Category Archives: Eyeshadow and Palettes

Lisa Eldridge Summer Colour Story Collection

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Lisa Eldridge recently launched her summer collection consisting of an eyeshadow palette, three lipsticks, and two tote bags. The only items I’m missing are the Toasted shade of lipstick and the Olive/Lavender tote.

There are currently three tiers in the brand’s reward program, with Emerald being the highest. Emerald members were able to shop a day early and could add one of the bags to their orders for free without a minimum spend amount. Otherwise, all other customers could get the tote for free with a purchase of €90 or by paying for it outright at the cost of €18. So, I ordered the Desert Gleam palette and Rae from the official website and added the free Olive/Camel tote.

Niche-Beauty sells Lisa Eldridge products, and frequently has 20% off codes available, but one can only get a tote there by hitting that €90 minimum spending price. So, it turned out for the best that I placed my original order with the Lisa Eldridge website, and then when the new products launched at Niche-Beauty a week later, I bought Lili.

Desert Gleam Palette

Dunes and Acacia are Seamless Mattes. I wrote in-depth descriptions of the different formulas in a past review, but the short version is that these mattes are similar in texture to Natasha Denona’s cream to powder formula, they are more pigmented than the Velvets, and have the tiniest bit of a wet (but not shimmery) sheen. Dunes is very difficult to see when applied to my eye area because of my skin tone, but I can tell it’s there because of the blurred look it has, especially when applied to the edges of a darker shadow to soften it up.
Acacia is now my darkest matte from Lisa Eldridge. Although I wish it was the tiniest bit darker, it at least successfully adds depth to my eyeshadow looks and I can build up the intensity.

Most of the time, the Seamless Mattes are creamy and a joy to work with. However, the shade Supernaturally from the Fawn palette was stiffer, drier, and less pigmented. So, that shade is one I stopped using out of frustration. Within the Desert Gleam palette, I got hard-pan on Dunes*, and I’ve had to scrape off some of the surface after just a week of use. It is normal for all the mattes to look like they’re going to hardpan, but this is the only time I’ve actually been unable to pick up product and needed to clear off the surface. I alternate between using brushes and my fingers with all Lisa Eldridge eyeshadows, but this is the first time I’ve encountered this problem. Going forward, I will just use brushes with this shade to try and mitigate the issue.
I’ve had no troubles with Acacia though.

*Update: I was chatting with Fedaro Beauty, who has reviewed this collection as well, and I remembered one change I made this week that could have affected Dunes. For many years I’ve been using the officially branded Makeup Erasers that are microfiber cloths. However, I switched to using Marushin cotton cloths that were free gifts with purchase from my Fude Bobo orders. Microfiber absorbs more oil than cotton, so it is actually possible my fingers had more oil residue left on them between uses than usual and could be responsible for the hard-pan on Dunes. This may be a long shot in providing an explanation, but since this is a possible cause, I felt it was important to share this theory.

Dunes after I scraped off some of the surface.

Sahara is in the Velvet formula, which gives an even and soft layer of color. I prefer to use my brush to pack on the shade and build it up. I’m honestly surprised it shows up as well on me as it does, because I thought it might be too light of a color. I’ve also seen how this shade can look a lot more khaki-yellow on some people, but it’s greener on me.
The Velvets are smoother in feel, and swatch beautifully, but over an extended amount of time, I have noticed mine got drier. Sahara is too new for me to have this problem, but it’s something I wanted to mention that I have noticed out of my oldest Velvet eyeshadows. I can still use them, but building up the color to get the payoff I want takes more effort than before. For those that enjoy soft or muted eyeshadows, this is unlikely to be an issue.

I forgot to mention that in the first eye look in this photo, Sahara was used on the lid before I added Chrysina on top. So, it looks warmer and slightly darker than the first eye look in the photo below where only my eyeshadow primer is under Chrysina on the lid.

Chrysina is a Luminous shadow. It looks silvery green in the pan, but there’s still a touch of gold that I can see at certain angles in the light. For this reason, I like this shade more than I expected. I would go as far as to call this a duochrome, though it’s nowhere near as intense as Mercurial, which is another Luminous eyeshadow.

Ablaze and Firefly are Metallics, but Firefly looks so much smoother in the pan, as seen three photos higher. The textural differences don’t affect anything. I just thought it was interesting.
Ablaze is an easily wearable golden brown that is perfect for creating neutral eye looks. I have a lot of warm golds in my collection, but I don’t have many shades of gold with this tone, as silly as that might sound. It’s still not a necessity for me to have in my full collection, but I think a shade like this aids in keeping the palette color story versatile.
Firefly seemed intimidating to try and incorporate into my eye looks, but as long as it’s framed by Sahara or Acacia in the crease, it works. Ablaze is also neutral enough that it doesn’t clash if they are used next to each other.

I have no issues with longevity or creasing, I can use these with any of my eyeshadow primers, and I can use the shimmers with a damp brush to build intensity. I have no problems with these eyeshadows, other than what I already described with the shade Dunes and the Velvet formula in the long-term.

When I first saw the Desert Gleam palette, there was no way I could talk myself out of getting these shades, despite it reminding me of my eyeshadows from Natasha Denona. It has a similar vibe to the Mini Gold, it reminds me a lot of my custom version of Metropolis, and I also have the Yucca palette. However, when I actually swatched the shades and compared them, they were different enough on my skin tone for me to not consider them dupes.

Please excuse the fact that the skin under Bia wasn’t completely dry, so it looks a little more intense than usual.

If I’m being 100% honest with myself, I prefer the Natasha Denona Mini Gold Palette over this one. I’ve come to accept that high contrast makeup looks better on me, and there are greater depth differences and more color/shade distinctions between the eyeshadows in Mini Gold than Desert Gleam. I’m still attracted to the Desert Gleam colors, and I’ve gotten quite a lot of compliments while wearing the products in this collection. However, I think the ND shades are even more my style. In terms of performance, the Mini Gold eyeshadows aren’t creamy feeling, but they still blend very well, layer well, and build quicker because they’re more pigmented. It’s kind of a moot point because I believe the Mini Gold has been discontinued, so it’s not an option to purchase for anyone who doesn’t have it already. What I’m essentially trying to say is that even though I have products I technically like more than Desert Gleam, I would still feel like I was missing out if I didn’t pick up this palette.

Rouge Refillable Lipsticks in Lili and Rae

Lisa Eldridge and I share the same nickname! Even though I rarely wear red lipstick, I still wanted this one for the name. What can I say! I’m easily swayed!

The way this lipstick performs is no different from the first round that launched at the beginning of this year. They glide over the lips easily and feel like a cross between a balm and a lipstick. This shade is vibrant, but I can still see the discolored/darker pigment spots on my lips underneath if I stick with only one swipe. So, an additional pass or two is needed to be opaque. It feels quite comfortable on my lips, though I get minor chapping by the end of the day.

I own an engraved lipstick case already, so I only needed to purchase these in refill form. My cap/lid for Lili is very loose, so I keep it stored in all the original packaging to prevent any accidents in my makeup pouch, but I’m contemplating raiding my husband’s tools to find pliers that will tighten the cap a little (hopefully not too tight to the point that I can’t pull it back off)!

For some reason, Rae feels much creamier than the other four lipsticks I have from this line. It feels more moisturizing as well, which increases my comfort level while wearing it. However, this one does not have the same kind of grip to it that keeps it longer-lasting like the others. Even if I’m not eating or drinking, within a few hours there is noticeably less lipstick on my lips. I think my skin absorbs it. So, I find myself needing to reapply more frequently. I can’t explain why this is happening because Rae has the same ingredients as all the rest. It’s my favorite shade though, so I’m going to just deal with it! I normally don’t like wearing dark lipsticks because I feel like most of them age me, but this is an exception!

So, that is everything reviewed except the Tote bag. I don’t have much to say about it except that it’s made of a nice material, feels sturdy, and it has a cute and functional zip pocket on the inside. It terms of size, it’s a few millimeters smaller than my smallest canvas shopping bag. I wanted a fancy reusable grocery bag, but this looks almost too nice for that purpose. That’s all I use totes for, so perhaps I could reserve it for times I shop at the city market instead.

I don’t think I’ve shown the pencil case before, which I also like from the brand. I find myself using and liking the Lisa Eldridge accessories, so it’s a big draw for me continuing to purchase from the official website to get them.

Now, that’s everything! I hope this post has been helpful. I tried to complete it as soon as I could, and it helps that I’m already familiar with these formulas from Lisa Eldridge, so I don’t have to test them for as long.

Thank you for reading! Tschüss!

-Lili ❤

Surprising Makeup Hits and Misses ft Rare Beauty, Glossier, Dior, and More

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I visited the US in April and was reunited with the rest of my makeup collection, along with all the things I shipped there during 2024. Those products consisted of Japanese brushes that I didn’t want to pay extra customs fees for, reward point and gift card redemptions only applicable to US sites, products only sold within the US, etc. I had older makeup I still wanted to bring back to Germany, but I needed to decide which of the newer ones were worth coming along too. That’s how the idea for this post began! However, some of the makeup I brought back will be discussed in other posts, and I added some of my newer makeup purchases to this review instead.

Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Matte Bouncy Blush in Worth

It was difficult to photograph this color accurately because it looks darker in the pan than it actually is. I own the liquid version of Worth, and have reviewed it before, but I left it in the US. Since the liquid is sheer, I wasn’t surprised that I also needed to pack on a lot of this cream-to-powder version to get it to show up on camera.

I’ve been into subtle and/or nude blushes lately, so I expected to love this. I tried pairing it with so many different things expecting that perhaps my foundation shade mattered or that the undertone was clashing, that the color of my eyeshadow looks could be throwing it off, etc. I just wasn’t enjoying wearing it. The answer I settled on as to why that was the case is that it’s matte. I knew it would be from the name, but I’ve used shimmer-free creamy and bouncy type of blushes before that still had a natural emollient gleam to them from just being a cream product. Examples of this are the MAC Glow Play Blushes and Armani Neo Nude Color Melting Balms. Even within the Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush line that comes in dewy or matte finishes, the matte one still has some life to it. So, I wasn’t expecting this blush to have zero shine, especially from a product that has Synthetic Fluorphlogopite as the first ingredient.

The longevity is fine. The blush blends into and becomes one with the skin. For the best results, I use my densest synthetic brushes with it.

I borrowed the photo above from my Charlotte Tilbury x Genshin Impact post where I reviewed the Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray. By the time I started using that spray, I already knew that my issue with the Rare Beauty Blush was the fact that it’s matte. However, I was still taken aback when I saw with my own eyes how much of a difference some extra shine truly makes. I love how this blush looks when I use Charlotte’s spray over it. So this product changed from a miss to a hit for me!

Eadem Le Chouchou Exfoliating + Softening Peptide Lip Balm in Fig Sauce

I mentioned in my Project Pan that there are only 5 brands I’m purchasing from in the lip category this year. One exception was this balm because I would have bought it ages ago if it was sold in Europe. I could only find one website that would ship it to me, but then I would have had to pay at least double the price.
The tradeoff for having to wait a long time to get it from USA’s Sephora was that I could buy it on sale and with a gift card.

I have to talk about the metal applicator because it feels amazing applying this lip balm! I don’t like when products have a cooling ingredient that makes my lips feel cold for 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the brand. Instead, I only get that wonderfully cold sensation during the application process and then I can go about my day. This really adds to the experience, so much so that I’ve even put other products on my lips and then used this applicator to spread it out! Perhaps one day I’ll buy some empty tubes off the websites I’ve found by typing, “metal applicator cosmetic tube” into Google and transfer some other glosses into them.

This is a very nourishing product and lives up to its reputation as a lip treatment. It fills the lines and smooths over the lips. It’s thick, but not goopy in a gel or oil way. It has more of a creamy-waxy feel. It adheres fairly well to the lips, which helps it to last longer before needing to be touched up or reapplied. I still consider this a little sticky, but it’s not to Ami Cole levels. It has decent color payoff, enough for me to understand someone wanting to buy multiple shades, but I wouldn’t want to buy more than one extra.

The results I get are similar to Ami Cole glosses, which is to say my lips feel softer and more hydrated the next day, but this does not completely remove all of my chapped skin. I can always spot a few areas on my lips that are still chapped the next day.
So, this hasn’t claimed a spot in my top five, but I still like it a lot.

Gxve Beauty Eye See in Color in Rich Girl

This was the only quad from the brand that I found appealing, but my immediate issue is that I don’t get enough depth from the darkest brown in this palette. While it theoretically shouldn’t be a problem to grab a dark eyeshadow from any other brand, I know I will subconsciously not reach for this palette since it is technically incomplete for me.

The completed look is pretty, but I couldn’t bring myself to choose this to pack in my suitcase over my many other options.

If the eyeshadow formula was superb, I would have considered taking this with me anyway. My issue is that the shimmers are a bit lackluster. There is still beauty in a lower impact shimmer if the intended eye look is supposed to be sophisticated or demure. I think the quality is fairly good, though it could have benefited from being a bit creamier. The mattes were fine. My brush picked up a lot of product, but with how soft they look on my eyes, I think someone would be surprised to know how much I tried to build up these eyeshadows. They are drier shadows that appear to be finely milled, but something about the formula just doesn’t feel modern.

This palette is long-lasting on me. It doesn’t take long to get a blended look. However, this isn’t for me. I do appreciate that the holder of the pans is easy to remove, so I could technically keep the compact or turn it into an empty magnetic palette if I inserted a magnetic sticker sheet. I could also technically add metal sticker pans to the bottom of the eyeshadow holder to pop it into a larger empty magnetic palette. Removeable packaging is always interesting to me.

In any case, this quad wasn’t a flop, but it also wasn’t good enough to keep around.

As a random side note, the Gxve Beauty website used to sell merch as well. I ordered one of the Signature Hoodies during a 50% off sale (just like I did with the palette). It has fleece lining on the inside, so I’m excited to wear it come winter. The website says products are now exclusively at Sephora and things are so frequently for 50% off that I really don’t know how the brand will continue to stay afloat.

I don’t know where these are being sold now. If they are discontinued, I’m glad I was able to snag one as a piece of makeup history.

Glossier Cloud Paint Bronzer in Coast

I liked the Glossier Solar Paints, but wished to have a version without shimmer. The Cloud Paint formula is one of my favorites for cream blushes, so to have a matte Cloud Paint in a bronze color seemed like it would be an instant win.

I picked Coast because it is the second darkest option and has a golden tone, which I wanted. The darkest color, Drift, looked like it would be too red for me despite being labeled by the brand as a deep neutral bronze. Coast is just too subtle for my skin tone right now. While I was in Florida, I didn’t do a good job of reapplying sunscreen. My skin had a slightly redder tone and was darker, so the bronzer really isn’t visible in photos as it was already so subtle in person. I have a photo below, but I apologize for the lighting being very off. I couldn’t get a clearer picture during the trip and my skin looks even redder in the photo than it was in real life (plus I was wearing the Beekman 1802 skin tint that’s red).

I don’t mind having a subtle bronzer, but my biggest issue wasn’t the color. I felt it just didn’t blend seamlessly enough into my skin. While it’s true that I didn’t bring my holy grail synthetic bronzer/contour brush with me, I came to realize that the watercolor kind of finish that’s beautiful and natural in a blush isn’t what I want in a bronzer. So, I left this behind. What a shame!

Tarte Tartelette Tubing Mascara vs Too Faced Ribbon Wrapped Lash Tubing Mascara

Back in 2014, during my short lived time making YouTube videos (all listed as private now), I kicked off my Mascara Showdown Series with a battle between Tarte’s Lights Camera Lashes and Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascaras.

I determined that Tarte was the winner because of the length, but the mascara I actually repurchased the most was from Too Faced. I don’t know if it’s because I ended up preferring the balance between length and volume or if I was just able to get the Too Faced mascara on sale more frequently. I eventually stopped buying the one from Too Faced because I started to get clumping and flaking issues that I never had before. I don’t know if the formula changed or there was a switch in manufacturers, but I moved on from that mascara.

The KVD Full Sleeve Long + Defined Tubing mascara made me interested in tubing mascaras again. I had a deluxe sample of the one from Tarte, so when Too Faced released theirs I thought why not…let’s do another showdown between these brands over a decade later!

I never curl my lashes, so sometimes the mascaras look better or worse depending on how my eyelashes are naturally shaped that day. I’ve used the Tarte mascara five times and I can say that even if it had amazing results, what puts me off from it is how long it takes to dry. If I try to layer up even more product, then it takes even longer. I can touch my lashes thirty minutes later and it still doesn’t feel fully set. This is a big problem when I’m trying to photograph multiple eye looks in a day and in the process of removing my eyeshadow with a Makeup Eraser cloth and Bioderma, my eyelashes clump together, the color smears, and the stickiness makes it difficult to remove the rest. Part of the benefits of tubing mascara is the ease in which one can remove it with warm water. I can remove them with micellar water as well, so I’m not surprised that some of the Tarte mascara comes off. The annoying part is the weird middle ground where some of it comes off and smudges while the rest still clings on with a tight grip. It makes it so that I am forced to fully remove it every time when I want to do a new eye look, whereas with other tubing mascaras and even regular mascaras, it’ll come partly off and I can easily reapply more mascara because they didn’t turn my lashes spidery and hard. This is a makeup reviewer problem, but having to wait so long for it to fully dry is an issue overall. One time I made the mistake of applying this mascara not far enough in advance of watching a heartfelt scene in a show. The side with the Tarta mascara was a mess and got in my eyes. The side with Too Faced did not.

I didn’t like the Too Faced Ribbon mascara when I first tried it, but every time after that (at least 15 times so far), I have enjoyed it. Just like the showdown from many years ago, I found that Tarte’s mascara was better at lengthening, whereas Too Faced’s mascara was better with building volume while still giving nice length. It can start to clump if I build this up a lot, so I have to be careful about finding the balance between satisfaction and knowing when to stop.

I like the one from Too Faced, but I think I still prefer my tubing mascara from KVD. It gives better length than Tarte and if I’m patient enough I can build up the volume to similar results as Too Faced, though it can also start to form clumps if I take things too far.

The Tarte mascara is a miss. The Too Faced mascara is a hit.

Dior Backstage Rosy Glow Blush in 077 Candy

I reviewed the cream blush stick version of Candy already, and updated the original post, but this still feels like a good place to talk about the powder blush since it’s a miss for me.

This new powder formula is definitely an improvement on the original formulation and first reformulation, in terms of being more pigmented and less hard-pressed. I also think this square packaging is cuter and easier to use with larger cheek brushes. The reason it’s a miss for me is purely due to the color. I loved the addition of shimmer in the Bronzed Glow shade from version 2 of these blushes, but the base color of Candy being so light means that it unfortunately does the same thing as Nars Orgasm on me. I can see the pink shade at one angle, but when it hits the light, the gold reflect is nearly all I can see. So, it appears as if I tried to use a highlighter as blush! This kind of shimmer is not that refined either, which makes it unsuitable for my preference as even a blushlighter or blush topper.

The saving grace for me is that I can add the Candy blush stick on top to help the shimmer become one with the skin, plus boost the appearance of the pink color.

I’m happy using the Candy shade of Glow Stick on its own, but going forward, I will never wear the powder version of Candy by itself. Based on my continued enjoyment of the previous powder blush reformulation, and acknowledgement that the new one has improvements, I still recommend the powder blush. I just can’t recommend Candy or Toffee to anyone close to my skin tone because of that highlighter effect. Bronzed Glow still gives me hope that Dior can nail a shimmery blush in this new formula in the future if the base color is darker.

That’s everything I have for this week. Thank you for visiting and reading!

-Lili ❤

The Very Special Pat Mcgrath Labs Mothership XII: Petalmorphosis with 10 Eye Looks and Comparisons

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This palette is my first Pat Mcgrath purchase in the year 2025, and also the first thing I’ve bought from the brand in the past fifteen months. I usually encourage everyone to wait for a sale when it comes to expensive makeup, but once PML says something is limited edition, I don’t take chances. Prior to getting this palette, my most precious Pat Mcgrath item (and one of the most precious makeup items in my entire makeup collection) was the Divine Rose II palette in the limited edition pink chrome packaging. This limited edition lavender palette with Dame Pat Mcgrath’s signature on it is priceless to me!

For those wondering how I got a signed copy, there was no announcement from the brand ahead of time. I logged into their website prior to the palette launch time and saw that it was already available to purchase. There was a box on the product page with a check mark indicating that I was opting in for the chance to win a signed palette. Later, I noticed that box was actually edited to clarify that the first 100 people buying the Lavender case (not the permanent black version) would be getting it. I had already assumed it would come down to whoever checked out first, so I completed my purchase even though the discount code didn’t work prior to 8:00 am EST. I didn’t notice until later that my palette was purchased at the US equivalent price, but it rose 9 Euros the very next day. So, I didn’t bother contacting customer service as I had already technically gotten a deal. It was also the next day that I received an email confirming I was one of the lucky ones!

What I found appealing about this palette is the colorful nature, the inclusion of greens, and there technically being less pinks and golds (a peach, a pink-mauve, and a black-based yellow is admittedly not that far off).

Although I’m very happy to have this palette, and I’m happy that PML gave us a palette different enough for me to justify finally buying another Mothership, I do have a few critiques about the colors chosen. For instance, there are only three mattes. Technically, Lunar Nectar is one of those sequin/matte-with-glitter-specks eyeshadows that look fully matte on the eyes because the glitter gets dusted away while blending. I hate that type of eyeshadow, but I can put that feeling aside. What I have an issue with is how similar Lunar Nectar and Twilight Lilac are. At least they are distinct enough that I can tell them apart on my eyes (when used separately), but orchids and mauves being in the same color family means one of them would be good enough alone to pair with the purple-pink shimmers in this palette. I don’t see why having both was necessary.

That being said, the quality of both of these shadows are nice. They feel a touch silkier than the mattes in my older Mothership palettes, making them slightly closer feeling to the Natasha Denona mattes (but thankfully not that far, as I still prefer Pat’s to Natasha’s). Even though they’re both pigmented, I find myself having to build up more layers to get Lunar Nectar to show on my eyes to the same level as Twilight Lilac.

My second color issue is that so many of us have been begging for greens, but putting Nocturnal Bloom and Blitz Radiant Rhapsody together in the same palette is like including a duplicate despite them having different finishes. When I use Nocturnal Bloom as an eyeliner on top of Blitz Radiant Rhapsody or using it in the crease with the shimmery green on the lid, it looks like I used one single eyeshadow instead of two. There’s not enough definition and distinction between them when used together in a look. I believe that Nocturnal Bloom is the more useful of the two. It serves as the deepening and smokey element in the palette. It can be used as liner. The blendability and smoothness is on par with the other mattes, which is great considering what a disaster of a shade that deep green called Altered State was from the Mega Mthrshp Celestial Nirvana palette. This shade layers well on top of the mattes and shimmers equally. Both Blitz Radiant Rhapsody and Astral Eden Envy are a little thicker than the other shimmers in the palette and seem to have stronger adhesion, which requires a little more work to get those two shades to merge seamlessly into any other shimmer. Particularly with the former, I have to pack on additional layers and mix with my fingers to create an even and well blended gradient of one shimmer going into Blitz Radiant Rhapsody. Plus, cool greens are less loved by me than other tones of greens. So, I wouldn’t have minded having a green multichrome (like a green-purple-blue or green-yellow-gold to match the theme) or a different toned deep green as a replacement eyeshadow. Even a light spring matte green or matte chartreuse would have been welcome to me.

I find it interesting that Astral Eden Envy looks so yellow in the pan, but it looks like an antique olive on my arm, while being gold (or at least golden-olive) on my eyes. I was concerned that it would be too similar to Pat’s iconic shade Gigabyte, but thankfully they are different.

Divine Dawn fills the position of Pat’s typical Skinshow type of shadows that are most often used in the inner corner, to highlight the center of the lid, or brighten under the brown arch. Even though this kind of shade is typically on the thicker and squishier side, Divine Dawn feels even thicker and grips the skin more, making it less easy to spread as smoothly as the Skinshow shades of the past.

If eyeshadow is going to disappear on me, it’s most likely going to happen to my inner corners, so perhaps this slight change of formula is a good thing. For my own personal use though, I can’t recall ever having an issue with longevity when using PML eyeshadows including in my inner corners. So, I would have preferred for this shadow to be a little creamier.
Also, this looks like a pale cream in the pan, but it’s more of a silvery pink-purple on my eyes.

Cosmic Fantasies is quite possibly my favorite eyeshadow in this palette, which I never saw coming. It’s a beautiful reddish purple with a dark base and no chunky glitter particles. It is a smooth metallic with enough binder that I can use it as an eyeliner without worrying about fallout. It layers easily with the other shadows and is the only other deepening shade in the palette. At the same time, the shine is just enough that I can use this eyeshadow solo and it doesn’t feel like a smokey shade on my skintone, even though it pairs well with those kind of looks.
This doesn’t feel super unique because there are similar shades to this in some of my other palettes from the brand, but Cosmic Fantasies has the tone, depth, and finish to help it stand out.

Blitz Bronze Supernova is the most neutral shade in the palette, but it’s far from boring. This shadow is super sparkly with a mix of different shimmer particle sizes. In order to make it look smoother and to minimize the fallout, I apply it with a damp brush. Although it doesn’t surpass my two ultimate PML browns (Divine Dahlia and Bronzed Mink), it’s still a very pretty color and a great addition for the lighter eye looks.

While I have some misgivings about some of the shade choices, I think all of them are pretty. However, when it comes to the one that is actually the hardest for me to incorporate into my eyeshadows looks, it has been Astral Sunset Splendor. By the time I started working on the first draft of this post, I’d done 15 eye looks (some of them repeated on different days). Six of them involved using this peachy shade and three times I had to cover it up with another shadow because I didn’t like how it turned out. It pairs very well with Cosmic Fantasies, but it’s such a thin shadow that it gets overpowered by some of the more pigmented shimmers. Three failed attempts really isn’t a lot compared to the number of shades I could still try it with, plus with eyeshadows outside of the Petalmorphosis palette, so it’s possible I could like this color a lot more in other scenarios. I just typically prefer fully opaque eyeshadows, so this is currently more of an inner corner kind of shade for me when I apply it damp to control fallout. I think the shade Coral Kiss from the Nude Allure 5-pan palette is a much more interesting eyeshadow, and it’s not even an Astral!

The star of this palette that adds the most drama and color impact is Astral Iridescent Iris. This is a topper kind of shadow that looks silvery lilac in the pan, but pops to a brighter cool purple and silver on the eyes. The texture of this is closest to how the “special” shades in the Mothership palettes usually feel, which is to say on the drier side and a gritty-flaky kind of feel to them that will absolutely have fallout unless applied damp or over a glitter glue. I’ve dipped my finger into the pan at least six times, and I worry that it could be starting to hardpan. It feels like it’s starting to compact or compress itself into the pan, but so far I am not having issues picking up the product. This is something I will continue to monitor and will update if it becomes a problem.

Overall, I think the quality of this eyeshadow palette is great. I’ve had no issues with creasing or longevity. I have no patchy issues and most of the shades are super easy to blend (the worst performing ones are simply “easy” instead of “super easy”).

I know there is a huge debate going on about the “special baked formula” that the brand abandoned in Mothership X and onward. While it is likely that the process of making those four pan-less eyeshadows in that particular Italian formula might have contributed to the higher cost of the palette, I was never a fan of the texture and consistency of those eyeshadows. I loved the effect, but did not enjoy the dryness or fallout. The effect of these new Astral and Blitz formulas feel similar to the OG, but with more binders that make them easier to use. Some people, like me, prefer that. Others swear this new version isn’t as impactful and are willing to put in the extra effort to work with the OG eyeshadows we’ve been accustomed to over the course of seven years.

I think the OG lovers have some valid points in wanting there to be “special shades” in every palette, especially with price increases, but I don’t think the Motherships need to have baked shades in order to fulfill that wish. Ultra shifty multichromes are some of the most expensive pigments to make into an eyeshadow and having some in Motherships should at least satisfy the ones that want to feel their expensive palette isn’t expensive just for the packaging alone. This is coming from someone who refused to buy the beautiful Decadence palette because it contained solely metallic shades. In comparison, I think Petalmorphosis formulas are at least more expensive than Decadence. But for anyone who feels the Motherships are only worth buying if there are baked shades, then by all means don’t buy Petalmorphosis. Vote with your dollars! It’s odd to see Influencers and other Enthusiasts with the same complaint about three or more PML palettes while continuing to buy every single one. Then of course the brand won’t change course if they’re still making money off these “inferior” palettes! No judgements to anyone who wants to buy them all as a fan or collector. I’m just saying hurting a brand’s wallet has more impact than hurting their feelings. Influencers who talk about losing their love for PML while still buying all the products are sending mixed messages to their audience. In my opinion, giving a brand no attention is worse than talking badly about them. “All press is good press,” is a saying for a reason.

Two of the most interesting and contrasting viewpoints on the topic have been by the YouTube channel Alexis and Christina (I believe formerly known under the handle Lipstick Lesbians) and Mariam A also on YouTube.

I did a Pat Mcgrath Palette Ranking post last year and if I were to include Petalmorphosis among the rankings, it would probably be at #5, just barely above Nude Allure purely because this palette has additional shade options. I would also move Huetopian Dream to 7th place, just under Nude Allure as #6, because over the course of time, I missed having that palette more than the other two quints.

Pat Mcgrath Labs is one of my most loved makeup brands. I have been quite critical about certain decisions they’ve made, and therefore skipped many releases, but I haven’t given up on them just yet. I was worried when nothing interested me from them in all of 2024, but I’m hopeful this is just the start of exciting launches in 2025.

Thank you for reading. I hope this has been helpful and that you didn’t mind my unfiltered opinions!

-Lili ❤

Is This Redemption For Nomad Cosmetics?

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In 2020, I reviewed my first Nomad Cosmetics product: the Tokyo Harajuku Palette. It is one of the worst palettes I ever owned, which is a shame because the palette art was so cute and I tried so hard to make it work on me. It was bad enough to scare me away from purchasing anything else from the brand. However, in the last 2-3 years I’ve heard nothing but good things about the brand’s eyeshadows. Beauty Influencers and other makeup enthusiasts that I trust all seemed to like their palettes. Granted, not a single one of them ever reviewed the Tokyo palette and even the people who owned nearly all of them coincidentally were only missing that one. I always found that to be strange considering the Tokyo palette was extremely hyped up when it first came out and it was the reason I even discovered that Nomad Cosmetics existed.

Pastels are notoriously tricky to make look good on dark skin, so I was willing to accept that factor could account for the particularly bad experience. I had also heard their formula “got even better” over time. So, at some point I made up my mind to give them another try, especially since I felt bad that their only review on my blog was a negative one. The problem was that none of the color stories were of interest to me until the launches of the Haunted Europe and Royal Europe palettes. I also didn’t want to spend so much money on a palette when the potential was high that I might not like it. So, I finally caught Haunted Europe in stock during Black Friday/Cyber Week!

Before we get into the review, I just wanted to mention that this palette was delivered to me in Germany via GLS. This was my first and hopefully last time having to deal with that service. I was literally looking out the window as the delivery van passed my building and stopped somewhere else to deliver a package, then continue driving away. At the end of the work day, they updated tracking with a note that my package couldn’t be delivered because I was on vacation, instead of them just admitting they forgot to stop at my place.

I sent an email to GLS customer service. My package was delivered the next day, but they never responded to that email. I found plenty of complaints about GLS online, so this wasn’t an isolated incident. If you’re ordering something that uses them as delivery partners, just be forewarned!

Haunted Europe Palette

I was so relieved to discover that this palette is leaps and bounds better than the Tokyo palette!I’ve been able to create quite a few pretty eye looks. This has a nice mix of neutral and colorful shades, but the matte colors are a bit muted. The mattes are soft to the touch and powdery. They are all opaque and apply smoothly without being patchy, but they create a soft and hazy kind of look. The brand describes all their palettes as “intense,” including this one, which surprised me because these aren’t vibrant colors. I can’t think of a single indie brand whose eyeshadows are less saturated than these. For example, Spandau Citadel looks reddish brown in the pan, but it’s a medium pinky-orange on my eyes! Bloody Mary looks so promising in swatches, but it’s so much less impactful on my lids.

I’d like to clarify that I don’t think this is inherently a bad thing. It’s about preference and I think a palette like this is perfect for the neutral lover who wants to dive into color, but gets easily intimidated. This could also work for someone who likes to combine neutrals with colorful shades and without the overall look being too bold. Someone that likes smokier type of colors might enjoy this as well. It could also be the case that these look more intense on people with lighter skin or someone who uses different primers or bases. The ones I use with this palette are MAC Paint Pot and Lisa Eldridge’s Liquid Silk.

These mattes have a hazy effect that make them look well blended. It is easy to get a gradient look from a single shadow, but they aren’t easy to build up, nor to they layer well on top of each other. If I want real depth, I have to start with the darker shades first and work backwards from my usual order of eyeshadow application. Black Forest is the most pigmented shade in this palette and is the one that layers the best. Using that shade or the dark shimmers is the quickest way for me to deepen my looks with the least amount of effort. Grendel has the second strongest amount of pigment, but it’s not as easy to blend as Black Forest.

Houska Castle is a yellow-gold and Boogeyman is orange-gold. To keep them from feeling redundant, I think Nomad could have benefited from giving them different finishes instead of making them both smooth metallic shimmers.

The golds are fairly smooth, opaque, and vibrant. Highgate Cemetery and Merry Cemetery have bigger sparkle particles, but I can see my skin through them. I can fix that by wetting them so that they apply more compact on my lids. The Catacombs and Bloody Mary have more opacity and more obvious shimmer, but they’re not able to complete with brands like Pat Mcgrath or Natasha Denona with intensity, let alone other indie brands. Big Bad Wolf and Krampus stand out because of the multi-colored shimmer, but they aren’t duochromes and they look smoother than the previous four I mentioned. Hoia-Baciu Forest is the smoothest of the shimmers and what I prefer to use as the highlighting shade, especially in the inner corner. It pairs well with nearly all the eyeshadows in this palette. To me, the shimmers are just fine. They don’t crease on me though, so that’s a plus. I also get an acceptable amount of fallout throughout the day, as it adheres to my lids pretty well, but after that it’s impossible to remove all the shimmer particles with micellar water and a microfiber cloth alone.

Since the theme of Haunted Europe is supposed to be spooky and smokey, I assume this is why the colors are muted and that Nomad’s other palettes are more saturated. That could mean that I still have gaps in my knowledge regarding the brand’s eyeshadows, and therefore shouldn’t assume the others perform like this one.

Haunted Europe is good enough to have redeemed Nomad Cosmetics in my eyes, and I can see how people would like the quality, but this is still in the middle of the road among the palettes in my collection. There are too many aspects that aren’t a perfect fit for my makeup preferences, so this is probably where the journey ends between Nomad and myself. My curiosity has been sated.

That’s all for now. Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Charlotte Tilbury Beautifying Eye Trends Palette Review

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I don’t have any interesting tidbits to open this post with, so I’ll just get right into the review.

Charlotte’s Palette of Beautifying Eye Trends in Emerald Effect

The first thing I noticed was that the Matte Silk eyeshadows feel like the mattes from Natasha Denona’s midi palettes (within the last couple of years). They are silky feeling rather than creamy. They are pigmented and blendable, but not my absolute favorite. They are great, but not superb. Shade 2 is a light beige brown that doesn’t show up strongly on me, but I can see it in my eye looks. Shade 6 is the depth creating neutral brown shade, which is dark enough to work, but I do wish it was a touch deeper. I used both of these eyeshadows together nearly every time I created a look with this palette, but now that the testing process is over, I’m going to use something else instead of Shade 6.

I’ve used these eyeshadows with concealers as bases and it works as long as there’s a thick enough matte powder layer in my crease before adding the shimmer. By “working,” I mean that the migration/creasing in my deepest line is at acceptable levels. However, my KVD Good Apple Concealer doesn’t play well with a lot of products and has more obvious issues with these eyeshadows than when I used the Natasha Denona Hy-Gen concealer as primer. I tend to blend excess concealer into the inner corner of my eyes, so even if I use a regular primer from my lids and upward, I still have to be careful about my concealer placement or else it could interfere with the eyeshadows. In general, I just recommend using a regular eye primer. These worked nicely with MAC Paint Pot and the Lisa Eldridge Silk Canvas as bases.

Shade 7 (spring yellow-toned green) and Shade 8 (dark blue-based green) are Crystal Pops. I wondered if they are supposed to be similar to the formula in the brand’s Pop Shot singles, but I don’t have those with me to confirm. Based on what I remember of them though, I think these don’t pop as much on the eye as the Pop Shots.

I had to redo three of these eye looks because the Crystal Pops did not want to show true to color in photos. I think it has to do with the type of shimmer used and how it reflected from my lights, combined with them not being fully opaque.

The Diamond Dimensions are softer pressed, flakier, and are basically sheerer toppers, so I expected to have a hard time seeing the blue tinge from Shade 9. Shade 1 looks white in the pan, but it has a gold reflect.

I can get stronger color payoff from the Crystal Pops and Diamond Dimensions if I apply them with a dampened brush, but I don’t do it to intensify the appearance of the sparkles. I am satisfied with the shimmery effect of all of them in their dry state. Also, the Diamond Dimension shadows remind me of the topper shade from Guerlain (#2 from Royal Jungle) because of the flaky glittery high shine nature to them, but Guerlain had it in a baked formula, which solidified it in a way that made it harder to pick up. I’d rather not have topper eyeshadows in palettes, but I at least prefer the way Charlotte Tilbury made these.

Shade 5 (antique gold/borderline chartreuse) is the Crystal Chrome which seems like a more opaque, smoother, wetter version of the Crystal Pop. Both eyeshadow types stand out on the eyes, but the Crystal Chrome achieves that effect without the large shimmer/glitter particles. This is the standout eyeshadow in the palette and it made me think of other shades similar to this that I have in my collection (photo below).

The light golden brown color called Shade 3 and chocolate brown Shade 4 are called Molten Satin. They feel like the Crystal Chrome, but with slightly less slip to them. From name alone, the Crystal Chrome is clearly intended to be more impactful as a shiny metallic. Although I usually prefer the wow factor of a great shimmer on my lids, if I’m in the mood for wearing brown, it’s usually because I’m going for a low-key look. Shade 3 is something I’d use in my inner corners or under the brow arch, and I prefer for shades used there to be smooth. So, I’m pleased with these being in the palette.

The most similar feel and finish of an eyeshadow to the Crystal Chrome comes from Devinah Cosmetics. Devinah’s is insanely smooth, but I believe it has a little bit of a darkened base to help it look more intense, plus it’s just overall more pigmented. That swatch went on so far for such little product. Nefertiti leans more golden-orange than Shade 5’s kind of antique gold. Pat Mcgrath’s Gigabyte is one of the baked special shades, so it is drier and flakier, so it looks less opaque unless applied damp or on a glitter primer. Clionadh’s Burnish is one of the Stained Glass Multichromes, so it has a dark base, is smooth, but has a slightly more shimmery finish. The fact that this shadow can even compete with indie ones proves to me that some of the high price tag went to the formula. I don’t think Charlotte Tilbury cheapened out on the formula, even if the brand reduced costs with the packaging.

I love greens, but I realized this palette has some similarities to some of the Devinah shadows I keep in one of my custom travel palettes. This is probably why I couldn’t let my desire for getting the Charlotte Tilbury palette go despite owning similar things. These are some of my favorite types of colors!

When I compare the swatches, I honestly do prefer Devinah’s over these. Shade 4 is the most different. Lurican is more pigmented and less sparkly. Odium is also far less shimmery, but since I would typically use this on the outer portion of the lid, I’d prefer for it to be this way. Devinah has discontinued some of their older shades (like Odium and Nefertiti), so I guess it’s a moot point. I just figured it would be interesting to compare because it’s not everyday when high end or luxury shimmers are even worthy of comparing their eyeshadows to ones from non-mainstream brands.

What is shown above is ultimately why I ended up buying this palette despite my best efforts to tell myself I didn’t need it. I already had the Dior Backstage 008 Khaki Neutrals palette that I hardly used after the review. There are way more interesting green palettes in my collection. The color variety still interested me, but these satins and “glitter” eyeshadows were just too subdued for me. I wanted so much more shine and impact. In trying to use the palette again, I realized Charlotte’s might be the version I wished for. The perfect combination for me in Emerald Effect would have been if the brand replaced the light green or the flaky pale blue with a light green matte shade like Shade 6 from Dior. Or, since the dark green shimmer from CT isn’t fully opaque, I’d have liked a dark green matte as well. Perhaps since I have both palettes with no intention of getting rid of either, I could just use them both together.

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

-Lili ❤

Victoria Beckham Beauty Eye Wardrobe Review

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I’m no stranger to luxury eyeshadows, but I usually wait until I can buy them at a discounted price. I don’t know how to explain why I chose to purchase the compact and refill at the upcharged price from Selfridges. Call it temporary insanity I guess.

I was very interested in the Victoria color story, which is the only one I purchased, and the palette called Olive. This is finally the year of greens with Charlotte Tilbury releasing the Beautifying Eye Trend in Emerald Effect and Tom Ford launching Olive Smoke at around the same time. I painfully held off on buying them because I already have the Viseart Peridot quad, Dior Backstage Khaki Neutrals, Bobbi Brown Jadestone, Melt Gemini II, Natasha Denona Mini Gold and other of ND’s greens, plus all of Oden’s Eye’s greens, etc. I’m trying my best to use the makeup I already have, but I was super curious to find out whether I would like this brand’s eyeshadows or not. Although I know I could find similar shades to Victoria across all my palettes, I didn’t think I’d have them all in one place and one quad. So, this felt like the best choice for me out of the four available.

I was also eager to finally buy something again made by Victoria Beckham Beauty. The only other makeup items I own from the brand are the Cheeky Posh Cream Blush Stick and Matte Bronzing Brick.

After seeing Victoria in person, I realized that I do have a palette that gives a similar vibe. It’s the Huda Beauty Wild Obsessions Jaguar palette.

The biggest difference between the two is certainly the quality. With Huda’s palette, it gives off a lot more pigmentation and opacity. It blends well, but noticeably takes longer to complete the look than Victoria’s. In the grouping of three photos below, the eye looks on the top and bottom are with VBB shadows, but the one in the middle is with Huda shadows. Even when I build up Victoria’s shades to be more dramatic, the color values and depths from Huda’s colors are more distinctly different from each other, so they naturally pop and stand out more. Huda’s shimmer particles are also much larger. The finished looks are both beautiful to me and have their place. It’s a matter of whether someone wants more impact or wants more seamlessness.

The Jaguar palette is still available for $35 at full price, versus Victoria for $75 (or $50 for just the refill). In my Huda Beauty Palette Ranking post, Jaguar took and still holds the top spot. So, I just wanted to offer this alternative for anyone who wants similar colors at a more affordable price.

Victoria Beckham Beauty Eye Wardrobe in Victoria

This is described as a neutral palette, but my eyes are picking up a little warmth to the shades. The first one in the biggest pan is what I would consider a beige-taupe. It looks like a pale brown, but it goes the tiniest bit grey on my skin, so I would consider it neutral. The shimmer shadow has a dark brown base with a little red that adds the tiniest of warmth underneath the silver (and maybe even fine gold?) sparkle. The third color and neutral is what I would call a soft black or an incredibly deep purple-tinged brown that is practically black. The last shade is a near-neutral warm-leaning dark brown or mahogany.

These eyeshadows are soft to the touch and create low or medium kickup depending on the brushes used. They’re not quite as buttery as YSL’s eyeshadows, but these are still incredibly good quality! They are pigmented, but so easy to control. They give enough pigment for me (excluding Shade 1 that doesn’t show up as much) right from the start and can be built up a bit. There is just enough difference between the shades to avoid feeling redundant in the palette, but they also blend seamlessly into each other and create a smokey hazy effect without putting much effort. I am so impressed!

I’ve tried this on three different eyeshadow primers/bases and had no issues with longevity. How my eyeshadow looks in the morning is exactly how it will look at night. These don’t fade on me. I don’t get creasing from the shimmer, which surprised me because it feels creamy and that can sometimes lead to migration on my lids from other brands’ eyeshadows. I also get very little fallout from the shimmer. It adheres well to my eyes without needing a glitter primer and I haven’t felt the need to spray my brush with it either. If I do want more impact and for the shadow to look more silver, applying the shadow to my lids with a damp brush turns it creamier, smoother, and opaque. Although I usually prefer a more intense shimmer eyeshadow, it’s nice to have one that is a bit…demure.

For more impact, one can start with the darkest color first and then work from lightest to darkest again.

When I did a side by side comparison of Jungle to Victoria, it made me think about how well this palette would look paired with a purple, so I tried that and liked how it turned out. For Valentine’s day, I combined the colors in Victoria with eyeshadows from other brands as well, and can confirm that they all play well together.

I may have similar colors to the Victoria Eye Wardrobe, but the ease of use and control that I have on building up the colors makes this palette much more valuable to me. YSL makes my favorite matte formula, but I can’t build up depth in the same way because the only shade deep enough is the black shadow from Over Noir and that is much more intense than Shade 3 in this one. My best palette for that task was previously the Hindash Beautopsy palette, but this one has an even easier formula to work with. Victoria, for my skintone, is still best for building subtle depth and not for intense drama. There will be times when I want more out of my black eye shadows.

Regarding the size, the eyeshadow palette is significantly smaller than the bronzing brick.

The bronzing brick compact is also way easier to open and close. I can open it with one hand, whereas it’s much harder to try that with the eyeshadow component. I don’t know if my empty palette is supposed to have such a stiff hinge, but I know for sure that I shouldn’t be having so many issues with mine closing and staying closed. There appears to be a slight defect because mine clicks back open again and I have to press it back down 2-3 times before it will remain closed. However, I can also press or hold the front part of the compact (not touching the button) and sometimes the pressure of just picking it up makes it pop open.
The Selfridges rep agreed with me upon reviewing the video I submitted to them and they reimbursed me for the cost of the empty palette. So, if mine continues to get worse with repeated use (it went from needing to be reclosed 50% of the time to now 100% of the time) or I’m unable to shut it at all, I could try my luck and buy another one.
There is another option, which is to stick this in a regular empty magnetic palette because the refill works in those. However, the reason I bought it is because I specifically wanted the luxury packaging.

In my review of the Lisa Eldridge Pinpoint Concealer Pencils, I explained that it performing better on my smile line than any other concealer is the only reason it was worth buying for me. In the case of this palette, the eyeshadow quality is among the crème de la crème in my collection. However, how much I like this or will use this depends on my mood. I might reach for a Pat Mcgrath eyeshadow instead because it delivers stronger pigment. I could choose a Natasha Denona shimmer because it’s more eye-catching. The best quality doesn’t automatically mean it’ll suit someone’s preferences. So whether this palette is worth buying is going to be subjective and up to each individual shopper.

I think the quality is top notch. I think the compact is elegant and weighty (although I was unlucky to have an issue). I am still open to the possibility of buying refills in the future, but I don’t know how likely that will be considering I still prefer YSL’s formula and I can find their permanent quads for at least 10-20 Euros cheaper. Those compacts aren’t as heavy, but they are still luxurious to me. I would rather wait around and hope for YSL to release a color story similar to Olive. Tom Ford is the most comparable brand I can think of in terms of pricing, and I prefer VBB quality over theirs (excluding the wet/dry formula), but even Tom Ford’s quads can be found at a CCO/CCS for 40% off or more. I prefer VBB over Lisa Eldridge, Guerlain, and Gucci palettes that are comparable to the price of VBB’s refill alone, but it’s not always about quality. There are some shades I love that I know I will never see made by certain brands, so I will continue to seek out eyeshadows from other cosmetic companies.

I’m content with my singular Victoria Beckham Beauty Eye Wardrobe, but if they release a breathtaking color story, I could be swayed to purchase another.

That’s all for today! Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤

Ranking Melt Cosmetics Palettes

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Continuing with my Eyeshadow Palette Brand Ranking Series, we have Melt next! This was very tough because the quality is so similar across the board. It really comes down to color story for this one and how often I actually use the eyeshadows, not just look at them admiringly.

Melt Cosmetics Eyeshadow Palette Ranking: (Most Favorite to Less of a Favorite)

  1. Gemini II
  2. She’s in Parties
  3. Rust
  4. Amor y Mariposas
  5. Bad Side Zodiac Earth
  6. Bad Side Zodiac Air
  7. Smoke Sessions

The Bottom Three

Being in the bottom three of something never sounds good, but I had very few issues with these palettes, save for Smoke Sessions. Melt Cosmetics is known for having, at the very least, a stellar matte formula. It’s a bit ironic that the most hyped non-limited edition palette from the brand is the one that is the worst performing on me. That being said, I still consider it a decent product. The reason it’s on the bottom is because it’s the only palette from Melt (in the rectangular pans) that had mattes that are stiff and took a bit of time to blend. The shimmers are not impactful without being dampened and are the only ones from Melt that give me any creasing. As for the color story, I love half of the palette and completely ignore the other half (the cool-toned blue-green shades). The first two photos at the top of the page were taken before I left the US. Because this particular palette is known for having the most problematic formula in terms of how long it can last before it goes bad, I was worried it wouldn’t last. However, I haven’t had any issues with any of my Melt palettes all this time. I consider myself lucky!

The Zodiac palettes have only the slightest lower matte quality than the top 4 in the ranking. The color stories are beautiful, but not unique, which is why I didn’t reach for them as often as the others. The shimmer quality of these is actually better, but having a good shimmer isn’t as impressive of an achievement as a good matte. These are the only reasons I put them lower. They just have so much competition in my eyeshadow collection that they are the last palettes that come to mind when I think to reach for some Melt shadows.

Mi Amor

I like the performance of the shimmers in the Amor y Mariposas palette more than the top 3, but that wasn’t enough to get the palette to be bumped up higher on the list. 4 of the 14 mattes take extra time to blend because they are pressed pigments. They aren’t shades I use that much, so it isn’t as strong of a negative point against this palette. The color selection is beautiful. The pans in this palette are the same size as the Zodiac ones. I had the idea to depot them into those smaller palettes a bit too late. As much as I liked the colors, I didn’t reach for the palette as often because of its large size and how I inconveniently stored it. I didn’t use this palette enough, which is quite telling where it stands with me.

The Top Three

The palettes in this category have all been partially depotted at some point during my ownership of them, and I’ve taken them traveling as part of custom magnetic palettes. In fact, the flatlay photo above shows which ones were taken from a previous trip.

Rust is a beautiful warm neutral palette. I love the mattes in there to use as the transition and crease shades for a starting eyeshadow look. I usually pair them with a Clionadh shadow or other special shimmer, duochrome, or multichrome shade from my collection. The reason it’s number three is because the shimmers don’t give enough impact, even when applied damp, and I have sealing issues with the shades Tarnish and Ravage.

I love purples, so it makes sense that I like She’s in Parties. However, it’s warm purples I prefer and this palette has a mix of both cool and warm shades. The matte quality is fantastic. The shimmer quality is fairly decent in terms of performance and with passable levels of sparkle. This palette has light and dark shades, but it’s hard to get something in the middle. I may not use She’s in Parties as much as Rust, but the quality is overall better. So, it ranks second best.

Gemini II has green shades that I adore! Almond Eyes and Matheo are some of my favorites from my entire collection! I can also get tired of pinks pretty fast, but the ones in this palette are the kind I love! Warmer pinks are great! The matte quality is superb, blendable, and pigmented. The shimmers are as good as it gets from Melt.

When it comes to using the Gemini II palette, I never use the pinks and greens together. Technically, that means I don’t consider it as cohesive of a palette, but I get a lot of use out of it by pairing it with other palettes and single eyeshadows. This gets the number one spot due to having the best quality and me liking every color in this one.

Another indication is that I only depotted Love Sick and Boy Mum, then took the entire rest of the palette with me when I moved! My most used shades from She’s in Parties and Rust came along in a custom palette as well, but the largest number of Melt eyeshadows came from Gemini II. The photo below shows all the long rectangular pan eyeshadows I ended up taking with me to Germany.

I created the custom palette as well with a mix of Zodiac Earth and Amor y Mariposas shades, but when my luggage went over the weight limit and I needed to leave some makeup behind, that one was unfortunately the one that had to stay back.

What can also be spotted are four Smoke Sessions shades. This is because those were my favorite colors from the palettes, but mostly also because I waited so incredibly long to buy that palette. I did not want to leave all of them behind. So, it’s a matter of principle and less about thinking I would miss them. My top three are the ones I would miss most because of the mattes. Melt’s mattes are within my top five favorite formulas of all time! It’s a shame I don’t feel the same way about most of their shimmers, but I have more than enough shimmers I love. It’s much harder to get me excited about mattes, which this brand certainly nails most of the time.

The final point I wanted to discuss is the acknowledgement that I have zero palettes from Melt that came out between 2023-2025. The only two that interested me were Smoke Sessions II and The Bride of Frankenstein. I skipped getting Smoke Sessions II because those are still not the kind of purples I wear often enough, plus my concern that the quality could be similar to the original Smoke Sessions that ranked last on my list. I would have absolutely bought The Bride of Frankenstein Palette if it was available to purchase in Germany. The only retailer I know that sells Melt Products is Purish, and they did not stock that one. I looked into international shipping from Melt’s own website, and it’s just too costly. So, only the future will tell if I ever get my hands on that one.

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

-Lili ❤

Did Kiko Milano Dupe Pat Mcgrath? Drugstore Reviews

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I was not the only person confused when I was scrolling through the GlamJunkiescom Instagram page thinking I just saw a newly launched collection of Pat Mcgrath 5-pan palettes, only to read the description and realize it’s a collaboration trio of palettes between Kiko Milano and Sara Sampaio!

I haven’t purchased a single thing from Pat Mcgrath in 2023, which is wild considering what a huge fan I am of the brand. The color stories just didn’t entice me enough. However, the Kiko Milano Dazzling Drama palette seemed practically made for me, so I bought it. In the collection, there is also Dazzling Sunset and Dazzling Daydream, but I didn’t get them because they had colors too similar to what I own from Pat Mcgrath. I just wanted to see if Kiko managed to recreate the look and performance of PML’s shadows for less money. If you’re curious, please continue reading! Also, I’ve included a few bonus reviews at the end of this post!

The palette sizes, unicartons, and packaging materials are identical. The texture of the shimmers and press/ribbon pattern on the non-shimmer shades look just like the 5 pans from Pat Mcgrath. Visually, the only identifiable difference is that Kiko’s pans are smaller.

The palettes from both brands are made in Italy. From what I can see, the ingredients are the same too, just in different amounts/order. The biggest discrepancy is that the “mattes” from Kiko have silica and kaolin as the final ingredients. Bold Bordeaux looks like a matte shadow in the pan, but it’s a satin. It’s smoother than Purple Passion, which is the actual matte. Despite having such similar ingredients, Purple Passion doesn’t have the same creamish-powder feel that made me fall in love with Pat Mcgrath’s cream-powder formula from her quints. Kiko’s feel stiffer, less creamy, and not as smooth or easy to pick up, but the finish manages to look the same.

I would be fine with the “mattes” feeling different, as long as they performed as well. Unfortunately though, these two shades end up looking identical on the eyes because the vibrant color (Purple Passion) darkens and Bold Bordeaux turns smokey dark grey-purple when blended. It’s like there’s a dark base in them that’s used to create the illusion of opacity, but when I attempt to blend the shadows on my eyes, the purple tones get blended away and I’m just left with the darkness.

In the first eye look, Purple Passion is in the inner half of the crease with Bold Bordeaux on the outer half. In the second eye look, I used Purple Passion in the crease alone and tried my best to not blend it as much, yet it still darkened. I’ve tried different eyeshadow bases and using no base at all and it didn’t change the outcome.

I used Jade Journey on the lower lash line in the first look and all over the lid in the second look. In that second look, I put Illuminating Nude in the center of the lid and inner corner too. Radiant Plum is the lid shade in the first eye look.

The Kiko palette swatches beautifully. If I saw these swatches alone, I would have thought the quality of this palette was the same as Pat Mcgrath’s, but it’s only a match for the shimmers. I was able to show the vibrancy of Purple Passion because I didn’t have to swipe or blend back and forth on my arm, which would have caused it to darken. I am most disappointed by those, but the shimmers are great. Kiko’s shimmers don’t feel as wet, but they have nearly the same pigment level and sparkle as Pat’s quint formula.

I love the green shade! It is pretty much a dupe of Galactic Conquest from Pat’s Sith Seduction palette that I skipped buying because I only wanted that green. Now, I don’t feel FOMO since I have a decent substitute!

Radiant Plum and Illuminating Nude are the kinds of colors I see from all brands and I have similar enough shades from PML too, so they aren’t as special even though they perform well. In fact, this whole color story reminds me of Viseart’s London Etoile. Ever since making that comparison, I became less excited about this palette and just wished to have access to that one again. In some countries, that palette ranges from 24 to 28 Euros compared to Dazzling Drama costing 26 Euros. I would recommend the Viseart palette over this one.

Compared to Pat Mcgrath, Kiko’s eyeshadow is 7.7 Euro per gram vs 9 Euro per gram, so I see the price savings. It’s a collab product, so it should technically be cheaper if it wasn’t tied to a celebrity. However, is it really saving money if I only use the shimmers? With Pat Mcgrath, I normally don’t have to worry about shadows not being true to color. For me, I’ll stick with PML.

As promised, here are some bonus reviews. Since Kiko is on the more affordable side of makeup, I thought I would include some of my previously unreviewed drugstore purchases from this year.

Nyx the Marshmellow Setting Spray

This has the same smell as the brand’s Marshmellow primer, which I like, but the scent is strong. I can still smell it for several hours after putting it on, which is why I count this as a negative aspect.

It’s a mattifying setting spray, but it’s only semi-effective. I don’t know how well this would hold up on someone with oily skin. It doesn’t feel like it dries out my skin and it doesn’t leave it feeling tight or uncomfortable. It prohibits my dry skin from letting moisture break through if I pair it with a foundation that essentially does the same thing, but if I’m using a dewy foundation, then my face will continue to glow (just less than usual). It basically helps low transfer makeup to improve on the transfer resistance, but it’s not tough enough to make an easily transferring foundation become transfer proof.

I decided to put my theory to the test and use the same foundation all over by face, but only spray one half of it. I waited four hours and then pressed a napkin to my face. The left half (the side with no spray) has slightly more transfer than the right half that was sprayed. However, the difference isn’t enough to make me want to use this product and I am content with just skipping the setting spray step altogether. If there’s a time when I need my makeup to be locked into place, I’m going to reach for others first.

My only other complaint about this product is the sprayer. A lot comes out, and forcefully at that. I wish it would spray like a mist, but I’m considering transferring the liquid into a different bottle so it will be more enjoyable to use.

Essence Call Me Queen Mascara and Essence Lash Without Limits Extreme Lengthening & Volume Mascara

Both of these mascaras gave me an initially bad impression. I discovered that opening and closing them, then setting them aside for at least a week was the trick to getting a better outcome. When I first opened the tubes, they were too wet. The formulas had a hard time building on my eyelashes. Two weeks is the sweet spot for the mascaras to thicken, which is enough to get at least satisfactory results. Unfortunately, within a month of opening each, they both started to form clumps and started to be a bit too thick. It takes me five minutes to get them looking nice per eye. Ten full minutes to apply mascara is too long for me, especially when I can get it done much quicker with my favorite Essence mascara: Volume Stylist 18h Lash Extension Mascara.

Lash Without Limits gives me a little more volume and a fluffy look to my lashes. Call Me Queen still gives volume, while also adding the tiniest bit more length, but the shape of the applicator makes it slightly harder to apply mascara to my innermost lashes.

I would consider the amount I used in the photos to be two coats, even though I repeatedly went over the lashes so many times. Because these mascaras are so wet, they are both prone to smudge onto my lid/lash line if I squeeze my eyes shut too tightly before the mascara has time to dry. I don’t notice flaking, but any clumps that stick to tips of my lashes have the potential to fall on my face later in the day.

My preference between the two is the Lash Without Limits, but I would not repurchase either of them purely because of how long it takes to get them to look separated, as clump-free as possible, and with enough length and thickness built up.

That’s all I’ve got for today! I hope you’ll return next week to check out another new post!

Happy Holidays!

-Lili ❤

Trying More Makeup From Nabla and LH Cosmetics

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The retailer Purish was having a birthday sale in July. I didn’t know anything about the Berlin based company until this year when I realized I could get some harder to find indie products on their website. Along with some Danessa Myricks products I plan to review at some point in the future, I bought items from Nabla and LH Cosmetics that I’ve been eying for a long time while in the US, but didn’t want to deal with the shipping costs. I’ll be discussing them in the order that I tried them, rather than grouping by brand. I hope you’ll find these reviews interesting and helpful!

Nabla Close-Up Blurring Blush in Satisfaction

I love Nabla’s Skin Glazing blushes and have long wished for a shade extension. So, even though these new blushes are a matte formula, I felt compelled to try at least one of them. The shade I chose can be iffy as to whether it will work for me or not. The color reminded me of Too Faced’s Cloud Blurring Blush in Velvet Crush, Tarte’s Amazonian Clay Blush in Exposed, and Sephora’s Duo Matte Blush in English Rose. It might even be similar to MAC’s Gingerly, but I would need to see it again to know for sure. In any case, some of the above work for me all the time or just in winter, so I took the chance. The only one I have with me to compare in swatches is Sephora’s English Rose. I intentionally mixed the two split pan colors together to get as close to Nabla’s Satisfaction as possible. English Rose can look completely different if I use more of the pink within the duo.

If I just use Satisfaction on my bare cheeks, it’s a little ashy looking, especially because it’s a matte formula and I have dry skin. However, when it blends into my foundation, the color warms up further and looks just as I hoped. I like vibrant poppy blushes, but sometimes I like having just a flush of pink. Sometimes, I want light pink cheeks like an anime character. It all depends on my mood! In order to get as much payoff as it looks in the photo below, I had to really pack it on my cheeks. A normal amount is very subtle.

I have no blending issues or longevity issues with this. The part I dislike is actually the smell. It smells like a mix between chalk and chemicals, though not as strongly as the MAC Bronzer issue when those launched last year. I used to smell it only when I first opened the compact and then it would dissipate in the air. I noticed a similar thing with the LH palette that’s being reviewed next. What a strange coincidence! By now though, after many months, I only get a slight whiff of the chemical smell if I put it right up to my nose.

I like the color of this blush, but I have to admit that after comparing it to the Sephora duo, I like Sephora’s more. The Nabla blush is supposed to be blurring, but I don’t find that to be the case. Sephora’s is a soft matte, which is a more flattering finish for my skin type as well. Plus, with English Rose, I can tailor the color to be similar to Satisfaction or more vibrant if I’m in the mood for more of a punch. The times I don’t feel like mixing is when I’m most likely to use this. I don’t foresee myself buying additional shades.

LH Cosmetics Reload Palette

There are elements that I really like about this palette, but I’ll start with the issues first. I love how Flow and Silence look in the pan, but if you keep blending those shades back and forth, they turn much darker. Flow becomes a dark purple and Silence turns dark grey. I even used it as an outer corner deepening/smoking shade in the fourth eye look below. It doesn’t matter whether I use primer or not, it stays the pan color when first placed and patted on (which is how I could get them to look alright in swatches), but the moment I blend, Silence turns grey. It’s not an issue of dirty brushes either. I literally tried it with a brand new brush. Considering I already have Offline to deepen eye looks, and I don’t really have much in the way of mid tone mattes since Flow and Silence don’t count, I’m unable to create the kind of looks I intended without reaching for other palettes. The eyeshadows are still pretty, but more dramatic than anticipated.

Thankfully, I have no issues with the colors of the other mattes. I was also able to use three different bases for the eyeshadows and the performance didn’t change. The shadows are pigmented and require a bit more time to blend than I’ve been used to lately, but the final result is worth the effort. At least, that’s what I thought in the beginning, but I’ve only used this palette one or two more times after my initial rounds of testing were completed.

The shimmers are on the thicker side, but I suspect it’s for adherence purposes. I don’t feel the need to apply them damp to increase intensity on the lids, nor to keep them together. I don’t have any fallout issues with these. I also like that there is a warm toned option with Reset and an option to go with the pinks with Energy. The shimmers pick up easily on a brush, spread and blend nicely, and they don’t have enough slip to them to cause creasing on me.

The color story allows one to take the color scheme in different directions: monochrome pink look, neutral, neutral plus one color, blue-green, warm or cool, etc. It’s just a shame that the variety is lessened by Silence and Flow. I would have loved to put a true olive green in the crease, have Moss on the lid, and deepen it with Offline.
I’m not disappointed by the performance, only let down by the shades because this could have been a palette I reached for quite a bit due to the convenience of having colors I love all in one palette. Because I have to pair it with something else, the reality is that I use it less than I’d like.

I also need to mention that these have a bit of a chalky smell. This palette is not cheap (even though I bought it at half price) and the eyeshadows are made in Italy, so I don’t think this was cheap to produce. However, that’s what I associate with this type of smell. I only smell it when I first open the palette and the kickup flies through the air. So, it’s not a big problem, but an aspect I don’t like. Especially when I think about Huda Beauty 9-pan palettes that are a similar size, and cost 29 Euros at full price, compared to the Reload palette that’s 49 Euros at full price. The formulas are completely different, but I like quite a few of Huda’s Obsessions palettes and if both brands had a palette comprising of similar colors, I would choose Huda’s.

Nabla Cupid’s Arrow Longwear Full Colour Stylo in Arrow #12 Khaki and Arrow #13 Mauve

These weren’t on my radar until I saw Angelica Nyqvist using them more frequently in her videos during the summer. Since they were on sale and I realized the colors I wanted would compliment what I was missing from the LH Reload palette, I figured I may as well try them.

For starters, the experience is slightly different depending on whether or not an eyeshadow primer was used underneath everything or not. What is the same for both is that liquid eyeshadow goes on top of the Nabla stylos well when used as an eyeshadow base. When this product is used as an eyeliner, it holds onto the skin very well. It’s budge-resistant and water-resistant. When I first apply it, I try to keep my eyelids closed to allow it to set and try to avoid creasing. It only takes a minute to set on an un-primed eye. In one instance on a primed eye when I had to scratch around my lashes, I placed my thumb near the lid to hold it steady and got transfer on finger. Essentially, the more emollient a primer is, the longer it takes to set. In this instance, it was closer to 10 minutes.

On a primed eye, Khaki essentially looked the same, but Mauve was warmer and leaned pink (as opposed to no base where it looks cooler toned purple-mauve. I can draw the stylos on smoothly to apply them without needing primer, but if I want to blend the edges or smooth it out with a finger, it takes too much product off and I can see my skin discoloration underneath. On a primed eye, it’s easier to draw smoothly, but blending the edge also removes the primer with it and I can see bald patches left behind. So, it’s best if I draw product on, but use a lighter powder to blend out the edges.

On a non-primed eye, applying the Nabla Stylo and adding another powder eyeshadow on top doesn’t result in as much creasing, but over a primed eye it settles in my deepest eye crease. The bottom line is that I prefer to use this product as a creamy easy-to-glide-on eyeliner, and perhaps as an eyeshadow base in areas that I don’t have lines yet, such as the mobile lid. To use this as a standalone eyeshadow is too finicky for me. It’s easier to use a powder or more traditional form of cream and liquid shadows.

LH Infinity Bronzer in Forever

This purchase was made specifically because of Kackie Reviews Beauty. She took my curiosity and tripled it with her gushing about how great it is in multiple videos.
With only four options available, I chose the darkest one. The shade Forever has enough depth for me, but will not work on someone with a rich skintone. It’s debatable how well it would suit someone within the deep category. My other concern was whether or not the color would be too warm of an orange, but I was compelled. The stars had aligned and now seemed like the time to get it.

It’s a bit silly, but I will admit that there was something visually drawing me in too. There was some reason I couldn’t stop wanting this product from the moment it launched. It wasn’t until I finally bought it that it clicked. The pattern in the pan is similar to the limited edition version of Becca Shimmering Skin Perfectors! In my review, I talked about how I experienced regrets for over a year because Champagne Gold was discontinued, and how I immediately bought it when it popped up on the Hautelook/Nordstrom Rack website.

I don’t think I ever made that review comparing and discussing the situation between Lunar Beauty’s Moon Prism highlighter and the Makeup Revolution highlighter packaging debacle, but this crystal pattern I’m apparently obsessed with is on the outside of both compacts and I bought those back then despite never using the highlighters inside! And now, I believe I have solved the question why my inner makeup goblin couldn’t let the LH bronzer clear out of my mind. I think that experience of FOMO from the Becca days has continued, and now when I see makeup with that pattern I feel like I am missing out if I don’t get it. I’m finally aware of the psychology behind it, so I hope I’ll be better equipped to not let that be a factor in the future! As I’ve got the product now, let’s chat about it!

This bronzer feels very smooth to the touch. It isn’t as buttery as the Westman Atelier one, nor as creamy clay-like as the Glowish bronzer. The closest comparison I have is to the Kaleidos Symphony Contour Trios, which in turn feels like a lighter pressed version of the Hourglass Ambient Lighting powders. The LH bronzer has medium-buildable pigmentation and lasts all day.

Whether I get a smooth and diffused application or an uneven concentration depends entirely on my brushes. Because the surface of the bronzer has mounds and divots from the pan design, if the brush I choose doesn’t pick up an even layer (or I don’t swirl or sweep it around to coat it evenly), it will stick to my skin unevenly when I apply it and require me to spend a bit of time buffing. I tested a lot of new brushes with this bronzer specifically, so I was able to see that the density of the brush doesn’t matter as much as the even coating. I can use a dense brush for a strong yet blended look, or a fluffier brush to look seamless with the skin. In the photo below, I built up the bronzer so it would be more obvious on camera. It can also be built up to look smoother than I depicted, as I hadn’t learned the brush trick at the time I took the photo.

Because of how warm the color is, it’s harder to be able to tell I’m wearing bronzer, as it blends into my warm colored blushes (as seen in the right photo above).

Even when I use my best bronzer brush with this though, and even though I can get it to look smoother, it’s still doesn’t look as seamless as some of my other bronzer favorites.

This photo was taken a month later in the peak of summer, so I’m a little darker. The bronzer color matches better after having gotten some sun, and I used my best brush with it. A tiny bit of foundation, concealer, and the bronzer are all that’s on my face.

This is described as a luminous bronzer, but it doesn’t have much of a glow. I consider it slightly more radiant than a soft matte bronzer. There aren’t traditional shimmer particles that I can see, just sheen from the mica. It has even less of a sheen than some of my semi-glowy favorites.

To show the undertone compared to other orange bronzers, I have swatches of Kosas, a true luminous bronzer, and Armani’s Luminous Silk Bronzing Powder that has some shimmer particles as well as the mica-like sheen.
“Forever” is the darkest option from LH, but Kosas and Armani both have a deeper option in their lines. Just something interesting to note.

I like this bronzer, particularly at the discounted price I paid. However, there are tons of bronzers I like. I estimate this would rank no higher than top 30’s or 40’s among my collection. It’s good, but didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The sheeny finish isn’t strong enough on my face for me.

Nabla Beyond Jelly Lipstick in Ardor

Among the YouTubers I watch that review Nabla products, this particular formula has always been highly rated. So, getting it at half price was more than enough of a reason for me to buy it!

The lipstick component has a beautiful design with clear elements and black and gold touches that makes me think of timeless elegance. In the hand though, it feels like acrylic plastic, which I haven’t decided if I like or not.
The fragrance used is an incredibly strong combination of fruit and florals. It’s pleasant, but also distracting. In the beginning, I didn’t like the fact that I could still smell it on my lips for hours after applying it. Thankfully, the smell goes away over time and is no longer an issue.

Its formula reminds me of the YSL Candy Glazes and Fenty Gloss Bomb Stix. It has a comfortable gel-like consistency that feels moisturizing on the lips and has sheer color that can be built up to medium coverage. Of the three lipsticks I mentioned, the one from Nabla feels the stickiest. It can last through a meal (depending on what someone eats), but it definitely needs a touchup after a second meal. When my lips are in a drier state prior to putting this on, within a few hours (even if I don’t eat) my lips will absorb some of the moisture it provides and I will have to reapply, despite still feeling the presence of the sticky layer on my lips. This has a few ingredients that my lips like, and my lips feel softer even after the lipstick has been removed, and that softness lasts until the next morning. So, this formula is hydrating and moisturizing, but I have balmy lip color products that are more nourishing. The reason I love this product though is for the color and how the jelly texture smooths out any dry or peeled looking skin on my lips. The retail price is 23 Euros, but I’ve seen it for 16-18 Euros on multiple websites for at least half a year. So, it’s a product I’d recommend to anyone who wants a less expensive option for a jelly or melty type of lipstick. In fact, of all the products I’ve reviewed in this post, this one is my favorite.

Nabla Skin Realist Tinted Balm in Shade 6 Dark

I had only seen three reviews for this product since 2021, and it was enough to make me want it, yet not enough to want to buy it without a discount. My reasons for that were the lack of reviews available and I felt very uncertain about the shade options. At the beginning of the post, I mentioned buying all these products during the Birthday Sale, but this one is from the Purish Black Friday sale when it was half off. Considering we’re in winter and I’m at my driest, now seemed like the perfect time to finally try it out!

In the photo above, I have the skin tint on in the left side of the yellow line and the Dior Powder no Powder on the right side with no foundation underneath. For me, I barely see a difference. This “tinted balm” only looks better compared to my bare face, so it doesn’t get any accolades for that. The name of the product implies that it will offer low coverage, but in the world of the Fenty Eaze Drops, Danessa Myricks Serum Foundation, and even Lisa Eldridge Skin Tint, the ones I buy usually have more coverage than I expect. This isn’t a deal-breaker though, considering it has similar coverage to the Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation and I made that one work. My issue is that it fails to deliver on the radiance in multiple ways.

Another look of the Tinted Balm. In this photo, I’m not wearing a highlighter, but I do have on a satin blush.

The Skin Realist isn’t matte, but it doesn’t give me nearly enough glow, even though I leave it unpowdered. This contains hyaluronic acid, which essentially does nothing for me in this region of Germany that isn’t that humid. The only time I get this to look to the glow level I want is if I fully prep my skin beforehand and use a ton of this balm. Then, it looks closer to a natural finish foundation, but it still takes six hours before my skin starts producing oil and looking luminous. Unfortunately, by that point it also starts to look like “end of the night” makeup, even on days when I’ve done nothing strenuous.
If I actually do laborious housework or go for a long enough walk to start sweating, it makes everything on my face start to fade and break apart. This really isn’t a longwear product. When I try to counter this by using a setting spray, I lose the benefits of prepping my skin and the most I can get is a soft matte look again. I feel this product requires too much effort for a skin tint (and especially one that touts being a makeup-skincare hybrid product).

On the Nabla side in the picture above, I used at least double the amount of product as the Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Serum Foundation side. Danessa’s product looks more skin-like while still offering more coverage (which is easier to see by looking at both sides of my mouth). Considering I actually have more hyperpigmentation on the “DM” side, Nabla’s should look better, but to me it does not.

I was relieved to discover that this had low transfer despite the “balm” name. It fully dried down on my skin. However, this product just isn’t suited to my preferences in a complexion product. I have several low coverage foundations and skin tints that give me a prettier finish on the skin, fully set, and have better lasting power. I wouldn’t call this bad; it just couldn’t compete with what I already own.

I didn’t have the most success with these newest additions to my collection from Nabla, but I continue to recommend the brand’s Skin Glazing line, lip products, and their face brushes are pretty nice despite being synthetic.

That’s everything! Thanks for reading!

-Lili ❤

Gucci Highlighter and Holiday Palette

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I have previously used Gucci’s foundations, bronzers, blushes, and face powder. Today is the continuation of my exploration of the brand, having added their eyeshadows and powder highlighter to my collection. Prior to these new additions, the standout products for me have been the bronzers and blushes, so I was curious to see if the others could live up to their hype!

Gucci Limited Edition Multi-Use Quad Eye Palette in 04 Festive Glow

I was never attracted to the color stories, layout, pan shape, and packaging for Gucci’s eyeshadow quads in their permanent range, so I was shocked by how drawn I was to this holiday release. I like the red elements on the outer packaging and was enchanted by the Fiery Coral and Royal Bronze shades specifically. The retailer Douglas dropped the price for these by 20% within days of launching, so I was sold!

Pink Glow and Fiery Coral are both considered toppers, but only Pink Glow has a translucent base with iridescent pink shimmer. Fiery Coral has a subtle coral base color with gold shimmer. I can see this when I pack the eyeshadow onto my lid with my finger (4th eye look), but it’s especially visible when I apply it with a damp brush (2nd eye look). Pink Glow is absolutely not a unique color, but it’s useful to have as an inner corner highlighting shade and to pair with Soft Burgundy.

Soft Burgundy is a satin-matte, with a soft creamy texture that looks very smooth around the eyes and pairs well with the pinky-orange coral tones of Fiery Coral. Because Fiery Coral comprises heavily of gold shimmer, it can look very similar to Royal Bronze when Royal Bronze isn’t applied damp. However, I love the pairing the two together anyway, since Fiery Coral gives Royal Bronze a boost of extra sparkle.

These eyeshadows are all thin, but buildable to an extent. Pink Glow is a true topper, so I can’t get an opaque look out of it. Soft Burgundy is dark enough to provide contrast for the other colors, but I don’t consider it a depth creating shade on my complexion. These are some elements that prevent me from being fully in love with this quad, but I still like it a lot.

One of the aspects that can be challenging to use this quad is picking up color. The eyeshadows are firmly pressed into the compact and I get too impatient to build up color with a brush, so I often use my finger for everything, except the inner corner that requires more precision. I also prefer to increase the intensity and opacity by spraying my brush. Going in for second and third dips with the same brush has caused the surface to look a bit off-putting over time, as seen in the photo below.

This pricepoint puts it on par with Guerlain and YSL quads, but in my opinion those brands have a better eyeshadow quality than Gucci. What Gucci has going for it is this color story that is quite bold within the luxury beauty sphere. I applaud them for taking a risk with something so colorful and not leaning on neutrals. This is the most festive launch I’ve seen from a luxury brand this year, and I’m glad to have it, even if I don’t end up getting the most use out of it.

Gucci Glow Highlighter in 03 Warm Gold

It seemed like nearly everyone I watch on YouTube fell in love with this highlighter. I was fully planning to skip getting it because I’d already purchased two other high end highlighters, but Douglas’ 20% off got me again!

My friend and blogger Nikki shared photos with me of the Gucci highlighters, and those are what helped me initially decide not to get them. I even commented that on her page! The discount and all the hype made me forget my reservations about the visible particles, but I wish I remembered because that’s what is keeping me from liking this highlighter. YouTube influencers were hyping up the uncommon gel texture, but being different doesn’t make it automatically better (plus Natasha Denona’s Hy-Gen highlighter is even more unique feeling). It’s beautiful with a wet looking shine, but I don’t like that I can see the individual shimmers. When I watched TrillxLauren‘s video on YouTube, she mentioned with repeated use the highlighter texture looked more like how she tried it in store and had hoped it would perform more to her liking. I too had hope. I hated it the first time I used it, but once I wore off the top layer, I liked it a little more. From then on, I made sure to pick up product from the same spot every time I tried it. The result was it always looking pretty in photos, but I was so torn about how it looked in person.

I’ve tried different brushes and application techniques, but the bottom line is I just can’t get over seeing all the shimmer particles. Perhaps if I had a darker color it would blend more into my skin and then I would love it. This isn’t unheard of since I had a similar experience disliking Gucci’s Bronzer until I got the lighter shade. In this instance, I think Warm Bronze would be too dark and there isn’t anything else more suitable in-between (Opal Pink would look too icy for me). So, unfortunately this was a purchase I should have skipped.

As a further example of what I mean, below is a comparison between Gucci on the left and Gxve Beauty on the right. The one on the right still has a visible glow and I can see shimmer still, but they’re much smaller. As pretty as Gucci’s looks in the picture, the texture is amplified when I view it from my own mirror. Gxve Beauty doesn’t have a unique formula, but it’s beautiful and it works. The retail price is $30 and I bought it during a half off sale. So, compared to Gucci’s $59 retail price, I regret giving into my impulses.

At least the quad was a win!

In the photo on the left above, I’m wearing the Gucci bronzer, blush (Warm Berry), eyeshadows, and highlighter. I forgot to use the powder and left behind the foundations. I wanted the new blush in 11 Intense Ruby (it’s called Watermelon in Europe) because of the color and beautiful limited edition packaging, but it bothered me that for some reason Gucci’s blushes cost way more in Germany than in the US. The rest of the makeup is closer to being the same price. Another reason I was hesitant to buy it for a higher price is that it looks like a slightly lighter version of Intense Plum that I decluttered. There’s still a chance that I might like Intense Ruby better, so I ordered it during the Sephora sale from the US site and it’s with my family there. When I eventually go back and try it, if I like it enough, I’ll bring it home with me!

Lastly, I will note that using my r.e.m. beauty Highlighter Topper (which I have called my “fixer highlighter” in the past) does help improve the look of the Gucci highlighter, but I’m not interested anymore in trying to make this work when I have so many others I can use by themselves to achieve the kind of glow I want.

That’s everything! Thank you for checking out this week’s post!

-Lili ❤