It’s finally DONE. This is one of those long posts that I looked at for so long, and just avoided since I knew it would take quite a while to finish up. I talk about this in my 2019 goals, I’M WORKING ON IT.

Heck, I’m sorry this all took so long. I did want to really take time and make sure I tested absolutely everything in this collection, along with wear tests. Oh I did that. And then I procrastinated more. This is my bad. But it’s here now, and this collection is still available to buy! So better late than never!

That’s right, you’re correct, I got another Wet N Wild collection box. I’m not ashamed and I WON’T BE STOPPED. I mean, you guys like it for the reviews right? I know this took a million years to finally review, but it’s a lot of products to review, and I wanted to fully test them all out, so it got a little pushed back behind others.

BUT HERE IT IS. It’s all here, it’s all been reviewed and tested thoroughly, and it’s all here for me to tell you about it. This post will be a NOVEL but you can skip about to the parts you really want to know, and I’ll stop talking and just get into it.

This collection is the ‘Fire Dragon vs. Ice Dragon’ collection (very Game of Thrones chic), and it’s still available both on Wet N Wild’s site, as well as Ulta’s. It retails for $39.99.

Just like the one before this, the collection comes with a little pin as well. What will I do with this? Idk, but it’s cute.

Let’s get into this monster of a collection and review post. The products are in bold, so you can kind of pick and scroll to which products you’re most interested in. Or enjoy just seeing what I think about em all.

In the box you get 2 of the bronzers, 2 highlighters, 2 eyeshadow palettes, 4 loose pigments, and 4 metallic liquid lipsticks. As I go through the individual pieces, I’ll make the ones in the box with an asterisk *.

Along with the box contents, there’s also a couple more pieces that go along with it as well (sneaky, not including everything in the box). But don’t worry, because I’m nuts, I picked up some of those individual pieces as well.

There were 2 other pieces I didn’t pick up (shocking, I know!) – the last bronzer shade in ‘Bronze Dynasty’, which looks a little more cool-toned than the ones in the box, and the bronzing brush.

Now, as for the other parts I picked up. These, and the 2 I didn’t pick up, are all still available online as well. Not included in the box are:

• two eyeshadow quads in ‘The Night’s Quad’ (the silver and black one) and ‘Dragon Scales’, (olive greens); 2 lip toppers in ‘Wild Bling’s’ (icy blue) and ‘Flames of Glory’ (red shimmer); a highlighter in ‘Glow Watcher; and the Highlighting Brush (which I’m not sorry, is used in this photo. At least you know I’m really testing out product!)

Now let’s crack into this madness, shall we? *next to a name indicates it’s included in the box. 

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Highlighting Brush ($5.99) – Short white synthetic bristles with a shaped handle. This is very light, and easy to hold in the hand. I love the little detail with the gradient, and the dragon tail look at the bottom. It’s shaped, without being cumbersome to store, and fits in easily with my other brushes with it’s skinny shape.

It’s more pinched at the end, and then fluffs out at the end, with shorter bristles. It’s fluffy enough to blend out product, but still dense enough to pick it up on the brush.

I did really like this brush! I found it applied my highlighter in a more concentrated way, but was able to buff it into my skin. The bristles are super soft and nice on the face. Because it’s more dense, it can pick up foundation and product underneath if you’re really buffing too hard (you can see in the above photo that it’s discolored after I had been using it for a while). I do like the little fun design, and it’s nice if you don’t already have a brush for highlight.

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*Bronzers in ‘Queen’s Land’ and ‘You’re Dragon Me Down’ ($4.99ea) – Included in box.
They come in Wet N Wild’s new traditional packaging, a square with a clear top.

‘Queen’s Land’ on the left, ‘You’re Dragon Me Down’ on the right.

These have a raised embossing of a dragon on these to fit the theme. Again, something I always love about the Wet N Wild limited edition collections are their little details to match the theme.

Swatched up, you can see the two bronzers look very similar. Even though ‘You’re Dragon Me Down’ appeals a little cooler in the pan, they’re both very similar on the skin, so I don’t think it was necessary to have both. They also both have a tiny bit of sheen to them as well, with ‘Queen’s Land’ being a tiny bit more shimmery, but are smooth when swatched out.

Even up close really looking at them, you can see that ‘You’re Dragon Me Down’ might be a touch bit cooler, and that is really stretching.

Now these are very pigmented, so to apply them I tapped my brush in very lightly, and even was able to buff some off on my hand before I went in to apply. On my fair skin, I can still use them, as long as I go in lightly and build them up slowly.

They blend out smoothly and easily on the skin, and give a nice sheen and glow to warm up the collection. Like I said, they’re quite warm, so I do go quite easily in with these as they can appear a little orange on my paleness. They last well as well, lasting on my skin throughout the day.

I do like these, and it’s a nice bronzer, if you’re looking for one. However, I find it a little warm on my skintone, so I’ll be using these more in the summertime. I don’t use a ton of bronzer day to day, and with these I use so little for each application that these will last me quite a while, so I definitely did not need both shades of this. I do wish they differed more with the two shades – or even more diverse shades – included in the box, since it was a little annoying to basically have two of the same shade once it’s blended out.

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Highlighters in ‘Winter Falls in LA’*, ‘Glow Watcher’ and ‘Halo Walkers’* ($4.99ea.)
A new Wet N Wild highlighter shade always gets me excited, so these were definitely the ones of this collection that I wanted to especially get my hands on. 2 of these shades are included, and then ‘Glow Watcher’ is available on its own. Again, in their standard square highlighter packaging.

Unlike the bronzers, there’s a more obvious shade difference between the 3 highlighters.

These are embossed with the icy snowflake like pattern to show they’re part of the ‘Ice Dragon’ collection.

From left to right, ‘Glow Watcher’ is a just a straight icy white, ‘Winter Falls in LA’ is an icy white with a blue shift, and ‘Halo Walkers’ is a icy blue shade.

These have a formula right in between their permanent highlighters, and the highlights from the Goth-O-Graphic collection. They’re definitely smoother and creamier feeling than the Goth-O-Graphic highlighters, but they do have a thicker texture than their permanent line. It picks up pretty easily from the pan, especially with a denser brush. Once applying to the skin, they can look a little chunky, so they need to be buffed into the skin just a little bit, but nothing too extreme. They can be buffed more for a more sheen across the cheeks, or built up for an intense icy look on the cheeks. These do have microscopic glitters left behind as it fades – it’s not super chunky, but it is noticeable, so you’ll have to know your own personal preference for that.

‘Glow Watchers’ buffs out to a super icy sheen on the skin. The blue flash in ‘Winter Falls in L.A.’ is so visible and beautiful. It’s not dark when you turn away, like some duochrome highlights can be, and it’s such a unique look. It’s icy, with the flash when the light hits your cheekbones. And ‘Halo Walkers’ is straight up blue. It can be buffed in to be a little more subtle, but no matter what it will be a darker blue on the skin. A little less “wearable” but fun for more editorial looks.

They still haven’t let me down with the highlights, and these are no exceptions. My favorite pieces of the collection.

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We continue on with the eyeshadow palettes!

Eyeshadow Quads in ‘Fit For a Queen’* (burgundy) and ‘Mythicool Creatures’* (purple), ‘Dragon Scales’ (green) and ‘The Night’s Quad’ (silver). ($2.99ea).

‘Fit for a Queen’ and ‘Mythicool Creatures’ come in the box, while ‘Dragon Scales’ and ‘The Night’s Quad’ have to be bought individually. All 4 are also available individually.

They are in their traditional quad packaging and layout. A little big of an annoying thing I’ve found with these quads is that the names are only listed on the side stickers – so make sure you don’t pull them all the way off when opening them.

I swatched and reviewed each of the quads separately, since they vary in formula.

‘Fit for a Queen’ has 2 matte shades, and 2 shimmers.

The two mattes are the transition, a warm-toned brown, and the crease shade which is a darker cranberry; the two shimmers are the browbone which is a peachy pink shade with a gold shift; the lid shade which is a darker yellow gold.

The mattes in this quad are very nice. They can be a little lighter when first applied, but build up smoothly and nicely as you layer them on. They don’t blend away when working with them either. The brown transition shade is one of the darkest and warmest of all the quads – just a warning if you’re a deeper skintone than me.

The two shimmers are also nice. Especially that gold shade. They can take a little bit to build up, but I found taking either a more dense brush, or your finger, and then placing the color on the lid works better than trying to swipe it along. It builds up easily without foiling and lasts well on the lid. The peachy pink shade can be a little less foiled and metallic than you’re expecting – more of a shimmer shade, but still beautiful and builds up easily.

Rank of 4 quads: #2

The other quad that comes in the box is ‘Mythicool Creatures’. This has 1 matte, 1 satin, and 2 shimmers.

The one matte is the transition shade, a warm brown; the satin is the browbone, which is a light champagne; the crease shade is more of a satin shade with bigger shimmers throughout, it’s a very deep navy blue base blue sparkles; the last shimmer is the light pink base with purple shimmer throughout.

Y’all, I’m going to be very honest with you, since that is what I pride myself on: this quad is not good. It’s a pass.

The matte transition is fine, it blends just as well as the other mattes. It’s lighter, so again if you’re much deeper, it won’t work too well for you, and it’s just like the other transition shades in the other quads, so if you pick up another, you’ll have the same color.

The satin is good, it’s smooth, but it applies more like a base to match my skintone, to clean up any shade. There’s not much shimmer, so it doesn’t brighten up too much, so it can apply just like a matte.

The blue satin is okay. It can take some building and blending and building to get the darker color and deepen the look, but overall it’s not bad, if anything just a little messy. Once on the eye it looks darker and more black and doesn’t show as much blue.

And then that sad purple shade on the end. Ugh, this one brings the entire quad down from okay to just bad. This shade was crumbly, and even with digging a brush or finger into it, I could barely get any pigment. I even basically broke into it more, and it just crumbled, and was sad. You can see it a little bit in my first photo, since I forgot to take it until after I had swatched. There’s a dip into the pan where I was just digging and nothing was coming up. A total pass, and they can do better than this.

Rank: #4

From so bad to so good…

‘Dragon Scales’ has one matte and 3 shimmers.

The transition is a warm brown matte (just like all the others); the browbone is a champagne shimmers; the crease is a deep forest green shimmer; and the lid is a stunning olive green shimmer.

As I mentioned, from so bad to just so good. Skip that last quad, and if you’re only picking up one of these, make it this one.

Of course, the matte blends out smoothly and beautifully. It builds up nicely. It has the same criticism as the others as it’s light (it’s also pretty much the same color as all the others, but you know, they’re probably not expecting the average consumer to pick up all 4).

These 3 shimmers all build up beautifully and full color on the lid. That olive green is just stunning, and so unique. It picked up easily on the brush, and applied to the lid and was a beautiful shimmer. These aren’t the most metallic, but either way, these shimmers are so beautiful. The forest green also builds up nice and easily, and works both as an all over lid shade, and to deepen up the outer corner. And that champagne shimmer was beautiful as a more subtle inner corner highlight, or browbone highlight.

If you only pick up one, make it this one. It’s a stunning little palette for just $3.

Rank: #1

Last but not least is ‘The Night’s Quad’. This has 2 mattes, one matte with glitter and one shimmer.

The matte transition is a very light, more neutral brown. This is the lightest transition of the 4; the matte browbone is a light buttery cream shade; the crease is a more satin-matte black base with sparse silver glitters; the lid is a silver metallic.

The formulas in this one were pretty good. The mattes blend out nicely and smoothly. That browbone can be a little more chalky, especially on darker skintones, but can be buffed out. The black shade is nice, and definitely pigmented. I recommend getting a little bit and slowly building it up, as it can get dark quickly. But it blends out nicely and is a good black to have in the collection.

And the silver is like the other shimmers – it builds up nicely and smoothly on the lid. It’s best to pick up the product and press it more into the lid instead of swiping, or even using your finger. But it can be built up and look nice on the lid.

This one is ranked farther down for me, not because of the formula, but because of the color palette. Now, I can usually build a full look with any palette I use, and I like to challenge myself. But this one was very hard to make a full wearable look all by itself. The transition shade is SO light, especially when blended out on the eyes, even on my fair skintone. And then your next step is a deep black. So it can be very hard to get a smooth gradient if you’re trying to do a smokey eye, or just deepen up the look. I wish that browbone shade had been replaced with a deeper color in between that transition and black, and then it would have been the perfect smokey eye palette.

Overall, it’s just not the easiest to get a full smooth eye look from – or you’ll be working with mainly the same smoky look. It was just a little less versatile than the others and just a little messier.

Rank: #3

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The other eye product that comes in the box are 4 loose pigments.

Loose Pigments* in ‘Ice, Ice Lady’, ‘Gilded Crown’, ‘To-knight’s Blue’ and ‘Fire Reign’ ($3.99ea). All 4 pigments come in the box, or are available individually. Each one comes with 2 grams of product, so you’re getting quite a lot for $4.

They have a screw off black top, and then a cover to the shaker to keep the product in. I do find it can be a little hard to get product out of the holes in the top. I would flip it over over the black cap, and smack the bottom to get the product out into the black cap and then pick it up from there with a brush or my finger. It is nice that it doesn’t make a huge mess if you accidentally knock it over, but knocking it out of the sifter to use is where I made the most mess.

From left to right, ‘Ice, Ice Lady’, a light silver; ‘Gilded Crown’, a more yellow gold; ‘Fire Reign’, a deeper red cranberry shade; and ‘To-knight’s Blue’, a deeper purple toned blue.

Now for the formula of these. As you can see, built up, these look very nice. However, I found that it can be a little harder to build these up. Especially for the blue and red, I needed a tacky base, and to pack the color onto the lid. I also found as I tried to blend these, they tended to blend away a little more, and I would have to go back and forth between packing and blending. I liked ‘Ice, Ice Lady’ for a quick inner corner highlight.

But overall, these were more effort to use than just a normal powder shadow, especially with how hard they were to get out of the container, and how messy they were, and really not unique enough shades to warrant that extra effort. I think it’s honestly just better to grab a powder shadow – you won’t need glitter glue, and there are some great drugstore options out there that would be more vibrant and beautiful on the lids.

These are honestly a pass for me. If they came out with bolder metallics, or more unique shades, I would be into it. These were just too powdery and didn’t stick to each other well. It was too much work for an easy color that didn’t blow me away.

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The last group are the lip products. There are 4 liquid lipsticks and 2 lip toppers.

Liquid Metallic Lipsticks* in ‘Queen’s Blood’, ‘Redlings’, ‘Icing on the Wall’ and ‘Shall We Slay’ ($4.99ea). All 4 shades are available in the box set, or individually.

They are the traditional Wet N Wild Catsuit packaging, and then have metallic flames or icicles on the caps – it’s a foil print, so unfortunately it does wear off pretty easily. A night in my pocket basically rubbed off a lot of the icicle design.

From left to right: ‘Queen’s Blood’ is an orangey bronzey shade; ‘Redlings’ is a deeper rusty red shade; ‘Icing on the Wall’ is a deep jewel-toned blue; and ‘Shall We Slay’ is a smokey granite brown shade.

‘Queen’s Blood’ and ‘Redlings’ had a thicker, more moussey texture, it was almost a lil puff of product on the applicator when you pulled it out that you could smooth onto the lips. ‘Shall We Slay’ was a little thinner, and ‘Icing on the Wall’ was the thinnest formula – it was more watery in texture, and applied sheerly onto the lips.

Here they are on the lips are well. As you can see they’re more shimmery than true metallics, so they’re a little more forgiving than normal metallic lipsticks.

For all of these lip swatches, this was two coats built up. I applied one coat, let it dry down, and then applied a 2nd coat to cover any last uneven patches and deepen the color. The blue was the worst, and most patchy, maybe even taking a 3rd coat to cover any last patches. The red and orange had the best formula, building up well in 2 coats.

When these dry down, they almost feel like a film on your lips. They’re not super drying, and are pretty lightweight, but you’re still able to feel them on your lips. They feel like a light layer on top, keeping the moisture in. And once they’re on, they do last well through eating and drinking, except if you eat something more oily, they will wear off around the middle of the lips. Since they’re darker colors, the “butthole” lip look can be obvious, so they’re something to carry with you throughout a longer night where you might be eating and drinking.

These weren’t the best, due to the multiple coats (and they’ve shown they can do better metallic formulas than this in the Midnight Mermaid collection a while ago). I would say the blue is a pass, and the others are up to you whether you want to work to build them up. They’re a little more effort, but they are more fun, unique colors.

I also compared them to the colors from the Midnight Mermaid collection. As you can see, the Midnight Mermaid shades are a touch darker and especially the blue is more cool toned. Do you need these if you have the Mermaid Shades ‘Coral Crown’ and ‘Harbor a Crush’ – or ‘Once in Bronze Moon’ and ‘I Don’t Dessert You’ from their permanent metallics, which are the same shade as the Mermaid shades? No, not at all. I recommend those shades over these new releases honestly. They’re better formulas than these, especially the blue.

Honestly, Wet N Wild, you can hold off on making a metallic bronze or red for quite a wild – this is the 3rd round of releasing those shades, so we would love some other colors.

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Very last of all, we have the two lip toppers.

Lip Toppers in ‘Wild Bling’s’ and ‘Flames of Glory’ ($4.99ea). These are not available in the box and have to be purchased separately. They are the same style as the metallic lipsticks, with the traditional packaging, and the foil flames/icicles on the caps.

These are both sheer milky bases with either a red flash, or a blue flash. The blue flash is very strong on the lips, and shows up very icy.

As you can see, it has tiny microscopic shimmer throughout.

If you have their lipgloss in ‘Cancer’ from the previous Zodiac collection, you don’t need ‘Flames of Glory’ as they’re pretty much exactly the same when applied to the lips. (Again, with repeating colors in concurrent collections…)

It’s very smooth and moisturizing on the lips. You don’t feel any grainy glitter particles or anything like that. It’s quite like their Zodiac lipglosses, and is very easy and comfortable to wear.

It’s just like any normal gloss – it’s not super longwearing, but is easy to reapply. It’s not super pigmented, so you don’t really need a mirror to reapply. As it fades away, it does leave behind some small glitters, but they’re not super obvious, and is just a nice sparkle to the lips.

‘Wild Bling’s’ is definitely a little more milky in the base, and the flash is stronger than in ‘Flames of Glory’ and definitely gives a unique look to the lips. It’s a quick easy way to add some sparkle and shine to the lips.

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And that’s it! Whew, that was a novel, but there was a lot to talk about.

If you need a summary:

BEST: Highlighters in ‘Winter Falls in LA’ and ‘Glow Watcher’; just ONE of the bronzer shades since both are very similar; the highlighter brush; the quads in ‘Dragon Scales’ and ‘Fit for a Queen’; the lip toppers in ‘Wild Bling’s’ and ‘Flames of Glory’

MAYBE: Highlighter in ‘Halo Walkers’ – if you want a unique blue look; the eyeshadow quad in ‘The Night’s Quad’ if you want something really smoky; the liquid metallic lipstick in ‘Shall We Slay’ if you want that unique color

PASS: The quad in ‘Mythicool Creatures’; the loose eye pigments; the other 3 metallic liquid lipsticks – the mermaid collection shades are on sale if you want those exact colors in better formulas.

There were definitely some hits and misses in this collection, so I’ve broken it all down for you. Wet N Wild may be one of my favorite brands, but I will still always be honest about what just didn’t work, and what’s just not worth it even at their very affordable price.

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Like I said, I want to get better at just sitting down and tackling these longer posts. I know it’s helpful to at least one person who sees these limited edition collections, and I love constantly trying new products from Wet N Wild. It’s all about just starting.

I’m still working my way through all of the makeup reviews I have to tell you about! It’s been nice to check things off my list, and I’ve been loving trying new products and talking about them.

Lots of new reviews are coming up – and I’m working on my decluttering as well, so I’ll be posting about that. Have you been decluttering at all in the new year? Any new products that you got over the holidays?

Lots of stuff coming your way still!

 

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