This is a palette I picked up in August after it's US release. I hadn't been planning to get it as I thought that it looked boring, but all of the bigger YouTube 'Beauty Gurus' were raving over how great is was. So you'll all know how the story goes from here; I believed them, and panicking over missing out on the magical palette, I went to eBay and bought a US-bought palette for £60.
I've only just realised that you can now buy The Power Of Makeup palette on the Debenhams site over here [for £48], so I want to give UK customers an honest opinion and unedited swatches before they part with their money...
The main section to the Power Of Makeup palette is dedicated to the eyeshadows; you get nine shades in four neutrals, baby pink, gold, silver, and bold pops in teal and purple. I love that the practical neutral shades are all matte, and that the shimmer is limited to what I think of as the 'freetime & party' shades - but I could have done without the microglitter snuck into several of the shimmery shadows though. The pink shadow is the only one I was totally disappointed in as it's poorly pigmented; the shadow doesn't look pink, as you can see in my below swatch it comes of as more of a frosty silver - and as we get a silver shadow too, I think that it is a completely unnecessary addition to the palette. The purple shade was the one that made me go "ohhh, maybe I do need this palette", but sadly it applies a bit patchier in comparison to the other shadows, so needs a lot of layering - a pain, but workable. The black looks more charcoal and is messy to apply, but I rarely use black shadow, so that doesn't bother me much [the black is matte, but the microglitter from the other shades gets all over it in the palette].I feel like I've already seen these shadow shades in various Too Faced palettes before - palettes like their past holiday and Vegas Nay ones have similar layouts and all used these types of shades for them. Usage-wise; the matte neutrals are one each for a base colour, a crease shade, outer lid shading & lining, plus one perfect colour for transitioning, whilst the shimmery colours are pretty lid shades. Practical but a bit boring - so skip on this palette if you're looking for something more adventurous and dramatic, as the included shadows leave you rather limited when it comes to look ideas...
Like all of my eyeshadow swatches, I used an eyeshadow brush for the below swatches; I just wanted to note that I had to press my brushes down hard into the product pans to pick up the powder, and had to run my brush over my skin several times to apply it for a decent covering.
Ivy, Sugar Coated, Frosted Yum
Irresistible, Painkiller, Makeup & Chill
Mystic Hour, Wham Bam, Wanted
I really like that in addition to the eyeshadows the palette also contains a satin blush, a shimmer blush, highlighter [based on the shade Champagne Truffle from the Chocolate Bar palette], and Chocolate Soleil bronzer. So handy to have everything together in one palette, so I don't have to root through my stash looking for blush, highlight and bronze that complements whatever I've done to my eyes that day.
[the blushes and bronzer can be bought separately, so you might already have them]
I have to specially complain about the highlight; Can you even see it in my swatch picture?! Nikkie has become known as the 'Queen of Glow' in YouTube's beauty community for her love of punchy highlights, so to have something so lackluster released with her name attached to it is pretty bad - when she did a tutorial for this palette on her channel she didn't bother using her own highlight, instead pulling a different brand's one in her own Too Faced palette tutorial...
To give you an idea of how light the cheek products are, I'll point out that unlike my eyeshadow swatches, my cheek products swatch is a finger one, but the peach blush still looks deeper than the bronzer...
I Will Always Love You, Justify My Love, Chocolate Solei, Champagne Truffle
You do get a full-size eyeliner, a deluxe mascara, deluxe glitter pigment pot and a deluxe Shadow Insurance eyeshadow primer in addition to this palette. However I'm not keen on using felt tip liners, as I find them too stiff and hard. As for the pigment; I don't like the glitter already in the shadows, so why would I want more? The purple mascara is the only thing in this set that hasn't been done by Too Faced before - and I'm not keen on the Better Then Sex formula; plus it's only a half-empty sample size tube, so is nowhere near worth the kit's price alone. Yeah, no photo as I give the foil package the extras came in straight to my sister, as I knew I wouldn't use them.
The Power Of Makeup isn't totally bad, but I think the quality is below Too Faced's usual standards, and the shade/finish selection is rather substandard; the colours included limit the amount of looks you can get out of the palette, so you'll probably need to pull in shadows from elsewhere in addition to this after trying out a few looks. I also think a big problem people will have with this palette is due to the colour picks being too reliant on the wearer having a certain skin tone. I have fair skin like Nikkie does so I'm having so-so success with everything, however people with darker/warmer skintones may struggle with this. And anyway; are bold purple, silver or teal really practical shades for the vast majority of people who have school or work five days a week?
I regret falling for the hype and getting The Power Of Makeup. I'm making myself continue using the palette, to get my monies worth and will say that the products wear pretty well on me once I get them applied okay. However when I'm done I always think "this'll do", rather than "this looks pretty" when I look in a mirror - so no demos with this as nothing I've come up with over the past few months has satisfied me. In short; this palette will be purged in the not-too-distant future, and I don't reccomend others spending money on this subpar palette...
The Power Of Makeup set can be bought from the Debenhams site for £48
(I went to a large store recently and they didn't stock it. The SA thinks it may only be online, excepting 1 or 2 of the largest stores)
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