Spring collections are everywhere at this point, so what’s going to make them stand out one from the other? I mean… brights, pastels, florals… spring collections pretty much run all the same don’t they?
EXCEPT THE PACKAGING ON THIS QUO COLLECTION. Holy smokes! QUO is a brand I haven’t had a lot of exposure with, but they are actually killing me with this mottled graffiti-esque holographic packaging. It is GORGEOUS! (Caps for impact guys… it’s happening!)
So here’s a few items from the QUO Prismatic Collection that launched this month at Shoppers Drug Mart:
Let’s start out with the less obvious item for me on this blog – nail polish! The QUO by Orly nail polish in Always Chic ($10 CAD) took me by surprise. I really do not care about nail polish – it just doesn’t excite me, you know? And yet this shade is a very pale pink-lilac with a teal duochrome. It’s so, sooo freaking gorgeous.
You can see a hint of the duochrome here, but I really haven’t a clue how to capture that on camera. Regardless, if you’re in a Shoppers Drug Mart, check this one out so you can see it for yourself!
I’ll mention the Prismatic Brow Kit ($12 CAD) briefly, but I won’t be reviewing it because I didn’t try it out. It comes with two brow powders (too dark and warm for me, hence my lack of usage) as well as a very soft eyebrow gel and a mini brushes for application. The packaging is small, compact and the mirror is extremely appreciated in a product such as this.
I’m quite a fan of these all-in-one face palettes by QUO since they’re sleek, compact (zero extra space for a useless brush – YAY!) and the mirror is ENORMOUS. The Prismatic Face Palette in Moonwalk ($18 CAD) is the largest sized palette in this collection and the one I was the most excited to use.
This is the lighter of two palettes (the other one is moderately darker, but not by much) and each colour packs a significant amount of pigment. Each shade does contain a certain amount of shimmer though – there’s no mattes to be seen here!
The blush and highlight shades have the most amount of shimmer (although I really only saw tiiiiny glitter particles in the blush), whereas the bronzer on the right side is much more subtle and thankfully pale enough for me to use right now on my winter skin.
In the shot above, I’m wearing all of the items in the face palette and the shot was taken in natural light. You can see the highlighter is *definitely* doing its job on the tops of my cheek bones and yet despite the sheen on all of the products, I don’t feel like it’s total overkill. I love how the blush, bronzer and highlighter all worked together to create a gorgeous enhancement to my face.
Next up… eyeshadows. There are three QUO Prismatic Eye Palettes in this collection, but I only have the one in Colourful Life ($18 CAD).
I’ll start out by pointing out the obvious – this is not a standalone palette that you could use daily unless you like really, really subtle eyeshadow shades. The darkest colour in the palette is the purple in the top row and that’s really not enough in a palette of 10 shades. Additionally, unlike the face palette, these are all mattes.
Swatched out, everything is decently pigmented for a pastel collection (which is unusual because pastels are usually quite patchy), so this is a good addition to your collection if you’re looking for a bunch of soft colours to add to your arsenal. However, if you’re looking for a standalone palette to use on the daily, you’re going to struggle with only one deeper shade.
In the look I created from this palette, I’m wearing one of the softer pinks through my upper crease, the light purple on the lid, the dark purple in the outer corner and the white shade on my brow bone. I also have the pale green on my inner corner, but it’s not visible at all (not in person and not on camera). This is the absolute DARKEST look this palette can go, so keep that in mind! I also had to use a white base to make sure the colours popped as well. I’m not in love with the eyeshadow palette, but I do love how the look came out anyway.
Here’s a side face shot so you can see the eye makeup from a different angle as well as the Face compact products (took these with a ring light). I love how subtle the bronzer is on my skin (temple, backs of my cheekbones and along my jaw line), as well as how the blush and highlighter work together.
The quality on the shot above is abysmal, but here’s a closer look at the eyeshadows. While the purple worked well together with a white base, you can barely tell I put that pale green on the inner corner.
Final Thoughts
The Colourful Life eye palette is a clear miss for me – there just isn’t enough mid-tone and dark shades in it to get enough decent looks. That being said, the quality of these shadows are good so I’d encourage you to check out the other two palettes in the Prismatic Collection since they look like they’ve got more shade variety.
My absolute favourite product that I tried was the Prismatic Face palette in Moonlight. It’s AMAZING and I’d jump on that sucker immediately if the shades are appealing to you. I love, love, LOVE each product in that compact as well as the packaging. Solid, solid winner there. The nail polish was equally amazing in terms of colour (although I did find I needed three costs for opaque coverage).
The QUO Prismatic Collection for Spring 2016 is available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada (and it’s limited edition, so get it while you can!).
The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.
