Too Faced Boss Lady Beauty Agenda Palette ($58.00 for 1.23 oz.) is a limited edition, mega palette exclusively available at Sephora for the holidays. It contains 24 eyeshadows along with three cheek colors. Too Faced managed to create a holiday set that not only highlights the brand’s typical aesthetic but does so in a truly functional way with the inclusion of a zippered, soft binder and planner. Instead of cute-but-bulky pop-up scenes that end up in the recycling bin, the planner is usable and easily passed along as a gift as well.
First Impressions
As I have found over the last few palette releases from the brand, the formula is not quite their typical one. The press seems firmer while many shades seemed to have denser, better mixed textures where the powders actually bind together and go on a whole lot better on the lid (primer or not). The majority of the shimmery shades were significantly less dusty and dry compared to most of the brand’s body of work over the last few years. The mattes were velvety and finely-milled with some powderiness in the pan but seemed more pigmented, though there were a few misses in the palette judging from swatches alone. We’ll have to see how they wear and apply in practice but so far, the palette seems so much more promising and a lot less dreadful to test compared to past years’ palettes.
MAC x Nicki Minaj Collection features two lipsticks that were created by Nicki Minaj along with 18 lipsticks (a mix of repromotes, permanent shades, and new, limited edition shades), six lipglosses (mix of new and permanent), and eight lip liners (from the permanent collection) to round out a collection of “bare, brazen basics.” It launches in-stores at select locations and online on the 21st. All of the products I have are swatched below but for the full list of shades, read this post.
Hourglass Holiday 2017 Set Confessional Refillable Lipstick Set ($54.00 for 0.09 oz.) contains three lipsticks; it comes with one lipstick with full packaging and two refills. All three are full-sized, and the refills can be used without swapping them into the full case if desired. I’m a fan of the formula, which is more pigmented, hydrating, and comfortable to wear but find the amount of product per lipstick (0.03 oz.) to be hard to ignore.
Value
There are a few ways to assess the value, since the brand has their Confession lipstick available with full packaging ($34.00 each) and lighter, refill packaging ($22.00 each). For the purposes of value, I wanted to make it the most straightforward: one lipstick in full packaging and two in refill. They are full-sized in the set, so there was a total value of $78. If we looked at the equivalent in refill packaging only (since some may have no issue opting out of the full packaging), then the total value would have been $66 (I don’t think it would be remotely fair to consider three as full packaging since they are definitely not).
An instant fan-favourite, our most brilliant lipstick is back in nine new and three bring-back shades! Each Liptensity tube holds extra amounts of pigment, yielding extreme colour intensity, clarity and vibrancy. Pair with our new Liptensity Lip Pencil available in 18 equally vivid permanent shades.
Tarte Blush Bazaar Amazonian Clay Blush Palette ($44.00 for 0.84 oz.) is a double-sided palette that has five shades on each side for a total of 10 cheek colors. There is one highlighter on each side, so the palette contains eight blushes and two highlighters.
First Impressions
It seemed typical for Tarte’s blush releases with some shades being pigmented and others being more buildable. There was one absolute dud, both from swatching and after applying once to the face (for photos), which was Dainty–it had to be scraped to get any payoff at all. In general, Tarte’s formula wears eight to ten hours on me but doesn’t get to the 12-hours as promised, and as far as I’m aware, they haven’t tweaked the formula, so I imagine similar wear is forthcoming. The texture of the blushes, overall, seemed to be less powdery but as a result, were a bit firmer in the pan as well.
