on the cheek by the end of 12 hours.

The blush sticks look so glowy that it makes adding highlighter seem unnecessary. I use Charlotte Tilbury’s Unreal Skin Tint as a highlighter. Adding the skin tint on top doesn’t make a big visual change in that moment, but since the shine of the blushes disappear on their own, having the tint on top makes a difference in the span of the whole day.

These blush sticks can be used on the lips, but they have a creamy surface, not a hydrating one. I can see the cracks of my dry lips underneath, along with my discolored spot since I can’t build the color to become fully opaque. Cherry Glow is better at hiding the flaws than Peachy Glow, but this is no surprise since it’s a darker color.

Because they launched so closely together, I can’t help but compare this to the Dior blush stick.
It seems like the majority of people have the opposite experience as me because Dior’s actually dries down on me without powder, unlike Charlotte’s. I like the packaging of both, but Charlotte’s is cuter whereas Dior’s feels more lux.
I don’t know if I would like Dior’s non-pearlescent blushes more than Charlotte’s, but the shine from Dior’s Candy lasts longer. Peachy Glow only looks wetter in the beginning.
Ultimately, I prefer the Dior formula, excluding the Dior Lip Addict scent someone thought was a good idea to add to the blushes. It is so off-putting!

This release from Charlotte Tilbury is nice, but it’s not a must- have product. It has less of a chance of becoming a staple in my collection than Dior’s blush stick.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Blush Stick in Peach Caramel

This product has been out for a long time, but I waited ages to get it at a discount over 20 percent! The reason it was important to me is because I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t show up on my skin. I heard the colors in this range were not the most pigmented, that they were less saturated than many on the market, and that the orange-brown tones could blend in too much with my skin tone. This all turned out to be mostly true. Although I can see the blush on my cheeks, it’s very difficult to spot in photos. Ultimately, taking a picture of it unblended with a winter foundation shade on was the best way to see at least something on my cheeks!

What this has in common with Charlotte Tilbury’s blush is how long it lasts. Even though the ABH Blush Stick is less emollient and dries to a powdery finish, I can still feel it on my cheeks, it still transfers a little (on top of a hydrated base), and can fade. The finish is also matte. It lacking creaminess makes it stiffer in terms of spreadability, though it still blends out smoothly. I think ABH has prettier colors because they are more skin-native, but they are also severely lacking in depth. Peach Caramel is the deepest shade! At least Charlotte has options for those of us darker than tan.

When I have very saturated blushes from other brands, I have tried pairing this blush with them in order to help tone things down, but I was unimpressed by most of the combinations. The differences in the finish leads to them sometimes not blending together as smoothly.

Conceptually, I like that there is a brush on the other end of the stick (like the one from Makeup by Mario), but the surface area size is so small and doesn’t blend as well as my full-size brushes. So, it’s only useful if I wanted to bring this on-the-go and I was in some weird situation where I didn’t have access to my usual makeup tools.

Because this blush isn’t intended to be glowy, I have lower expectations, which this at least meets. I think it’s a nice formula, but not that special in the blush stick category. I think I even prefer Makeup by Mario’s Soft Pop Blush Stick over this one, but I could be biased because of how much I was in love with the shade Earthy Pink. If this blush was a little deeper and showed up better, I might be singing a different tune.
Within the realm of cream blushes as a whole, the ABH Cream Blush Stick is not something anyone needs to run out and buy. Both this and Charlotte Tilbury’s look completely different on the face because of their finishes, but they receive the same grade from me.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post.

-Lili ❤

Kess 365 Bronzer Review

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Welcome to the final entry in the Summer Bronzer Series where I post a bonus review every week in the month of July! Linked in blue are Part 1 and Part 2, plus Part 3.

Kess Berlin 365 Bronzer in Tan to Deep

The majority of what I buy is makeup that generates a lot of hype, but I knew nothing about Kess prior to making this purchase. The 365 Bronzer popped up on the Douglas and Niche-Beauty websites in May, and how the texture appeared in photos is what caught my interest. It looked like a baked gelee product, which I tend to love, and indeed it has a “patented gel-to-powder formula.”

I expected it to look a bit shimmery in person, but I was surprised to see only a few gold specks here and there, and not an obvious sheen. The mica is something I couldn’t see until I used it enough to wear away some of the embossing on the surface.

From the moment I first dipped my brush into the bronzer, I was instantly reminded of the Huda Beauty Glowish Soft Radiance Bronzing Powder and the Hatice Schmidt Bronzer (which is quite similar to Nabla’s Skin Bronzing). The formulas aren’t the same, but they share some ingredients in common.

The bronzer from Kess feels smooth and picks up as well as the Hatice and Huda bronzers, and is better than Nabla’s. It has a little bit of a creamy feel, but it’s not as emollient and doesn’t have as much slip as the others. This may be due to Kess not using dimethicone, unlike the others. The brand’s website specifically touts being “Talc-, silicone- and perfume-free,” so they may be intentionally avoiding all the “-cones.”

When I first used this bronzer, I was so impressed with how smooth it looked on my skin, and the amount of luminosity, but when I started using my new and older favorites, I was reminded that those are even smoother than this one.

This looks the best on me when I apply a light layer with the amount of product I first pick up on my brush, but it can get out of hand sometimes in the process of trying to slowly build it up, combined with my lack of patience. The color is neutral leaning warm and dark enough to have a simultaneous bronzing and sculpting effect.
In the set of swatches below, one can see how Tan to Deep is similar in color to Deep Bronze from Dior’s previous bronzer line, and I always mixed that shade with another to get it to appear lighter. I tend to not use bronzers darker than Nars Laguna 6. However, it’s not the darkest in my collection. I can make this work, but it’s not as effortless of a process purely because of the shade. A darker bronzer will usually require more effort, even when it blends nicely.
And this does blend well, but I have bronzers that are even better performers. That being said, I still liked this enough that I scoured the website to see if there was anything else of interest to me by Kess. When I find a good product, I usually want to try something else from the brand in the hopes of discovering another gem.

Regarding longevity, how it looks when I put it on early in the day is how it will look at the end of the day. There’s zero fading, not that it’s difficult for powder products to be long lasting on me, but I still have to give credit where credit is due.

Overall, this would place somewhere within the Top 25 of my bronzers. That might sound low to some people, but between all the individual bronzers I own, duos, and face palettes, I have an absurd number of bronzers to begin with. So, this is really good!

I compared this to Nabla’s Skin Bronzing (discontinued in some countries already), the Glowish Bronzer (discontinued), and the Hatice Schmidt Bronzer. The Hatice Schmidt brand (formerly Hatice Schmidt Labs) technically completed its multi-years long rebrand, but has been slow to progress since the influencer running it is going through many life changes. I’m not sure if she plans to bring the bronzer back once the remaining stock with old packaging is gone. I’m not even sure how much longer the brand will stay in business. So, I consider the Kess Bronzer to be the closest alternative that I can recommend for all of these disappearing products!

I’m not sure how readily available Kess/Kess Berlin is outside of Germany. I believe Niche-Beauty offers worldwide shipping, so that’s at least one option for those interested.

So, that’s everything! I hope you’ve enjoyed the bonus bronzer posts this month!

Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤

What’s New with Benefit Cosmetics? Review!

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For the last couple of years, Benefit has been mainly releasing sets containing already existing products. Surprisingly, in the first half of 2025, we already got reformulated Hoola bronzers, an additional bronzer formula, a new line of highlighters, an additional shade of the Wanderful World blushes, a shade extension for the Benetints, a new mascara, and the Porefessional Foundation.

I got swept up in the excitement and purchased three new products from the brand (not including the Badgal Bounce mascara I reviewed in March). Two are hits and one is a miss.

Benefit Hoola Wave Cream Bronzing Balm in Deep

I immediately spotted the gold shimmer particles in the pan, and was concerned that this formula might be like the Juvia’s Place Bronzed Cream Bronzer that looked ridiculous on my skin. I was very happy to see that the shimmer is not noticeable in swatches or on my face. It makes my skin look hydrated with a natural-finish type of glow.

This product sheers out fairly well, so I consider it a blendable formula that can build up in color intensity, but it’s not the slow building type. I get a lot of pigment right away. With my holy grail cream/liquid bronzer brush, the Patrick Ta Contour 1, I have to be careful not to overapply because it’s such a dense brush. However, I don’t get as smooth of a blend when I try to use looser packed brushes.

What works best for me is to tap the bristles into the pan once and then stamp it along the perimeter of my face in big enough gaps so I have room to blend and spread the bronzer out without having too much concentrated in one area.

The texture of this product is not one that I encounter that often. It’s emollient like a cream, but it’s slightly stiff and doesn’t melt as quickly into the skin like the Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Cream Bronzer Stick or Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer. It blends well, but it just doesn’t spread in the same way as the others. It has “balm” in the name, but that makes it sound like it will be sticky, dewy, and/or waxy, which this product is not. The formula consists of silica, waxes, and oils, but it feels balanced in a way that doesn’t lean too much in either of those directions.
Essentially, the most comparable product to this one is the Rose Inc Cream Bronzer that I loved enough to consider one of my top five in the cream and liquid bronzer category, until it dried up unexpectedly quick.
Benefit and Rose Inc’s bronzers don’t have the same formula and this product isn’t as stiff as the one from Rose Inc, so I am hopeful that I will not run into the same issue six months from now. If it does, I will update this post with the details.

The Hoola Wave feels weightless on the face and sets on its own, so I don’t need to powder it, and it lasts all day. If I had to put it on my Bronzer Ranking List, it would be the new #26. That puts it below the Nars Laguna Cream Bronzer and Powder Bronzer, but still above the one from Rose Inc. I like it a lot, but there are many I like even more, including affordable ones. For instance, I think the Colourpop Supershock Bronzer is even better.

I also want to clarify that my ranking list is of all the bronzers I like, not all the bronzers in my collection. So, 26 is still high in the grand scheme of things.

Benefit Hoola Bronzing Powder in Deep

I owned and decluttered Hoola Caramel for being too light and Hoola Toasted for being too red and deep for me. I thought the bronzer quality was fantastic, but whenever my skin would get lighter, I couldn’t use it. Plus, it would get hard pan every time I needed to do comparison swatches. I gave up on it, but continued to wish for a shade between Caramel and Toasted.

So, when I heard about the reformulation and packaging design change, I still wasn’t excited until I saw the shade range. Deep looked, and actually turned out to be, less red than before. I think it’s also a hair lighter, but I don’t have Toasted anymore to be able to compare. As for “medium deep,” which I believe is supposed to be the same depth as the old Caramel, they made it cool toned instead. So, that was definitely not an option for me.
While I’m happy to have a better suited color in a formula that performs just like the old one, it means those that used the old Toasted might not like or be able to wear the new version of Deep.

As I mentioned, the performance is just how I remember. It’s pigmented, but buildble, and it’s easy to achieve an airbrushed look (though not quite as airbrushed as the Charlotte Tilbury powder bronzer). The blend is so smooth and never patchy. There is no added fragrance and I have no issues with longevity.

I’m still not pleased with the box packaging, though it’s at least slimmer and matches the size of the Wanderful World blushes. As to whether or not these new ones hardpan quickly, I can’t say because I refuse to put my finger in it, even for science. That’s why the swatches are in the Hoola Wave section and was applied with a brush to confirm Deep is the same shade in both formulas.

In the photo above, I applied it heavily so it would show up for review purposes. However, I can get a sheerer application if I use my airier brushes. In fact, it’s easier to apply a sheer layer of this powder than with Benefit’s cream bronzer.

If I needed to put this on the Bronzer Ranking List, it’s hard to say whether it tops #12 Dior Forever Natural Bronzer or #13 Vieve Modern Bronzer Duo, because I haven’t used those two in quite a while.

Benefit Glow-La-La Powder Highlighter in Lumi

I waited over five years for Benefit to make a highlighter darker than Tickle, so even though I am supposed to be on a highlighter no-buy, I made an exception for this release.

There are six highlighters in the line (which is more shades than the bronzer), and the one I bought is the second to last color. It makes me glad to see Benefit with an inclusive set of highlighters, especially considering how long they took to create.

This feels as wet and smooth as the Natasha Denona Hy Gen highlighters, and they also turn dry once contact is made with the skin. It’s thankfully also fragrance-free.

Based on how smoothly Lumi swatched, I thought for certain I would love this. However, when I use this with my holy grail highlighter brush, it looks terrible! It’s pretty from far away, but up close I can see all the individual shimmer particles. I was very unhappy with it in the beginning, so I switched to the Bisyodo B-ES-03, which has denser sections, but it’s thin enough to apply precisely. Using a denser brush to pack on more product helped to alleviate the scattered look effect. Then taking time blending the highlighter (more than any other highlighter I’ve owned) helped to disperse the highlighter more evenly and have the shimmer sparkles closer together so that the overall look is smoother.

I found a way to make this highlighter work, but I don’t foresee myself getting much use out of it if I can’t use it with my favorite brush. I also don’t want to have to put as much effort blending my highlighter as I do when I’m blending eyeshadows.

The brand succeeds in creating a “wet look,” which is a positive thing, but visible shimmer is a stronger negative in my book. I purchased the Prada highlighter a week or two after this one, and the differences were even more glaring. Quite a few of my friends on Instagram like this highlighter from Benefit, and it’s made in Italy, so the brand probably spent quite a bit of money in the formula. It’s still just too far from my preferences.

Also, I don’t think this should be priced over $30. Yes, this is coming from someone who spent a lot on a Prada highlighter refill.
I’ve been glad to see plastic packaging instead of cardboard from Benefit, but it feels so cheap in the hand! It’s still way bulkier than it needs to be.

I can recommend the bronzers, but not the highlighter. The blushes are still some of my favorites too, so I still recommend those!

That’s all I have for today! Thank you for reading.

-Lili ❤

Laura Mercier Bronze Color Infusion Review

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This is number 3 of 4 in the Summer Bronzer Series where I post a bonus review every week in the month of July! The links are in blue to Part 1 and Part 2.

Laura Mercier Bronze Color Infusion in 40 Riviera

There was a lot of buzz surrounding this product within the first few weeks of being released, but so many bronzers have launched since then that have maintained their hype for longer.

What appealed to me is the ability to use the sculpt side if I’m in the mood for something matte or the glow side if I want some luminosity. I go through phases of wanting both, so a product like this seemed brilliant. It can be a staple in someone’s collection, so long as the colors are a good match. For example, I cannot use the glow side by itself because the base color is light on me, in addition to the way light reflects off of it. I can still use it as a highlighter, plus mix both halves of the compact together to create a glowy bronzed look, but if I found no use for one of the two products, then it would be the same as using an individual bronzer anyway and lose its advantage over single bronzers. I hold this product in high regard, but neither half is impressive enough on their own to enter the top 30 of my ranking list, but the combination could.

There can be quite a bit of kickup, so I never swirl my brush in here. I use some of my smaller light-medium density brushes if I want to use each half separately, or the Sonia G Smooth Buffer to pick up product by tapping the brush into both sides.
In order to continue being able to use them separately or together, I try to reserve putting my brush into the top half of the pan for mixing, but sometimes I forget.

The matte side feels soft, is pigmented, and blends nicely (though I have some that are even more blendable). It becomes one with my foundation and can look quite natural.
The shimmer side is finely milled with very tiny shimmer specks that are subtle enough to remind me of my favorite set of Guerlain meteorites. Despite how refined it looks to my eye, when light shines on it, it emphasizes texture a little more than I prefer.
It’s like a subtler powder version of the Glossier Solar Paint, which I decluttered for the same reason. Both formulas have synthetic fluorphlogopite in common, which is an ingredient that can look stunning in products, but I think the brand used too much of it in here, especially coupled with mica too. Basically, the color is subtle, but the reflect can be intense.
Since my texture isn’t too bad on the top of my cheekbones, I still don’t mind using the glow side as highlighter. It’s just when I use both sides of Riviera as my bronzer that I feel it looks beautiful, but I also just try to ignore the fact that the bumps around my face are more pronounced.
The swatch section shows some of the shimmer particles in Riviera (Glow) compared to Fara Homidi’s Roma, which has a lumi-matte finish. Roma doesn’t draw the same kind of attention to texture on my face.

One other thing to note about the shimmer is that if one’s face is too dry, it has a harder time adhering. On minimal makeup days, when I’ve skipped foundation and my skincare was dry to the touch, the glow side that I used as highlighter would disappear in under two hours. So, I had to start either spraying my face to give it something to grip onto, or only using this product on days when I’m wearing foundation. Then I no longer had issues with longevity.
The matte side was long lasting in every situation.

Another customizable product released this year was the Givenchy Prisme Libre Bronzing and Sculpting Powder. In my review for it, I mentioned that time would tell whether I would embrace the customizing aspect or revert back to using my individual favorites. The reality is that I only used it about three more times after the review. That was a great product, and so is this, but I foresee myself also setting aside this bronzer in favor of my individual bronzer and highlighter holy grails.
I’ve come to realize that trios or other kinds of face palettes rarely get used by me for long. The only exception has been the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit palettes. Even my Sephora Collection Microsmooth Multi-Tasking Baked Face Palette that I used for a few years has taken a back seat to the Hourglass ones.
Since the Laura Mercier Color Infusion is a duo, there is still hope it won’t be wasted in my collection!

Before we end this, I do want to point out that I’m surprised this release hasn’t gotten more hype. Right now, people are still raving about the Fara Homidi bronzer in the shade Bois for being a fair skin person’s dream bronzer in terms of color. To me, this range from Laura Mercier doesn’t have standard colors. Riviera is listed as a neutral, but it’s a bit pink on me. The lighter shades, in order, are described as peachy bronze, rosy bronze, and caramel bronze. The darkest shade would be a blush on me because of how red it looks, but at least it’s something I haven’t seen before.

This bronzer is nice, but not a necessity for someone with a large bronzer collection already.

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤

E.L.F. Halo Glow Powder

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I’ve always liked this brand, and their products are good, but they don’t end up being staples in my collection. The makeup I like most from e.l.f tend to be dupes for higher end products, which I consider to be nearly as good, but not better. This is the only reason I don’t review e.l.f products as frequently on this blog, because I already own the makeup they’re creating alternatives for.

I didn’t realize a loose powder version was released long before this pressed one. In Germany, the loose powder is €9 for 6.8 grams and €16 for 10 grams.
I’m not certain if this is supposed to be similar to anything else on the market, but I was intrigued enough to want to give it a try.

e.l.f. Cosmetics Halo Glow Powder Filter in Tan Warm

This gave me quite the great first impression! It’s not a weighty product, but I was pleased to see that it had a mirror, as well as a velvety puff. The powder is so soft to the touch and is not hard-pressed, so one has to be careful not to pick up too much powder with a brush. This isn’t translucent and slightly lightens my foundation, so I prefer using a brush with this rather than the puff that packs on a lot of product. That way, the color isn’t a problem for me. Based on the photos I’ve seen, I still think I picked the best one for me.

This looks beautiful over a moisturized base, but it doesn’t look that smoothed or blurred over dry patches. It sets my face in the sense that it dries the emollient spots, while still allowing for some luminosity (that I assume is from the Synthetic Fluorphlogopite), but it doesn’t really control oil. If I’m using emollient skincare, my face will start to get that wet-shine look again as the day goes on. This is a great thing for me and the kind of look I try to achieve in the wear of my makeup. I figure this could be a problem for others though.

I’ve used this once to set down my concealer, but it got broken down around 4-5 hours in. So, I haven’t used it that way again. A finishing powder isn’t really intended to set, but I wanted to test it anyway. The Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder has “finish” in the name, but I only like to use it under my eyes because it’s too drying for me elsewhere, and acts more like a setting powder on me. So, I can’t always judge products based on their name.

I think this is a good pressed powder for someone with dry skin who uses products that will allow glow to shine through, but doesn’t want to look overly luminous.
It’s probably not fair to compare this to my Dior Powder No Powder that’s like 4 times more expensive (and seems to be discontinued), but I prefer the sheen in that one way more. In fact, there are several other high end products that I prefer over ELF’s, but I can’t think of a single other drugstore finishing powder with a texture and performance as nice as this one.

Huda Beauty created something similar with their GloWish Luminous Pressed Powder, as well as Melt with their Glazed Skin Sheer Finishing Powder. Both were so glowy that I could only use them as highlighters. I believe ELF has done a better job. Even though this product has not become a staple in my collection (because it couldn’t compete with my holy grail finishing powder), I recommend it as a budget-friendly alternative for someone without a lot of uneven skin texture. That part is key.

Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤

Fara Homidi Essential Bronzer Review

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This is number 2 of 4 in the Summer Bronzer Series where I post a bonus review every week in the month of July! Part 1 can be found HERE.

A few months ago, I was unfamiliar with Fara Homidi and her brand. However, their bronzers started to get incredibly popular due to the luxury makeup reviewers with fair and light skin raving so enthusiastically about the color Lumen and most especially the shade Bois.
I became more and more curious to see if anyone would go crazy over Roma and Ombra too. I waited for weeks and still couldn’t find a single review from someone with a tan or darker skin tone. So, I purchased the refill to try it for myself and see if the hype was justified.

Fara Homidi Essential Bronzer (refill) in Roma

Packaging/Refill

I was pleasantly surprised that this refill came in a thick plastic clamshell that mimics the real packaging in shape and color. The real compact is matte brown and made of “hand-polished lacquered metal,” but the refill packaging is shiny, as seen in the first photo of the post.

The outside of the refill is made of “42% cellulose-based plastic,” and underneath are the raised letters ‘FH’ that fits into the ‘FH’ on the bottom of the clamshell container. The bronzer is actually pressed inside a metal pan, but it has that brown colored plastic encasing it.
So, the compact and refill pans are magnetic, but the magnetic pull is not strong enough for the pan to adhere to a separate Z-palette on its own. I have heard that the Fara Homidi compacts are weighty, so I assume the strong magnet is what locks the pan in place while contributing to the packaging feeling heavy.

I am pleased enough with the plastic case to keep the refill in there, but for anyone intending to add a metal sticker to the bottom and put it in a standard empty magnetic palette, just know that the refill height is above the edge, as seen in the bottom right corner of the second photo above. My example is how it sits in a large Z-palette. I can still shut the lid, but I recommend that someone place it in a deeper type of custom palette specifically made to house large domed products to ensure the sides are high enough.

Choosing a Shade

Regarding the color, I thought Roma was unique in my collection until I compared it to the “glow” half of the Laura Mercier Color Infusion Bronzer in the shade Riviera. The base color is deeper and more red in Roma than Riviera, which is why I can actually use the shimmery side of Riviera as a highlighter, but I cannot do that with Roma. They look so similar in natural light, but at night under daylight lights that wash it out, the difference is far more obvious.

When I pick up the product without rubbing, it looks darker. Once it’s smoothed out, it looks lighter. I think that has to do with the ingredients used to make the Fara Homidi Bronzer look luminous (mica, boron nitride, or the combination of both), which also lightens the overall appearance. It’s why the bronzer looks different in the pan depending on how much light is shining on it. I cannot see any shimmer specks, but there is a beautiful sheen that is very much apparent when blended in.

I feel confident in my choice to pick Roma over Ombra, but I have to share the photos from the Niche-Beauty website to explain my point.

Photo Credit: Niche-Beauty

The scraped pictures shows the undertone of the bronzers the best, even though it will appear a little lighter on the skin. Ombra looks almost purple with how richly red it is. I’m sure it would look gorgeous on someone else, but when my skin burns it turns more like the color of Roma.
That being said, I’m still not sure if I’m in love with this color. It’s not the kind of red that I flat out dislike (such as the original Benefit Hoola Toasted bronzer), but my favorite bronzer colors are yellow/golden, golden-orange, or neutral-brown that appears deep pink rather than red. There was a time when I liked the sunburned look, so when that inevitably becomes favorable to me again, I think I will appreciate the tone of Roma a lot more. This is especially coming off the heels of disliking how red I became while in Florida three months ago.

I mentioned that at the time I made my purchase, there were no reviews of the darkest two shades. It takes me ages to test and complete my posts, so there are videos available on YouTube by now. I’ve seen people much lighter and much darker rocking Roma and being happy with their shade selection, so the limited range seems to stretch quite a bit at least. I’m still not completely satisfied, so if the brand extends the shade range and releases another deep option in a different undertone, I would be tempted to buy it.

Performance

The brand calls this bronzer a “soft suede,” which perfectly describes the softness level of the powder. It has a slightly clay-like feel from how smooth it is, but it’s far softer than even the Glowish Bronzer that comes first to my mind when I think about clay-like textured bronzers. The product picks up easily on my brush, and I get kickup, but I can apply such a thin even veil of color to my face. The healthy look that my skin has, after I’ve applied hydrating skincare that leaves me with a subtle glow that is fully dry to the touch, is the kind of lumi-matte finish that this bronzer bestows to my skin.

Even though the powder is so thin that it doesn’t look like I’m wearing any on my face, it’s still quite pigmented. Trying to find the right brush in the beginning was tricky because I knew that this bronzer should be capable of giving me an airbrush finish, but even my top five favorite bronzer brushes were too dense. I can blend this product out, but the bronzer looks more natural on my skin if I build it up instead. I went as far as to use this bronzer with my Hakuhodo 2025 Gradation Sakura Limited Edition Brush that is partly synthetic and most similar in shape that I have to the one sold by Fara Homidi, but I needed something even airier to make this particular shade look natural on me. The rephr kōyō brush turned out to be the winner! It makes this bronzer perform to its full potential! A good color match and the right brush is key. If these two conditions aren’t met, I don’t think this bronzer will be enjoyable to the purchaser.

Issues

This bronzer is long-wearing no matter if I put it on top of bare skin or a full face of makeup. One minor inconvenience is that it turns unnatural looking again if I use one of my glowy setting sprays on top of it because it intensifies the color, which draws attention back to the fact that it’s not the perfect undertone for me. Imagine my surprise when my bronzer looked blurred with a slight veil of reddish brown, only to turn into a higher saturated red after I sprayed my face!

This change in color happened with Charlotte Tilbury and Pat Mcgrath’s glowy sprays, plus MAC Fix+, but it only happened with the Huda Easy Bake Setting Spray when I held the bottle too close to my face. It’s a problem I can easily avoid by just not using a setting spray, but I do count this as a point against the bronzer. Some people will use sprays with this product, and perhaps it will be fine if the tone of red is flattering for them, but for others it could ruin the whole makeup look.
Also, when my face was a bit dewier, or when I put skincare and still-wet foundation on the back of my hand to test how it looks if I applied the bronzer on top of a wet base, the color didn’t change as much. So, it seems to be a problem with moisture hitting the top of it and not moisture from underneath, as if it removes the sheen to unveil the base color within.

This has a very creamy and moisturizing formula with the Squalane, Sodium Acetylated Hyaluronate, Snow Mushroom (Tremella Fuciformis Sporocarp Extract), Ethylhexylglycerin, and various oils. One thing that has me a bit confused is that Niche-Beauty also includes Kaolin Clay as a key ingredient, and there is a description about it in the “benefits” section. However, I don’t see kaolin clay or its various alternative names on the full ingredient list on my unicarton or the Niche-Beauty website, and kaolin is not mentioned on the Fara Homidi website. However, it’s there on the Sephora US website between the Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil and Triethoxycaprylylsilane.

Since the official website states, “Occasionally ingredient lists will change due to the availability of raw materials and as we optimize our formulas,” it makes me wonder if kaolin is actually in here and someone forgot to list it on the unicartons and every website, or if an earlier version of this product had kaolin, but what’s on the market currently does not.

It’s not unheard of for a hydrating formula to still have kaolin clay, zea mays, or some other dry ingredient to help balance things out. It doesn’t effect me whether that ingredient is in here or not, but I’m including this information since it could be important to someone else.

Another thing to note is that this contains Parfum and Vanillin. It has what I associate as a “beachy” smell in the tropical sense. It smells a bit like coconut and vanilla. I think it’s a pleasant scent and it’s not very strong, so I don’t mind it being in here.

Final Thoughts

I have a small twinge of regret in not buying the full compact because I like weighty makeup packaging. However, what I might do is wait for the brand to release blushes or some other product and see if the packaging for that one is even prettier.

Overall, I think it’s a very beautiful product and I don’t regret buying it. I understand the hype. This has the makings of being a perfect product for a select group of people, but it’s not going to be universally loved. As unique as the texture is, the performance and results are able to be matched by other bronzers. It’s not going to be an effortless blend for those that don’t have the right tools, and even if this had the best formula in the world, it doesn’t matter if it’s not the right color for the user. Then, of course, is the setting spray issue. For these reasons, I don’t feel that it’s amazing enough to be worth a casual makeup wearer saving up their money to buy it (unless the shade match is stellar). However, I think luxury makeup lovers and enthusiasts may see value in a bronzer like this. For some people, the packaging alone makes it covetable.

I feel it is too soon to rank this bronzer among my collection because I can’t make up my mind on how much weight to give the pros and cons. I have tried to be as fair as possible in this review, but I want to see how I feel several more months from now. I love the texture, I like the performance, but I need to see if my uncertainty about the color will lower my opinion of it over time.

*UPDATE AUGUST 4th, 2025 – I reevaluated my bronzer ranking list and this bronzer is currently sitting at 7 out of 49.

That’s all for today! If you like this kind of content, be sure to click follow to be notified the next time I post! Thank you for visiting!

-Lili ❤

Indie Brand Spotlight: Fantasy Cosmetica

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I’ve always liked the fantasy genre, so this brand intrigued me from the moment I first heard about it. What took me so long to finally make a purchase was just the fact that my obsession with eyeshadows calmed down ever since my botched Low-Buy in 2022. It was easier to avoid overspending if I ignored trying new-to-me brands. Leaving the US also played a role, since I had less access to a lot of indie brands. However, I finally looked into Monolith EU’s website, and started trying different indie brands again through that online retailer.

I purchased the Druid Palette in September last year and loved it so much that I considered buying additional eyeshadows. The issue was that I didn’t love a lot of the full color stories of the others palettes enough to be worth the upcharge from Monolith beyond the 19% VAT. Although Fantasy Cosmetica sells eyeshadows individually on their own website, Monolith does not.
When Black Friday rolled around, I considered ordering their single eyeshadows and have them shipped within the US, but the discounted prices were such that it made more sense to actually buy the palettes in full! During my two week vacation, I tested out the Fighter, Warlock, and Bard palettes so that I could decide which of the eyeshadows I’d keep and which ones I’d leave behind, but I took them all!

All four palettes discussed today are part of the “Classes” series. At the time that I’m writing this, there are nine in total. I’ve played a few MMORPG’s in my early years, and it’s a bit funny to me that none of the characters I’ve been are in this collection of nine!
I love playing a healer type in any game whether it’s a main healer like a Cleric, a partial tank-type like a Paladin, or a damage dealer like a Mage or Psychic. I’ve played a Shaman, which I guess is closest to a Druid. I’ve also been an Archer and low level Hunter, which is closest to a Ranger. Mage is probably closest to the Wizard.
My point is that I’m shocked there still hasn’t been a Cleric, Paladin, or Priest! Perhaps one of those could be coming next.

First, let’s talk about the palette that turned me into a fan of this brand, which is Druid.

Druid Palette *NEW stained glass style*

I put “new stained glass style” in the title because that’s how it was listed via Monolith. However, I don’t know what the original palettes used to look like. The oldest videos I’ve seen have palettes that look similar to mine, so I don’t know what the differences are supposed to be.

I have learned, based on these four palettes, that the Fantasy Cosmetica formulas has the kind of balance I love between high pigment and ease of use. The mattes are opaque, easy enough to blend (minus Old Growth) and layer well on each other. It’s not on the same level as Pat Mcgrath or YSL, but it’s almost on par with Oden’s Eye, which is great. The array of colors in this palette excited me as much as the Earth Palette from Lethal Cosmetics, but I prefer how these eyeshadows from Druid perform way more!

Some of the shimmers are on the satin side, but always in interesting shades to create a statement in at least that way, while the other shimmers are sparkly and impactful without looking chunky. They are creamy enough to spread easily and smoothly, but not emollient or slippery enough to crease on the eyes. How the eyeshadows look at the start of the day is how they’ll appear at night.

As I mentioned, the only matte that is harder to blend out is Old Growth. Wherever the shadow gets placed, it doesn’t really want to move from that spot. I remember the time period when Colourpop used to make this kind of shade a lot, and many of them had this issue as well. I think it has to do with the red-brown pigments used.

The only shimmer to give me an issue is Regrowth, which has a tendency to try to hard-pan. This eyeshadow has a red base and gold shimmer, but the hardpan is how I ended up with a matte looking outer corner in the 4th eye look above.

The most “boring” shimmer is Bear Form which is a metallic brownish orange. It’s pretty, but doesn’t have any special effects. Another one that appears like it should be straightforward is Serenity, but it has a yellow to green shift. It looks lime green in the pan, but it looks very yellow on my eyes.

One of the stars of this palette is Balance, a transparent-based eyeshadow that can be used like a topper. It has pinkish-purple, aqua, and green shimmer. The other star is Transformation, the multichrome that goes from red to purple and then greenish blue. Green is the predominant color on my eyes.

This isn’t a perfect palette, but I really like it.

Fighter Palette

This is the most neutral color story available out of the Classes palettes. Therefore, I’m not surprised that this is also the palette with the most “traditional” type of shimmers. Glory is very much the standout. The base color is very sheer, but I can faintly see it’s yellow-brown, and the shift goes from pinkish-purple to blue. Might is also a fun color with its dark purple base and gold shimmer, but it looks like a very blackened purple when I use it on my eyes. I’ve noticed it hasn’t been as easy to see the gold on my eyes, and it looks like it’s wanting to hardpan like Regrowth in the Druid palette.

The three shimmers in the middle row of the palette are wetter and fairly thick. According to the brand’s description, Blade is a, “multidimensional shimmer – silver base with green and purple shifting sparkles.” Realistically, it’s a dark silver. I can faintly see purple specks if I rub the eyeshadow across my skin super thinly to sheer it out. I don’t think anyone would be able to tell there was any nuance to the silver when it’s on my eyes.

Fervor is a red with silver sparkles. The silver gives this eyeshadow more of a twinkling effect, but it’s still my least favorite color in the palette. It’s objectively pretty, but I’m not a fan of these kinds of reds.

And then finally, Victory is a, “multidimensional shimmer – warm brown with pink and silver sparkles.” Again, it looks pretty much orange to me. I can see some of the pink at a very sharp angle that I’m not so sure anyone else would be looking at me from.

Once more, the mattes are wonderful. Warrior is a little less blendable than the others, but it’s still good enough for me.

I go through phases of liking neutral palettes. Something about the curation of these colors and the way they look on the eyes paired together is very intriguing to me, no matter what my mood is. The only outlier for me is Fervor, but I can always swap it out with an eyeshadow single from another brand.

Warlock Palette

This palette is a surprise hit for me! Six of the shades are the kind of colors I only like when paired with certain other shades. This color story is thankfully grouped in a way that makes them all work. This was one of the biggest reasons I couldn’t just depot a few shades when I was planning which palettes to bring back with me.

The shade I was pining for the most was Ritual, a true multichrome that shifts yellow, green, and blue. It reminded me of a Clionadh shadow, but nothing I swatched looked close enough to it. It had a similar flip but didn’t look the same head-on. I think perhaps it’s like Weathered, but I don’t own that shade from Clionadh. In any case, it’s a gorgeous color!

The greenish shift that Patron has reminds me of Transformation from the Druid palette, if that one had a dark pink base instead. I’m not always into pinks, but this is the kind I can get behind!

Arcanum, with its “acid green to light blue shift,” and Offering, with its “deep blue to pink shift,” are listed as duochromes, but they’re not as nuanced on my eyes. When I hold Arcanum at a sharp angle, I guess I can see blue, but on my eyes I can only see yellow and green. Regarding Offering, I consider it a deep steel blue-grey with purple shimmer. I really can’t see pink.

There’s usually at least one problem child in the palette, and in this one it is Eldritch. It’s the same issue with it just having a lot of pigment and requiring a bit more time to blend. Technically, Profane is also not perfect since it’s thin and I have to build it up, but colors that are practically neon tend to be like this for me.

Overall, this is probably the palette that intimidated me the most, but I think it’s my second favorite (Druid is at the top).

Bard Palette

Bard might not look like a rainbow palette because of the way the eyeshadows are arranged, but it may as well be.

I still appreciate the brand’s choice in veering away from standard primary and secondary colors. For example, Performance is more of a golden and slightly orange leaning yellow. It’s similar to the Singe Beauty brand color. Stories is a super rich red, that is on the verge of purple. Enrapture is like a slightly toned down desaturated orange and Inspiration is a kind of murky muted green. Aside from needing to build up the yellow a green a bit, I have no issues with these mattes.

Mythic is a stunning orange color in a smooth texture. If Pat Mcgrath wanted to make an orange version of Gigabyte, I feel it would turn out looking like this.

Wanderer has a bronze base with red and pink shimmer. It’s thick with a squishy consistency. Legend has the same texture, but with a sheer purple base and blue shimmer.

Charismatic is a pretty peachy color that shifts from pink to gold. A color like this is common among indie brands and even mainstream ones, but I like this opacity level. Sometimes brands have an iridescent version of this color that I don’t think looks as flattering on me. Unfortunately, this is another shimmer that’s starting to form hardpan.

The final showstopper in this palette is Lore, which goes from a bright golden green, to greenish-blue, and then a darker cool blue.

I don’t know how frequently I will use this palette, but I am still glad I bought it. I’m pleased with having all four, though dealing with the shadow sealing or forming hardpan might start to annoy me in the future. I can try to avoid it by strictly applying shimmers with my brush, but the habit to apply shimmers with my finger is very strong.

Bonus Shades and Enchanted Autumn Tinted Lip Balm

Before we bring this review to a close, I just wanted to mention that I received two Fantasy Cosmetica singles from Monolith as a free gift when my Singe Beauty blush order was delayed. As I mentioned before, Monolith doesn’t sell singles, so it was interesting to receive them. They unfortunately don’t have names written on the sleeves, nor the pans. At first, I thought they were the gold and silver from the Fighter palette, but they aren’t the same. Now, I’m wondering if they are from the Enchanted Autumn palette that I believe launched around the same time. Perhaps they are the shades Libra and Harvest Moon. In any case, the beautiful colors are another reason I was so interested in trying more Fantasy Cosmetica eyeshadows.

I included a photo of Pomander, which I’ve reviewed before in my Battle of the Lip Balms post, mainly because it is still a Fantasy Cosmetica product and should be part of this brand spotlight. They have brushes, fragrances, lip products, and candles. So, Fantasy Cosmetica is branching out.

This has been a great experience. Among all the indie brand eyeshadows I bought between 2024 and 2025 (Nomad Cosmetics, Cosmic Beauty, Lethal Cosmetics, Fantasy Cosmetica, and ShellWe Makeup), the Fantasy Cosmetica quality is my favorite of the five, and will be a brand I continue to keep my eye on. Since their products are made in China, I hope they will be able to manage through this tariff situation. I heard they were among the first indie brands to alert customers of potential issues via social media.

That’s all for today! I hope you’ve found this post to be helpful!

-Lili ❤

Anastasia Beverly Hills Smooth Blur Bronzer

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Welcome to 1 of 4 Summer Bronzer Bonus reviews!

I like to group multiple products in a single post if I feel they are relevant to each other in some way, but there are times when this caused me to delay on publishing.
For example, my Battle of the Milky Toners post was supposed to be about toners in general, featuring four milky toners and three “regular” ones. However, I kept hearing about other milky toners that were popular, so I would buy them, wait a month or more for it to arrive from YesStyle, then test it extensively before hearing about another hyped up toner, and repeat the cycle. This is how I ended up making a milky toner post specifically, with 11 compared, and it took over one year to complete!

It’s summer! Now is the perfect time to chat about bronzers. So, I thought it would be nice to have a bonus post each week in the month of July, guaranteeing that I won’t have to delay reviewing these any further because of a last minute addition, wanting to replace or add extra photos, etc.

So, here we go!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Smooth Blur Bronzer in Beach Bum Bronze

This packaging is beautiful! It’s weighty, has a mirror, and is a magnetic closure type. I love the rose gold details in the logo and around the pan. I first noticed ABH stepping up their packaging with their mascaras, and now this one.* The packaging upgrade has to factor into the price.

Although I don’t own a bronzer from their first line, I know that it has the same weight of 10 grams/0.35 oz and cost $28, versus this new one at $38.

*UPDATE: October 9, 2025 – I didn’t realize the brand’s Glow Seeker Highlighter is in similar packaging as the bronzer, but weighs slightly more!

Beach Bum Bronze

I have to address the color options because it is very important for anyone to know when buying these. This range of bronzers is not intended to be cool-toned, but they might still appear ashy.

In the photos above, the picture with the untouched surface is color accurate in looking a bit dusty, cool, and as though it should be too light for my skin. Once I rubbed it, the true color showed as darker and warmer. I don’t know what causes the surface to appear different in color; perhaps because of whatever blurring properties are in this. Sometimes when a product has too much mica (especially paired with silica) or other ingredients that create a luminous or pearly sheen, it can look ashy/gray on someone even if the base color is dark. For example, the last three shades of ABH’s bronzers look a bit dusty in swatches by Angela Denise, despite her having a similar skin tone to mine. My skin’s hue is more saturated than hers, which I can only guess is why they wear differently on the both of us. Regardless of the cause, this problem has contributed to a lot of disappointment and backlash online, such as this scathing review from Robert Welsh.
Examples of other products that had this problem are the original launch of Fenty Cheeks Suede Powder Blushes and the darkest shade of RMS Beauty ReDimension Hydra Bronzer.
This differs from when a brand puts too much white in the formula of their product, which goes unnoticed for those with lighter skin, but is super ashy on dark skin. An example of that is YSL’s initial launch of shades in the Make Me Blush Liquid Blushes line.

So many people were thrilled to see photos of bronzers looking so cool toned that they should be labeled contours. Others were appalled. I would have completely skipped this release if not for the brand’s founder stating in Trendmood1’s comment section that the range was actually warm and she faulted Sephora’s photography (even though these were the same photos used by other retailers and they look the same as what’s on the official Anastasia Beverly Hills website).


Anastasia was correct in saying the bronzers look ashy in the photos, but some of those photos appear to be correct in showing how the bronzers look in the pan. It’s more useful for customers to know how they look on real skin. Where they went wrong is that too many of the models look sculpted instead of bronzed, so it doesn’t seem to accurately portray the color it should be on the skin. Then again, there are some people who this bronzer will look that gray on.

My original guess was that the makeup artist for the models didn’t use the bronzer alone in the photo shoot, and paired them with the brand’s Smooth Blur Contour Sticks. Perhaps too much of the contour was used, or the photos could have just been manipulated in post.
This is the grey area where the brand’s photos can be interpreted as misleading.
I’m happy with how Beach Bum Bronze looks on me, but I can understand why some people would feel let down, while others will be pleasantly surprised by the amount of warmth.

The thought crossed my mind that maybe it’s just my shade that is warm, but hanbeauty101 on YouTube bought the two lightest colors (Sun-kissed Dreams and Warm Sand Vibes) and was disappointed to see that neither were cool toned. In a contrasting reaction, Angelica Nyqvist happily confirmed that the shade just before mine called Tropical Tan is neutral-learning warm and golden.

When it comes to choosing a shade, I like that this one functions the way it should, by being warmer than my natural skin tone and only a little darker. I have many bronzers that are deep enough to be brontours, so having a subtle color is more desirable for me at this time. Beach Bum Bronze looks neutral-leaning-warm compared to the amount of orange in the shade Terracotta, which is my best match among Anastasia’s cream bronzer line.

Because Beach Bum Bronze is so similar to the color of the darkest section of my Hermès bronzer in the color Sienne, I can’t help but compare them. The ABH bronzer is the tiniest bit deeper with a little more red. Even though the powder is incredibly silky to the touch, I could see how much smoother the Hermès bronzer was when swatching the shades, and how it distributed the color evenly without skipping. To clarify, the Hermès’ bronzer is very soft to the touch, but doesn’t feel the same as Anastasia’s. It’s just the colors that are similar. If I mix in the the lighter two shades within the Sienne trio, the color turns more golden-orange.

The way the texture of the Smooth Blur Bronzer looks when rubbed reminds me of the ELF Halo Glow Pressed Powder, which is less than half the price of the bronzer from ABH. So, this kind of smooth and silky texture is achievable for drugstore brands too. The ELF powder doesn’t use Zea Mays (corn starch) like ABH, but it does have Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate.

E.l.f. Halo Glow Pressed Powder

Even though this cannot beat the #1 bronzer in my collection, the Smooth Blur Bronzer has still impressed me immensely with the texture, the blurring capability, how easily it blends and builds, and the finish. However, this can stick in one place and be harder to blend when applied on top of a dewy base. The only time I had a problem blending this bronzer was on a day when I was testing out a new foundation and skincare combo (one that I won’t be repeating). So, this formula may not be suited for someone who likes to use dewy foundations or moisturizing/emollient skincare. Someone with oily skin might still be able to enjoy this bronzer if a layer of powder is applied to the bronzer areas first before adding this on top.

Another difference between this bronzer and my Hermès is that the Plein Air Healthy Glow Mineral Powder blends perfectly with every brush I’ve used. The ABH Smooth Blur looks good with most I’ve tried, but light to medium density ones give more of the airbrushed look. A denser brush combined with the level of pigment in this range can be a bit overkill, and even if I try to blend it out, the end result isn’t as clean as I would want. Essentially, this bronzer doesn’t look great if overblended. Trying to build it up is better.

I’ve had no longevity issues, but this is usually the case with me.

This is a shimmer-less product with many potentially drying ingredients in the formula such as corn starch and kaolin clay, but it still has a natural looking sheen from the mica and silica. Even though this sticks too much on a wet base, I have no issues blending cream blushes on top of it. Those dry ingredients are why I think people with oily skin could still like this. I was worried I might have a problem with it, as someone with a dry skin type, but it hasn’t felt drying on my face. I use hydrating skincare, but my face is still usually dry to the touch. This is why the dew problem isn’t a big one for me, I know which brushes will work well with this, and the color is quite good.

Under my usual conditions, this bronzer works so well for me that I would place is somewhere within my top 15. However, I’m still hesitant to recommend it because of the number of potential issues I’ve detailed in this review. No product performs the same universally, but this has a bit too many outliers. I recommend that anyone interested in getting this should see it in-store if possible.

I hope you’ve found this post to be helpful. Thank you for reading, and be sure to click follow if you’d like to be notified of my next review, including the next bonus post!

-Lili ❤

Hidden Gem Fude Brand: Number Eight

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I have my fude manufacturer favorites, so it’s rare that I feel compelled to give another brand a try. The hair types used in these brushes and the more affordable price were some of my biggest motivators for wanting to try Number Eight brushes.

Other than the brand’s Instagram, which links to their official Japanese website, the only place I could find information about Number Eight was from the FudeBobo website. What is written there can be summarized as this: Number Eight belongs to a well-known fude manufacturing company (nicknamed Brand H) and their many characteristics are visible in these products, including the signature scent of goat hair.

Some OEM companies proudly list on their websites who their top clients are. When it comes to “H,” the Number Eight brand is now the third unannounced brand I know they’ve made brushes for. It remains a badly kept secret, but because they wish for it to be kept that way, I won’t explicitly list the name of the company here.

The reason I personally like knowing the manufacturer is because it helps me gauge whether or not I will be happy with the brushes I’m purchasing online that I’m unable to see and handle in person. For instance, I don’t like Sokoho goat hair from Koyudo, but I don’t mind Sokoho if it’s from Bisyodo. I know that Koyudo’s Silver Fox hair is similar in feel to Chikuhodo’s version of Premium Silver Fox versus their regular Silver Fox brushes.
When I don’t know who the brush maker is, I’m taking an expensive gamble in the hopes that I won’t be disappointed with the products. For brands like rephr or Sonia G, they have hype from thousands of customers and plenty of influencers to vouch for the products. However, Number Eight is relatively new with extremely limited availability online. If I was unable to figure out the manufacturer, I would not have taken the chance on these brushes, and I would have definitely been missing out, because they are lovely!

The major companies usually have a “more affordable” line on offer. For example, it’s the Cheri line for Bisyodo, the Regular Series for Chikuhodo, the Koyudo BP Collection while it was around, and the J series from Hakuhodo. Those that like Hakuhodo’s J series will likely be pleased with the brushes in this post today.

*DISCLOSURE: The links in bold blue font (Example) are 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 someone clicks them and then makes a purchase. All of my officially labeled Number Eight brushes were purchased with my own money from the Fude Bobo website, which I am not affiliated with.

Number Eight Face 07 Cheek

  • Full Length: 192 mm / 7.56 in
  • Hair Length: 32 mm / 1.26 in
  • Hair Width: 13 mm / 0.51 in
  • Bristle Type: Dyed Saikoho

The reason I wanted this brush is because of how much it reminded me of Bisyodo’s CH-HC brush, which has been my holy grail highlighter brush for years. I have a backup brush that I once painted in order to make the handle look prettier, but I wanted to get the one from Number Eight in the hopes that it would perform similarly while having a thicker sturdier handle. It’s also the case that when I bought my first CH-HC it was listed as Saikoho hair, but CDJapan eventually changed the listing to Sokoho. My backup CH-HC felt different and could be Sokoho (albeit the softest Sokoho ever), but I still don’t know if my original is Saikoho or not. This was another reason I didn’t mind getting the 07 brush, so that I could have a Saikoho backup. As it turns out, they are shaped differently. Bisyodo’s brush head comes to a longer pointier tapered tip. It’s much more of a candle shape. The 07 reminds me of the shape of my Hakuhodo 5521, but in a dyed saikoho version instead of my original blue squirrel goat mix. The brush had also grown wider over time and was never as pointed as it looks in website photos.

Even though the head shape is rounder, the hair staggers up towards the tip, so it functions as if it’s at an angle from the way product gets picked up. For that reason, this still allows me to precisely apply highlighter. It admittedly gets dispersed in a slightly wider area than the Bisyodo brush, and my original Bisyodo brush hairs feel a little softer. For that reason, I started using the 07 to apply bronzer around the perimeter in a smaller than usual area, contour in a softer diffused fashion, and when mixing blushes if I want another color just on the apples of my cheeks.

I’m pretty set in my ways, so even though I found multiple uses for this brush, I just go right back to using my favorites. This is a decent brush, but if someone has a similar brush already, getting this one isn’t necessary.

Number Eight Face 08 Fan

  • Full Length: 193 mm / 7.6 in
  • Hair Length: 28 mm / 1.1 in
  • Hair Width: 18mm x 12mm / 0.71-0.47 in
  • Bristle Type: Dyed Saikoho

The reason I wanted this brush is because the Wayne Goss original Fan 15 is the best fan brush in my collection, but I don’t have a backup of that one. It was a happy mistake that this brush turned out to be way thicker. This is packed with a lot of hair, but I consider it to be a medium density and flexible bristle brush the splays widely enough to diffuse nicely without losing too much precision or applying too lightly. The Number Eight 01 Highlight Fan brush is probably more similar to Wayne’s Fan 15, though I don’t have it in person to know for sure. This 08 brush is like having a smaller, airier, and natural hair version of the Patrick Ta Contour Brush (another holy grail). I am absolutely thrilled to have this! I can pick up bronzer with one side for more precision in a smaller area, like going around the sides of my face and under the cheeks, or turn the brush sideways to apply to a wider zone. I can apply contour in a small, but partly diffused way. This also works for applying highlighter to a wider than usual, yet diffused, area.

Even though this has the same hair type as the 07, I wonder if the hair in this one came from another batch or supplier, because it’s significantly softer. For anyone who likes thick fan brushes, I recommend giving this one a try.

Number Eight Face 10 Contour Angled

  • Full Length: 201 mm / 7.91 in
  • Hair Length: 35mm-20mm / 1.38-0.79 in
  • Hair Width: 18mm – 22mm/ 0.71-0.87 in
  • Bristle Type: Squirrel mix Saikoho goat

The Face 11 is what set things in motion regarding me wanting to try this brand. I love the hair mixture so much that I wanted to give the Face 10 a try, even though I’m very picky when it comes to angled brushes.

My favorite uses for this brush are for blush and bronzer. I can technically use this with highlighter as well, but this splays even more than the Face 08, so I don’t bother. This is also why I don’t contour with it either, but that splay diffuses products so beautifully! It’s like having a bigger and softer version of the Sonia G Lotus Detail Brush! It makes applying blush easy to keep contained to the area I want by sweeping it along the cheekbones. It’s on the lighter end of medium density with enough squirrel hair (I believe pine) to feel pillowy soft, but with enough goat to add shape and structure that’s capable of quickly blending and buffing. It picks up a nice amount of product and disperses it so evenly on the cheeks, which also adds to the swiftness in which I can finish applying blush or bronzer. The only reason I end up using this brush proportionally far more times with blush than bronzer is because the Bisyodo B-F-05 Perfect Fit Brush is still my holy grail bronzer brush.

For anyone who loves the Sonia G Lotus Detail Brush or angled brushes, I recommend trying this one!

Number Eight Face 11 Cheek/Highlight

  • Full Length: 201 mm / 7.91 in
  • Hair Length: 35 mm / 1.38 in
  • Hair Width: 16 mm / 0.63 in
  • Bristle Type: Squirrel mix Saikoho goat

In my Fude Collection Part 8 post, I mentioned that I had a brush called the Eihodo No.153 Highlighting/Blush Brush. It was listed as an outlet brush from Eihodo, but it had the same hair type and labels (Face 11) as the Number Eight Face 11, including an identical looking ferrule and handle. The reason I was incredibly confused was because it was under the Eihodo name on the CDJapan website instead of Number Eight or even “Brand H” whose brushes they only sell via proxy. Then, I thought about the fact that Eihodo is a producer and not manufacturer, so any company’s brush could be listed under them as long as they were the ones who procured them.

The bottom line is that I loved this brush so much and wished for CDJapan to release more. I vaguely remember seeing other brushes of this hair type being released in the outlet, but I didn’t buy them because I wanted larger face brushes instead. I waited for the brush to restock, but it never did. I still held onto hope that more would come, but CDJapan actually deleted the product pages for all of brushes that look like they came from Number Eight. So, I lost hope. However, when I realized these brushes were available through the Fude Bobo website, I had to try more, including buying a backup!

In the photo below, my official Face 11 is on the left and is much pointier in shape. My unofficial Face 11 is on the right. I am assuming the reason the unofficial one ended up being sold as an outlet brush is because of the fact that it’s not as candle-shaped as it was supposed to be.

In terms of performance, I do notice a difference. At first I preferred my outlet version because the more evenly shaped tips form a more even distribution of pressure on the face. The size is perfect for small pans like in the Hourglass Ambient Edit Palettes. However, I’ve gotten some new makeup that have even smaller sections of product, such as the Givenchy 4-Color Pressed Bronzing and Sculpting Powder. The non-outlet brush’s pointier tip makes it easier to dip into such small blocks, so I can apply the contour shade more precisely. It still has the benefits of dispersing product in a way that isn’t too harsh, nor too soft, and is still gentle on the skin.

The Face 11, in the way it was intended, is technically a more useful brush, so I’m glad I bought it too.

Number Eight Eye 17

  • Full Length: 173 mm / 6.8 in
  • Hair Length: 18 mm / 0.71 in
  • Hair Width: 5.5 mm / 0.21 in
  • Bristle Type: Squirrel mix Saikoho goat

Sonia G makes my favorite eye shadow brushes, but considering the maker of these and the hair type, I thought chances were high that I’d like the ones from Number Eight.

Through prolonged use, this brush is a little fluffier in width, so the point doesn’t look as pronounced. However, I’m still just not a fan of this brush purely due to the shape. I like my tapered blending brushes to be rounder for a wider area of blending pressure. When it’s pointed like this, the strongest pressure is mainly at the highest point in the center, which means it takes longer for me to blend with that smaller surface area. I see how it’s supposed to be useful for getting in the crease for hooded eyes, but then I prefer to just use a smaller brush in the shape I like, such as the Sonia G Mini Booster. I find myself repeatedly squashing the Eye 17 into my skin to try and increase the pressure to increase the blending power. Every time I’ve used this brush, I wished to swap it with something else.

I apologize, but my preferences are too strong to be objective on this one. I only own a few of these type of brushes in my collection because I always end up casting them aside in favor of a different shape. I’m sure there are people that will use and love this brush. It feels soft and non-irritating on the skin. I just don’t like it for myself.

Number Eight Eye 18

  • Full Length: 166.5 mm / 6.55 in
  • Hair Length: 11.5 mm / 0.43 in
  • Hair Width: 10mm-3mm / 0.39-0.12 in
  • Bristle Type: Squirrel mix Saikoho goat

I have a ton of flat shader brushes, so I don’t feel I’m being biased when I say I dislike this brush too. I can name at least four that I like better, including the Sonia G Builder Pro that comes to a taper too. This brush head is too stiff for me. It applies product to the lids well, but it’s uncomfortable if I try to use it to apply eyeshadows to the crease, the way I have been doing a lot lately with my Muragishi Sangyo MS-4 Mai Sakura Brush, Sonia G Builder Three, Mizuho MB123 Eye Shadow Brush, etc. So, I can accomplish my tasks with it, but it’s never an enjoyable experience. Because of the discomfort from the stiffness, I like the Eye 18 even less than the Eye 17.
Something like the Eye 8 would probably be more to my preference, but it’s not available in this squirrel-goat mix, so I didn’t buy it.

This concludes my venture into the world of Number Eight brushes! I hope this has been helpful!

-Lili ❤