At the beginning of January, Maybelline launched their Total Temptation range and the very first thing that caught me was that their impressive PR package (which had a playable video screen in it!) said something about “THE SCENT” of the mascara. And I was like wait whattttttt.

I love scented makeup products so I was super curious to find out what it smelled like.

As it turns out, the press sheet for the mascara says that it smells like coconut. Verrrry iiiinteresting. So I pulled out the wand and gave it a good whiff.

And it doesn’t smell like coconuts.

Not at all.

Not even REMOTELY.

What does it actually smell like? Their lipsticks! Which is funny to me because I’ve never been able to put my finger on what their lipsticks actually smell like. So maybe that’s their version of coconut? Either way, this isn’t a traditional coconut scent, so if you’re super into that scent, don’t get your hopes up for this one.

The Total Temptation Mascara  retails for $11.99 CAD/$9.49 USD and comes with a traditional natural bristle brush. And… I don’t like it. Mascara is one of those items where you either love it or hate and none of us ever feels the same way about it.

The Total Temptation mascara delivers enough thickness but not enough length, and I honestly felt like my lashes, despite being curled, would constantly droop throughout the day and end up sticking straight out instead of upwards. It’s as if the mascara formula is too heavy and my lashes just can’t support the weight of it. Which, honestly, is a little bit odd for me as it’s not something I usually struggle with. But alas, they can’t all work for all of us. My recommendation would be to get the Maybelline Lash Sensational Luscious Full Fan Effect mascara instead of this one (cuz holy hell I love that one), but that’s MY preference, so take that for what you will.

I was sent the Total Temptation Eyebrow Definer Pencil ($11.99 CAD/$7.99 USD) in deep brown, and you just KNOW that colour isn’t going to work with my blonde hair. Even a light brown never works for me – I need either an ash or blonde colour. My wonderful friend Kaitlyn did review it in her Mayblline Total Temptation video, so please check her out if you’re looking for a review on that particular product.

The last item in the Total Temptation range was their Shadow & Highlight palette ($17.99 CAD/$11.99 USD). Although the bigger blocks are supposed to be highlighters, do keep in mind that since they’re all powder products, you can certainly use them all any way you like on your face.

The palette is split in two: one side is warm and the other is cool. The warm side has more mattes and shimmers in it with a very orange/gold theme, whereas the cool side is made up of purple/pinks and has more glitter particles in it.

The purple/pink side was an enormous let down. The shades didn’t go on my eyes very well (it looks far more grey than the pink of the swatches) and I had glitter fall out EVERYWHERE. This doesn’t usually bother me as I do quite enjoy glitter all over my face, but it ended up in such weird areas that I was just like “whyyyy?” I found glitter particles between my eyebrows (???) and practically none of it stayed on my eyelids. The highlighter was also exceptionally chunky because of all of the glitter in it and I can’t say it ended up looking all that flattering.

The warm side was much, MUCH better than the cool side and I do really like the look that I came up with. The golden highlighter on this side of the palette was absolutely beautiful and looked beautiful on my cheekbones. Since there was no glitter to be seen on this side of the palette, I didn’t run into any issues with fallout like I had with the pink side.

Final Thoughts

The mascara didn’t work for me as I prefer wet mascaras with more volume and length, and I didn’t love how it made my lashes droop by the mid-day.

I didn’t try the Brow Definer out, but I can see that they do have four shades available, so that’s a good thing. I can’t speak to that item at all though, as I just plunked the brow pencil in my giveaway drawer since using it at all would’ve been a waste on me.

As for the shadow and highlight palette… I liked half of it – the warm side was really, really good. However, I can’t recommend a palette when I feel like only 50% of it is any good. The pink/cool side was just a mess of lack of pigmentation and glitter particles that makes it mostly unwearable in my opinion.

So, sadly, this whole range gets a pass from me. I much, MUCH preferred the Gigi Hadid lineup and felt like the eyeshadow palettes in that were better balanced and played out better. Those lipsticks were also excellent!

The products in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.