In November of 2024, I finally published up a little post swatching a NYX makeup collection (that collection was limited edition, but if you still want to read it, I’m not stopping you). If you’ve been here long enough, you’ll know I had dabbled in adding makeup to this blog before that post, starting way back in 2017. From there I had some scattered moments throughout the years until all makeup posting finally petered out in 2021. I had been more ambitious and consistent with my reviews in January 2020, but then we all know what happened a couple months later. Either way, even as I was posting makeup reviews, I had never fully settled into a routine with them to keep them consistent, and no matter what they always took a very distant 2nd place behind nail polish.

Now don’t let that above phrasing scare you, Gingerly Polished will always be first and foremost about new nail polish. But makeup has always been right up there in my interests along with nail polish. I get just as excited for its new releases and collections, and I enjoy wearing it just as much. The beauty products in my life are never limited to just nail polish, and so I don’t want this blog to be either. With each of these first posts of this new year, I’ve been detailing my blog plans (I promise that won’t repeat much longer) and now it’s time to talk about the other essential part of those resolutions.

I’ve been adamant that eventually I want to settle into a 3+ posts per week routine for Gingerly Polished in 2025. I’ve mentioned that obviously at least 2 each week are going to be nail related, but now I’m fully noting it down that eventually I want at least 1 makeup related post going up each week. Am I now going to use this goal as an excuse to buy even more new makeup products, saying “it’s for the blog” Obviously. (It’s a joke I’m still being financially responsible here, I promise). I already have built quite a little stash of new products over these past months that I’m still so excited about, and I just want to share them with an audience. Just like nail polish, I’m here to show you the colors and formulas and just help you be more informed shoppers. We’re just finally following through with our goals and plans here!!

So here’s to the first Gingerly Polished makeup post of 2025! I don’t expect to be immediately amazing and have those posts up constantly – I know it’ll take some time. But if I just post once more makeup review after this one, we already beat 2024’s totals! That’s just called smart goal-making, okay.

So here’s to more makeup on Gingerly Polished in 2025! Let’s get into our first one already!

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ALRIGHT, just like nail polish, we’re keeping this all more affordable. My first love is always drugstore, but I’ve also been dabbling in a few indie brands. So for this post, we’re looking at this new gorgeous palette from a brand called Cosmic Brushes. They’re a UK-based brand, and I had been seeing their stunning color stories all over my feed, and just wanting after them for too long.

They then released their ‘Cooltrals’ and ‘Nudetrals’ palettes in the Summer of 2024, and I finally made my first purchase. Coming from the UK, the shipping costs are a touch higher, but overall their palettes are still more affordable, being around $34 per palette. Then Black Friday came around and listen I might have then bought basically every palette they’ve released. Meaning I do have quite a few to review, and this is not the last of Cosmic Brushes you’ll be seeing on Gingerly Polished.

For now we’re starting with their ‘Tis the Season’ release. Yes, obviously I would have loved to get this up before the Christmas season was over, as yes, it’s very themed, but see my notes and comments above about still working on that routine of posting. This palette is still available on their website, and listen, you’re not required to wear the red and green shadows together. I’m not limited by the seasons with my makeup, and you shouldn’t be either – there are enough other colors to have you covered here.

As mentioned, it’s currently available on the Cosmic Brushes website. It does say Limited Edition in the description, so I’m not sure how long they’ll keep it around, but you can buy it at the moment of posting for $36.

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The palette itself comes in a lovely deep cranberry red colored cardboard, covered with a festive foiled rose gold bouquet of flowers and winter plants, giving us those full holiday feelings (or you know February). It’s a thicker cardboard packaging, the same cardboard as their other palettes, and is also the same size as their other previous releases, making it lovely to stack with any other previous or future releases you might pick up.

This palettes comes with 20 shadows, which are made up of 12 mattes, 7 shimmers and one stunning multichrome there in the corner.

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Just look at this color story! We do get those traditional red, green and gold shades, but it also expands out to purples, corals and oranges. I’m not stopping you from going full Christmas in February or even the summer, but you most certainly won’t be limited here.

Giving you a closer look here, you’ll be able to notice right off the bat that this palette contains mixture of more traditional shimmer shades, as well as some “thicker” more foiled shades. (And don’t be scared off by that adjective – it just means they’re slightly denser than other traditional shimmer shades, but they give insanely smooth and even color payoff. You’ll see what I mean in the swatches further down).

CB also does a great job of featuring the full range of depths in each color family, making it easy to create full looks, complete with a complementary shimmer.

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Now into the swatches! I know swatches won’t ever tell the full story of a product. They won’t tell you about longevity or creasing on the eyes, but full reviews and looks take more time so for those wanting to know sooner about a product, I like to get a swatch post up first! That way you can still get a sense of the color story and how shades will look – especially if you’re close to my coloring – and I’ll be able to show you the levels of pigment and payoff. Overall I still find them helpful with my own purchasing decisions, and so I’ll keep posting them up!

For order we go across each row left to right in the palette, and then on my arm we go from the bottom-left up, then over to the bottom-right and up. All of these swatches are on my bare arm with no primer underneath. Most swatches are just one swipe, though with a couple of the deeper mattes I built up a tiny bit more. Yes most of these colors will be more concentrated than how you’ll use them on the eyes – but they’re here to show color and finish.

Top row: ‘Decorations’ is a bright lime green foiled shimmer. ‘Mistletoe’ is warm lime green matte. ‘Garland’ is a rich forest green matte (that one felt a touch patchy on first pickup, but I think it’ll just need more layering and blending – something that’s somewhat normal for a deeper green matte). ‘Festive’ is a rich cooler toned green shimmer. ‘Holly’ is a deep, almost blackened emerald green matte. (Again, looking a touch more patchy, but that can happen with picking up a larger amount of a deeper matte.)

2nd row: ‘Hot Chocolate’ is a cooler deeper brown matte. ‘Candle Light’ is a bright golden-orange shimmer. ‘Cookies’ is a bright almost burnt orange matte. ‘Ginger’ is a soft peachy warm matte. ‘Celebrate’ is a warm champagne shimmer.

3rd row: ‘Fairy Lights’ is a unique shimmer, being an almost iridescent silvery purple. I bet it would be stunning layered on top of any of the deeper mattes in the palette. ‘Tis the Season’ is a rich, warm toned eggplant purple matte. ‘Party’ is a soft lilac purple matte. ‘Baubles’ is a warm foiled purple shimmer. And ‘Gifting’ is a warm medium purple matte.

Final row: ‘Mulled Wine’ is a medium berry purple matte. ‘Tinsel’ looks more coral in its pan, but it’s a soft pink base filled with a golden-orange shimmer. ‘Ribbon’ is a light beige matte. ‘Stocking’ is a bright, pink toned cherry red matte. And last but certainly not least is ‘Cranberries’, a shifting multichrome that goes from a warm burnt red, to a coppery-orange all the way to a bright forest green.

In the arm swatches, as I mentioned above, you can see more of the difference in those traditional shimmer formulas, and those more foiled finishes. ‘Decorations’, the lime green, and ‘Baubles’, that bright purple have that larger particle glitter, while you can see ‘Festive’, that deeper green shimmer next to it has a finer glitter all throughout it. You’ll notice more as you pick them up as well, but again it’s not a bad thing at all! Those thicker shimmers just give an even more metallic, foiled finish on the eyes.

You get a peek of the shiftiness of that multichrome ‘Cranberries’ from the arm swatches, but this shade is truly stunning and so multidimensional, and I felt it deserved its own final shot. It’s going from that deep cranberry red over to a coppery orange, all the way to a bright olive green shade. Especially on a moving 3-dimensional surface like your eyes, it’ll really come alive and will make it look as if you’ve used multiple shades on your eyes. It’s so impressive that Cosmic Brushes can include amazing finishes like this one in their palettes and still keep their prices down.

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For a super informal formula from the times I’ve been playing with this palette: If you’ve never tried Cosmic Brushes’ formula, I find their mattes to be very pigmented and smooth, yet they blend out so well on the eyes. If these rich saturated colors are a touch intimidating, you can make sure to go in with just a tap of powder and slowly build up the color and layer it on the nails eyes (not me being so used to talking about nail polish here). As I noted, especially with those deeper matte shades, I do recommend going in with a light amount of product and just adding layers. Otherwise you might end with some patches, or you can accidentally have shadow going all the way up to your eyebrows.

Again, there is a good range of depths in the mattes for each color family, so you’ll be able to use lighter shades to blend out any deeper harsh lines, and give a gorgeous gradient on the eyes. I have oily lids that will crease, so I do always use eyeshadow primer for each and every eye look, so I cannot tell you how they perform on bare eyelids. But on a dried down primer I had no issues with them showing up or smoothing out.

For the shimmers, I was able to pick them up on a brush and place them on the eye well. But I did prefer to use my finger and really press them onto the lid to get the full payoff and smooth finish.

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And that’s the palette! Even though it’s more Christmas themed, I truly think it can be used and worn all year round (and if you want to do Christmas looks all year round, I’m not stopping you). I really enjoyed the Cosmic Brushes formula, and I think they’re producing beautiful palettes and color stories and finishes, all within a more affordable price. I’m definitely going to be watching out for their future releases, and I can’t wait to swatch up the other palettes I’ve picked up!

Are you interested in this brand?

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Upcoming Posts
Profusion x Peanuts Holiday collection • LA Girl Shine Holiday collection • Wet N Wild x Hello Kitty collection • Colourpop x Twilight & New Moon collections • L’oreal Stick highlighters

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