Category Archives: Swatches

Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette (Review & Swatches)

September 28, 2018Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesRevlonChelle

Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette

Get excited! Revlon has released a highlighter quad that isn’t varying shades of champagne, but rather (almost) all the colours of the rainbow! Say hello to the Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette – potentially Revlon‘s most unique launch yet!

I’ve been raving on about unique highlighters for a few years now. I fell in love with the Kat Von D Alchemist Holographic palette, as well as the Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild palette long ago, and while a few drug store brands have launched singles of unique shades, there’s never been a palette (that I can think of). And now Revlon has finally done it! And frankly, while I love Revlon, they were NOT the brand I was expecting to put out a palette like this!

The Galaxy Dream palette is a four-pan pressed-powder compact containing 0.5 oz/14.4 grams of product (which is more than double what comes in the KVD palette by the way). The prices varies wildly – $19.99 CAD at Shoppers Drug Mart or $7.49 USD at ULTA. The conversion rate isn’t great between Canada and the US (come on guys, our dollar isn’t THAT bad – eesh!), but coming in at $20 for four large pans is actually a fairly decent price for the drugstore.

Of course, I must point out that while the Galaxy Dream palette is labelled “Holographic”, it really isn’t. These are fun, colourfully tinted highlighted but none of the shades reflect the entire rainbow spectrum and therefore cannot be called “holographic”.

Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette - swatches — Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette – swatches

Swatched out you can see that each shade provides a bit of iridescent sheen – with the silver shade clearly having the most pigment.

Revlon Galaxy Dream Holographic Highlighting Palette – Face Swatches

The pink imbued my cheeks with a pink-leaning-fuchsia hue that I hadn’t expected. I thought it would be a hair more peach given the swatch, so I was pleasantly shocked when I saw just how strong it went on my cheeks. I noticed right away that the texture of the powder is much different than other colourful highlighters I’ve used in the past. It’s more of a satin finish – almost as if I’m buffing a matte colourful highlighter on to my face. I was astonished with just how much I liked this kind of satin/matte but colourful highlighter aspect.

Sadly, I really struggled to photograph the green highlighter. In person the colour of the green is very obvious – I was continuously surprised at just how much I noticed it (in a good way!). But in the shots I got of it it comes across far more silvery-yellow which is sad because I promise you it’s REALLY green IRL.

And another beautiful shade! The purple shade was absolutely another stunner. Such a gorgeous surreal, sort of fairy-esque glow to it. It matched so well with my eyeshadow too!

The silver shade was the one I was the most nervous to wear and yet it turned out to be equally gorgeous! I had been nervous to put this on my cheekbones because the swatch looked like straight up silver eyeshadow and I did not want to be wearing that at all. Come to find out that the bulk of the silver pigment actually gets buffed away as you brush this on to your cheekbones, leaving behind a beautiful ethereal white-silver glow. This shade definitely surprised me the most – it’s freaking gorgeous!

Final Thoughts

I was truly surprised at how well the Revlon Galaxy Dreams palette played out on my cheeks. My only complaint is that the pink and the purple shade are a little too similar and I would’ve preferred a blue over one of those shades… but that’s it, because this palette is freaking fantastic! The colours are beautiful, the pigmentation is *really* good, and, what I found to be the most interesting… it’s a softer kind of highlighter. The other colourful highlighters I’ve used in the past somehow seem to have a bit of a shimmery quality to them, which I hadn’t really noticed until I started using this palette. This one is more of a softer hue. I don’t want to say dull, as the colours are certainly NOT dull, but it’s more of a “lit from within” colour than it is a loud, aggressive one (more specifically – the pink and purple are like this). I initially thought I wouldn’t like that after I applied the pink on day one, but I was so taken with how transformative the more satin-like quality of the powder was in comparison to ones I’d used in the past that it made me fall head over heels for this palette.

Revlon‘s Galaxy Dreams palette is really a winner. I love that it’s something fun and unique from a brand that usually sticks to the safe side of things. I *love* this palette!

The Revlon Galaxy Dreams Holographic Highlighting Palette can be purchased on shoppersdrugmart.com for $19.99 CAD or on ulta.com for $7.49 USD.

The product featured in this post was sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.

Mary Kay Precision Brow Liners (Review & Swatches)

September 21, 2018Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesMary KayChelle

Mary Kay Precision Brow liners in Blonde and Dark Blonde

Mary Kay continues to be one of those brands that people don’t think much about (especially if you’re under the age of 50), but I assure you they put out some quality products (for example, they make my absolute favourite nail polish formula. Hands down, that is the best stuff I have ever tried.) So when I was sent some brow products to try out, I was keen to give them a go.

Mary Kay has just launched their Precision Brow Liners in 5 shades, two of which fit into the blonde category (Blonde and Dark Blonde) which I’ve been trying out for the last two weeks. Each retractable pencil comes with 0.085 grams of products which is on par with the ABH Brow Wiz, and a little bit short (0.005 grams to be precise) in comparison to the NYX Micro Brow. The pencils retail for $16 CAD or $14 USD. (Interestingly, the American Mary Kay site seems to have only four shades available – they’re missing Black-Brown.)

Mary Kay Precision Brow liners in Blonde and Dark Blonde - swatches — Mary Kay Precision Brow liners in Blonde and Dark Blonde – swatches

The blonde shades are much less ashy than I was expecting. Traditional blonde eyebrow pencils tend to lean more cool than warm, although I’d say that these seem neutral with a touch of warmth.

As you can see, I don’t have much brow to begin with, so I have to fill in a lot of areas and create an entire tail out of nothing.

I found that the pencils were quite soft, which made for easy application, but it could sometimes mean you didn’t get the sharpest point you wanted. I also found that the nib is slightly larger than your average micro-brow pencils, so this wouldn’t be quite as precise for creating individual hair strokes. Personally, I don’t have the patience to create individual strokes as I’m really just trying to block out a brow as quickly as possible because I’ve got so much ground to cover and fill in. So the fact that I can’t create individual hair lines with this pencil is irrelevant to me.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for a softer eyebrow pencil, you may want to look into the Mary Kay Precision Brow Liners. I love my NYX Micro Brow, but it does feel a bit sharp and hard on my brows, so I completely understand if people are wanting something a little bit softer. The longevity of the product was excellent too – they last through full workdays without any issue.

I was also pleasantly surprised with the colours. I didn’t think they would work that well because they weren’t grey enough, but that turned out not to be the case. I used the Dark Blonde shade to fill in the bottom of my brow, and the Blonde shade for the top half. I feel the two shades worked well together, although I definitely preferred the Dark Blonde for filling in larger gaps of missing hair.

The only thing I feel the pencils are missing is a spoolie. Almost all brow pencils now provide a spoolie at the other end, so I feel like it’s a necessary component in a brow pencil now.

The Mary Kay Brow Precision Liners can be purchased on marykay.ca for $16 CAD each or on marykay.com for $14 USD each.

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

5 Blushes for Autumn

September 14, 2018Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesBECCA, Cargo, Clinique, MAC, Too FacedChelle

It’s finally autumn, and I am HERE for it! The cool, crisp air, the scent of the wind (yes – actually), the layering of clothing, HALLOWEEN… there is nothing I don’t love about this season!

I’m feeling particularly autumnal this year so I thought I’d do a post on the five blushes that scream fall to me. I’ve pulled them out of my collection and put them directly on top of my vanity so as to make sure I’m getting a ton of use out of them. They fall into the darker, more warm side of things. It’s kind of funny to me that I reach for darker blushes as my skin gets paler due to lack of sun… but these truly are the blushes I reach for during this time of the year. Not a single blush is new to me – they were all purchased prior to 2018, so you *know* they’re favourites!

The first one is MAC‘s Gingerly. I was heavily influenced to buy this blush when I saw Allison Anderson (formerly Amarixe) talking incessantly about this blush during the earlier days of her YouTube career. I always thought the shade looked ridiculously ugly in the pan. I mean it’s basically a warm brown – how the heck is that supposed to look good on my cheeks??

And yet somehow it does. It definitely gives more of an orange cast on the cheeks than the pan would lead you to believe, which means that it works with a lot of the eye looks I create during this time of year! (If you want to see more details on this eye look, you can take a look at this post from 2015.)

Too Faced‘s Peach Berry is the newest product in this whole post, but it’s a good one. I picked it up during the launch of Too Faced’s Peaches & Cream collection last year because it appeared to be the most unique shade in the launch. It’s a super dark berry shade that typically scares people off, but if you apply this with a light hand it blesses your cheeks with a gorgeous cranberry tone.

I’m super pale in the shot above because this tutorial was filmed back in March or April, but you can see how it doesn’t come across too dark or too strong on my cheeks. I promise you this shade will work for pale skin!

Although I don’t wear this Cargo Mendocino blush very often, it’s managed to sneak through several of my blush declutters simply because it’s incredibly unique and I don’t have anything similar to it in my collection. At first glance it’s a dark cranberry-mauve, but when you swatch it it has the most beautiful gold flecks scattered throughout the formula. The glitter flecks aren’t super apparent on the face though, so don’t be too worried about looking like a disco ball.

I do tend to wear this one rather heavily, and I really couldn’t explain why to you because it doesn’t swatch that strongly (swatches for all these shades are below). I love pairing it with a similarly coloured lip colour for that “matchy-matchy” look. (Post with this look can be found here.)

Next up is Clinique‘s Cheek Pop in Cola Pop – a long, LONG time favourite of mine, although you wouldn’t know it from the lack of wear on the embossed flower! Cola Pop is the shade that got me into wearing darker blushes because I quickly came to realize it was all in your application. You can wear this lightly if you want, but I tend to be heavy handed with my blush because I actually want to SEE it on my cheeks – none of this “barely there” nonsense thankyouverymuch!

Despite the pan colour, Cola Pop comes out very red on me. Dare I say the perfect red? For me this is that perfect “came in from the cold” cheek colour. And really, I need it in a blush, because when I actually flush from the cold I turn hella blotchy!

The very last shade I have to mention is BECCA‘s Songbird, and I hadn’t realized just how similar it is to MAC’s Gingerly – it’s only a hair deeper and slightly more orange. BECCA’s blushes have a beautiful formula – one of the most pleasant to apply and blend out.

And of course, since I do like to match, I pair this with a lot orange and red toned eyeshadow looks (like this one from my Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance post).

You know it’s funny – when I collected these shades from my collection, my initia; reaction was that they were all way too similar to each other and wouldn’t look like much in swatches. But now that I see them all side by side there are definite tone differences between them all (well, yeah, obviously between the more red ones and the orange ones, but you know what I mean!).

As I mentioned at the top of this post, none of these are new shades to me. These are ones I go back to every single fall and winter because I know they work beautifully on me and I absolutely love the shades.

Let me know if you’ve got any seasonal blushes you reach for every year!

The BECCA Songbird blush was sent to me for consideration many moons ago, the rest were all purchased by myself. Post contains affiliate links.

Annabelle Perfect Glow Highlighters (Review & Swatches)

September 12, 2018Makeup, Reviews, SwatchesAnnabelleChelle

Annabelle Perfect Glow Highlighters

In a sea of international brands that somehow seem to always grab my attention, there’s a homegrown Canadian brand that I really need to start paying more attention to. That brand is Annabelle and they’ve been around as long as I can remember. In fact, I picked up my very first solid black matte eyeshadow from them decades ago when I wanted to dive more into goth makeup.

Relatively recently, Annabelle put out their Perfect Glow Highlighters. Good highlighters can be hard to come by at the drugstore, so I was eager to try these out. I was even more eager when I realized that they’re also priced around $10 CAD each. Canadian drugstore prices seem to creep higher and higher ever day and it’s not often that I feel I can actually pick something up under $15.

Annabelle says that these will provide a “provide a natural and luminous finish”. There are three shades total – I’m missing the white pearlescent shade called Topaz.

Annabelle Perfect Glow Highlighters in Golden Diamond and Quartz - swatches — Annabelle Perfect Glow Highlighters in Golden Diamond and Quartz – swatches

I was surprised at how much colour the Perfect Glow Highlighters had in a swatch. Golden Diamond was definitely what I would consider “appropriate for my skintone” – it’s a very, very pale gold with a decent amount of translucency (although you can definitely see colour!). Quartz shocked the heck out of me though! I had a feeling the powder would be much more sheer, but it comes across as a medium pink with a golden shift. Truthfully, I thought this shade would essentially be a blush on me instead of a highlighter.

In swatches, the Perfect Glow Highlighters did not have a ton of reflection to them (which kind of left me feeling a bit deflated), but, as we all know, swatches only tell half the story because holy cow was I ever surprised when I buffed it on to my cheeks and I suddenly had a beaming highlighter! The tone of Golden Diamond is absolutely beautiful – pale enough on me, but with enough colour to appear golden.

As I said before, I figured Quartz was going to be a blush on me. But once I buffed it on to my skin I quickly discovered it wasn’t as deep as I was expecting. I ended up layering blush on top of it, and then relayering Quartz on the blush so that I’d have a more dimensional look than just a shiny cheek. I’m still a little bit shocked that this works on me – especially since that swatch was SO dark! The reflection on Quartz is quite a bright pearl-pink, but it did also deepen up my blush a touch. I’m at a loss as to how this one works really because I really expected this one to be too dark on me!

Final Thoughts

I really need to pay attention to Annabelle more because these Perfect Glow Highlighters really surprised me! I often go into drugstore highlighter reviews expecting to be let down (there’s been a LOT of duds at the drugstore over the years), so when I find out something is actually good I end up being extremely delighted! I like that Annabelle is able to provide a good quality product for a reasonable price tag – this can be a frigging challenge in Canada as drugstore prices seem to be continuously on the rise. Out of the two I tried, I definitely liked Golden Diamond the most (seriously – what a gorgeous reflect on that one), but I like that Quartz worked for my skin tone as well.

Let me know if you’ve tried these out!

Annabelle Perfect Glow Highlighters can be purchased on shoppersdrugmart.ca for $10.49 CAD each (and they’re actually on sale for $5.99 right now!).

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

Swatch Sunday: Too Faced Sparkling Pineapple

September 9, 2018Makeup, SwatchesToo FacedChelle

Too Faced Tutti Frutti Sparkling Pineapple

Too Faced has just launched their Tutti Frutti collection at ULTA, and of course I snapped up the eyeshadow palettes! (See the Razzle Dazzle Berry palette swatched out in last week’s Swatch Sunday post.)

Too Faced‘s Sparkling Pineapple palette is definitely scented, but it’s hard to put my finger on what it smells like exactly – it’s kind of a mix of pineapple, sunscreen with a hint of… banana?

Too Faced Tutti Frutti Sparkling Pineapple Swatches

Too Faced - Yum-Yum — Too Faced – Yum-Yum

Too Faced - Coconut Sugar — Too Faced – Coconut Sugar

Too Faced - Passports & Pineapples — Too Faced – Passports & Pineapples

Too Faced - Sparkling Pineapple — Too Faced – Sparkling Pineapple

Too Faced - Island Queen — Too Faced – Island Queen

Too Faced - Tutti Cutie — Too Faced – Tutti Cutie

Too Faced - Pineapple Cooler — Too Faced – Pineapple Cooler

The Too Faced Tutti Frutti Sparkling Pineapple eyeshadow palette can be purchased at ulta.com for $34 USD.

This post contains affiliate links.