BY BEAUTY BAY X NikkieTutorials Palette

When I first saw the teaser for this collaboration, I was very excited. Nikkie is well known for her colourful and beautiful eye looks. I was a bit puzzled as to why the collaboration was with BeautyBay as she doesn’t mention them on her channel and I am not overly keen on the BB eyeshadow formula. I didn’t get to try the BY BEAUTY BAY X MMMMitchell Palette, but apparently the quality was amazing and the NikkieTutorials should be of similar quality. For those of you that do not know, Nikkie de Jager a.k.a NikkieTutorials is a Beauty Influencer on YouTube.

I signed up for the early access launch of the palette, so I did get it before the launch time of 6pm. If you signed up for the early access, you got sent a code to enter to be able to purchase the palette. The palette is limited edition, so you are limited to be able to only purchase one palette. I received my access code at 4.26pm on launch day (Monday 31^st August) and I completed my purchase in less than two minutes! There were a select number of FREE pop sockets being given out with orders of the palette, I was lucky enough to be allocated one. Nikkie said in her reveal video that she randomly signed fifty of the palettes, I sadly I didn’t receive a signed palette, but I am grateful I got the chance to buy the palette in the first place and got a FREE gift.

THE PACKAGING

The packaging has been designed to represent the two sides of Nikkie’s personality, the bright and the dark. It is a short rectangle shape and made of cardboard. One half is pink and bright and other is black and white with little peeks of colour. It has an image of a temple (Temple Tutorials) in the centre of the palette and it is split down the middle to represent the two sides. There is also laminated glitter over the two sides. The palette opening is down the middle of the palette and you can lift up both flaps (bright and dark side) to reveal the square eyeshadows pans inside. The eyeshadows are spread out across a split colour base (pink, purple, mauve & black) and the shade names are printed under each shade in a small white capital font. There are two small mirrors included; Regular (bright side) and Zoomed for glasses wearers (dark side). Lastly, there is an insert included with the palette that directs you on how to best apply each eyeshadow shade (finger or brush).

THE EYESHADOWS & FORMULA

You get twenty 2.3g eyeshadows/pressed pigments in Matte (M), Shimmer (S) and Duo-Chrome (DC) finishes.

·         High-Pigment Formula

·         Major Staying Power

·         Limited Edition

·         Vegan

·         Cruelty-Free

THE SHADES & SWATCHES

Swatch Stencil: Stripes Double 18 Pan by SwatchPerfect.co.uk

Redemption - marigold orange (M)

Blend & Snap! - bubblegum pink (M)

Ivy - silver (S)

Slasher - mulberry purple (M)

5AM - chocolate brown (M)

Roxy Catan - bright pink (S)

Vla - bumblebee yellow (M)

Mikai - true red (M)

Mila - caramel nude (M)

Underground - silver gold (S)

Plot Twist - baby blue (M)

Aura - orange (S)

Basic Trut - pink toned nude (M)

All-In - green duo-chrome (DC)

Ew - true green (M)

Pride - pink duo-chrome (DC)

Zomer - peach pink (M)

Mama Tutorials - baby blue (S)

Amsterdamn - cobalt blue (M)

Mr Tutorials - hazel (S)

Some of the shades are Pressed Pigments. According to USA Law, pressed pigments are not intended for use around the immediate eye area as they can cause temporary staining to the area of skin they are applied to. It doesn’t state which shades are pressed pigments.

EXTRAS

There was a limited amount of FREE pop sockets available (whilst stocks last). There was a pink (bright side) or black (dark side) one and they are randomly sent out. As you can see above, I received the Pink (Bright Side) one.

MY THOUGHTS

·         Primer/Base - The eyeshadows are pigmented enough without a primer or base, but I would always layer one down. As Nikkie say’s; “Not to prime, is a crime!”. I used Too Faced Shadow Insurance and Too Faced Glitter Glue.

·         Pigmentation - The general pigmentation of the mattes is decent; the pigmentation of the metallic shades is incredible!

·         Application (wet/dry) - The eyeshadows can be applied wet or dry. I always use mattes dry, unless I am applying them to my lower lash line or using them as eyeliner. I generally apply metallic/shimmer shades dry with my finger over a layer of glitter glue.

·         Blending - This was mostly ok, but I had issues with a couple of shades.

·         Kick-Back - Obviously, there is always going to be kick-back in your eyeshadow pans as you are disturbing powders. The kick-back was not a concern or issue for me in this particular palette.

·         Fallout - I didn’t notice any with the matte shades, but you can get quite a bit of fallout with the metallic shades.

I really love the packaging design, it is very creative and I haven’t seen any other packaging design like it. It is definitely unique, but I do prefer the artwork of the dark side the most. I’m not overly keen on the opening being in the middle of the palette, so that you have two flaps to open. I do understand that it’s the only way that would make sense to keep the two sides sort of separate. I like the fact that there are two different mirrors. They seem like they are on the small side, but when you look into them you can see your whole face. The eyeshadow pans are quite big, so you are getting a lot of product for your money. The shades are arranged a little randomly, I feel like they could have been put in a better order for cohesion. Some of the eyeshadows don’t finger swatch on the skin brilliantly, but Nikkie did say this in her reveal video. Just because something doesn’t finger swatch great, doesn’t mean it won’t apply good when used properly (with brushes on the eye). The metallic shades all look stunning on the eye, but you definitely need to apply them with your finger and over a great tacky base/primer/glitter glue. If you don’t, you will have glitter fallout galore! The matte shades don’t all quite blend effortlessly; you definitely need to put work into it, especially with the bright shades (mostly Amsterdamn).

The shades I had issues with were; Redemption (not overly pigmented, needed to be built up quite a bit), Slasher (does not blend with other shades very well, my first attempt looked hideous), VLA (barely shows up on my skin tone and looks chalky), Mikai (described as a true red, but once blended out it looked hot pink on me), Plot Twist (chalky, chalky, chalky and no colour payoff - now that is a plot twist!) and Basic Trut (basically is my skin tone, can only be used to set my eye base, which I never do. This also matches Nikkie’s skin tone, which is the literal point of the shade). I only noticed slight staining from the red/pink matte shades, this will be minimised if you use a good base. I found the wear time of the eyeshadows satisfactory, but I do always use a trusted eye primer and glitter glue. The metallic shades do look rather messy in the pan straight after the first use, this is because they have a sort of putty texture. I think they are that sort of texture so that they didn't have to be pressed glitters. My favourite shades are; Roxy Catan, Aura, All-In and Pride.

Overall the palette is decent for the price, but I was expecting more from the matte shades considering it is a NikkieTutorials palette. I was extremely impressed with the metallic shades, but underwhelmed by the matte shades. I was expecting the palette to blow me away a bit more. Maybe I have become desensitised a little due to the amount of palettes I’ve tried so far in my life?? I did appreciate the FREE little pop socket and it does look rather cute, but I do not use pop sockets anyway. I would still recommend this palette, but not really to a beginner. You definitely need a lot of patience to deal with the amount of blending you might have to do! It would also be a great idea if you did your eyes before your base, so that it will be easy to remove any glitter fallout (it does get everywhere if you are not careful).

You can purchase the BY BEAUTY BAY X NikkieTutorials Palette for £25.00 ($30.00) exclusively from BeautyBay.com.

SOLD OUT at the moment, final half of batch coming soon!

| I purchased this palette for £25.00 from BeautyBay.com |