Divergent Palette--First Impressions

If you've seen this palette and weren't sure if you wanted it, YOU NEED THIS.  It's rare for me to be this excited about something, but it's seriously that good.  If you like the books or movie, you are going to love this.  If you've never heard of the books or movie, go check it out, but you're still going to love the make-up.  Plus, it's actually a really good deal when you consider all you're getting.  I am blown away with the quality of this product and how well they've tied in things from the film/books.

 

 

You get 3 eyeshadow palettes, 1 cheek palette, 4 lip glosses, and a dual-ended brush for $59.  The set is exclusive to Sephora and is currently sold out online and at a lot of stores.  If it's sold out in your area, try Sephora inside JCPenney.  They still had several in my area.

The box is HUGE, but even the big container box has lots of elements to show that a lot of attention to detail went into this product.  The ferris wheel from the movie is on the box.  The ferris wheel has raised spokes so you can feel them as you run your hand along the box. 

The box opening is at an angle, and there is just enough room to show a rainbow/holographic type pattern in the slant for the opening.

The eyeshadow palettes themselves are SO neat.  This may well be the most fun and playful make-up I own.  There are three eyeshadow palettes, and each one is themed after one of the factions from the movie/books.  Each faction has their own style, and the palettes match those styles beautifully.  But the coolest part is that each one also has a unique divergent color that's a glitter transformation shade.  The names are things like 'choose', 'diverge', 'transform'.  The packaging says that they're meant to represent the mirror themes from the movie in their colors and they do different things wet and dry.  They're meant to go over the tops of the other colors to change them, and I can say they do amazing, magical things when you use them in combination with the other colors.  Each transform color snaps off (at an angle too!) so that you can choose which faction it belongs with (how cool is that?!) and also mix and match the palettes that way.  I'd seen the snap off feature before, but I didn't realize how well made they are.  The angle movement for the diverging is cool, and there's a raised piece of metal at the split-off point.  The packaging just feels luxe and not cheap in your hand.  The best part is there are so many things that you can do with the transform shades.  If you consider you can pair all three transform colors with all 12 other shadows and do them all wet and dry for different effects, well, you could play with this palettes for weeks and still never do the same thing twice!

The colors in the palettes are all very nice and themed in well with the movie/books too.

I love lip gloss, so I am also loving that this set comes with 4 glosses.  And I also really love the brush.  I was worried about the quality of the brush, certain it would shed.  I was wrong.  It's a very high quality brush and I am so happy to have it in my collection.

This is one set that I don't think really shows across in pictures how nice it really is.  If you get the opportunity to buy one, you should.

I also really loved the movie too, if anyone was curious.

SirenPrincessBeauty Rating: A+
Disclaimer: I bought this with my own money

Divergent Multi-Piece Collector's Kit $59.50, Sephora Exclusive. Sephora is currently recommending calling customer service to find a store that has the palette.

Brow Gels

I prefer brow gels over pencils and powders.  They come in a tube with a wand, a bit like mascara. They're one of the easier brow products to use and can be applied quickly.  I've been looking for the perfect match for my blonde brows.  Here's a swatch of some colors I've been evaluating.

Top row (left to right): Blinc Brow Mousse in Dark Blonde, Blinc Brow Mousse in Medium Blonde, Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper and Hair Touch-up in Blonde
Bottom row (left to right): Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel in Blonde and Caramel

I find it interesting the Anastasia ones are very sparkly. But my actual brows do have a sparkle to the hairs, so maybe it's trying to replicate that?  The Bobbi blonde has a warmth to it that actually looks pretty good on me. The Blinc dark blonde was VERY dark on me. Husband asked me if I'd put black in my eyebrows. The Blinc medium blonde was pretty close but has an odd cool tone to it.

Disclaimer: The Anastasia Beverly Hills were swatched in store. The Blinc and Bobbi Brown I purchased.

SirenPrincessBeauty Ratings: Blinc B+ (colors run dark, cool toned), Bobbi Brown A- (color is a warm, dark blonde), Anastasia Beverly Hills A- (colors have an interesting sparkle to them)

Shiro Cosmetics

Do you love make-up? Do you love geeky fandoms?  Then you have to check out Shiro Cosmetics.  They sell eyeshadows, blushes, and lippies in geeky fandom themes.  There's an AMAZING Game of Thrones collection with the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen.  You don't want to miss the Zelda collection or the Hunger Games collection.

I moved all of my Shiro samples to mini jars today. For reference, the samples (1/4 teaspoon) come in little baggies for $1. You can buy a mini jar (1 Gram) there for ~$3.50 and a big jar (2 Gram) there for ~$6. If you like the eyeshadow for the fandom component, you definitely want to buy the large jars. Only the large jars come with artwork. Look at the beautiful artwork too! But if you just want the eyeshadow color, the $1 samples are an amazing deal!

I bought these mini jars from Amazon for about $10. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFAN0LE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Then I could easily peel the sticker off the baggie and stick it to the bottom of the mini jar. The stickers stayed sticky and just needed transferred. Open up the baggie and directly pour into the mini jar, snap on a filter and lid, and I have what looks to me nearly identical to the mini jars they sell on the site. You really do get a good amount of eyeshadow for that dollar. It wasn't even all that messy. That paper towel is before I cleaned up anything.

The three in line with the hunger games one are the Shiro mini jars. The one on the far right and all the rest in the second photo are the ones I did.

 Disclaimer: I bought this with my own money.

SirenPrincessBeauty Rating: A Very fun! So very pretty colors and amazing artwork.