Beauty Product Reviews

Trying to give a 2.5 rating...

...BECAUSE I’m completely torn on this palette. I pre-ordered this and was SO excited to receive it! I opened it up as soon as my package was delivered and the first thing I noticed upon opening the actual palette up was this super odd, slightly funky smell. Not like a “product-gone-bad” smell or an expired smell, but not a pleasant smell either. I talked to a handful of people; some from Beautylish’s customer service team, some from Sephora, some YouTubers, and even a Natasha Denona MUA at the NY store. Only one other person (employee at Sephora and apparently her coworker too) I spoke with could corroborate the weird smell. She wondered if it was the palette packaging and I had thought the same thing. I ended up returning the palette but before I did, I went to one of my local Sephoras that happened to have this palette in-stock, even though they don’t typically carry ND’s products in that store, and smelled the display/tester palette and, voilà, no smell. That kind of confirmed my decision to return the palette. Fast forward a couple days later, my return is already in transit back to Beautylish, and I find myself back in Sephora (story of my life) and this time, I very carefully and sneakily opened up one of the “sellable” Safari palettes and, without touching the shadows or anything of course, smelled it. And guess what! This palette had the EXACT same smell as the one I originally received! I was so frustrated. My conclusion is that the tester palette had no smell because it is left open pretty much all day, everyday, which allows for any funky palette packaging smell to dissipate. Oy vey. I must have a very sensitive nose, and apparently if I had just given my palette some time, the smell would’ve gone away. I did use it twice before returning it to see how I liked the actual shadows; I decided I could live w/ the smell if I needed to as a trade-off for amazing makeup. But, the two different eye looks I attempted did NOT turn out well. I was so so so so saddened by this. I also watched YouTuber Mel Thompson’s review on this palette and she had BIG TIME issues with her shadows not blending or layering well, straight up disappearing, and all sorts of craziness. And she is an extremely talented MUA, so if SHE couldn’t get it to work, I thought there was no way I’d be able to. So as for my “2.5 star” review....I’m contemplating repurchasing this palette knowing what I know now RE: the off smell AND after seeing people on here and Sephora and YouTube talk about their application techniques that make this Safari palette totally amazing and 100% worth the price. Sorry for the insanely long rant/review, but I wanted to share my unique situation with this palette. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can get my hands on another one before they sell out, which I’m not too worried about, and that I can make this palette work because if I can, this would be a palette I’d reach for and use EVERY single day.

Better than what I’d heard and expected!

I’ll be honest, I’ve only tried the blush and bronzer/contour powder from this palette but so far, so good! The blush is so aesthetically pleasing that I didn’t want to even swirl my brush in there, but I’m glad I did. It’s just as pretty on the face as it is in the palette. It gives a very soft, somewhat subtle sheen and the color is beautiful. I’d imagine it would flatter most, if not all, skin tones. The blush is buildable too, if you were wanting a stronger color payoff. I was worried the bronzing powder would be too orange on my super fair and cool-toned skin, but it wasn’t at all. I’m not sure I’d use it for actual contouring but as just a bronzer, it was lovely. The powders are a really nice consistency as well. Very beautiful palette, inside and out! It’s definitely not a staple but I don’t regret purchasing it in the least. Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by and pleased with this product! Becca seriously slays.

Best customer service EVER!

I spoke to Andrew at Beautylish; he was awesome and so nice and helpful! I received my order today, which included this liquid lipstick, and when I opened it up to check it out and try it on, I noticed the doe foot applicator was kind of clumpy and fuzzy. I own a couple other JS velour liquid lipsticks so I whipped them out to compare their doe foots to this one and, sure enough, this one was in much “worse shape” than the others, which resulted in an uneven and not very smooth application of the actual product. I called Beautylish and explained the issue and Andrew not only informed me that this is not an uncommon issue with these products (which I didn’t know), but he also gladly offered to send me a replacement one. I asked if I needed to send back the problem product and he told me not to worry about it and also said that if the replacement product has the same issue, to please call them back and let them know so they can work on communicating the problem to JS’s team and for their own QA. I’ve never dealt with such an understanding and pleasant customer service rep! Andrew was so wonderful and sincere and I loved that he took the time to go over the issue with me in-depth so I had a better understanding. Even though the product itself was a bit of a letdown, I’m giving 5 stars because Beautylish customer service went above and beyond! (And, let’s be honest, the color of the liquid lipstick is absolutely stunning 😬)