ColourPop Cloud 9 Palette is a new, smoky/gray color story in a 12-pan format. The quality was as expected for ColourPop, though I’d say the shimmers felt a bit firmer and were more emollient while being on the thinner side, which is not my favorite texture from the brand as I find it doesn’t work as well with brushes. Here are swatches!
Here are swatches of three smaller-format holiday palettes from Guerlain, Tom Ford, and Natasha Denona, respectively. Guerlain and Natasha Denona’s formulas both felt comparable to past releases, while the Tom Ford quad felt drier, thinner, and was generally a miss.
There are three variations of the Pat McGrath Bijoux Brilliance Cheek Trios with them basically being lighter-leaning, more medium-leaning, and deeper-leaning. Each trio includes a bronzer (all from the permanent range), blush (all new shades), and highlighter (all new shades). While the blushes are new shades, I felt like they covered similar territory as past releases, so you may find the trios redundant if you have a lot of Divine Blushes already. The quality felt slightly thinner/dustier compared to the permanent range, particularly with respect to the lightest highlighter. Here are swatches!
Chanel Holiday 2023 Color Collection is a short ‘n’ sweet collection featuring a few lip products along with an eyeshadow palette and highlighter. As it is taking me longer to push out full reviews, I’m going to try to offer some initial thoughts when I feel fairly confident about those impressions (e.g. I have experience with the formula/brand that it feels pretty routine!). In this case, the highlighter is lovely but one of the more glittery releases from the brand so those who do not like larger particles should skip. The eyeshadow palette seems decent enough but not the best Continue Reading…
Chanel Holiday 2023 Color Collection is a short ‘n’ sweet collection featuring a few lip products along with an eyeshadow palette and highlighter. As it is taking me longer to push out full reviews, I’m going to try to offer some initial thoughts when I feel fairly confident about those impressions (e.g. I have experience with the formula/brand that it feels pretty routine!). In this case, the highlighter is lovely but one of the more glittery releases from the brand so those who do not like larger particles should skip. The eyeshadow palette seems decent enough but not the best Continue Reading…
There are two versions of the Pat McGrath Bijoux Brilliance Eye & Cheek Palette that were released this season. Each palette contains two blushess and nine eyeshadows. Each of these palettes includes one new blush and one blush from the permanent range. The texture of the mattes felt slightly thinner, and they did not seem to be pigmented as the mattes found in the Mothership palettes. The shimmers were more comparable to past releases. Note, the formula in these larger palettes does differ in texture from the five-pan palettes.
There are four, five-pan Pat McGrath Bijoux Brilliance Eyeshadow Palettes available for the holiday season. The quality is comparable to the last batch of five-pan palettes released: all of the shades were more emollient, cream-like, and a bit thicker. The shimmers apply better in practice than swatched, while the mattes have a more velvety, silicone-like feel than the brand’s mattes in Mothership palettes.
Danessa Myricks I Am Lightwork V Palette is a new, limited edition release for the holidays, which includes various finishes but all with a fairly high level of shimmer/sparkle. The formula seemed on the thicker side with a few shades being flakier (which is a type of texture that can be harder to work with and/or have more fallout–those who LOVE flaky formulas love them and there are those who would run away quickly!). Some of the duochromes/multichromes were quite shifty while others seemed on the weaker end of what we’ve seen from more indie brands, though. Here are swatches!
Dior Holiday 2023 Color Collection is a new, limited edition launch that included several products, including two new eyeshadow palettes and two blushes, which are the pieces I purchased for review. Everything seemed decent – not particularly out of line with past releases but not the “best of” either. I think those who tend to use Dior’s eyeshadows with a dampened brush will get the best results out of it. The blushes blended out well but were a little powdery. Here are swatches!
Charlotte Tilbury Holiday 2023 Collection launched a new, limited edition eyeshadow palette along with two blush/highlighter duos earlier this month. When I went to pull info for these, it looks like there were a couple of additional holiday products released, but I’m not sure I will pick them up yet.
