NYX Beyond Basics Holiday Kit 17

Confession: I was trolling for a new palette at Ulta recently during the 5X point multiplier (I have something in mind for my 20% off coupon and I want to combine with as many points as possible to lower the price.). I was literally frustrated, and this attacked me in the leg.

So, I brought it home.

Say hello to the NYX Beyond Basic Holiday Kit- Version 17 ($20, in-store only at Ulta but online here at NYX Cosmetics). According to the brand's website, there are two versions of this kit.

For your $20, you receive three items- a six pan eyeshadow palette (same size as the Lingerie palette if you're curious), a black Matte liquid liner, and a Matte Liquid Lipstick in Nude Rose.

I'll be honest, I haven't had much time to play and test this because I got it 48 hours before the allergic reaction on my eye. So this is more of a swatch overview in case you'd like to pick this up as a last-minute gift.

For me, the six-pan shadow palette is the star. There are five mattes and a lone shimmer.

The six 0.04 pans are only numbered. It's worth noting that the brilliant magenta is marked as a pressed pigment that's not eye safe.  This usually means that there's a non-FDA approved dye involved. It's also worth noting that there's an explicit waterline warning because this contains carmine. So, don't use this on the waterline.

These shades just look like this time of year, don't they? Here's how they look swatched:

That creme is almost the same as my NW15 skin, that's why you can't see it. I'll get a lot of use out of this and will be sure to report back once I've thoroughly tested it.

To pair with the palette, you receive a Matte Liquid Liner. This looks to be close to full size, if not equal.

It's got a brush tip, and will be pulling this into my rotation in 2018.

Lastly, there's a Matte Liquid Lipstick in Nude Rose in the kit. I've not seen this formula on their site, or in a NYX store before. It's close to a full size though.

Admittedly, I didn't let this dry down before taking the photo, but it's representative to the color. With my furnace now running all the time, I have to be careful with drying items on my hands. Nude rose is a nice warm nude that I'll be happy to try once it gets a little warmer and my lips a little less chapped.

This is a fun little stocking stuffer- I know we're up on it in terms of holiday shopping, but there were plenty of years where I worked until the 21st, shopped for 14 hours on the 22nd, drove home to my parents' home on the 23rd, and wrapped the 24th. So I know there are still people shopping. These kits appear to be in-store at Ulta but online from NYX. I think it's a nice little value for sure.

Kiko Arctic Holiday Collection: Holographic Highlighter in 01 White Snowflake, Metal Eyeshadow in 03 Mysterious Blue, and Eyeliner in 03

First, a giant warning and scolding: I am aware that these products aren't holo- their boxes are. I'm using the product name that's provided by the brand.

I know my holo, ok?

I picked up three products from the Kiko Arctic Holiday Collection- but I wanted everything. I've got the Holographic Highlighter 01 White Snowflake, Metal Eyeshadow 03 Mysterious Blue, and Eyeliner 03 today.

Let's start with the Holographic Highlighter.

The box is the only holo thing, but that doesn't mean this highlighter isn't pretty!

These weigh in at 3.5g/0.12oz and retail for $18. There are two shades- Shade 02 is a gold that'd be gorgeous on deep skintones so I didn't pick it up. White Snowflake was made for me though.

This stunner has a real purple shift that's made it one of my favorites.

Let's go to the swatch- this swatch and all others in this post are finger swatches as opposed to my usual brush method due to the texture and pan designs:

I've only tested this once because I can't force myself to put another highlighter down. I am looking forwarding to playing with this once it gets cooler- I see this as a true winter product for me.

One of the things you may not know about me is that purple highlighters are my weakness. I'm so very happy that Becca has stealth repromoted two of my favorite shades this holiday (Rose Quartz and Prismatic Amethyst- don't those tell you my comfort zone?) and I'll be snagging a backup of Prismatic Amethyst. Since the Kiko highlighter in question appears to be selling fast, here are a few comparison swatches.

L-R (reviews linked when they exist): Kat Von D Ultra Violet, Becca Prismatic Amethyst, Kiko White Snowflake, Ulta Fairy, Anastasia Beverly Hills Purple Horseshoe, ABH Spectra

To the naked eye, it's closest to ABH Spectra from the Aurora palette- but they're different enough to justify owning both. The Kiko's got more obvious sparkle. Sad thing is I didn't swatch one powder and two other liquid purple highlighters. I told you, they're a thing for me.



Next up, the single Metal Eyeshadow ($14) that I picked up.

There are four of these in the collection, and at first, I had them all in my bag. I selected 03 Mysterious Blue because it's unique in my collection.

This eyeshadow contains 2.5g/0.08oz of product.

This is a darkened blue glitter with a black base. But this pan? It's just lovely.

Take a look at the swatch, under two different light conditions.

The left side is under natural lighting, the right side is under artificial lighting to pull out the sparkle.

Now, a quick note on the other shades. I managed this sneaky swatch pic here:

I debated the cream eyeshadow sticks ($12), but passed. I liked the metallic lipsticks ($12) but the shade I wanted was out of stock. When they say limited, my store had 2-5 of each item!

Let's talk about the Metal Eyeshadows for a minute. My impulse was to buy all four, but here's why I only brought home one. 01 Frozen Gold is gorgeous but I have so many other pretty shades similar to it. I bought Natasha Denona Aeris the day before I went to the Kiko store, so that's why I passed on 02 Burgundy Aurora. I literally was testing the burgundy shade from Aeris so I swatched the tester on my hand, walked over to the mirror, and held it up near my eye. Done. I would've picked up 04 Nordic Graphite if I hadn't just bought MAC Starry, Starry Night.

I'm also so happy that I passed on the blue pigment from the Fall 2.0 collection-so this is truly unique in my collection!

I haven't been able to give this a true wear test because it's a weekend color- and I'm doing a look every night for #ProjectUseThemALL. I did test it along my lower lash line for a pop of color and it hung in well. It's also looked lovely the time that I tried it for a 3-hour stint. Normally I'd hold a review until I had a full wear test in, but these are limited edition and I wanted to get up a review ASAP. I have this in my travel bag and have it with me right now- I'll comment down below on my thoughts if I wear it while visiting family.

Now, let's talk about the final item I picked up, a double-ended liner ($9)

This has both a deep red side

And a soft, green, sparkling end.

I was really unhappy when I broke the tip on the green side just swatching:

So be warned, that shade is hella soft.

So, here's how the eyeliner looks, swatched:

I think these are really nice shades, and if I didn't have a ton of eyeliners I'd look at picking up the others.

Bottom Line: I have a feeling this is just round one of several for this collection. I'm really a huge fan of Kiko's releases- and I love the general vibe of this collection. Check back soon for the probable Round 2.

MAC Snow Ball Eye Bag in Smoky Gold for Holiday 2017

And hello my lovelies!

Welcome back to Holiday 2017. Sorry that I had to use a bit of filler, but this week has been insane. Heck, just look at my Instagram regarding this very post to see what's up. I had this on my eyes and photographed by a few minutes after 5AM.

Let's talk about my final selection from the MAC Snow Ball Collection-the Eye Bag in Smoky Gold. As an aside, I know that's descriptive, but I hate the name. This comes with three products in a gorgeous makeup bag for $39.50. There are two versions of this- Smoky Gold and Smoky Pink. This is being widely released on Thursday, November 2 as part of Phase II of MAC Snow Ball Holiday 2017 collection.

So, let's talk about what you get for your $39.50. I tend to find the eye kits one of the better values (if the products perform).

First, you receive a pair of Extra Dimension Eyeshadows in Just Gleaming and Snowdusk in one of those pre-made MAC duos.

Comparing the size of the pan, you receive the same amount as the singles, which normally retail for $20 each. And these come with the gorgeous snowflake stamping as well.

I thought these two corresponded really well with the singles at the event, hence why I picked this up. Just Gleaming is a pretty champagne gold color, and Snowdusk is a gorgeous taupey brown that's hitting those cool-toned notes for me.

Like the singles, here's a finger swatch:

No, not the most original shades but they're so pretty to have.  I think they're very wearable.

Now, let's talk about when I tested the shadows. Admittedly, these got a one-day test, with Glitter Glue on my lid, and without primer in the inner corner.

These are really stiff and produce a lot of fallout for this formula. Whereas the singles just glide like butter, I had to be careful with these and ultimately ended up foiling them. I honestly don't mind, but I feel it's significant enough to provide a consumer warning. I've never ran into this with the Extra Dimension eyeshadow before- I'm used to them being almost creamy. Hmm.

The day that I tested these I put Snowdusk all over my lid, with just a little bit of Just Gleaming on the inner part of the lid and a bit of inner corner highlight. In case you're wondering, I paired this with the top row of the Viseart Cool Matte eyeshadow palette.

Next up, you receive a Technakohl Liner Kajal in Photogravure.

This is the same size as the ones normally released, and is a part of the permanent collection.

This is a totally wearable dark brown- I've been testing it on the lower lashline, and actually abandoned black upper liner one day to see how it performed up there. It's not my holy grail, but it's a nice formula. And the color's just a great, wearable shade.

I think the best review I can give is that as someone with way too many brown liners, I'd repurchase. I've been testing this off and on for the entire work week, unlike the shadows. It's good.

So far, so good with this set!


The final product in the bag is the In Extreme Dimension Lash Mascara, which normally retails for $22.

I'm going to point you to the brand for photos of the wand, as I'm not going to open this guy up until I'm ready to start using it. Sorry, but I don't want to be wasteful of mascara. I have used the formula before- be careful, as a little goes a long way with this rubber wand.

We're at a total value of $79.50 for the contents of the bag.

Now, let's talk about the bag itself.

It's silver with a lace overlay and beautiful. It's worth a few dollars at the very least. We're already at double the price-that's the range of value that I generally look for in a value set.

In short, I think this is a great kit and it would make a fantastic gift. Although I'm done purchasing from what I consider to be one of the best collections of the season, I hope that there's a full restock and everyone gets to enjoy it as well. I'm feeling very festive these days!

Ofra Holiday Glow Palette

Sometimes even a product junkie ends up on total overload and products get overlooked.

I actually picked up the Ofra Holiday Glow Palette ($49.50, Ulta) during the first week of Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty and only recently got around to testing it out.

I'm going to do a hard pass on many holiday releases, but I've been wanting to try some of the Ofra pressed powder products and I had some Ulta points to bring down the price... so into my cart that it went.

This palette consists of 6 shimmery eyeshadows, 2 matte potted eyeliner shades, one shimmery bronzer, one of the classic highlighters, and four blushes. I'll mention that each of these items are removable; the shades are only labeled on the overlay. I haven't removed the pans to see if they are on the bottom of each pan.You also get a nicely-sized mirror in this packaging.

Although it's cardboard, it does feel quite sturdy.

Let's take a look at the shades in detail.

Here are the eyeshadows:

Millenium Gold is that gorgeous cool-toned gold that I've been searching for as of late. I think it's my favorite of the six shades.

And the blushes:

I have some mixed feelings here- I feel like they're trying to make a universal palette. I can wear Apricot and Pink Satin easily, Candy Apple with a very refined hand- but B-29 is going to waste away. Someone with a medium complexion is going to find Apricot and Pink Satin useless, etc.

The bronzer and highlighter:

And the eyeliner shades:

It's a very pretty, holiday-appropriate palette. Ofra went very safe and classic holiday for this first release.

Now, let's talk about actually using it.

This is where Ofra missed the mark for me- with a palette this size, with this many type of shades, I'd want to be able to do entire look from it. And I can't. I had to pull out one of my new favorites (keep an eye out in a few days for my review of a palette that snuck up on me.) to make this workable. I know this is a "glow" palette, but one cannot make a modern look without any mattes.

Here's a look at the cheek look I did:

That's a mix of Apricot and Pink Satin, with some Blissful highlighter (which I own in a single pan) and the Americano bronzer. It's a lot of shimmer. And shows some serious texture.

I played with this on three different occasions and ended up with similar looks. The palette's very holiday, but I struggle to make a lot of completely different looks. I do really love the way this turned out:

It features Millenium Gold, Bohemian, and Plastic. I could wear this often.

Let's talk a bit about value. The palette retails for $49.50, and claims to be a $182 value.  I think it's a good way to try an assortment of products, but I certainly wouldn't pay $182 for the products individually.

I didn't have any issues, quality-wise with this palette. It's solid, and I could probably travel with this and my Tarte Clay Play palette and essentially be happy for an entire face. It doesn't meet my expectations in that it needed a buddy palette- but I can deal with that.

Overall, I think this is a good introduction to the brand,and it would be a good holiday gift. I'll try to pull this into more frequent rotation during the holiday season.