Stila Loves BP (and I love Stila) palette

I'm back!  Naturally all of my Black Friday/Cyber Monday/What the Hell I Like to Online Shop on Tuesdays Too purchases showed up the second I went on blog hiatus.  I'm still holding off on trying a few things until I know I can swatch and do a writeup on them, but I couldn't resist taking the new Stila palette for Nordstrom out for a spin.

Like all of Stila's travel palettes, this palette is very thin and small--it fits easily in my hand, and would easily slide into a small purse or medium-sized makeup bag.  It features four eyeshadows, one "bronzer," one blush, a "get the look" guide, and a small mirror.

Going clockwise from the top left the eyeshadow colors are: Clique, Bestie, Hipster, and Wink.  The "bronzer" (which is bizarre and totally not a bronzer shade) is Crush, and the blush is Flirt.

Swatches of the shadows:

Clique, Bestie, Wink, and Hipster (top to bottom)

As you can see, Clique is very, very pale pink.  So pale that it really doesn't show up as anything more than flesh-colored shimmer on my lids.  It's a decent base color for a very natural or sheer look, but not much good otherwise.  Bestie and Wink are my two favorites from this palette, and I'm very pleased with the quality of the shadows and the colors themselves.  I'm a sucker for a rich, dark pink, and that's exactly what both of these are.  Wink is quite glittery, but the glitter doesn't translate from the pan onto the brush, and I haven't noticed any fallout at all after several days of wearing it on my lids.  Bestie is a good warm neutral pink, and while I wouldn't buy singleton of this color it does look nice when paired with the other shades in the palette.  Hipster is your standard brown matte, and as you can see in the swatch above, is pretty sheer for such a dark chocolate brown.

On to the "bronzer" (I really can't get over this bright pink being labeled a bronzer--WTF, Stila?) and blush:

Yeah, nothing to write home about here.  The bronzer is clearly a joke (might be good as a blush on someone with a cool-toned complexion, but not on me at all) and the blush is really sheer. I stopped counting swipes with my swatching brush because it took so many just to build up enough color of either shade to get the incredibly light swatches you see above.  These are totally wasted pans, and very disappointing overall.

On the whole I really do like the shadows in the Stila Loves BP palette (and I absolutely think it's priced right at $14) I wish that the blush/bronzer combo wasn't such a waste of space and product. 

Stila Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer--Sephora Holiday Prep Kit Review Pt. II

I came into the Stila Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer prepared to be wowed.  As a rule I like Stila products, and while I'm pretty happy with the Laura Mercier TM I'm currently using, I'm not averse to changing things up if I find something better.  Sadly, Stila's TM wasn't quite what I was looking for.

The below shot was taken after 15 seconds of  blending a pea-sized amount of product.  As you can see it blends into my skin tone well, but that's about it.

As far as illuminators go, this is an unimpressive product. It doesn't deliver nearly the punch of  Lancôme Touché Miracle (also included in the set), nor is it as long-lasting as the NARS illuminator in Orgasm that I wear with that blush.  For the most part the illuminating effect (created with what looks like a small amount of micro glitter in the formula) disappears within a couple of hours after application.

As a tinted moisturizer it did an acceptable job. I did need to touch up my t-zone with De-Sick powder twice as the day wore on, but I generally have to do that with most tinted moisturizers.

Overall the Stila is adequate, but just that. My primary issues with the product are that A: I don't want illuminator all over my face, just in specific areas (like on my cheekbones) I'd like to highlight; and B: as an illuminator this TM fails miserably.  I might have been willing to overlook this issue if the product had something else wonderful going for it, but it really doesn't. Zero mattifying, unremarkable SPF (20), and only mediocre illuminating qualities.

At $32 per full-sized tube this is one product that won't go beyond the sample size in my makeup drawer.