Review: Sugarpill Sparkle Baby Palette

I Bought This

My first Sugarpill palette! Woo! I was hoping my first palette would actually be the Sweet Heart palette, but I couldn't get it last year during Pink Friday.

I can't get over how cute the inside of the shipping box is.

There's still the other two shades of Sweet Heart to pick up (Midori, Afterparty) as well as the gorgeous Heart Breaker and Cold Chemistry on my list but let's get into Sparkle Baby.

Front and back of the palette.

This is one of Sugarpill's first pressed forays into pastel eyeshadows. If you know the Sugarpill line, the only really "pastel" shade they offer is Paper Doll, a very pale lavender Chromalust loose shadow with Birthday Girl coming in as a close second to "pastel" but not quite what I think of when someone says pastel! Everything else is bright or dark (mainly the über-sexy Cold Chemistry palette). Sparkle Baby is sort of its own little collection (there was limited edition Chromalusts in Asteria and Lucid that were also on the more pastel spectrum). I didn't buy either, because I didn't care too much for Asteria personally but it was still pretty. I like Lucid as well, but I'm not jumping out of my skin to get it; I don't have to have every single Sugarpill eyeshadow purely to have the whole line. Although my wishlist of permanent products is daunting...

I'm really not sure what exactly happened to Hotsy Totsy but I think it could just be a milling issue. Its really, really weird.

Sparkle Baby comes in a long rectangular palette, much like Cold Chemistry. It's still a quad with a mirror, but much different from their usual square quads. The cardboard palette is done up in pretty pastels, the main color being a soft minty blue with a white, long-haired cat on the cover. (Is it just me, or does the cat look a little bit like Miss Kika's cat Milk?) I've had cardboard palettes before, but this palette has some serious magnets on it! I'm not sure if its purely because its been packed inside a sleeve, wrapped in tissue paper, then put in a box for several days or if the magnets are really just that strong but I love how sturdy the palette itself feels with the magnets. It's not terribly heavy but not so light you feel like you could easily drop it. Inside, each shade has the name listed over it. They are Kitten Parade, Frostine, CandyCrush and Hotsy Totsy.

You can see the golden sheen here excellently!

Kitten Parade is described as "Delicious shimmery peach with opulent golden sheen." This shade is gorgeous as someone who isn't big on orange-y shades. The name also makes me giggle. It's a slightly orange peach with a little pink peeking through to make a very sweet shade in the pan. When swatched, the pink comes through much more to create a peach-pink with a pretty intense golden sheen. The golden pearl in it adds interest, and with the orange tone, it doesn't get too pale or chalky looking or even too peachy. It truly does remind me of a peach, particularly when the peach has that strong orangey "blush" on one side. I find this needs a little bit of help, possibly with a glitter adhesive or sticky base. I was only using Urban Decay Primer Potion and it took some layering by patting (sweeping didn't help much) to get it really nicely laid on the lid. Its easy to pick up pigment on your finger, but it doesn't transfer well.

In the pan, there's a slight pinky-violet duochrome which shows up on the skin, but it's not particularly strong.

Frostine is described as "Frosty pale lavender for the sweetest of angels." A shade worthy of a macaron. This is a very cool, blue-toned lavender that's very pale but doesn't go chalky. The duochrome is beautiful but subtle in the pan. When applied, the duochrome really comes out on the skin and adds a lovely glow! It can be applied sheer, but it can also very easily be applied opaque. Speaking of sweets, the name also makes me think of fondant, which is the most disgusting thing to eat... Maybe it's better on cakes to cover instead of just as decoration on a cupcake?

My camera didn't quite want to pick up CandyCrush. It's also got like a micro-gram of extra shadow, haha. (That's why it's smudged slightly: just a micro-gram or so of "extra" shadow!)

CandyCrush is described as "Glistening mint pearl." While it looks minty in the photo above (these photos are all taken in a sunny window), it can become rather pale aqua looking depending on how you apply it. It does swatch minty green, with a lovely balance of blue and yellow, if you're indoors or look quite aqua in daylight or over a liner. I wore this over Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eyeliner in Junkie, which is a dark green-teal with silvery shimmer, and it looked quite aqua but was also gorgeous.

It arrived all lumpy. I'm not sure this will affect the shadow, but I don't think it will.

Hotsy Totsy is described as "Sweet magenta with iridescent fairy sparkles." I want to eat this. It is seriously candy colored. Super bright, red-toned pink with a violet duochrome and pretty violet micro-shimmer. It's nowhere near as bright as Dollipop (so you won't go blind looking at it!). It's actually darker than Dollipop, and none of the other pinks currently carried by Sugarpill are similar! The formula was a little bit dry when I touched it, but it didn't seem to affect the eyeshadow much, in application or swatching. This blends out like a dream, despite the formula being dry.

Top photo, left to right: Kitten Parade, Frostine, CandyCrush, Hotsy Totsy. Bottom photo, left to right: No primer, Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original, NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk, Too Faced Shadow Insurance Glitter Glue. Notice that Kitten Parade becomes more peachy-pink with different primers/bases!

Each shade (with the exception of CandyCrush) has a suggested use. Kitten Parade is suggested as a cheek highlight, Hotsy Totsy for blush, and Frostine for highlighting the inner corner. I may not be able to pull off Hotsy Totsy as blush very well (it may take a stippling brush and a very light hand or a different brush all together!) but the other two suggestions I can take on. I'm afraid Hotsy Totsy may look less like rosy cheeks and more like slapped cheeks. (Which isn't a good look, unless that's your intent.)

These out perform the only other two pastel eyeshadow I have from another brand by a long shot. The pigment isn't to be trifled with! Why expect anything less from Sugarpill? The palette was a long-time coming and knowing that pastel shades tend to suffer from pigmentation issues, I'm beyond pleased that the shades are so rich without sacrificing the softness of the colors. The "prototype" swatches (here at Portrait of Mai) really show how far these shades came up to the final product. You can also see that CandyCrush and Frostine switched names. This is how you do pastels right. For extra pop, a white base will make these incredible.

Sparkle Baby is a permanent palette and you can buy separate pans as per usual. The only difference between Sparkle Baby shades and the rest of the line is simple: Sparkle Baby pans are white! What?! Its refreshing from the regular black packaging, don't you think? You can snag this palette at sugarpillshop.com right now. I'm not sure if any of their stockists have this palette yet, and they may or they may not decide to carry it.

SPOOKEHDOOM