Holiday Set Guide (high end) : Holiday 2015
So with the holidays not even anywhere close to around the corner, we need to start worrying about all the new makeup that is coming out right NOW! Sephora and some of the websites of the products already have launched a few things... Ulta usually launches right after the 21 Days of Beauty and its all a little crazy... so I'm just going to break a few things down... I'll talk you into buying something and out of buying it... and I'll tell you on a scale of 1 to 10 how much I'm thinking of buying this product.
Too Faced
I'm gonna start with Too Faced because they've launched all their stuff... and I think they're where its at this year... I think I'll buy at least one of the sets... maybe more lol... we shall see... But here are kind of my first impressions on everything.
Theme: I'll kinda break down the themes too when I see them because I think thats important to keep in mind. The Theme for Too Faced this year is Christmas In Paris... and the packaging is adorable. If you love France or Want to go to France... this will sucker you in immediately I am sure!
I'm going to start with the grand puba here...
Le Grand Palais ($58)- This is a Sephora Exclusive and it comes with 18 shadows (3 larger sized ones) 2 blushes, a highlight and a bronzer. Plus a mini Shadow Insurance Primer, a mini Better than Sex Mascara and a mini Melted Peony. The packaging is adorable, its a little pop up thing that has a dress on a mannequin and a sephora bag with some too faced products on it and a view of the Eiffel Tower. I think this is great if you're a collector... I think the Sephora bag and the Too Faced Items in that bag make it collectable. I don't love the selection of colors in this to be honest, but every individual color in the palette looks unique to one another. It isn't like a bunch of different warm neutrals or anything like that. I probably won't get this one. $58 is a lot and idk... I may use my 20% off sale item on something different. This isn't quite my cup of tea. This is maybe a 3 on my radar. (1 being the lowest 10 being the highest.)
Le Grand Chateau ($49)- Oddly enough, $49 for a holiday palette sounds like a steal! I love the packaging on this one. It looks like a little French Chateau and it has 3 palettes with 6 shadows and a cheek color plus a deluxe better than sex mascara. I can see myself using this one more often. The shadows look like some of the shades in their smaller palettes... so if you have a lot of those this might be too similar for you... but for me, its pretty different and I like the packaging and everything about it. It is bulky and its hard to take out individual palettes sometimes... but it works and its good. This is something you could split with a friend or buy one and split between friends. Its a good value and a good gift in cute packaging. This is maybe a 7 on my radar... I like it. I have a lot of Too Faced Palettes... but for good reason!
Melted Kisses and Sweet Cheeks ($36)- This is a cute set that comes with 3 deluxe sizes of the new blushes from Too Faced and 3 Melted lipsticks to correspond with those. I love this. This might be a 9 on my radar. I like the idea of matching a lipstick to a blush and I really want to try their blushes and some more melted lipsticks. I only have 1!
French Kisses Melted Set ($25)- This is like a 10 on my radar. I wanted this last year and I couldn't find it anywhere... I want to try these shades and I don't have any. They made it a little different this year by including the Melted Metal shades also. This seems like a good bang for your buck. I may OD on melted and get both sets... but I like them and they're cute and more affordable... so there is that. I kind of wish they did an exclusive shade in this palette... but this is good.
Le Petit Tresor ($29)- This is a cute little set that they had something similar too last year. This looks a little better than last year because they had a frosty finish last year that I heard was uncomfortable. These are their regular formula 2 old favorites one exclusive and its in a cute bag. I think this is a 6 on the radar... I want to try this formula... but at the same time I know last years set got kind of bad reviews and it was easy to find... so idk about this one.
Urban Decay
Vice 4- This looks awesome. I've seen swatch videos of this that look great, I can definitely see people coming up with a bunch of looks with this. From the Swatch Videos it looks better than the Vice 3 from last year and the packaging is gorgeous. I can see this being a really useful palette for a lot of people... I think its more for collectors and actual Makeup Artists... which I'm not exactly either. I like this palette a lot, but I can see it sitting unused in my collection and taking up a lot of space... so I'm going to give this a 4 on my radar. Lol. I like that I'm referring to this as a "radar." There are other Urban Decay palettes I would probably buy before this... and I'm not the biggest fan of Urban Decay. I have the Naked 3 palette which I love and I kind of want some of their single shadows... I was thinking of getting the Naked original... but there are so many dupes out there... idk. I love the Urban Decay products I have and they're total holy grails, but I don't always feel the need for more from this brand because it is expensive.
Lorac
Mega Pro 2- Ahhh the Mega Pro... I don't think the color selection from this palette looks that exciting. Lorac shadows are some of my absolute favorite... but this doesn't look that thrilling. Plus if you followed the makeup world last year... you know there was some drama with the original Mega Pro Palette... this may be damn near impossible to get... so keep that in mind. You may need to stay up all night long to buy it... and whenever they do a sequel its never quite as good... so just keep that in mind. Plus... lost of the colors in the actual palette looked very basic and similar. It just doesn't look like the absolute must-have that the original Mega Pro was... kind of wish they had just re-released that... but I guess for collectors that would have sucked. This is like a 1 on my radar cause I have both Pro Palettes and this will probably be hard to get.
Benefit
Real Cheeky Party Kit- I don't know if this is limited edition or not actually... last year they had a limited edition Christmas Palette... this might be around for longer. It doesn't look like its a christmas palette. I love mine from last year, but the packaging is a little bit bulky so I don't use it as much as I thought. This seems to have the same packaging. I think its the exact same as last year but instead of the shade Bella Bamba they have some products from the They're Real line... which I think is nice... but those are in a lot of products. I think its a little more expensive than last year too... I think it was 30 something dollars last year and this one is 42... not sure its worth that much... but I do like mine and use it a lot. This I'd recommend if you don't have a lot of blushes or don't like spending a lot of money on them and just want a few different ones in your collection. Thats why I have it... but I do like some more shimmery shades than are in this palette... still really nice pretty, use mine all the time... but its hard to store and idk if its worth $42.
Kat Von D
Mi Vida Loca Eye Palette ($59)- So I was like "meh this is too colorful... I'll never use it. Its really expensive I don't think its for me." Which is all true... but if you want convincing to buy it check out this video from Makeupbysheaa she is awesome and she swatches it all out and they look really really really pretty. If you wear a lot of color or just want a lot of colorful palettes... this is for you. If you're a collector of things this is probably for you. Its one of those things that would look really pretty on a shelf as decoration. The packaging is in like a record box and its shaped like a record, so if you know someone into records, they would probably like this. Its a nice nice palette and great for a collector. This is a 5 on my radar I think... I probably won't get it but seeing it swatched it looks like such a winner!
I know she also has some lip sets available that I think I will get. Theres one with a ton of lipsticks and one with a bunch and a full size that is cheaper... I might get the cheaper one... I'm not a huge fan of the formula of the studded lipsticks... but the color payoff is amazing.
Elizabeth and James Nirvana
This I probably will buy because I've been wanting Nirvana White for a while and they have a gift set of that with a mini rollerball and a perfume oil that I think I need in my life. They have it for Nirvana White and Nirvana Black... I'm sure I'll pick up the Nirvana White cause I love the way the rollerball smells on me. I got it for a 100 point perk and I really like it! Plus I wore it to graduation and I want to wear it to my sister's wedding I think. It smells good on me and I like it.
Tarte
I'm not sure the names or the themes of the holiday set for tarte... clearly I got lazy after I did the Too Faced holiday sets cause this was harder than I thought lol. Last year I know they had a Sephora Exclusive, an Ulta Exclusive, and a QVC Exclusive. I got the Sephora Exclusive which came with a ton of stuff. The QVC Exclusive came with more and it was more expensive.
This year the Sephora Exclusive looks really beautiful and it has a ton of eyeshadows and a blush and some other things and it looks very warm and very neutral. I'm not sure about this one... I really want it because I love Tarte, I think they're the best brand and the eyeshadow set I got last year was absolutely amazing... this kind of looks like the Mega Pro where a lot of the shadows look the same and nothing is too special. I feel like I really need to see this one in person to decide if I want it or not... but its Tarte so its like a 7 on my radar... lol.
I know they have a blush palette too... which I probably would get. I love their blushes and the blush palettes are always a great selection and they have cute packaging. I have like 3 of their blushes... one mini and two that came in palettes. I like them a lot... I don't know how easy this palette will be to get my hands on... but if I can I might... we shall see. They had 2 different ones last year I think too. They had one with a bunch of minis and one with bigger sized ones in a palette... so that was cool.
They also had a lip set last year and their lip stuff is pretty awesome... idk. Tarte is always a good choice to go with. They kind of give you the most bang for your buck in general with their products I think. I really do think that even their eyeshadow palettes like the Energy Noir and the Showstopper have a lot of really great shadows and products and they're under $40... so thats a cool thing. And I've heard their foundation can last like a year and their Maricuja Oil lasts a long time too... and if you can get it when Ulta has it for $25 its such a steal!
Hourglass
I feel like theres a lot of controversy with the Hourglass Ambient palette that everyone was buzzing their heads off about and loving and then once it was released they saw the size and was like... Ohhh...
I was totally going to get this. It looked gorgeous and I thought "wow thats a lot of product and its a great way to sample a little of everything." Cause it came with the powders, the blushes a bronzer... it just looked amazing and I always wanted to try the powders but its too expensive. This is like $80... which is a ton of money. I have a rule where I don't like to spend that much more than $50 on any single make up item really because for me... its just not worth it. I don't have a ton of money, there is great stuff at the drugstore and I really appreciate a good deal which usually doesn't happen with high end makeup.
Anyway back to the point I was going to break my rule for this just cause it looked so pretty... but the pan sizes are about the size of a quarter and these are quite easy to hit pan on... so I'm not a luxury shopper and this just doesn't seem like a good deal for me
Sephora Favorites
Sephora Favorites always has a ton of great stuff. They have an eyeliner set, a lip set, a perfume sampler set and a brand new brow set. I love the Perfume Sampler as a gift, my sister got me that one year and I think that would be a good gift for a girlfriend or even a close friend or something. Its a fun way to try new things. The lipstick set is probably another great gift cause it gives you something of each from something of every color and the sample sizes are pretty big. I'm clearly into the lip sets cause they're usually a good bang for your buck.
Last year Bite came out with a lot of great sets too and they had little ornaments of some of their popular colors in a double ended version and that is an awesome gift too... I love Bite Beauty a lot, so that would be a great value or a great gift to get someone in my opinion.
And the Sephora inside JCPenny sets are usually THE GREATEST so check that out!
Hope this was somehow helpful!
Byeeeee!
-Shannon
Too Faced
I'm gonna start with Too Faced because they've launched all their stuff... and I think they're where its at this year... I think I'll buy at least one of the sets... maybe more lol... we shall see... But here are kind of my first impressions on everything.
Theme: I'll kinda break down the themes too when I see them because I think thats important to keep in mind. The Theme for Too Faced this year is Christmas In Paris... and the packaging is adorable. If you love France or Want to go to France... this will sucker you in immediately I am sure!
I'm going to start with the grand puba here...
Le Grand Palais ($58)- This is a Sephora Exclusive and it comes with 18 shadows (3 larger sized ones) 2 blushes, a highlight and a bronzer. Plus a mini Shadow Insurance Primer, a mini Better than Sex Mascara and a mini Melted Peony. The packaging is adorable, its a little pop up thing that has a dress on a mannequin and a sephora bag with some too faced products on it and a view of the Eiffel Tower. I think this is great if you're a collector... I think the Sephora bag and the Too Faced Items in that bag make it collectable. I don't love the selection of colors in this to be honest, but every individual color in the palette looks unique to one another. It isn't like a bunch of different warm neutrals or anything like that. I probably won't get this one. $58 is a lot and idk... I may use my 20% off sale item on something different. This isn't quite my cup of tea. This is maybe a 3 on my radar. (1 being the lowest 10 being the highest.)
Le Grand Chateau ($49)- Oddly enough, $49 for a holiday palette sounds like a steal! I love the packaging on this one. It looks like a little French Chateau and it has 3 palettes with 6 shadows and a cheek color plus a deluxe better than sex mascara. I can see myself using this one more often. The shadows look like some of the shades in their smaller palettes... so if you have a lot of those this might be too similar for you... but for me, its pretty different and I like the packaging and everything about it. It is bulky and its hard to take out individual palettes sometimes... but it works and its good. This is something you could split with a friend or buy one and split between friends. Its a good value and a good gift in cute packaging. This is maybe a 7 on my radar... I like it. I have a lot of Too Faced Palettes... but for good reason!
Melted Kisses and Sweet Cheeks ($36)- This is a cute set that comes with 3 deluxe sizes of the new blushes from Too Faced and 3 Melted lipsticks to correspond with those. I love this. This might be a 9 on my radar. I like the idea of matching a lipstick to a blush and I really want to try their blushes and some more melted lipsticks. I only have 1!
French Kisses Melted Set ($25)- This is like a 10 on my radar. I wanted this last year and I couldn't find it anywhere... I want to try these shades and I don't have any. They made it a little different this year by including the Melted Metal shades also. This seems like a good bang for your buck. I may OD on melted and get both sets... but I like them and they're cute and more affordable... so there is that. I kind of wish they did an exclusive shade in this palette... but this is good.
Le Petit Tresor ($29)- This is a cute little set that they had something similar too last year. This looks a little better than last year because they had a frosty finish last year that I heard was uncomfortable. These are their regular formula 2 old favorites one exclusive and its in a cute bag. I think this is a 6 on the radar... I want to try this formula... but at the same time I know last years set got kind of bad reviews and it was easy to find... so idk about this one.
Urban Decay
Vice 4- This looks awesome. I've seen swatch videos of this that look great, I can definitely see people coming up with a bunch of looks with this. From the Swatch Videos it looks better than the Vice 3 from last year and the packaging is gorgeous. I can see this being a really useful palette for a lot of people... I think its more for collectors and actual Makeup Artists... which I'm not exactly either. I like this palette a lot, but I can see it sitting unused in my collection and taking up a lot of space... so I'm going to give this a 4 on my radar. Lol. I like that I'm referring to this as a "radar." There are other Urban Decay palettes I would probably buy before this... and I'm not the biggest fan of Urban Decay. I have the Naked 3 palette which I love and I kind of want some of their single shadows... I was thinking of getting the Naked original... but there are so many dupes out there... idk. I love the Urban Decay products I have and they're total holy grails, but I don't always feel the need for more from this brand because it is expensive.
Lorac
Mega Pro 2- Ahhh the Mega Pro... I don't think the color selection from this palette looks that exciting. Lorac shadows are some of my absolute favorite... but this doesn't look that thrilling. Plus if you followed the makeup world last year... you know there was some drama with the original Mega Pro Palette... this may be damn near impossible to get... so keep that in mind. You may need to stay up all night long to buy it... and whenever they do a sequel its never quite as good... so just keep that in mind. Plus... lost of the colors in the actual palette looked very basic and similar. It just doesn't look like the absolute must-have that the original Mega Pro was... kind of wish they had just re-released that... but I guess for collectors that would have sucked. This is like a 1 on my radar cause I have both Pro Palettes and this will probably be hard to get.
Benefit
Real Cheeky Party Kit- I don't know if this is limited edition or not actually... last year they had a limited edition Christmas Palette... this might be around for longer. It doesn't look like its a christmas palette. I love mine from last year, but the packaging is a little bit bulky so I don't use it as much as I thought. This seems to have the same packaging. I think its the exact same as last year but instead of the shade Bella Bamba they have some products from the They're Real line... which I think is nice... but those are in a lot of products. I think its a little more expensive than last year too... I think it was 30 something dollars last year and this one is 42... not sure its worth that much... but I do like mine and use it a lot. This I'd recommend if you don't have a lot of blushes or don't like spending a lot of money on them and just want a few different ones in your collection. Thats why I have it... but I do like some more shimmery shades than are in this palette... still really nice pretty, use mine all the time... but its hard to store and idk if its worth $42.
Kat Von D
Mi Vida Loca Eye Palette ($59)- So I was like "meh this is too colorful... I'll never use it. Its really expensive I don't think its for me." Which is all true... but if you want convincing to buy it check out this video from Makeupbysheaa she is awesome and she swatches it all out and they look really really really pretty. If you wear a lot of color or just want a lot of colorful palettes... this is for you. If you're a collector of things this is probably for you. Its one of those things that would look really pretty on a shelf as decoration. The packaging is in like a record box and its shaped like a record, so if you know someone into records, they would probably like this. Its a nice nice palette and great for a collector. This is a 5 on my radar I think... I probably won't get it but seeing it swatched it looks like such a winner!
I know she also has some lip sets available that I think I will get. Theres one with a ton of lipsticks and one with a bunch and a full size that is cheaper... I might get the cheaper one... I'm not a huge fan of the formula of the studded lipsticks... but the color payoff is amazing.
Elizabeth and James Nirvana
This I probably will buy because I've been wanting Nirvana White for a while and they have a gift set of that with a mini rollerball and a perfume oil that I think I need in my life. They have it for Nirvana White and Nirvana Black... I'm sure I'll pick up the Nirvana White cause I love the way the rollerball smells on me. I got it for a 100 point perk and I really like it! Plus I wore it to graduation and I want to wear it to my sister's wedding I think. It smells good on me and I like it.
Tarte
I'm not sure the names or the themes of the holiday set for tarte... clearly I got lazy after I did the Too Faced holiday sets cause this was harder than I thought lol. Last year I know they had a Sephora Exclusive, an Ulta Exclusive, and a QVC Exclusive. I got the Sephora Exclusive which came with a ton of stuff. The QVC Exclusive came with more and it was more expensive.
This year the Sephora Exclusive looks really beautiful and it has a ton of eyeshadows and a blush and some other things and it looks very warm and very neutral. I'm not sure about this one... I really want it because I love Tarte, I think they're the best brand and the eyeshadow set I got last year was absolutely amazing... this kind of looks like the Mega Pro where a lot of the shadows look the same and nothing is too special. I feel like I really need to see this one in person to decide if I want it or not... but its Tarte so its like a 7 on my radar... lol.
I know they have a blush palette too... which I probably would get. I love their blushes and the blush palettes are always a great selection and they have cute packaging. I have like 3 of their blushes... one mini and two that came in palettes. I like them a lot... I don't know how easy this palette will be to get my hands on... but if I can I might... we shall see. They had 2 different ones last year I think too. They had one with a bunch of minis and one with bigger sized ones in a palette... so that was cool.
They also had a lip set last year and their lip stuff is pretty awesome... idk. Tarte is always a good choice to go with. They kind of give you the most bang for your buck in general with their products I think. I really do think that even their eyeshadow palettes like the Energy Noir and the Showstopper have a lot of really great shadows and products and they're under $40... so thats a cool thing. And I've heard their foundation can last like a year and their Maricuja Oil lasts a long time too... and if you can get it when Ulta has it for $25 its such a steal!
Hourglass
I feel like theres a lot of controversy with the Hourglass Ambient palette that everyone was buzzing their heads off about and loving and then once it was released they saw the size and was like... Ohhh...
I was totally going to get this. It looked gorgeous and I thought "wow thats a lot of product and its a great way to sample a little of everything." Cause it came with the powders, the blushes a bronzer... it just looked amazing and I always wanted to try the powders but its too expensive. This is like $80... which is a ton of money. I have a rule where I don't like to spend that much more than $50 on any single make up item really because for me... its just not worth it. I don't have a ton of money, there is great stuff at the drugstore and I really appreciate a good deal which usually doesn't happen with high end makeup.
Anyway back to the point I was going to break my rule for this just cause it looked so pretty... but the pan sizes are about the size of a quarter and these are quite easy to hit pan on... so I'm not a luxury shopper and this just doesn't seem like a good deal for me
Sephora Favorites
Sephora Favorites always has a ton of great stuff. They have an eyeliner set, a lip set, a perfume sampler set and a brand new brow set. I love the Perfume Sampler as a gift, my sister got me that one year and I think that would be a good gift for a girlfriend or even a close friend or something. Its a fun way to try new things. The lipstick set is probably another great gift cause it gives you something of each from something of every color and the sample sizes are pretty big. I'm clearly into the lip sets cause they're usually a good bang for your buck.
Last year Bite came out with a lot of great sets too and they had little ornaments of some of their popular colors in a double ended version and that is an awesome gift too... I love Bite Beauty a lot, so that would be a great value or a great gift to get someone in my opinion.
And the Sephora inside JCPenny sets are usually THE GREATEST so check that out!
Hope this was somehow helpful!
Byeeeee!
-Shannon
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