When BH Cosmetics launched the Carli Bybel Palette ($12.50 at BHCosmetics.com) back in September, it literally broke the internet. The site kept crashing in the middle of the night and I remember thinking there was no way I was going to stay awake until 3 am to try and get one. I knew I wanted to review and swatch it for the blog, but I wanted to wait until the dust settled a little bit. Kind of reminds me of all the hype surrounding a certain Peach palette now! Anyway, a lot of people were very disappointed and had to wait a few months until this palette was restocked. I finally got mine a couple of months ago and have been testing it out ever since.
For those of you don't know who Carli Bybel is, she's a major YouTube star, and she created this palette in collaboration with BH Cosmetics, a brand I happen to really like for their high quality, yet affordable products. So let's take a closer look!
The eyeshadows are mainly neutral easy-to-wear shades, making this a great palette for every day and I find myself reaching for it often. It has pink and plum shades in addition to gold, bronze and copper.
One thing I wanted to mention is that the matte shades don't have a lot of fallout, while the shimmery shades are super soft and can definitely kick up a bit of powder. You can see in the photo below how the cream colored matte shade has a lot less loose powder sitting in it than the peachy-pink shimmer shade
Formula-wise, the matte and shimmer shades are a lot different (which I find is often the case). The matte shades had decent pigmentation but felt drier and definitely needed to be built up a little bit. The shimmer shades were soft, buttery and highly pigmented with no effort required to get intense color payoff.
The top row has four matte shades and one shimmer shade, so in terms of pigmentation this row wasn't as impressive as the rest of the palette (although I love the colors!). I haven't seen anything but rave reviews on this palette, with no mention of the matte shades being dry and less pigmented than the others, so I'm wondering if maybe I got a dud? I've seen plenty of other swatches and the matte shades look more intense than they do on me...I'm not sure why.
I should also mention that I didn't swatch these over primer so that might help to intensify the shades a bit more.
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| Top Row- Eyeshadows |
The second row of eyeshadows had four shimmers and only one matte shade and you can definitely see the difference here in terms of pigmentation and color impact when compared to the first row. These swatches are one swipe, so they're definitely impressive!
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| Middle Row- Eyeshadows |
The highlighters are my favorite part of the palette...ohhh my gosh, they're super intense and almost...creamy. One swipe gives buttery soft high-impact color that will really make your cheekbones stand out. They're so smooth and finely milled with no crazy sparkle or chunky glitter. These could be one of my favorite highlighter formulas ever!
The lightest two shades work well on my fair skin, and while the other two are a little bit too dark for me to use as a highlight, I can use them as bronzy blushes (if I use a lighter hand) or as eyeshadows.
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| Bottom Row- Highlighters |
Overall, it's hard to believe this palette is only $12.50. Aside from the somewhat drier matte eyeshadows, this palette has a ton of beautiful, shimmery shades that are totally wearable and great quality. In some ways, this palette reminds me of the Lorac Unzipped palette, but at a much more affordable price point.
Grab yours now at BHCosmetics.com