Beauty's Pavilion: January 2015

JACLYN HILL Favourites Palette Swatches

So I FINALLY received the Jaclyn Hill Favourites palette in the mail yesterday after ordering this baby on line on January 1. What was supposed to be a quick online purchase on the morphebrushes website turned into an agonizing experience of hours trying to purchase a palette of one of the biggest collaboration of the 2014/2015 year end. Jaclyn Hill is a mega popular beauty guru on Youtube who, at just the mention of a product, sends it into a frenzy which usually ends in that product being sold out everywhere. This woman has the golden touch! What was particularly unique about this release is that this palette with 28 eyeshadows, retails for about $27USD. In addition to that, the shadows, though inexpensive, is very good quality. Combined with Jaclyn Hill choosing her favourite shadows and putting them in a palette form was sure to heighten the interest of her over 1.6 million followers (you read that right).

When the palette was released at midnight on January 1, (3AM) central time, I like most of her over 1 million followers were online waiting to purchase this palette before the dreaded sold out end ensue. Well, I guess Morphe Brushes bit off more than it could chew because so much people were trying to purchase the palette that the site crashed several times with some people taking 2 to 3 days to purchase a palette online, a transaction that would have usually taken minutes. And oh, we did not give up! Excitement turned to frustration to anger as the Morphe Brushes Instagram was bombarded with comments of customers expressing their emotions that soared as the hours went on. It seem so ridiculous looking back but if you want to see persistence, watch a beauty lover on the hunt for a limited edition anything. I digress.

So here it is ladies and gentlemen, the Jaclyn Hill Favourites Palette:

Back of the package.

Front of the palette

Row 1

Row 2

Row 3

Last Row

I have not had a chance to play too much with this palette so I will do a review and looks shortly. Stay tuned for those ))

COLOUR POP COSMETICS: Super Shock Eyeshadows Swatches

Colour Pop Cosmetics is a brand that has exploded over the past few months. This is due in part to their affordable line of products ($5 per eyeshadow) paired with the quality you would expect from higher end brands. A makeup lovers dream, right. The eyeshadows are very pigmented with some packed with glitter that doesn't fall all over the face. What is more unique about these eyeshadows is that they have a texture that feels almost moose like but applies dry to the lid. It is recommended to use your fingers for best application to get the true pigmentation.

Girly: Creamy vanilla with a flash of pink and gold duo chrome finish

Intense ultra-metallic, liquid-like true gold

I Heart This: Cool-toned silvery taupe with multi-coloured glitter

Kringle: A smoky blue loaded with silver and gold glitter in a metallic finish

Eye Candy: Cool toned ethereal lavender drizzled with tons of silver and pink glitter

Envy: Black saturated with violet glitter

On the Rocks: Vibrant true bronze with gold and violet glitter

Sequin: A copper penny like shade with silver and gold glitter

Shameless: Black drizzled with multiple shades of green and subtle hints of blue and gold glitter

Hammered: Smoky olive with tons of gold glitter and a soft sprinkle of multi-colored sparkles in a metallic finish

Amaze: Metallic rose gold with multi-colored multi-dimensional glitter

So Quiche: A soft olive with a highly reflective gold and pink violet glittery duo chrome metallic finish

Mooning: A rich blackened bronze highlighted with warm hints of pearlized glitter

KAT VON D Shade & Light Contour Palette

Kat Von D recently released the Shade & Light Contour palette that was hotly anticipated by beauty gurus, makeup artists and the everyday makeup lover looking to achieve the contouring techniques made famous by movie stars and models. Lets face it, contouring and highlighting is one of the most watched videos on YouTube and this trend is not going away anytime soon. I mean, who wouldn't want to look ten pounds lighter without giving up your favourite snacks or even setting foot in a gym? As an Artist by nature, the Kat Von D shades are expected to take this technique to another level with three matte highlighting shades and three matte contouring shades designed to suit most skin tones

Front Packaging

Back Packaging

The actual package mirrors the box expect the lettering is raised and very pronounced

The name of each shade is not written below each shade so the back of the package will be the reference to name each shade

Also included is a sheet that contains instructions on how to use the shade to achieve sculpted cheek bones, chin and nose

Top Row: Lucid, Lyric, Levitation
Bottom Row: Sombre, Shadowplay, Subconscious

The highlighting shades comes in a range of tones with Lucid having a more pink undertone for very fair skin, Lyric with a yellow undertone for more olive/tan skin and Levitation with a peach undertone for tan to deeper skin tone

The contour shades corresponds to the highlighter shades with Sombre having a greyer tone for more fair skin tones, Shadowplay for olive/tan skin and Subconscious for more deep skin tones.

The contour shades has a bit more variety as they can be mixed and combined to create the perfect shade or used in different places on the face to create the desired level of contour(ness)