Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great week!
Today I have a mini-review of the Iluvsarahii x Colour Pop collaboration that was released on May 24th. I did not purchase the whole collection, but I wanted to give you guys a little review of what I purchased and my overall impressions of the collection.
O R D E R D E T A I L S
-$aucey Eyeshadow Palette — $18
-Mamacita Ultra Matte Lip — $6
-951 Ultra Satin Lip — $6
-Curvii Lippie Pencil — $5
Order Placed: Wednesday May 24th, 2017 at 10:12am
Order Received: Monday June 5th, 2017 at 11am
Direct link to the collection!
P A C K A G I N G
This collection comes in very sleek, sexy packaging. The colors are a pale, peachy/blush shade with gold foiled detail in animal print (I would guess crocodile or alligator print). The lipsticks and liners come in boxes with the same peach blush and gold foil design, and inside they look like the standard lipsticks, but instead the silver chrome has been replaced by gold chrome and Karen’s logo is on the tubes as well.
P E R F O R M A N C E
As far as how the shadows and lippie products perform, everything was pretty darn good! All the items I purchased had great pigmentation, wear time, blendability and ease of use. The Mamacita shade is a teensy weensy bit streaky, but for the most part everything is very easy to use.
V A L U E
The prices from Colour Pop are the best thing about them—they are affordable to the max. The palette itself is $18, which is pretty reasonable. That comes out to $4.50 per shadow for 1.5 grams each, less expensive than their super shock shades, and a bit easier to travel with. I also got a free CP birthday super shock shadow with purchase and free domestic shipping! Total with tax I spent $44 (I got 2 of the 951 shade).
E X P E R I E N C E
- $aucey Palette
As someone with brown eyes I love playing with purple eyeshadow shades, which is why I chose the $aucey palette over the Chic-y one. Outside of Vivacious, the pearly, silver toned baby pink, the Chic-y palette looks like your basic, everyday wearable colors that you can find from any brand at any given time. Even so, I think the Chic-y palette is beautiful, and I am still somewhat considering getting it just because I love the two darker shades—Freckles and Noche. If I am able to buy them individually I might just do that, but then again I love the collaboration packaging…#firstworldprobz
I used the $aucey palette on my eyes to create a halo eye look. Unlike the super shock shadows, which perform better with a fingertip or a synthetic brush, the pressed shadows are the same quality but a bit easier to work with. I used both natural and synthetic brushes and didn’t notice a difference in application, however there was a bit of kick-up with these, so use a light hand. The colors were very pigmented and blendable, overall great shadows.
photo courtesy of Morphe Brushes
For the look I created, I used a few transition shades from my Morphe 35N palette (the 3 pink shades in the center row) then I pressed Heavy Glam onto the center of my lids. With another flat brush, I added Razy into the inner and outer corners of my eyes, then I blended out with Chic Happens on a fluffy blending brush. Using a small detail brush I layered Heavy Glam over Lit on my inner corners. Like I mentioned before, everything was really pigmented and easy to blend. Even though these are not ‘every day’ eyeshadows, I will definitely be playing around with these palette to create some fun looks.
Lip Products
On Tuesday (6/6) I wore Mamacita with and without a lip liner. I did not purchase the coordinating liner because I’m not a huge fan of Colour Pop liners, but I just used a brown liner of my own. Mamacita can bleed without a liner, and the formula can be a tiny bit streaky. I have found with CP’s dark red shades (LAX especially) the formula can be thick, flaky, patchy and hard to work with. Taking that into consideration, this is a very good formula; pigmented, rich and creamy. I always layer a plain Chapstick lip balm under the mattes from Colour Pop just to make it more comfortable. You can dab your lips with a napkin to take away any residual shine, but for me this creates a matte, long wearing, virtually transfer-proof result.
On Wednesday I wore Curvii lip pencil with the 951 ultra-satin lip. I chose the Curvii pencil instead of the 951 pencil because I wanted to try 1 of each lip color she created, and I thought the Curvii pencil would make a good all-over lip shade. On my darker skin, it is a tad bit too cool toned and light, but I made it work with the same brown liner from the previous day. 951 is also a bit on the light side, but I still like it. I would say if you are darker in complexion, it might be better to wear this with a darker lip liner.
Overall, 951 and Mamacita are great additions to my collection. I love the creamy, sexy nude tone of 951, and it would be great to mix and layer with other shades. Mamacita is the true vampy dark red I have been on the hunt for and I think even though it is dark, it is perfect for hot summer nights out.
O V E R A L L
As per usual with CP, I loved everything I purchased. Very rarely have I not liked a formula or finish on something, and that was back in the earlier days of Colour Pop when they were still figuring things out. I think depending on your skin tone, there will be certain items you really want from this collection. For those with more fair-medium skin, the Chic-y palette, 951 and liner, Curvii gloss and liner are probably great buys. For those of us medium-deep, the $aucey palette is on point and Mamacita is a must have for sure.
One thing I was surprised about is that Karen didn’t create a highlighter. She is known to have a very glowy, highlighted look to her skin and a highlighter would be right up her alley. I would say with the success of this collaboration, she will probably be invited back in the future for an additional collab like Kathleen Lights and Karreuche. I think the second time around we can expect a highlighter, maybe bronzer and blush as well from her.
One thing I do want to address is ordering and shipping. I live in the Bay Area and CP HQ is in SoCal (5-6 hours away for you non-Californians). Years ago when I first began ordering from CP, I’d receive my items within 4 business days (1day for payment processing, and 2-3 days for travel time). As they’ve grown, shipping times have gradually increase which is to be expected.
Of all the collaborations they’ve done, I think this Karen collab received the most positive response and hype. That being said, I am sure the items were selling like hot cakes. I made sure to order my items as soon as possible (I mentioned I ordered at 10:12am—the collection released at 10). What I was very disappointed with, was how long the items took to be sent out and the lack of response/support from the CP team.
I finally received a shipping confirmation for my items the morning of the restock on Friday June 2nd. I had already attempted to contact CP customer service, but they conveniently waited until after the restock to respond to my email. My belief is that they didn’t make enough merchandise for the amount of orders that came in the first time, so they announced a “restock” and waited until after that to send out a large amount of the original orders.
I am unhappy with how the shipping went this time, and I know people that ordered after me received their items before me. I don’t believe any brand should announce a product as available when it isn’t—simply put, they should have informed people that they didn’t make enough and things were back-ordered. Many of us that have blogs or channels are counting on those speedy shipments to get reviews and swatches up for you guys, and the slow shipping and total lack of even addressing the issue on CP’s part is really disappointing. In the future I think I will just wait for items to restock before I order, if they’re going to arrive at the same time anyway. As a brand I still love and support them, I’m just a little bummed that their growth has effected how great they used to be. Still I 100% recommend Colour Pop and this won’t stop me from making more purchases in the future. I am hoping to see them at GenBeauty in SF this summer. Who else is going?? And what did you guys grab from this collab?
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