Anastasia Beverly Hills - Master Palette by Mario

I bought the Anastasia Beverly Hills Master Palette by Mario after waffling back and forth about it. I haven't purchased any palettes since the Nordstrom sale a few months ago, and to be honest, have been having a bit of palette fatigue (if that can be a thing). It just feels like every brand is making these huge palettes all the time now, and I am getting a bit tired of the constant barrage.

I was drawn to the Mario palette for a few reasons. It is a slightly more edited palette. There are twelve shades, but Lorac just released a palette that has 32 shades, so this does feel smaller in comparison to some of the others out there. I like that the collaboration is with a real professional, working makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic. It seems like so many collaborations recently have been with Youtube sensations that hold themselves out to be makeup artists, but many really only do makeup on themselves. I may not really like some of Mario's clients, who shall remain nameless, but I do like his overall aesthetic and appreciate that the brand reached out to someone actually working in the industry. The more neutral color scheme was probably the biggest draw for me. The colors are ones that are actually wearable in real life. As much as I might think a palette with all sorts of bright colors is pretty, I will not get use from something like that.  

I have heard good things about the products from Anastasia Beverly Hills. Prior to this, I only have purchased one item from the brand, Brow Wiz. The shadows themselves are nicely pigmented. I have noticed that there is a lot of kickup in the pans when you place brushes in them. You really have to try to not move the brush around a ton because the powders are really soft. The only one that is problematic is Kim. When I went to swatch it with my finger, I sort of smashed the powder, even though I did not really push very hard (at all). The overall softness of the shadows isn't awful and is somewhat forgivable given how well the shades blend, but they really shouldn't crumble like that. Fortunately, that shade seemed to be the only one that is overly soft.

The brush that is included is decent. I like the fluffier side better and find that it works well for blending the shades into the crease. The colors are very blendable and lasted all day on me when tested. I got 6 hours of wear time without using primer and 13 hours using primer. Please keep in mind I have oily lids, so nothing lasts that very on me without primer. 

Swatches:

Top Row:



Bottom Row:



Other than some small issues with the softness of the shades, I really am very happy with this purchase. I like the neutral colors and the blendability of the shades. This does have me interested in other Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadows. I know you can build your own quads and that may be something that I try in the future. I purchased the palette from Anastasia's website (for some reason it is not showing up on their site now - not sure if it is sold out), but it is also now available at Sephora. The cost of the palette is $45.  The shadows are made in the US according to the package and the brand is cruelty-free. How do you feel about the deluge of palettes being released?

Marc Jacobs Beauty Air Blush Soft Glow Duo - Flesh & Fantasy

Marc Jacobs launched the Air Blush line a couple months ago. It is marketed as a palette that lets you use either side individually or combining the shades, thus giving you three color options from the one blush. As an aside, I had to chuckle at the description stating that this gives a "dance-floor flush" because it has been some time since my clubbing days, which makes me feel old. I digress... I chose the color Flesh and Fantasy, as it seemed like a nice neutral to see if I like the formula and I am definitely not disappointed.

The blush itself is housed in a nice shiny black package. It is plastic, but does not feel cheap. I like the metal push button opener; it feels more special than just pulling the blush case apart. The pan is a really large size, which is nice considering the cost of the blush is $42. You can sweep the color on the left side for a lighter, more highlighted shade, or the right side for a deeper blush. The brand recommends sweeping a brush over the palette vertically to get the colors from the sides, which I did find worked pretty well. If you are truly looking to get only one of the colors without any hint of the other, you are going to need to squeeze your brush to do so.  The color is a light, nude blush that I can pair with more vibrant eye or lip looks. It lasted all day on me when tested.

Close up of the pan:

Swatches below. All swatches in order of first photo.

Outdoors:

Indoors (no flash):

Indoors (with flash):

I am happy with this purchase, as I like the customization aspect of the blush. It has a really nice finish and blends so well. The shimmer is noticeable but not overly dramatic, and it can be worn during the day/at work. If you are looking for a neutral blush that adds a light flush to the skin, you should definitely look into this. I purchased mine at Sephora, but it is available at Marc Jacobs Beauty stockists. There are four other shades available if you like the idea of the palette, but not this particular shade.  Have you tried any new blushes lately? Any tried and true favorites?

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit - Surreal Light

The Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit in Surreal Light was one of those instant purchases for me. I love Hourglass powders and think that the quality is amazing. The palette is housed in a marble printed case and contains 5 pans of product. Although the marble is pretty (and, let's face it, Instagram worthy), I think I would have preferred to keep the metal packaging. To me, the metal seems more luxe than a marble printed plastic case and is also in keeping with the overall aesthetic of the brand, but that is more personal preference than anything else and does not affect the quality of the product inside.

I have to say, I think this palette is better suited to the lighter side of the skin tone spectrum. I am light-medium and the only items that show up really well on my skin are the Surreal Effect Blush and the Surreal Strobe Light. The Finishing Powder that takes up the left side of the palette is meant to blend into skin, but if you have a darker complexion, this may make you look ashy (I would definitely recommend trying in store). The middle column sort of blends into my skin and is hard to see. All of the powders blend well and are buttery soft. They each lasted all day on me when tested.

I definitely take exception to them labeling/marketing this palette as universally flattering - the bronzer is too light for my skin, and I am on the lighter side. What would someone with medium to dark skintones use it for? One thing I have noticed is that Hourglass has not seemed to put out a palette for medium-dark complexions, and I really think that they need to. Their powder products are, to me, the highest quality on the market and it is a shame that they are under-serving such a large part of the market.

As with the palette from last year, the pan sizes are really small. I wish they would go back to the trios or use this size palette and make it a quad. It is really difficult to dip a brush into this and not pickup the adjacent powders. The size would not be as much of an issue for a different product, but bronzer, blush, and highlighter fan brushes all tend to be larger. You basically have to squeeze your brush to dip it in the pans, which I am not a fan of doing.

One thing that is a bit odd to me is how they labeled/numbered the palette. I would think that normally you would start at the left, which they did, and do the top row first, then bottom. They did not do that. The far left pan is 1, which makes sense, but then 2 is actually the bottom middle shade, then it goes up to the top middle shade, over to the top right shade, and down again to the bottom right shade. See diagram below. Most people that I have seen swatch it did not do it in that order. I did not either, which is why I labeled the swatches below with the numbers. That is something they should probably think about for next time, as it can make it confusing for people who are trying to look at swatches.

Palette Swatches. All swatches in order of first photo.

Outdoors in full sunlight:



Outdoors in shade:



Indoors (no flash):

I pulled some of my other Hourglass Palettes and individual items so you can see how the new palette compares to some existing products. First, the blushes. I swatched two blushes from the new palette, an individual blush in Radiant Magenta, and two of the blushes from the Ambient Lighting Blush Palette, Luminous Flush and Incandescent Electra. In case you are looking for dupes, if Radiant Magenta and Incandescent Electra had a baby, it would be the Surreal Effect blush. 

Blush swatches. All swatches are in the order of the first photo.

Outdoors:



Indoors (no flash):

For the bronzer, I pulled the Hourglass Luminous Bronze Light (reviewed here). Surreal Bronze Light is noticeably lighter than the Luminous Bronze Light bronzer, which was already made for lighter skin tones. It really does not show up on my skin tone very well as a bronzer. For me, it acts more as a nude blush, but even then it is very hard to see. See swatches outdoors in full sunlight:

I used the Ambient Lighting Palette highlighters as comparison shades for the highlighters/finishing powder in the Ambient Lighting Edit. See swatches below:

Overall, this palette is very pretty, and the quality, as always, is incredible. I do wish the pan sizes were larger and would love to see Hourglass put out a new trio or a quad, instead of trying to cram 5-6 powders into one palette. I probably should have waited to see this in store because I most likely would not have purchased it, as a lot of the colors are really hard to see on my skin tone. If you have a lighter skin tone, run out and buy this - you will not regret it. I would absolutely love this if the colors showed up on my skin better. Medium to darker skin tones really should test in store to see how the colors work on your skin.

The palette retails for $80 and is sold at Sephora and Hourglass. What are your thoughts on this palette?

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit - Surreal Light - Sneak Peak

I thought I would give everyone a quick peak at the new Hourglass Palette. I just received it, so I will be testing each of the items separately to see how they wear and will provide a full review next week. I will make sure to include some comparison swatches with other Hourglass powders in the full review so you can see if you already have Hourglass items that are similar. For now, I am previewing some swatches of the palette. Initial swatches seem to be of the usual Hourglass quality, as their highlighters are on the more subtle side of the spectrum. 

Reverse of the palette:

See swatches below.

Outdoors in sunlight:

After just the initial swatching, I think that if you have more of a fair complexion, you will most likely find this very flattering. I think it may wash out or look ashy on darker skin tones. Stay tuned for the full review. 

Laura Mercier Flawless Icons Eye and Cheek Palette

The Laura Mercier Flawless Icons Eye and Cheek Palette is a Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Beauty Exclusive. It contains eight eyeshadows and two face powders. You get a nice mix of colors and neutrals for the eyeshadows. The face powders include a bronzer and highlighter. All of the pans are a nice size and I like that the shape and placement of the face powder pans made it easy to dip a brush into them and not get any other powder on the brush.

Front of palette:

Reverse of palette:

The eyeshadows are nice quality and pigmentation is buildable, but they are not super high pigment. The shadows did not have any fallout, fading, or creasing when I tested.  I was especially impressed by the lack of creasing, as I was in the heat for several hours on one of the days I tested the palette. Note - I have oily eyelids and always use eye primer, so your mileage may vary. It did take a bit of work to make some of the shadows have the amount of pigmentation that I wanted. I like that there are some neutrals and a few purples added in for fun, making the palette very versatile. It is also nice to see a mix of mattes and shimmers. If you are someone who prefers a more sheer wash of color, you will definitely like these.

Swatches of eyeshadows in direct sunlight:



Swatches outdoors in shade:




Swatches indoors:

The two face powders are very soft and easily blended.  The highlighter is very beautiful - it has some shimmer flecks, but I did not find it to be overly frosty. The highlighter blends very nicely over other products and layers well. The bronzer is a bit harder for me. It took a lot to get it to show up on me for the arm swatches and for testing on my face. The color of the bronzer is nice and I suspect that this will be a great bronzer for people with fairer skin tones, as it is lighter in color and very sheer. I prefer the bronzer in the Charlotte Tilbury palette, as it works much better on my skintone. Swatches of face powders below.

Outdoors in direct sunlight:



Indoors:

I am happy with the purchase as a whole, even though the bronzer does not work well for me. I think that the palette is a pretty good value, as you get 8 eyeshadows and 2 face powders for $65. If you are looking for an introduction into Laura Mercier products, I think this is a nice place to start. If you have a fairer skintone, the color scheme will work very well for you. If you are choosing between this and the Charlotte Tilbury palette and you are light-medium skintone or darker,  I would recommend the CT palette. The Laura Mercier palette is available at Nordstrom as part of their Anniversary Sale. Have you tried any of the Beauty Exclusives from the Nordstrom sale?

Laura Mercier Flawless Icons Eye and Cheek Palette - Sneak Peek

I ordered the Laura Mercier Flawless Icons Eye and Cheek Palette as part of my haul from the Nordstrom  Anniversary Sale. I thought I should give a peak at the palette with some swatches for people that may be wanting to order now.  I am still compiling my final thoughts and will have another post in a few days with a full review and additional swatches.

Eyeshadow swatches in direct sun:



Face swatches in direct sun:



The palette retails for $65 and is available at Nordstrom. What have you ordered from the sale?

Charlotte Tilbury Instant Beauty Palette - The Dolce Vita Look

As promised from earlier this week, here are my thoughts on the Charlotte Tilbury Instant Beauty Palette - The Dolce Vita look. The palette is easy to apply as a concept - you basically just paint your face by number. It took about 5 minutes to get all of the colors on. I think that the palette is very convenient for travel and touchups, as the colors are nice neutrals that will get you through most situations. The palette seems a little small when you first look at it, but the pans are mostly decent sized. My only complaint in relation to the pans would be the size of the blushes. It was harder to dip a brush in those (they are the same size as the eyeshadows) and I wish they were larger.



Wear time is excellent - I got a full day with no issues, migration or creasing. The eyeshadow colors apply nicely and have minimal fallout - there was a small amount after blending, but nothing major. The face colors are pretty, but the powders are very soft. There is a lot of kickup in the pan itself when you swish a brush in it, but the softness helps the powders to blend nicely. The only exception to that for me is the highlighter. I found the highlight shade harder to blend and it also emphasized pores more than some of my other highlighters.



You also receive a mini version of the Legendary Lashes mascara with the palette. The mascara for me was average. I did not see anything majorly special about it to spend $32 on the full size version. I did like that it helped lashes hold a curl better than some others I have tried, so if that is something you look for in a mascara you may like this one. As far as lengthening or volumizing lashes, I do not think that it is any better than my usual mascaras or others I have tried.

Swatches in order 1-7:



Reverse of palette:



Overall, I am glad I made the purchase. I can definitely see myself bringing this palette on trips or possibly keeping it in my desk at work in case I need to touch up or change my look to go out after work. I feel that the palette is good quality (although the highlighter is not my favorite) and the colors will likely flatter many skin tones.  The palette costs $75 and is available at Nordstrom as part of their Anniversary Sale. Have you tried this palette or the mascara that came with it? What are your thoughts?

Charlotte Tilbury Instant Beauty Palette - The Dolce Vita Look Sneak Peek

Charlotte Tilbury has launched a darker version of her Instant Beauty Palette 5-Minute Face on the Go. The color is called the Dolce Vita Look on the Nordstrom website, but the box itself says Seductive Beauty. I'm not sure which naming version is supposed to be correct, but for ease of finding it on the Nordstrom website, I titled this post based on their naming convention. The palette is exclusive to Nordstrom as part of their Anniversary Sale. Right now the sale is only open to cardholders, but will open to everyone on July 22. The palette also comes with a sample of Legendary Lashes mascara. Based on how quickly her last palette sold out, I suspect this one will do the same.

Close up of the pans in direct sunlight:

I wanted to give a little peak at the palette (I just got it last night) so that people could see it prior to the public sale. I will have a full review later this week once I actually use it. First impressions are that the palette has a great neutral color scheme that I think will work for more skin tones than the last Instant Beauty Palette did. The powders seem soft and blendable, but I will update with my thoughts once I put it to use for a couple days.

Below are swatches in direct sunlight. The swatches are palette pans 1-7 left to right:

The palette retails for $75 and is available exclusively at Nordstrom. What are you getting from the Anniversary Sale?

tarte tartelette tease palette

The tarte tartlette tease palette was an impulse buy for me in the checkout line. It is super cute and compact and I thought it would be useful to take with me on an upcoming trip. The palette has six colors inside, a mirror, and the pans are decent size.



I really like the neutral color scheme of the palette and the mix of shimmer and matte shades. The two lighter shades on the left perform really well as eyeshadow bases. My main issue with the palette are the shimmer shades in the middle. I had a lot of fallout with those. If you are someone who does eye makeup first, this may not be an issue for you. For me, I like to do eyes after foundation and had to do a ton of cleanup from the shimmer going everywhere. I did note that reviews of this palette have been pretty mixed and I think a lot of that is dependent upon when you do your shadow - before or after foundation. The mattes perform well and have good color saturation. The shadows lasted about 8 hours on me before they started to migrate (keep in mind I used primer).

Below swatches in direct sun:



Swatches in shade:




Overall, the palette did not work for me, as one third of it (the shimmers) will not be useful for me at all. I do not like shadows with a lot of fallout and the shimmers have way too much for me. The lighter shades are a nice base, but the issues with the shimmer shades and the mattes being just average makes this something that I am disappointed in. I really love a lot of tarte's other products, the Amazonian lip butters especially, so I was sad to see that the palette was not really up to standard.

The palette retails for $21 and is available at Sephora, tarte, and Ulta. Have you tried this palette? If so, what are your thoughts?

Smashbox Double Exposure Eyeshadow Palette

The Smashbox Double Exposure palette is something I recently bought. It has 14 shadows inside the palette, which also holds a brush. The palette comes with a tester size of Full Exposure mascara. The Double Exposure name comes from the fact that the shadows can be used wet or dry. The box contains a packet for how to use the palette based on desired look and eye shape. I do wish they specified different shadow colors that could be used in creating the looks. I think it would be more helpful that way, especially for people needing some extra guidance. There is a sheet that details the color names and the manner in which the shades change when applied with a dampened brush. 

The colors swatch and apply beautifully, with no fallout. I definitely prefer shadows with no fallout, as I am someone who tends to do my eye makeup last and hate having try to clean up after. The only shadow I am not particularly crazy about in this palette is the white, which is called Blanc. It is the only one that, for me, was a bit chalky and harder to apply. Other than that, I am very impressed by these and love the application both wet and dry.

Staying power is great with the shadows and they lasted throughout the work day and evening without migrating or caking in the crease. Please note that I do always use primer because I have oily eyelids, so keep that in mind.

Below are swatched dry:

In direct sunlight:



In shade:



Below are swatched wet:

In direct sunlight:



In shade (with flash):

I saw some comments on the Sephora site regarding people not loving the brush and I do partially agree with that, particularly concerning the angled side. I find that the domed side is the more functional of the two and performs much better when wet vs. dry. It is not the best brush I have come across, but not really the worst either. I do feel the brushes in the Urban Decay Naked palettes are much better. I have had some Smashbox brushes in the past and know that they are usually better quality, so I am kind of surprised that this one was not better. Definitely do not take the quality of this brush and dismiss the rest of the Smashbox brushes as a whole - I assure you they are normally great brushes.

Overall, I think this is a really great palette. It has good color saturation, especially when wet, and no fallout. The texture of the shadows is nice and on par with other high end brands. True to the claim, the palette worked wonderfully after using the shadows when wet. This is definitely a purchase I am happy with and will use often.

The Smashbox Double Exposure retails for $39, although when I purchased it was on sale for $29. I purchased mine at Sephora, but it looks like it is also available at Smashbox. Have you tried this yet? What are some of your favorite palettes?