This SauceBox palette recently ended up in my collection when a few of my friends were de-stashing some stuff from their collections (and I think I even forgot to mention it in my haul videos). I was super keen on it because HELLO RED.
Sauce Box Forbidden FruitsGranted, the SauceBoxForbidden Fruits palette only has one red in it, but my eyes were drawn to it immediately. Sadly, this was a limited edition palette and I’m not even really sure when it was available, but I wanted to swatch it out for my Swatch Sunday series just so I would have a record of it.
Sauce Box Forbidden Fruits
Before we get into the swatches, I need to mention that this palette swatches like garbage. You’ll see terrible pigmentation and what looks like a patchy mess on my arm. Fun fact of swatches is that it only tells half the story – these actually go on my eyes really, really well! I wore the purples and red in my Deadpool inspired look in my May 2018 Beauty Favourites video and I didn’t feel they were patchy at all!
The Body Shop‘s body washes are one of those feel good items for me because I’ve been using them for multiple decades at this point. I remember being 14 years old and absolutely cherishing their body washes – my favourite scents were Oceanus (RIP) and Satsuma – and I felt like I was sitting in the lap of luxury whenever I used them.
The Body Shop Spa of the World Body Washes
It’s many, many years later at this point and I’m happy to report that The Body Shop can still do no wrong with their body washes! The scents may have changed over time (please, PLEASE bring back Oceanus!) but the quality is just as good as ever. It’s one of those products where if you know you like the consistency, then it’s all about choosing what scent works for you – because you will not find a dud in the mix!
Brittany Coast Algae and Balkan Juniper Body Washes
In recent years, The Body Shop has revamped some of their range and created a more luxurious product collection – their Spa of the World range. While the quality is the same as their other body washes, the scents are more modern, more spa-centric and they really do give you that clean, spa-like scent when you use them.
The two scents featured in this post are quite different from each other, but they really do embody the whole spa aesthetic that they’re going for with this range.
Brittany Coast Algae Body Wash: An aquatic scent with a side of green courtesy of the algae. I’d almost call it a “thick” water scent because of the algae. Lovely scent!
Balkan Juniper Body Wash: This one is one hell of a “bitey” scent (it’s got a bit of kick to it), but it’s my favourite between the two in this post. I think I must like the scent of juniper because I *really* like this one. It’s not a traditional body wash scent for me – this one isn’t subtle at all – it’s almost spicy, but in a clean way. Loooove this one!
Scents are a personal matter, so what I love may not be entirely up your alley, but if you’re interested in treating yourself to an at home spa retreat, then the scents in The Body Shop’s Spa of the World collection can definitely get you there! Let me know if you’ve tried any of this range out!
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration. Post contains affiliate links.
When Anastasia Beverly Hills drops a new Glow Kit, I stop, drop and order it. I have fallen in love more times than I can count with these Glow Kits, so I always want to ensure I’m getting my hands on the latest one!
Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Dream
ABH‘s most recent Glow Kit release is titled Dream, and it was developed with deeper skin tones in mind. Over the last few years there’s been a few mentions that highlighting powders tend to have too much white pigment in them which ends up looking quite ashy on darker skintones. The intent with this palette was to remove any of the white pigments used to create these highlighter with the expectation that it would end up looking better on deeper skin tones (however, it was also pointed out that these shades would also work on fair tones).
Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Dream
But sadly, I had a lot of problems with this palette. Starting off with the price point – they jacked the price up $5 CAD, which is not in line with any of their other highlighting palettes, including other six-pan iterations they’ve released.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Glow Kit in Dream – swatches
However, my biggest complaint is that while the shade selection appears to be diverse, in practice, it really isn’t. Once buffed into the skin, each shade takes on a different hue of pink. Some shades have a stronger pink cast than the other, but fundamentally EACH shade has a pink reflection to it which makes having six shades utterly pointless.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dream Glow Kit Face Swatches
Wearing Wish
Wish is probably the least pink out of all of them. It’s described as a “pearl base with violet sparkles”. Yes to pearl, but the violet is actually pink.
Wearing Unicorn
Unicorn is labelled as a “lavender and pink sparkle cluster”, but it’s really just a solid pink.
Wearing Magic
Magic is described as having an “icy base with a kaleidoscope cluster of red, gold, pink and blue sparkles”. Icy base? Sure. Kaleidoscope cluster with all of those colours? Oh hell no. This basically a patina shade with pink reflect. And although it doesn’t look super pink in the shot above, I promise you that in person the only colour I saw on my cheeks was a pink reflect with silver sparkle.
Wearing Ethereal
Ethereal is described as a “cool-toned lavender duo chrome with blue reflective sparkle”. Nope – it’s pink.
Wearing Sunshine
Oh man, I had hope for you Sunshine. Labelled a lavender gold shift, there was promise… right? Nope. It’s a pale gold with a super strong pink reflect.
Wearing Regal
And lastly, the shade I was the most excited about – Regal, a “golden pink base with a light kaleidoscope cluster of pink, gold, and blue sparkles”. Nope – it’s like a paled out peachy-pink. Definitely no kaleidoscope here.
What in the HELL happened with this palette? Maybe it’s truly not meant for me and it works on far deeper skin tones? I just don’t get it – the strongest colour that is present in all of this is a solid PINK. I first noticed it when I was swatching it on my arm and I was a little taken aback since the pans certainly don’t LOOK predominantly pink at first glance.
I started to wonder if it was just me, but I went and checked out the reviews on Sephora and so many people are pointing out just how pink this palette is. And it’s irritating when the pans themselves are so deceiving – the swatches will let you think that this palette has a lot of variety to offer, but as soon as I buffed each shade into my face, all I ended up seeing was varying shades of pink. It was so weird!
The powders are also big on glitter, which is not necessarily a problem for me, but when you add in the fact that all six shades reflect pink AND glitter, it makes you wonder why they even bothered to put six shades in here. This could’ve easily been released as a split pan compact and you would’ve obtained the exact same amount of variety.
Application is also chunkier and harder than previous ABH palettes. I found I had to load up my brush and go in a few times in order to get the product to appear on my cheeks. Which is very strange, because if you stick your finger in the product it feel very soft to the touch. Impressively, the glitter DID stay put on my cheeks – it wasn’t falling out all over the place after I’d placed it on my face.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to love this, but I just don’t need that much freaking pink in my life. Six shades with varying levels of pink is just completely redundant to me. ESPECIALLY when they don’t even look pink in the pan to begin with.
This launch was a huge let down for me because I *adore* my Glow Kits – I have quite a few of them because they’re just so good. But this one isn’t versatile like the others are, and for me it’s a pass. If you freaking LOVE pink though? Get this – it’s all you’ll ever need!
