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Here we go, THE LAST REVIEW OF 2019!! The last palette review of the DECADE. (I’m already having too much fun making decade jokes).

It’s fitting that the last post is a palette review, because you know I say this in every palette review, but it’s now going to be a goal for 2020 that I get my sh*t together and finally figure out a way to review palettes in a more consistent and efficient manner. I want to get up so many more makeup reviews in the 2019, along with nail collections of course. It’s especially a goal now after I’ve been a MONSTER lately and have picked up just so many new palettes. I’m not allowed to get any more until I have made a dent in my stack. (Especially when this took even longer to review. I’ll be going over this goal and others for the blog in a New Years post, so stay tuned for that).

I’ve also said 16 million times that eyeshadow is my favorite area of makeup, so I just want ALL THE PALETTES. There have been so many new beautiful palettes that have come out lately (I won’t lie, I have a ton from Colourpop to eventually talk about). I’ve made a couple of hauls of newer releases, and I’m so excited to talk about them.

As always, I’ll put swatches, eye looks and then the review at the end of the post. Feel free to jump to any part of the post using the links above.

Now let’s talk about the first palette off the stack today! This was the first BH Cosmetics palette I had picked up in quite a while (I honestly think the last one I grabbed was the 2nd edition of their large Zodiac palette). Just nothing had caught my eye enough until I saw this palette (and it was 10x points on eyeshadow palettes at Ulta when I grabbed it, so that didn’t hurt). It was the neutrals paired with pops of pink and blue that just got me for some reason, so I threw it right in with my haul.

This is the Fairy Lights palette and it has 20 shades. It dropped as part of the ‘Fairy Lights collection’, which seems to be BH Cosmetic’s Holiday collection for 2019. Also released in the collection was a Brush Set and a Shimmering Body Powder – basically a large loose highlighter.

This retails for $20 on the BH Cosmetics and Ulta website – although it’s currently on sale for $14 on the Ulta website. BH also always does a ton of sales, so if you’re patient you can usually snag it for less than full price. And it’s always included in the $5 off $15 coupon you automatically get from Ulta, since it counts as drugstore.

I ended up grabbing this from Ulta during a massive palette haul – I had a 20% off coupon and they did 5x points on all eyeshadow palettes so I used that opportunity to pick up entirely too many palettes and rack up $50 worth of extra points in the process – so no regrets here. (Definitely also watch out for those bonus Ulta offers as well). You’ll be seeing lots of palette reviews going forward!

The palette itself comes in white sequined iridescent packaging.

The sequins are fully flat and packed on, so they’re not going to flake off or drop. It’s also just a touch textured, but overall is pretty smooth, and the sequins aren’t going to catch on anything. This packaging is just so fun and fitting for a holiday release.

And here’s the palette! Like I mentioned above, it’s a neutral based palette with pops of pink and blue to it.

It’s the same type of packaging and layout as both their Weekend Festival and their Color Festival Palette. The Weekend Festival palette has been discontinued, and the Color Festival palette is currently over half off, so it might be also going away soon. I absolutely loved the Weekend Festival palette, so I was very hopeful that this would be the same formula as that one.

It has the names to the right of the shades, which I always appreciate as well, especially when I’m doing reviews and showing looks.

It also surprised me with all of the dimensional and shifty shimmers it had in this palette – which you can see more of in the swatches.

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And here are the swatches! (Swatched on my bare arm, with no primer).

As you can see, there are 9 mattes and 11 shimmers, so nicely divided.

Here you can see the shiftiness of some of the shades that I wasn’t expecting from the pan. You can see Gleaming, that pink shimmer in the bottom right, with a lovely golden flash.

And then Rare, on the right, with a red-toned base with a gorgeous green-gold shimmer.

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And now the eye looks, where you can see the shades more clearly in action.

Look #1: This was a more neutral with a pop of gold look!

I used Precious blended up throughout the crease, with Bliss in the lower crease. Then with Muse in the outer corner, and Rare on the lid, with Luminous in the inner corner. This picture is not doing Rare justice, it’s a lovely gold shimmer with this lovely flash of green to it. So fun to spice up a neutral look.

(I also have Colourpop’s Crssd eyeliner in my waterline, I’ve been having a LOVE AFFAIR with colored eyeliners on my waterline, but that’s a whole different post).

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For Look #2, I knew I had to hit up those blue shades. I used Enamored in the crease, and then Passionate in the lower crease blended up. Then Twinkling on the center lid, with Rare on the inner lid.

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Last but not least we have Look #3, using the pink shades. (Sorry for the more jank photo, this was at the end of a long workday, and like I said I’m still figuring out the best way to photograph my eyeshadow looks without daylight).

We have Radiant blended throughout the crease, Muse in the outer corner and lower crease, Mesmerize on the lid with Gleaming on the inner third.

As you can see, you do get a range of pops of colors, as well as more neutral and subdued looks out of this palette.

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Now for the review!

Let’s talk about the mattes first. They are nicely pigmented and blend out beautifully. Even the ones that pack more of a punch pigment-wise are easy to blend out and create a smooth look. I can’t say enough good things about them, and there’s a nice range of shades to pack into the crease, as well as deeper shades to add depth to any look.

‘Passionate’, the deep navy blue matte, is incredibly pigmented and smooth – and blues can have a tendency to be harder to formulate, and it really packs a punch. I was so impressed with just how nice this shade was. I definitely recommend tapping off product and starting slow with it, as it can definitely get wild before you even realize it.

Once on the eyes ‘Radiant’ and ‘Adorn’, the two pink mattes look incredibly similar, so I do wish one of them was just a touch more different than the other, maybe deeper so it added more depth to a monochromatic pink look. They are also a touch more hard packed into the pan, so they do take a little more building on the eye, but overall, they’re still easy to work with. And with a more creative shade like pink, building up the shade is less intimidating for those who don’t go crazy with color.

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Now for the shimmers. I was nicely impressed with all of these shimmers as well! They’re smooth on the eyes and pick up easily, and I used a few of them, ‘Glistening’, ‘Sultry’ and ‘Brilliant’, for quick one shadow looks while I was at my parents for the holidays. They feel buttery in the pans and I had no problems with them.

And again, I was so dang impressed with the blues in this palette. Both ‘Twinkling’ and ‘Divine’ were so nice and gave such a bright and creative look when I wore them (you can see it in the eye looks above). For being the pop in the palette, they definitely delivered.

I did notice that some of the shimmers are a little drier, and a touch more, I don’t want to say crumbly, but just a little bit thicker than the other shades in the palette. Enough that it was a noticeable difference between the two. ‘Mesmerizing’ was the driest shade of the bunch, and I definitely did notice that I really needed to pack this on, and it did fade more throughout the day. ‘Gleaming’ was also a little less smooth than the others, but overall those were the only 2 I noticed it with. This doesn’t make them unworkable, but I did find I had to pat more of the product onto the lid, and they don’t stick as well to a dry lid. I think they’ll benefit more from a sticky base underneath them. This was only a problem for the darker pink shimmer, so only 1 shade out of all of them.

Overall, I think this is a really nice palette! I can’t think of any real complaints about this palette, even after using it so much. I was surprised at how everyday it was, and it has those lovely shimmers in there to create a pop of color in your look if you want it. I reached for this a ton when I needed quick neutral looks, and it’s gotten a lot of use since I bought it. I was definitely pleased with this palette. If the color story suits your preferences and collection, this would be a great one to pick up!

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Previous Palette Reviews
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Colourpop Sweet Talk Palette
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