To get a full picture of the holiday makeup plane we have to see what Bobbi Brown has to offer. Before we do, I want to say I like this collection name – Sterling Nights. Pretty cool 🙂
And I like the packaging. Classy matt black boxing with silver lining and lettering. Lacquer black packaging. Signature Bobbi Brown holiday heraldic logo theme. It all looks ever so good and elegant. I’m very very happy and can only hope that what’s inside these boxes is as good.
The first product is what we’ve come to expect from Bobbi Brown – a compact eye palette accommodating a lot of shades.
Bobbi Brown Sterling Nights Eye Palette
We have nine shades here. I look at them, and they look pretty. Characteristically neutral and nude like. Once again, that’s something we expect from this makeup brand.
The quality of the eyeshadow is true to the brand’s professional quality level. It’s soft and easy to apply.
Here are the shades.
Top row first
Ivory Eye Shadow is an off white base like shade.
Moon Glow Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow is a satin shiny cool ever so light beige, almost whitish but not quite.
Thistle Metallic Eye Shadow is a satiny shiny light warmer beige shade.
Second row now.
Dove Grey Eye Shadow is not quite grey, it’s a matt greige shade, not too pigmented, you’ll have to build it to get full on colour.
Pink Moonlight Metallic Eye Shadow is a satiny shiny medium leaning to lighter pink. Very pretty.
Smoke Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow is a brownish shade with golden satiny shine and sparkle.
And, finally, the bottom row.
Midnight Sparkle Eye Shadow is a darker grey shade with grey and pink sparkle and silvery satiny sheen.
Caviar Eye Shadow is dead on matt black
Pewter Chrome Eye Shadow. This shade looks like a mild gold silvery beige shade in the palette, nothing special. When swatched though, it’s amazing. It’s like an explosion of silver and golden pearl and sparkle. Decadent almost in its beauty and opulence. Love it. This one shade makes the whole palette worth it for me.
All in all, this palette is in tune with Bobbi Brown DNA. It’s a bunch of lush nudes with some darker smoky spots. If you’re Bobbi Brown makeup fan, you probably have a lot of palettes of the kind. On the other hand, you probably keep getting them, because it’s exactly what you like 🙂
We are not done with the eye makeup in this collection. Not even done with eyeshadow, actually 🙂
We have four more shades to go of sequin eyeshadow. Oh, this sequin eyeshadow looks so-o beautiful in the promos. It’s so sparkly. It’s Sterling Nights personified. The packaging is as beautiful as the rest of it.
And as heraldic.
Let’s try it out and see all the shades we’ve got.
Constellation
Check it out
Dark brown with golden sparkle and copper pearl that doesn’t show a bit when the eyeshadow is applied.
Comet
I love these spacy shade names 🙂
Deep dark green with emerald sparkle and lighter bud green pearl that doesn’t show a bit when the eyeshadow is applied.
Star Beam
Looks like a picture of some planet
Purple with lighter purple sparkle and silver pearl that doesn’t show a bit when the eyeshadow is applied.
Moon Rock
These look so stunning in the box. All of them.
Brighter blue with golden sparkle and copper pearl that doesn’t show a bit when the eyeshadow is applied.
Please, see all four shades of sequin eyeshadow swatched back to back. Left to right: Constellation, Comet, Star Beam and Moon Rock.
These shades seemingly call for some kind of celebration but…
They are such a disappointment. I should have known better. No matter how many times I try sparkle in a classic powder eyeshadow texture kind of stuff, it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t. I get classic boring eyeshadow and then sparkle all over the place and all around and never where it’s supposed to be that is over the eyeshadow proper. And never enough sparkle to begin with. Oh. Oh. I so wish this eyeshadow was better. The design is stunning. If it actually worked as well as it looks, I’d be all over it this holiday season. It’s such a pity. This kind of sparkly eyeshadow stuff works so much better when it’s metallic pearly in texture. I don’t know why. It just does.
I’m devastated but I pull myself together here and move on to the rest of the products in the collection.
To round up the eye look we have Perfectly Defined Gel Eyeliner
in Black Ivy 8
The shade is darker deeper marshy green.
Personally, I’d prefer something more emerald, but this here is more of a classic eyeliner shade. So, the choice is yours. You might like it, especially if your eyes are green.
It’s a good gel eyeliner, soft without smudging and precise enough in terms of application. Very good texture. To me, gel eyeliner stylo is one of the best eyeliner textures and, probably, the easiest to use.
That’s all we have for the eyes, so we are moving on to the face products, or else product here.
Bobbi Brown Face Highlighter
in Pink
Comes in a sleek black bottle
with a pump.
The packaging in this collection is truly superb.
The pump is easy to use. Just be careful so as not to get out a huge amount of this stuff.
The highlighter is pearly and kind of sparkly. More pearly than sparkly.
I like that it’s pink. Pink in a nice and light fresh kind of way.
A little takes you a long way here. So once again don’t go heavy on the pump.
The texture is lighter, the way highlighter is supposed to be. However, it’s just too glowy for me. Maybe, it could work, if you add a touch of it to the base you usually wear. As it is, the max I can get out of it is use it as cheek contouring/blush shade. Just too shiny. The texture is quite nice though. Silky and stays on pretty well.
If you are into shining on any of the party nights this holiday season, take a look at this highliter by Bobbi Brown, which comes in three shades. The other two are Seashell beige and Sunlight Bronze which is really very bronze. Too bronze to my taste.
Lip colour is next for us to consider. The most classic texture of all. Cream lipstick formula. Bobbi Brown Lip Color
Unfortunately this particular formula by Bobbi Brown gives off a strong chemical whiff that some Bobbi Brown lip products do. I don’t like that. Not my favourite in Bobbi Brown lip colour line. It’s a legit cream lipstick though. And we have four shades here, which is a lot 🙂
Uh, the classy matt black packaging.
And a black tube.
Here’s the first one. Lady Ruba
Red. Bright and vibrant orangy red. Not sultry red.
As much as I like orange in my red lipstick, this might be too orange for me. I can’t believe I’m actually saying it 🙂
Next. Vixen Red
Cherry red. Now this is sultry.
Actually it’s a nice calm red. Strong and powerful without being crazy bright, neon and too on the nose. It’s an elegant red shade. Very womanly. I like it.
Next. Atomic Orange
Boy, talk about neon and too on the nose. This shade is not coral. It’s super bright orange. Ever so orange. Uncompromisingly so.
I’ve said it before, I’m going to say it again – I don’t think this shade is flattering a lot of people out there. It’s a hard one to pull. Requires a whole look built around it. I do get why it hangs on in makeup world though. What can be a better way to get a boost of energy or jerk up your spirits than applying this splash of colour on your lips?
And the last one. Nude
Bobbi Brown’s signature nude shade that scares me every time I get it 🙂
This lipstick looks purple. Very much so. When applied on the lips though, it’s like it all of a sudden turns into nude beige. I don’t know what happens here. It happens every time I wear this shade though. It’s a mystery to me. I guess, it means there is a purplish mauve undertone to this beige. Which I definitely approve of in nude lip colour. Makes it very complimenting, generally speaking. It doesn’t really show much when on the lips, but it must be there, as long as the damn thing looks so purple in the tube.
Here are all four lip shades. Left to right: Lady Ruba,Vixen Red, Atomic Orange, Nude.
There’s also a set of mini brushes in a silver cosmetic bag that I didn’t get just because I have so many brushes of all kind and size, including brushes by Bobbi Brown. So to get me it takes an amazing packaging. Suffice it to say, this year it didn’t get me 🙂
That’s The Sterling Nights look by Bobbi Brown. I have to say, this collection is a kind of disappointment to me. The design and shade names and thinking behind it all is great. The name of the collection itself – Sterling Nights – makes me think of holidays. But a lot of textures and shades here proved to be more of a let down for me. Some of them are just too common in makeup world, others don’t perform as expected. And this sequin eyeshadow not working out for me is a tough thing to take, to tell you the truth. I had really high hopes for it. Nonetheless, the more holiday collections we have, the more we feel holidays in the air, so whatever this one in particular is, it adds to the general good feel and anticipation of something even better which is sure to come.
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