Is your jaw not on the floor right now? I mean… HOLY! Look at that palette! ColourPop’s The Headliner palette knocked my socks off the first time I saw it on their web site – I was smitten and had to have it!
ColourPop – The HeadlinerThe Headliner is one of ColourPop’s pre-assembled palettes. Essentiallym they take an empty cardboard palette, stuff it full of their single shadows (and in this case, some pressed glitters as well) and create a thematic palette.
ColourPop – The Headliner
I was drawn to The Headliner because it’s so, SO bright and I’ve been wanting to try out their pressed glitter formula as well. Priced at $20 USD for all of the shadows and palette, I really feel like you can’t go wrong with this kind of bundle!
There’s always a new mascara out on the market (or so it seems!), and for me, the most recent one I’ve tried out is the new Revlon So Fierce! mascara.
Revlon So Fierce! Mascara
It wasn’t till I started using this mascara that I realized that I honestly can’t remember a time when I used a Revlon mascara with any kind of consistency. I feel like when I think of drugstore mascara I think of Maybelline or Covergirl. To me, Revlon has always represented the very best of lipstick and foundation… so I’m drawing a total blank on mascaras I’ve tried by them. (In editing this post I’ve realized my memory is gash. I *have* reviewed at least one Revlon mascara in the past: the Mega Multiplier.)
Revlon So Fierce! Mascara in Blackened Brown
Anyway, moving on to the So Fierce! mascara. I was initially excited for this mascara because I love smaller conical wands. I find they’re the easiest to use for my eye shape and make it super simple to get into the inner corners of my eyes without getting mascara all over my eyeshadow (I guess I’m super messy with mascara application). The So Fierce! mascara is what I would call a medium-sized conical wand, and has a plastic bristle brush that contains 252 multi-layered bristles .
The packaging for the So Fierce! mascara indicates that it has a glossy formula (??? I do not agree) with parraffin and rice bran waxes to quickly build up your lashes. The formula promises to be clump free, smudgeproof and flake free.
Revlon So Fierce! Mascara in Blackened Brown on lashes
The formula itself is more on the dry side of things (not my favourite – I do prefer a rather wet mascara), and it imparts an incredible amount of volume. I’m more of a one coat mascara person myself, and found that I got incredible volume with just one coat with this mascara. Once you start going into two coats your lashes start to look somewhat fake (not a bad thing!) but you will notice that it does have a tendency to clump some of your lashes together. Of course, this creates gargantuan volume, but it’s definitely not for someone who is looking for a lot of separation.
Final Thoughts
For a dry mascara, I was so surprised and impressed with this one! The Revlon So Fierce! mascara gave me a heck of a lot of volume with only one coat, something I feel like I only generally experience with wet formulas. So Fierce! does has a tendency to clump (unlike their claim that it’s clump-free), and while you could comb it out with a lash brush, I find that that clumps really help to amp up the volume without looking too spidery.
I found that the wear-time was excellent, nor did it flake on me. I did have a little bit of smudging when I wore the mascara on my lower lashes, but it was only around the seventh hour of my day. On a day-to-day basis I don’t tend to wear mascara on my lower lash line, and I found I had no smudging when I wore this mascara just on my upper lashes. (Most mascaras, even when I only wear them on my upper lashes, have a tendency to transfer and leave smudges on the hollows under my eyes – I have no idea how this happens, but it does – and thankfully this mascara does NOT do that). I also like that my lashes don’t feel crusty when I have this mascara on. If I touch them they feel a bit waxy, but pliable and smooth.
And just like that, ColourPop has rounded out the rainbow with their Orange You Glad? palette. The only thing we were lacking was the orange, and now she’s here – bright, vibrant and as juicy as can be!
ColourPop Orange You Glad?
Of course, that doesn’t seem to have stopped ColourPop from continuing down the road of their monochromatic palettes. I purchased this on the day it was launched, only receiving it two days ago and they’ve ALREADY launched a strawberry palette in the meantime!
ColourPop Orange You Glad?
Orange You Glad? is a super juicy and vibrant palette and I cannot wait to play around with it. Enjoy the swatches!
Do you remember when the SleekSolstice Highlighting Palette was one of the most raved about products on YouTube? I sure do! It was back in the hey day when highlighters weren’t as common and ones at the drugstore were nearly impossible to come by. It must have been about ten or so years ago that the British YouTubers (and anyone else who visited the UK and brought this palette home) were raving about Solstice non-stop. It was one of the most hyped beauty products I think I’ve ever encountered in the beauty sphere.
And I’m only just trying it out now.
Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette
I picked Solstice up when I was on vacation in England recently. I felt a bit silly to be honest… this palette had been out for years and was hardly anything new. I also have a drawer full of highlighters that will undoubtedly outlive me just because there’s so many of them. And yet, even after all these years, I wanted to know what the hype was all about.
Surprisingly, when I hauled it in my (GARGANTUAN) May haul video, most people said they didn’t love it. I was initially put off because of those comments and didn’t try this palette out for a while, expecting disappointment.
Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette
What’s interesting about Solstice is that it comes with three powders and one cream. I’ve always thought that was a weird thing to do with a palette. Over time the powders will definitely end up getting caught up in the cream, which always makes for a bit of a mess. But I’m not that at that stage yet, so they’re all mostly keeping to themselves.
Another unique aspect of this palette is that it has three of your more generic highlighters (champagne, yellow-ish and a rosy-gold) but it also has a purple. In an era when all highlighters were your basic shade of boring, a purple was something utterly unique. Nowadays most people wouldn’t blink an eye at a purple highlighter as they’re pretty common place… but back when this launched? Purple highlighters were nowhere to be found.
Sleek Solstice Highlighting Palette – swatches
In practice, the highlighters swatch out with varying depths of colour and shine. The purple one is definitely the weakest in pigment, but I feel like that makes it a little bit easier to wear for those who can be a bit colour-shy.
Sleek Solstice – Top Left Shade
The first shade I tried out was the cream, which I applied with my finger and blended it out. I felt like application was easy and smooth, but that the overall effect was quite subtle yet pretty.
Sleek Solstice – Top Right Shade
The purple was definitely the least pigmented, although you may not necessarily think so from the shot above but that’s because I have a purple blush on underneath it. If you want to dip your toes into colourful highlighters, this would be one to try for sure.
Sleek Solstice – Bottom Left Shade
The bottom left shade was quite bright and luminescent – a really pretty shade for pairing with yellow looks (which I’ve been rather enamoured with lately!).
Sleek Solstice – Bottom Right Shade
And lastly, the rose gold shade was the most luminescent shade out of all four. This one has a massive amount of sheen to it, but I have to say it doesn’t come off much like a rose gold. It has a tendency to look more white on me than I was expecting given the colour of the pan.
Final Thoughts
I can see why the SleekSolstice palette was hyped up so much many years ago, and I still feel like it’s a lovely palette today. I’m surprised so many people told me they didn’t think it was that good, because I found all of the products performed quite well on my face. Are they the most blinding, pigmented highlighters I’ve ever seen? No, certainly not, but I don’t always needs something that’s going to be able to signal spaceships in orbit. Are there more interesting palettes out there now? Certainly, but MOST of them aren’t at the drugstore for a reasonable price tag. Considering the time that this product launched (was it actually 10ish years ago?), I’m not surprised it ended up hyped up in the beauty community. Solstice is still on the market after all these years and therefore it’s certainly had quite a bit of longevity in the beauty market.
