Hi, my name is Maritza and I have an addiction to face palettes.
Ok, If I am going to be honest, I love all types of palettes: eye, face, blush, lips. Heck, it they came out with a foundation palette, I would be all up in that. Do they have a foundation palette? That would be neat, right? Like a palette of crème/stick like foundation that you can mix and match to create your perfect shade and not have to buy different shades when you are darker or lighter throughout the year.
Anyways, I have recently received a slew of face palettes for the holidays as gifts and I have to say that I love the idea of them. Basically, in one neat little package, you get contour, bronzer, highlighter and sometimes blush, which I don’t know about you, but 99% of the time I double these as eyeshadows to create a simple, clean, monochromatic, everyday look. I find that, lately, my favorite palette to do this with is the Tarteist Pro Glow Highlight and Contour Palette.
First of all, aesthetically, I love everything about this palette. The exterior has this sleek gold and black look that opens up from the middle, like one of those expensive jewelry boxes that houses a necklace. Then when you have it opened, you get is this delicious whiff of hot cocoa. Well, more like the hot cocoa powder you get in packets (think Swiss Miss), but it’s still wonderful.
The palette contains 4 highlight shades, 1 crème contour and 1 powder contour/bronzer shade. The highlights are all silky to the touch and, in my opinion, none of them are going to blind you with their shine, but definitely create that lit from within type of shine. The right two highlights, Strobe and Stunner, go perfectly with my fair skin and I often like to combine the two to create a light golden shade that works well for everyday looks and also on the eyes. I love to use them on the lid, inner corner and even on the brow bone.
The left two highlights are better suited for darker complexions if you are going to highlight, but I like to use on my eyes. I simply just pat Lit, a shimmery tan, with a peachy/copper tinge to it, on my eyelids and then use Fire, which is a degree or two deeper, on the outer V. Both shades would also would look great as a blush topper because they are not blinding, but will make a matte blush pop if you apply light a layer to your cheeks. I would say the same goes for Stunner as it has an ever so slight pinky shimmer to it that would also look nice on the cheeks as a topper.
The third row are your contours. Shade is a crème contour and is sort of middle of ground shade wise. I find it a bit too dark for my fair complexion and I believe that it will definitely be too light for my darker complexioned guys and gals. However, if you are medium toned, this is your shade. It’s definitely on the warmer side, so if you prefer an ashy contour, then I would skip. The same goes for Sculpt, the powder contour shade. Personally, I use this color as a bronzer, not as contour, because it has an orange base, AND as a crease color. Love it on my crease!
The downfall to the palette is, as mentioned above, that both contours are not really universal for all skin types. That’s a bummer given the $45 price tag, but I feel that the highlights make up for it as they are the real stars of the show. Also, the mirrors are not user friendly. The are small and located on the flaps of the palette and really don’t give you a full face view, so applying contour or highlight can be a little challenging. But to be honest…WHATEVER! I never rely on palette mirrors to apply my makeup.
I know that Tarte recently came out with Pro Glow To Go mini palette ($23), that contains 3 different shades and it’s supposed to be travel friendly, but to be honest, I think the Pro Glow is already small and compact and offers a wider variety of options to play with whether you travel a lot or not.
With that being said, did anyone pick up the Pro Glow To Go? Love to hear your thoughts on the shade selection.
Till next time, my friends!
Maritza
The Beauty Swatcher 