Beauty Review: Dior Backstage Glow Face Palette in 001 Universal

I used to be a huge collector of Dior’s palettes – some of my current favourites are still from past Dior collections; I find their eyeshadows to generally be really high quality and I like the consistency in packaging. I also like that they only come out with new collections every season, unlike MAC which pushes out new collection like nobody’s business.

For this Dior Backstage Glow Face Palette in 001 Universal, I actually thought for a very long time because a) I don’t own a lot of face products from Dior, and b) the packaging is very different from old formats and does not feel high end. I’m paying a lot of money, so I expect great quality and aesthetically nice, plus I’m upset that it will stick out in my Dior collection.

The packaging is very light plastic, with a see through flip-open cover. There’s no mirror; whilst I do like that I can see what colours are in the palette at first sight, I think in the long run a mirror would be more useful for on the go touch up, and the plastic top is quite flimsy so I think it will be very scratched and dirty after being in the makeup bag for awhile.

Excerpt from Dior: Dior Backstage
Dior has created its first professional makeup line, a collection of makeup artist essentials, inspired by the energy backstage at the runway shows. Shades to suit all skin tones in exclusive versatile and buildable textures. [This] is Dior makeup artists’ secret weapon to add instant radiance to any look, from a natural healthy glow to an intense luminosity.

There’s 10g/0.35oz of product, with 4 shades. This costs SGD77 from Sephora, which is a lot cheaper than their old eyeshadow palettes so that was rather surprising for me, given that they claim that this is a professional makeup line. Going from Top Left to Right then Bottom Left to Right, we have Strobe – White, Strobe – Gold, Blush – Pink, and Blush – Bronze.

At first sight, I liked it a lot – it looks sleek and clean in its clear and fuss free packaging, and when I swatched it in stores it was really beautiful with strong pigmentation and the highlights were going so strong whilst the blush and bronzer stood out too. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where a finger swatch is totally different compared to applied.

When applied, the two highlights on the top row were still really fantastic. It has great texture – extremely finely milled, and really good pigmentation without having any visible shimmer bits in them. I really like the highlights; I thought the White would look stark on the skin, but just go easy with a fluffy brush and it should give a lovely sheen. The Gold worked wonders on my naturally yellow-toned skin; I generally find gold highlights to work really well, and even more when I have a slight tan which I do at the moment.

However, the two blushes were quite a big let down. I thought the Pink would have more colour and could work as a blush, making the palette an all-round face palette; unfortunately, it applied more as a pink-tone highlighter than a true blush – there was only the slightest hint of pink on my cheeks even when I layered them on. I wouldn’t advise doing that either – because the more you layer, the more metallic it gets rather than have a deeper shade of pink. So I ended up with a very metallic light pink on my cheeks.

I’m not quite sure why they named the brown shade a blush, but I suppose it could be used as a blush too. I find that the Bronze had a bit more colour so it could work as a brown blush, or applied with a very light hand as a bronzer across the forehead and where the sun shines. This is definitely not something you could double up as a contour because it is very glowy. I like using this as a bronzer now that I have a tan – it’s like I became a tanned glowing goddess. But once I lose my tan, I think it will look very fake and not a good look.

Overall, I think that the quality is undeniable; the powders are very soft and finely milled, applies and blends smoothly, and gives a great glow. I am, however, disappointed because I thought it could be a multi-purpose palette with the top two shades giving a really beautiful soft glow, and the bottom two being a blush and bronzer but the Blush – Pink does not work as a blush for me and only ends up giving a pink-hued highlighted cheeks. I also think the packaging looks clean and sleek at first, but feels cheap and not durable.

If you’re looking for a palette with 4 highlighters in different tones, then this could be something to look at – they do all give a beautiful glow. But if you’re looking for a palette with some highlights and a blush or two, then skip it.