Beauty Product Reviews
Super Pretty But Not For Fair/Light Skintones
I am NC15-20 and wanted to try this out. My thoughts: Cream base is too dark, leaves a brown streak even with a light hand. Second top shade is not a cream (at least I dont think?) so I do not understand why its under the protective flap because it will get into the cream base. Again wayyyyy too dark though a super beautiful medium bronze shade. The bronzer/blush can not really be used as a bronzer, its way too pigmented and the shade is very rosey which makes it very unflattering on me. It is super easy to go overboard. As a blush its the same problem, super easy to go overboard and because of the shade, it looks kind of..muddy. The champagne gold highlight is a baked gelee formula with no kickup and its a wham bam highlight but also emphasizes texture like crazy. This is not gonna work on light or fair skintones, nor would I think it would work on super deep skintones. I think this is best suited for medium skintones. Overall a beautiful high quality product, but not for me.
Beautifully metallic!
I was pretty hesitant to purchase any Jeffrey Star highlighters due to the poor reviews regarding quality but decided to bite the bullet and the first shade I bought was eclipse. When I opened it, it was all intact and I was pretty surprised by the size of the pan which is huge compared to other highlighters out there. I first did a finger swatch on my hand and while the shade was pretty, I was disappointed because it seemed to lack pigment and was just a streak of glitter on my hand..but on the face was a different story! Since the product is rather dense, sort of like a foiled eyeshadow consistency, I went in with a denser brush which was able to better pick up the product and on the face, WOW, so beautiful! It is a metallic wet look so if you prefer subtle highlights, you will want to pass. I was so impressed with this shade that I picked up Uranus and once again was very pleased with the quality and outcome though the finger swatch was once again, quite disappointing. I personally do not find that these highlighters accentuate any texture on my face. Would recommend if you like a beaming highlight!
The only negative is that I constantly struggle to get the compact open...I don't know if it is just me?
great for rosacea!
I have type 1 (redness) and type 2 rosacea (pustules) and anyone who has struggled with pretty severe rosacea knows the struggle in finding something that not only does not irritate the skin but actually combats the redness and bumps! This I have to say is a godsend! I am currently on oral medication for my rosacea which I would say keeps the bumps at a minimum but recently I had a horrible flareup with little bumps all over my face which were getting worse daily. I went to my dermatologist who gave me a cream and oral steroids which took the bumps and redness down about 80% but after stopping the oral steroids, the bumps seemed to come back again. Super frustrated and not wanting to be dependent on oral steroids,I went in with this product and prayed for the best and the next day, not only was my complexion not as blotchy as normal, the bumps had decreased in size significantly, I hope with continued use they will be gone! I I have never used anything so quick and effective as this. My skin's overall texture has improved significantly along with diminished redness and bumps. I use this in the pm only after my water based serums and slap a moisturizer over it at night . i was considering using during the am but because of the silicony texture and tendency to pill sometimes, im not sure how well it will work under makeup.
All in all, this is a wonderful, effective and inexpensive product. Would totally recommend!
something different
When I first saw the colors for this palette, I wasn't very excited. I am definitely more of a warm shadow girl and this palette just looked too cool toned, dark and muted for my liking. But, the more I looked at it, the more interested I got because it was something different from all the warm palettes that are everywhere. Prior to purchasing, I had watched several reviews on the palette and for the most part I take reviews from influencers with a grain of salt because everyone's tastes and preferences are different so I decided to take the plunge and see for myself. I bought my palette off beautylish and I think fortunately for me, I got a "good" palette (batch P7) as I did not have any issues with ridiculous kickup, it was pretty much on par with the kickup in my MR palette. Knowing that the colors were super pigmented, I just used fluffy brushes and gently tapped the brush once in the shade and I had no problems with blending or colors changing.
Besides the great quality that is as expected of ABH palettes, I was pleasantly surprised at how many different looks could be done with this palette. There is a good range of warm shades for those types of looks and a great range of colors to change it up and do cool toned looks or to just give a different pop of color to a warm look. I do have to say though the most disappointing shades were the duochrome shades cube and electric, they swatch terrible and MUST be used wet to achieve any decent color payoff. Even used wet they are not the most wham bam colors but they do provide a nice more subtle duochrome effect which can be used on top of other shades to give another dimension to the muted colors in the palette. Another critique is that there is no good shade as an inner corner highlight. Cube looks promising in the pan but its heavy pink shift does not make it ideal for all looks.
Overall, I am pleased with this palette. I would definitely suggest to go in with a light hand. Do not swirl your brush in the pans or you will get tons of kick up and it will be hard to blend because of the crazy pigmentation. Do not put a lot of pressure on your brush when you go in with the shadow on your eye. I would recommend watching Stephanie Nicole's review on this palette as she gives a very comprehensive review of the palette.
Natural, smooth, perfect color for light skin tones!
I am about an NC15-20 with pretty heavy yellow undertones. I do not contour often because I have always found contour colors to be too orange or warm for my liking. i prefer a slightly cooler contour color even though i have a warm skintone because I feel it looks more natural and this totally fit the bill. The color on my fair/light skin was a perfect taupe color that was not too warm or too harsh and gave a soft and very natural contour. It blended like a dream (no harsh streak) and stayed on throughout my 12 hour days. Pricey but a little does go a long way and looks so natural which is the look I prefer. I think to really know if this product is good or not is if someone would repurchase once they are out and I would definitely repurchase this in a heart beat. I would not even consider trying out other contour products because this one if perfect for me.
Soft, Perfect for Setting the Face
I have purchased many brushes from decent more relatively affordable brands and honestly could never understand why or how anyone could spend so much on brushes...But after never completely being satisfied with how some of my makeup was sitting on my face after application, I bit the bullet and started buying some Wayne Goss brushes and after first use, I was a convert. Yes more pricey but the results are visible. I was looking for a powder brush to set my face and decided to try this brush out and I have to say it is soft as a kitten on the face (which is great since it does not irritate my sensitive face with rosacea). Face looks totally airbrushed. The size is not huge nor is it small, perfect for quick application of powders. It is not super dense so great for setting makeup and I would assume any other powder products. Took off one star because it had some shedding after just one use.
Absolutely beautiful!
Pros:Highly pigmented, a very cohesive palette you can use to get several looks, not just another boring neutral palette with browns, taupes etc, stunning warm tones with unique colors that truly pop (oranges/browns/burgundies), beautiful colors for summer transitioning into fall, flatting on any skin tone, easy to blend
Cons: There is a lot of kick up when you swirl your brush in pans
Overall: I have never bought an ABH palette so I cannot speak for how it compares in quality to previous palettes but for me, the one con of lots of kickup can be totally be overlooked for this absolutely gorgeous palette! This is definitely worth the investment if you are into these warm colors. My senses have been numbed by all underwhelming neutral palettes released that all pretty much look the same but this is a definitely a winner! Unique excellent quality!