Review (5/5): Beautiful Palette! Great Shadows - Pigmented, Soft, Smooth! Unique Packaging!
This comes packaged really well! It comes in its own shipping box. Mine came in a bigger Amazon box with other items from an order. So, if you just ordered the palette on its own, I’m not sure how Amazon would ship it. But, inside the Amazon shipping box, there was another brown shipping box with the brands name on it (“Hot Sugar”). It was sealed with tape. Then, when you opened that, it had the palette inside an inflatable air cushion. I don’t see many companies using these, but they are so cool! I feel like it’s the best way to package a palette so it arrives safely. If I had a palette packaged like this and a shade or more came broken, I wouldn’t blame the company at all! I would think the company did as much as they could, more even, but it still happened. Luckily, this palette arrived completely safe, all in one piece, no broken shades. And I believe it had everything to do with how well the company packaged it! I always appreciate companies doing at least the bare minimum to make sure an item arrives undamaged, but it always means a lot when I see a company go above and beyond to make sure an item arrives undamaged. I remember that company did their best to protect my purchase, so I will return to them for future purchases. I don’t mean to ramble on about this! I just had another palette from a different brand that came with not even the bare minimum protecting it and it had a shade broken that got EVERYWHERE! So going from that to this palette being protected so well, it meant a lot! So, i will definitely be happy to buy from this company again just on that alone! Okay, I’m sure you’re sick of me talking about that! Let’s get to the actual palette! 😊
The palette has an outer pink cardboard sleeve. It is made in China. It has ingredients listed on the back, which include talc and mica. There’s a cruelty free logo. I looked up “Hot Sugar” to see if it was in fact cruelty free, but couldn’t find anything one way or the other. The box said the palette was “manufactured for Chongqing Fendai Cosmetics Co., Ltd.,” so I looked that up too and couldn’t find anything one way or the other. So, I can’t guarantee that it’s cruelty free. Just that they have the cruelty free logo on the box.
The outer design on the palette is really interesting! I’ve never had one like this before! It is blue and black animal print. It has a rough feel to the outside. It feels like it’s fake leather possible that it’s made out of. The palette has some weight to it. It feels really well made. Not cheap. It has magnetic closure. There’s a big mirror inside. There was a plastic protective sheet over the shadows.
I did swatches. I did finger swatches on my clean forearm (no primer, lotion, etc.). I did 1 swipe for each one. They were all really soft, smooth, and pigmented. The shimmers are standard shimmers. They aren’t metallics where you get that wet, metallic look. But, they are really pigmented. They pick up very easily with a brush or your finger. They give a nice soft sheen when used dry. If you wet them you get more of a sheen.
Overall, for $19.99 (at the time of writing this review) I think this is great!! The palette itself is very nice! It is really well made. It doesn’t look or feel cheap at all. It has an interesting design on the outside! It’s something different, which I like! The colors are all beautiful. They perform great. They are pigmented, soft, and smooth. They apply nicely on the eyes. They are easy to blend out. They aren’t patchy at all. I’d definitely recommend this!