I have good news, or bad, depending on which point of view you see it from. The holiday palettes from the different cosmetic brands have finally landed in various make up store in the U.S. I know it’s sad that most of these lovely palettes will not be available in Indonesia. Fret not, since most of the usual suspect on our beloved Market Plaza will surely offer to help you getting one of the palettes.
Holiday palette is the best way to start building up your make up collection because usually cosmetic brands will create ridiculously beautiful palette with wide array of products and colours at really affordable price.
So now onto the palette. Since there are so many to choose from, here are the top 5 picks from me.
1. Cargo, The Runway Palette, $49 ($175 Value)
This Sephora-exclusive palette has gone out of stock days after it first landed on the store. It’s reasonably-sized, not one of those very tiny eyeshadow and blush-size kind of palette, and the selection of eyeshadow and blush is just so breathtaking. It is now available again on Sephora.com just in time for the Friends-and-Family event starting on 19th October.
This palette contains 3 of their best blushes: Big Easy, Rome and Topeka. It also houses the essential palette in gray, to create that smashing smokey eyes-look that you always dream about. The eyeshadow are embossed with instruction on where to place it. How easy is that?
This set also contains 6 Button Eye Shadows in Emerald Green, Charcoal Blue, Shimmering Green-Gold, Golden Brown, Dusk Blue, Matte Purple, and a medium bronzer for that sun-kissed look.
2. Laura Mercier Colour Wardrobe, $98 ($235 value)
The two-tiered compact holds 6 eye colours, 3 cheek colours, 6 lip stains and 2 finishing lip glazes. Most of the colours from Laura Mercier tend to be on the safer side that will be able to suit every skin tone and shade.
This palette might be on the pricier side, but if you really want to try Laura Mercier, do buy this palette. Its lip stains and lip glazes are to die for!
This palette can easily take your look from day to night. You can create different looks for your cheeks with the different shade of cheek colours that range from deep, sheer and highlighter in Plum, Rose and Nude respectively.
3. Urban Decay Book of Shadows Vol. II, $48
Last year I bought the Book of Shadows palette and it was one of the best holiday purchases ever. The eyeshadow size is reasonable, not too small and not too big that it makes you think when will you be able to finish it? The texture is silky, and the colour payoff is just fabulous. My only complain is that this palette doesn’t offer variety of finishes on the eyeshadow.
The palette offers 16 shadows with 8 colours exclusive for this set. A travel size, raved-about 24/7 eye pencils in zero and bourbon. On top of that, you will also get the famous mini bottle of Eyeshadow Primer Potion. Just about the right mix of products and colours to start experimenting with eye make up.
It also comes with a generous size mirror, perfect for traveling.
4. Tsumori Chisato for Shu Uemura Planet Ribbon Palette, $65
Shu Uemura palettes have never failed me before. They always give quirky combination of colours in one palette but somehow it just works! Like this palette for instance, I could not imagine myself putting pink and violet eyeshadow with coral-ish blush. The combination just seems unreal but I can see how it works with the gold eyeshadow. This palette also contains deep brown eyeshadow which you can use for filling in your eyebrow or lining your eyes. Other than the blush, it also holds 1 cream highlighter that you can easily use as highlighter on your cheekbones or eyebrow bone. At the end, you can actually survive doing you face with this one palette and it’s so compact in size!
As a bonus, don’t you think that tie-ribbon design on the case is just so cute!
5. Tarte Treasure Chest, $52
One word only, WOW! I simply cannot stop drooling looking at this palette. Rumour has it that this palette is even more spectacular in person!
Tarte has been selling fabulous holiday palettes since 2 years ago. The palette seems to get better each year. The good news is that this palette is beyond reasonably-priced, and its 30% bigger from last year palette.
This set contains not 16 eyeshadow like last year, but doubled the amount. Yeap that would be 32 eyeshadows in total! Enough colours to play around for the whole month. With 16 full-sized shimmering Tarte eyeshadows and also 16 full-sized matte Tarte eyeshadow. Tarte eyeshadow’s colour payoff and texture are probably not the best, but they are still really good.
This palette also contains its best-selling Mineral Powder Bronzer In Park Ave Princess, new soft pink luminizer and 4 new powder blushes. It also houses 16 different shades and textures of Tarte lipglosses.
The good news is, even though this product is affordable, Tarte still manages to make it without filler ingredients Parabens, petrochemical, Phthalates, Sulfate, GMO and Triclosan.
As a closing, I’m reminding you that Sephora is having their Friends-and-Family Sale offer on 19 October until 2 November 2009.
