Barry M Illuminating Highlighting Palette - Worth Picking Up? Drugstore, Affordable, Cruelty Free, Under £10

Ever just nipped into Boots or Superdrug for one thing, like baby wipes or toothpaste, stuck your finger in a sample on a product display out of sheer curiosity and then felt like you needed that product in your life?.... 

Recently, on a trip to Superdrug for some face wash, I did the above.

Barry M and I have a complicated history. Some of their products I love, some I hate, some I start loving and end hating. Dazzle Dust, Love, Concealer, hate. Primers (tried two or three of them), hate. Eyeliners, love. You get the idea... 

About a year ago, I decided to try their Natural Palette. Its a blusher and eyeshadow palette in some very natural shades. I thought I would like it, but I didn't. The product weas really stiff and hard to blend, and I found the colour payoff really poor (for both blush and eyeshadow). As it was around the same price as the To Be Cool in Copenhagen palette from Gosh I bought at the same time, and totally loved, I was more than a little disappointed and swore off Barry M powder products.

Barry M Natural Palette (image from Superdrug.com)

Fast forward to the face wash trip a few weeks ago, when I broke the just mentioned rule and got suckered in by one of those stand alone displays and some cute packaging. It has rockets on it.. nuff said??

So the thing that really attracted me to this palette was how soft and velvety the highlighters felt when I stuck my grubby paws in them. I mean, they are a pressed product so there's only so soft they can be, but they're definitely not smooshed into the pan with a huge amount of force. Also as a very pale girl, all three shades looked light enough for my peely-wally complexion.

LtR: Frosty Cream, Iced Pink and Gilded Bronze

The packaging is cute but it is cheap. It's card that looks like its been coated in thick black paper but not adhered together properly,  and you can see there is air between them in places. It has a magnetic closure but it's not really strong. The mirror is nice though and the design on the front is cute, however I've only had this a couple of weeks and bronze coating on the design has already started to wear off.

Across the second H and the T in highlighter the bronze coating is wearing off

So the palette costs £6.49 and you get three pans that each contains 4 grams. That's a cost per gram of £0.54, so very very cheap. The ingredients, like the packaging, aren't the highest quality with the main one being talc so definitely avoid it at all costs if you are sensitive to that.

So onto swatches, left to right we have Frosty Cream, Iced Pink and Gilded Bronze. Frosty Cream is a very pale yellow gold, Iced Pink is (as the name suggest) a very icy pink, and Gilded Bronze is a light bright coppery colour, but is definitely not bronze.  What I will say is these colours are all designed for very fair, peely-wally folk like me. I would say if your even a teeny bit tan these may be to frosty on you.

Some more intense finger swatches.

As I've already said these powders are very, very soft and as a result are a kick up quite a lot of product when you stick your brush (or fingers) into them. They apply really nicely to the skin, far nicer than expected and really aren't sparkly, which was always my biggest gripe about cheap highlighters. Is it weird to describe something as a work highlighter, because that's what these are to me.

I don't know how well these blended out swatches will show up.

So in summary...

Positive Points

Amazing value

Cruelty free

Good colour range

Not sparkly

Negative Points

Cheap packaging

Only works on fair skin

 Kicks up a lot of powder when using.

Would I recommend it? Maybe, but only to my really pale friends. 

Any Barry M products I really need to try? Let me know

xoxo Scruffy

Project Pan 2017 - Update 1. Kat Von D, MUA, Kiko Milano, Seventeen, Ralph Lauren, Too Faced, NYX

So it's been a little over a month now since I started my 2017 Project Pan (related blog post here) and I thought it was time to check back in and show you all how I'm doing. Rather than splitting it by product type this time, I'm going to do it by how used it is.

Update photos taken 21 May 2017, for later reference.

Products I used up

17 Va Va Voom Mascara & Kat Von D Tattoo Liner (Travel Sized).

 Loved and have repurchased both of these (two of the mascaras because they were on offer). All of them are currently in my unopened make-up drawer for a later date. 

Products I'm Binning

Models Own Kohl Pencil & Benefit Porefessional. 

My goal was to use up the Porefessional and decide if I liked the liner. I don't like the liner, it doesn't stay in the water line at all and just smudges if I use it for anything else. I own way to many opened liners I actually like and need to use up to even think about panning this properly. The Porefessional broke me out.It was all I changed in my routine and the breakouts only happened in areas I applied it (which are also not areas that normally have breakouts) . It's old, that's probably why this is happening, so bin. 

Products I barely used

I know I didn't use the mask or the hairspray at all. I did wear the perfume a couple of times but its more of a winter scent and its been really hot in the UK so I'll hopefully have more luck later in the year. As for the Sun Bunny bronzer, I do not like this as bronzer. I did use it both as an eyeshadow and on my body but not enough to really show any progress. 

Progress - Bottles

As you can see I made steady progress with all of these. There's not much else to say really. 

Progress - Powders and Pots

I've made good progress on the moisturiser and hit definite pan on the powder. The NYX blush is showing no progress despite me using it about 70% of the time. Still liking it, determined to hit that pan too.

Went through my photos and I hadn't taken a start photo.. D'oh!

I feel like I've made really good progress on this palette. I've been mostly concentrating on the two light taupe brown shades on the bottom row and a little in the bottom right corner of the large matte cream. There's now a significant dip in the second last shade. I'm hoping to hit pan soon as I own way to much eyeshadow and want to hit my goal, bin this and move on to the next palette ASAP. 

And products I'm adding in...

1. Collection Extreme Liner in Black
2. MUA Lip Liner
3. Kiko Long Lasting Shadow Stick
4. Seventeen Brow Sculpting Pencil

Check out how professional I am right now...

Update 1 round up

Used up: 2
Given up: 2
Added in: 4

xoxo Scruffy