By BR Kellie
If you happened to read my previous article about the KKW X Mario collaboration you'll know I was ready for it. I, as a mega-Mario fan, was all in. 7am on release day I was at my computer, refreshing like mad, and just like that I had the collab in my basket, paid for it, and sat back safe in the knowledge this raved-about palette, two gorgeous glosses and a lipstick-to-suit-all-skin-tones would soon be winging its way to New Zealand.
And wing its way it did. Two weeks later the box of goodies appeared on my doorstep and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I ripped into it and immediately began playing with the palette and lip products.
So... what are my thoughts? Is this the buy of the year? Were the beauty gurus and influencers telling the truth in their YouTube and Insta-story raves? Did I just waste NZ$137??
Er... yeah, nah, yeah, nah, yeeeeeah, naaaaaaah, hmmmmmmm... Sort of. Maybe. Just a bit.
The star of the show is meant to be the KKW X MARIO eyeshadow palette. When you finger swatch the shadows you see what everyone sees on social media - the shadows look super pigmented and creamy, BUT once put to the test on your actual lids with brushes and then worn for more than one hot second? Colour me unimpressed. Kind of.
The first shadow I had to test was 'Libra' - the vibrant blue shadow that looks effortless to apply and saturated in pigment. Um. Yeah. Shall we talk about Libra? When applied with the same brush that I apply all my shadows with when I'm looking to create depth of colour it came out... muted. Like a bad 80's blue shadow. When I patted it on with my finger the colour payoff improved. When I spritzed my brush with setting spray then really dug the brush into the pan to load it up with colour, I got that vibrant blue after a fair bit of pat-pat-patting it on style application. BUT... the colour didn't last on the lid. Within a couple of hours it had become a muddy mess and returned to that 80's blue kind of colour.
Brush Swatch vs Finger Swatch vs Setting Spray Brush Swatch
The muddy mess theme continues...
Not to be dissuaded, the next day I went in and had a play with the matte shadow 'Miami' in the crease, the metallic shades 'Bronzy' and 'Armenian' on the lid, and the dark brown matte shade 'Loyalty' on the outer corner. No primer - because I never prime. I don't need to. My hooded lids love shadow. Whether it's a Chi Chi palette or my Anastasia Beverly Hills Master Palette by Mario, once those shadows are on, they're on all day. They don't fade. They don't crease. It gets to bedtime and my micellared-up cotton round is saturated in colour when I wipe the day's eye look off. With that in mind I went in doing my day's makeup the same way I always do. The mattes blended like a dream in and above the crease. 'Bronzy' applied okay. Again, like when I used 'Libra', I had to work to get the colour on my lid. The gold shade 'Armenian' on the inner third of my lid? It applied fabulously, but I found it chunky, and - the horror! - it emphasised my nearly-40 year old eyes' lines.
Later that day I was at a friends house, and when I mentioned I was using the palette they were keen to have a gander at my eyes. Let's just say the reception was muted. When I arrived home and looked in the mirror, I understood why. The colours had either muddied up together, or all but disappeared off my lids. The only part they had stuck around was the shadow in the inner corner.
Unprimed vs primed after two hours' wear
As you can see in the picture to the left (my camera's making it look better than it is - I love that for selfies, not so much for reviews when things go askew)... the lid has a hint of 'Armenian' on the inner corner, and everything else has just bunched together, or left the lid bare with a tiny bit of shimmer, which is most apparent in the centre of the lid.
Not to be outdone, I removed the look and started fresh as I was heading out for the evening. Using the mattes only I created a pretty, natural look. Once again they blended beautifully. Once again my lids ate my shadow. When I returned home after two hours there was nothing there. What was there had bunched up in my crease.
The next day I decided to break out the primer and have another go. This time there was success! Sort of. The matte shadows were a pain in the proverbial to blend with eye primer on. (I used Urban Decay's Anti-Ageing Primer Potion.) I windscreen-wiped and small-circled the shadows in and above my crease area for ages before it blended out. BUT, with the primer on the shimmers went on much better, the colour impact was there, and the look stuck around ALL DAY.
While playing with the eyeshadows I also took to the wearing the lipstick and glosses. These were more successful... again, sort of. The lipstick is touted as being a shade anyone can wear. I'm not so sure about that. On me, in natural light, I feel the lipstick on its own is a touch orangey, and doesn't really work with my skin tone (weirdly enough, it looks nice in the photo below, but in real life... not so much). BUT once I apply the lipgloss on top - either Juicy or Super Nude - it looks lovely. I also really love how creamy the formula is, and it withstood a massive munch on salt 'n' vinegar chips. Best of all? My lips have been massively moisturised since using it - I can only put this down to the ingredients of the lipstick, which includes castor seed oil and sunflower extract. Can we talk about the lipstick's packaging though? It's meant to resemble a crystal.... ooooookay then. Yeah, nah. It's plastic. It's translucent. It looks... cheap.
The glosses are... glossy. I like the pinky-tone to Juicy, and Super Nude is exactly that. They're a bit tacky, but not horribly so, and they certainly give your lips a lovely boost of shine. I DO like the packaging of these. The matte grey lid with the translucent bottle looks really pretty. (Why they did not transfer this style to the lipstick packaging design I'll never know.)
Classic K vs Classic K + Juicy
My thoughts? For US$45 the palette is a pass for me. The cardboard matte grey packaging is pretty basic, nothing flash. The product inside didn't rock my world. I didn't hate them, but I've palettes a third of the price in my collection that do a better job. I'll use it again, but only because it cost so much that I'm going to have to do the '$1 per wear' system I use on expensive makeup products in order to justify the purchase.
The lipstick? I think on some skin tones this would be beautiful, but on mine? It's just a tad orangey - BUT when layered with the gloss I'm into it, so much so I've been wearing the combo of lipstick and gloss most days. And I enjoy how moisturising it is because as much as I love a good lip balm and have them stashed all over the place, I'm a bit useless at remembering to put it on.
The lipglosses? I like them! Juicy is yum. I'd wear this on its own. Super Nude is a touch pale on its own on me, but looks lovely layered on top of lipsticks.
All in all though... I think I'd rather have taken my $137 (which included postage) and had a wee shopping spree at Farmers or Mecca.
How very disappointing!