It was only a matter of time, I guess, until I caved and purchased the BH Cosmetics Carli Bybel palette. While I watch a lot of YouTube, I'm not subscribed to her. I felt like this was an important thing to note becaue I'm coming at this from an unbiased perspective since I'm not a huge fan. It's nothing against her- I just don't watch the videos!
But I've been hearing rave reviews and wanted to try out a non-baked palette from BH. I have two of their baked shadow palettes (which I will be reviewing), but this seemed to be a great place to try.
In case you didn't know who Carli Bybel is, she's a YouTuber with over 5.4 million subscribers. I can honestly say I've only ever watched one of her videos, so that's not why I picked this palette up. This palette is distributed via BH's website, Carli's website, Ulta.com, and Ulta stores (ding ding ding). My Ulta has had these near the cash registers, and I've been admiring it for a bit.
Let's talk about what your $22.50 gets you. The palette has 21 eye and face shades. There are 6 shades designed to be highlighters and 15 eyeshadows. This palette is cruelty free as well.
The packaging is a cardboard palette that comes in a sleeve. I feel like the white marble inside will get dirty relatively quickly. The exterior, which appears to be quilted, has rose gold lettering. It's quite pretty.
The palette also has a total weight of 1.06oz/30g. Just holding it in my hand, it feels substantial.
There's also a decent sized mirror inside, along with the quote "Aspire to Inspire" underneath. A plastic sheet is attached to hold down the dust; I left mine on.
Let's start out by talking about the 15 eyeshadows. At first, I wasn't terribly impressed. Once again, my first impressions were proven incorrect once I dug in. There are 3 different themes, and wait until you see the swatches. These are all dry swatched as well.
The top row is gloriously warm and on trend:
The middle row is mauves and purples:
The third row is neutrals:
This palette is awesome. It has a great mix of shimmers and mattes- and with all of these different tones, you can make so many different looks. I'll show two different ones later in this post.
Now, onto the highlighters.
I swatched the two new ones (in the rectangles) followed by the row of four square highlighters.
Under studio lighting:
A little less direct lighting:
Overall, I'm so impressed.
Now, let's move onto my testing looks and thoughts.
For look #1, I was inspired by that purple metallic shade in row #2 for a cool-toned look to counterbalance all of the warmness.
I used the first shade in the bottom row, and the second, third and fourth shades in the middle row. I'm obsessed with that purple metallic shade and will be using it over and over. It's such a winner! This is a 100% dry look.
I decided to go in a different direction for look #2 and took my inspiration from the 2 metallic shades in the upper right row.
I'm going to be candid here. I wet the shadows on my lid and blended. I loved this fiery coral look.
And then... I took it off. You guys, shade #4 of the first row stained my lids even with primer!
Here's what my brush looked like after four washes. Just imagine what my poor, sensitive eyes looked like.
That is the only drawback to the palette that I've ran into. Keep in mind I was also using MAC Painterly Paint Pot.
With respect to wearability, these are great and pigmented. They wear all day with primer, and didn't fade. I like mixing the two new highlighters with the pearly white, and it's light enough for my pale self to wear.
Bottom Line: This is one of the most versatile palettes that I've tried in a long time, and it's at drugstore pricing. I can't recommend these enough despite the staining issue. Please let me know if you've experienced anything similar! This is probably the best $22.50 you'll spend on a palette.
