Top 3 Holy Grail Palettes

Hi everyone, it's Nicole & my weekly post is finally here! I know it's a bit late but don't worry - I've got another one prepared for you for this week - it should be up on Friday 😉

For today I’ll be reviewing my top 3 holy grail palettes.
The first one that I’ll be mentioning is my forever favourite eyeshadow palette. I’m so in love with it 💓 It’s the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette. I mean, the colours in this palette are so beautiful and the pigmentation .. OH MY GOD. I was immediately drawn to the names and theme. Most of the colours are unique as well. The contrast of the neutrals combined with the richer pinks, reds, and oranges makes for a very exciting range of shades. My favourite colours in the palette are for sure REALGAR which is a smoked orange, VENETIAN RED which is a shimmery Italian pink kind of colour and lastly VERMEER which is a beautiful pink shimmery shade. A little tip with shimmery shadows is to apply a setting spray or MAC Fix Plus on your brush and then dip the brush in the shadow - it will make the shadow so much more pigmented! I love using this technique 💗 Although this is high end product, I do not regret any penny spent!

Shades include:

• Tempera (matte beige)

• Golden Ochre (matte light yellow)

• Vermeer (metallic pink shimmer shade)

• Buon Fresco (matte antique lavender)

• Antique Bronze (metallic satin )

• Love Letter (matte raspberry)

• Cyprus Umber (matte dark coffee)

• Raw Sienna (matte neutral amber)

• Burnt Orange (matte deep orange)

• Primavera (metallic shimmery gold)

• Red Ochre (matte sienna)

• Venetian Red (matte cerise )

• Warm Taupe (matte light grey)

• Realgar (matte smoked orange)

Top row swatches

Bottom row swatches

The obsession is real you guys.

Next up is the Sleek Highlighting Palette in the name of Solstice. This an affordable palette which gives a luminous finish to your skin when applied. As said earlier before I love using fix plus again before applying this to your face. Highlighting is basically bringing forward all the high points on your face - where the light hits your face. Highlighting your face brings it to life. You can apply highlighter on your cheekbones, bridge of the nose and tip (I personally love putting a dot of highlighter only on the tip to make the tip of my nose more lifted), cupids bow and inner corner of your eyes. If you want to read more about Contour and Highlight you can read Deborah's post where she talks all about contour & highlight. Check it out here!

These are the four shades in this palette:

• Ecliptic (cream light rose pink colour)

• Hemisphere (pinky lavender with a luminous glow)

• Subsolar (light yellow with warm undertones and a pearly glow)

• Equinox (light-medium peach with warm undertones)

Lastly Is the NYX Highlight and Contour Palette. It has 8 different shades; 4 highlights and 4 contour shades. I only use the contour shades since I didn’t quite find the highlighting colours that interesting although they are very good for a day time glow and a more natural and light glow. However, the Contour shades are really good! It’s basically good for every skin tone. When purchasing a contour palette I always look for a more grey tone colour in the palette. A grey colour helps to make a more natural contour rather that having a dark contour. I like them both but for every day contour I like applying a more grey-ish colour.

The shades found in this palette are:

• Ice Queen (pearly shimmer highlight)

• Soft Light (nude matte shade)

• Cream (yellow matte shade, which can be used as a banana powder too)

• Nectar (light-medium peach with warm undertones)

• Tan (matte soft brown with red undertones)

• Toffee (matte neutral brown)

• Sculpt (matte soft brown with a grey overtone)

• Hollow (matte deep brown) 

I hope everyone got something useful out of this post! Thank you so much for your support!

Love,
Nicole xoxo

Links:
Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette
Sleek Highlighting Palette
NYX Highlight and Contour Palette