I recently received this Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look in a Palette in Smokey Eye Beauty in the Beautylish Lucky Bag 2018. I own another Instant Look in a Palette in Seductive Beauty which I have previously reviewed and loved, so I was all excited when I got this. This costs US$75 and there’s 5x2g and 2x6g of product, which gives it a total of 22g of product.
The packaging is nice and classy. It’s in a brown and rose gold plastic palette, with 3 2g eyeshadows, 2 2g blush, a 6g bronzer and a 6g highlighter; it comes with a nice big mirror. The palette layout is exactly the same as Seductive Beauty, which I have mentioned before is not the best layout. The blushes are tiny – the same size as the eyeshadows, and stuck in the middle of the bronzer and highlighter – which makes it extremely difficult to use because it’s hard to find a brush that can pick product up only from the blushers.
The highlighter shade sadly is not up to the standard that I’ve expected of Charlotte Tilbury – it is quite hard, and very difficult to pick up any pigment. I was initially worried about the yellow-golden shade on my skin but honestly it doesn’t even show up at all. The bronzer shade is pretty but too close to my skin colour; I suspect that part of it is also due to the fact that I have gotten a little more tanned these days. I do like using it all across the face for the most unnoticeable bronzing, which looks really natural and pretty.
The blushers are very soft and slightly powdery; I find that it creates some kick-up as I use my smallest brush (which still doesn’t quite fit into the tiny pan) to brush across, and the powder overflows to the highlighters and bronzers on the side. The colours looks barely visible in the swatches, but it can be built up and actually shows up beautifully on my skin – like a wonderful natural flush that I think would work beautifully with a smokey eye.
The eyeshadows are the real performers – they’re very pigmented, and generally soft but not powdery. I only have a little trouble with the darkest shade – I thought it went on slightly patchy but a little bit of blending work solved the problem. I also like the combination of the colours – I can honestly see myself making a natural look or a smokey eye just with these 3 shades, although they are pretty “normal” colours that most of us would already own.
Honestly, I’m not in love with this palette. I think the eyeshadows are nice but not that special, the bronzer is nice but not outstanding enough, the blushes are really beautiful but so tiny and the highlighter is utterly useless. If you’re looking to try some Charlotte Tilbury, I would recommend that you skip this palette and go for one of her individual-product items.
The Good Life Bunny 