Electric Eyeshadow and Highlighter Palette

1 Review

1. 

   soreBaboon1

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   This is my favourite palette I’ve ever owned. It gives so much joy. I have been a makeup enthusiast (some might say addict) for nearly 20 years (gasp). Ever since I was a teenager I’d collect makeup. Two years ago I finally decided that’s it, I have every colour known to man, I need to stop! Well I shan’t say I actually stopped, but there was a definite slow down. Which is why, when I saw this collection come out, my first thought was, ew that looks like cheap Chinese makeup palettes. So I skipped it without much thought. It got mixed reviews, but the swatches intrigued me enough that I felt some remorse. It’s so different to anything guerlain has ever done before.

   Well suddenly one day, I saw it whilst I was at tkmaxx (quelle horreur! Mais non, pas Guerlain!!!) but they’d still priced it at £50, albeit this poor degraded specimen was swatched and missing all its brushes by this point. But seeing it in the flesh [I didn’t swatch it as I’m not “that person”] I could see how much more beautiful it was than the official picture had been. The shades were jewel like and glistened merrily.

   I checked how much it was online, and to my delight it was half price at one of my local department stores! Off I rushed.

   I wore it today and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The highlighters are shiny, they’re not the same as the highlighters I have had from them in the past (which I love) they’re actually more blingy. One is glittery and a bit like a super glittery meteorites ball but it disperses nicely when on the face, it’s very fine but still sparkly. The other is gold frost but sheers out so it doesn’t look too warm on my skin. (I noted with relief that it is nothing like the yellow gold of sun in the city) And both, not powdery. The shadows are saturated with colour but not clownish. They’re designed for a grown up eye. (I will not utter, “mature”!) The golds and pale shades are metallic but not frosty like an old fashioned 80s shadow or a cheap Chinese palette. They’re creamy metallics. The green which I’d worried would be patchy and sheer, is actually easily buildable and it’s a very subtle forest green, it isn’t garish.

   I don’t think they should have put the red next to the green (“red and green should never be seen”) and purple, it’s a bit jarring. But that’s a minor gripe. Oh also whilst on gripes, I don’t like the way the black shiny packaging picks up fingerprints. When I first opened it I thought someone had fingered my palette (dingbat) before I realised that was me pulling it out. I’ve never had a package which highlighted finger prints that horribly, and it gave me a shock. I was expecting it to look expensive as I’ve come to expect from guerlain but I have noticed a worrying trend that they’ve cheapened out their packaging by degrees. It’s not that it looks cheap; inside it really doesn’t, but I think it does have something of a cheap Chinese palette about it which is sad. (I’m thinking of those cheap shiny black plastic blockbuster eyeshadow palettes one gets on eBay etc.) I preferred last year’s holiday palette packaging (though I skipped that too so I’m just going by pictures, but it did at least have ornamental gold on it.)

   Anyway, I did a look today using the gold, the copper and then the purple under the eye, and it lasted all day and was very wearable and looked extremely flattering. The highlighters, I used a loose bristled brush and put it all over and it made me look more vibrant.

   Yes, I had all these shades already, I didn’t need it. But I actually think this will be an everyday palette and I can imagine hitting pan on it! Which, in all these years, I’ve never actually done or even ever considered anything worthy of this potential milestone. This palette really does feel like it’s got so many options, all still within the “neutral” realm, that I won’t get bored for a long time. I can also see it being a good travel palette. What I like about it is that it has highlighters of fabulous quality, with a variety of uplifting eye shades. In the past, I would have possibly sprung the full £64, and I don’t think even at that price that it’s bad value. For getting it half price, it was just impossible to resist.