NYX is continuing their line of Ultimate palettes with this latest one featuring incredibly vibrant warm-toned shadows. This fiery palette is aptly named “Phoenix“!
Like the other Ultimate palettes, this one (sadly) has no names!
The NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette in Phoenix can be purchased at shoppersdrugmart.ca for $21.49 CAD or on ulta.com for $18 USD.
The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
Over a year ago I missed out on the Tarte Treasure Pot Glitter Gel from another collection they had launched… and I was so annoyed! When I first saw it online I was IN LOVE with the shimmery, glittery-ness of it… as well as the huge nostalgia factor. Sadly, I put off buying it for too long and somehow it got snapped up by other people before I was able to purchase it. To this day I am still confused as to who the heck is out there buying glitter gel so quickly that I wasn’t able to get it… this kind of products is not what I would ever call a hot ticket item!
So when Tarte recently launched their Treasure Pot Glitter Gel in Moonwalk… I BOUGHT IT IMMEDIATELY. I wasn’t going to be bamboozled out of owning this one let me tell you. I *needed* to own it. Back in the 90s I was obsessed with these kind of jelly glitter products. I had a few in tubs, but most of them came in massive roller balls. I used to cover myself with them and I loved the effect so, so much. I’ve (thankfully) long since thrown all of them out, so I was more than happy to get my hands on Moonwalk – a shade that appeared to be quite silvery and holographic in the promo pictures online.
In person, Moonwalk is very, very different than what I saw in the promotional shots. It’s much more of a translucent jelly base with see-through particles. There are tiny pieces of particle glitter in the base, but there’s also large flecks in varying shapes. The most predominant shape is a hexagon, but there are moon and star shapes in there as well. The flecks appear to be rather iridescent cool tones in certain lights…
But if you catch the product from a different angle, it actually becomes quite the rainbow!
I think this swatch best represents the effect that you get with this product. The top half of the swatch is where the product curves around the top of my forearm – it’s more of an iridescent cool-toned reflection of the flecks there. But the bottom half was facing the camera a touch more and you can see the flecks suddenly become a rainbow spectrum instead of iridescent.
Capturing the effect of this product on the face became quite the task. What I see in the mirror is the iridescent cool toned flecks… but whenever I photographed it all I saw the rainbow colours.
The slightly sad thing about this product is that the moon and stars flecks are completely translucent. They do not show up at all unless you happen to catch the light at the right angle and even then it’s only showing up because it’s glaring against the light source.
For application, I found this worked best if I spackled it on with a metal makeup spatula. If you use a brush, it only pulls up the tiny glitter sparkles and none of the larger chunkier pieces. When I first apply this I use a brush to lay down the tiny flecks of glitter as a base, and then I use my metal spatula to lay the larger chunks in place. I’d recommend spreading this in a thin layer because if you build this up too much, you end up with globs of the gel in places that don’t look that flattering.
I love the fundamentals of this product – glitter gel is so much fun to use and I’ll definitely be getting a lot of use out of this for special events like Pride.
BUT… the promo shots are nothing like the actual product. On Sephora’s web site this looks like a silver holographic glitter product and in practice it’s nowhere close to that. Their model shot also shows that the moon and stars are very visible on the skin, but they’re really not because they’re completely translucent. The promo shots are very misleading and kind of disappointing in the end. Don’t get me wrong – I do actually like this, but I wanted the silver holographic product they displayed online instead of the one I got.
The Tarte Treasure Pot Glitter Gel in Moonwalk can be purchased on sephora.ca for $23 CAD and on sephora.com for $18 USD.
Post contains affiliate links.
NYX always knows how to have fun with their palettes, and the Off Tropic Hasta La Vista is no exception!
With a rainbow of fun shades to play with, the Hasta La Vista palette made me smile the first time I looked at it – it’s just so vibrant!
The NYX Off Tropic Hasta La Vista palette can be purchased at nyxcosmetics.ca for $24 CAD.
The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
I feel like we’re pretty used to seeing typical highlighters now – either they’re powder or they’re cream, and they look slightly different, but for the most part they’re fairly similar. Even a truly liquid highlighter has similar properties. So a highlighter that’s rather gelatinous in nature? I was intrigued!
NYX has recently launched their “A Bit Jelly” highlighters – a gel illuminator that is water-based, lightweight, and filled with sparkle. And it truly is filled with sparkle – the little specks you see floating in the gel are fine glitter particles!
There are three shades in the collection, but the one I have to showcase is Luminous. It’s a WEIRD shade in the tub to be honest – it looks like a caramel bronze base with teal shimmer.
When you swatch it you can see that the hints of caramel in the base disappear a bit, although it’s still obvious around the edges of my arm where it curves. The glitter particles stand out quite a bit, but they’re not quite as “glitter in your face” as I was expecting!
As NYX recommends, I used a finger to apply Luminous to the tops of my cheekbones. It’s very, very wet, and feels very bizarre to be applying to be honest. It blends out just fine, but since I’ve never used a gel highlighter before I have to say it felt so very strange at first!
Luminous doesn’t look like a glittery highlighter from afar – more like a soft shimmer (I asked a coworker just to confirm and she agreed.)
But up close is another story. Up close you can see the particle shimmer actually becomes little bit more flattened down and takes on a clumpy, flaky texture. I love the effect, but if you’re in to a more even sheen, then this is potentially not the highlighter for you. It’s definitely luminescent – I love how the shimmer looks more and more like glitter the closer you get to my face.
What a bizarre texture! But once you get over that, the NYX A Bit Jelly Gel Illuminator is a lot of fun to use. I don’t think this is for everyone though – the texture is bizarre, the application isn’t traditional (if you’re someone who prefers to use a brush), and the overall effect is quite glittery up close (less so from afar). BUT… it’s a lot of fun to play with! I think this would look gorgeous if you applied some all over your body during the summer for a bit of extra shimmer and glow. Or, if you don’t want to be a disco ball, apply it in select locations like your collarbones and the tops of you shoulders. In short, it’s fun and it’s beautiful… but it’s a bit more fussy to play with that your traditional powder highlighter.
The NYX A Bit Jelly Gel Illuminators can be purchased on shoppersdrugmart.com for $13.99 CAD (currently on sale for $10.99!) or on ulta.com for $15 USD. Annnnnd I’ve just realized this is cheaper in Canada! This happens so infrequently! WOOOHOOO!!!!
The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
As a follow up to their Ultimate 16 pan palettes, NYX has released an “Edit” version – a petite shadow palette with six shades that extend the colour range of their larger version. (For swatches on the NYX Ultimate Brights palette, please see here.)
The NYX Ultimate Edit Brights palette can be purchased at nyxcosmetics.ca for $12 CAD or on ulta.com for $7 USD.
The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.