Product Review - Starlooks Palette

Back in November, I saw on the MakeUp Talk message board (www.makeuptalk.com) that this company called Starlooks has monthly "Starboxes" and that, in December, they would be sending out a full palette. The Starbox is a monthly subscription that costs 15$ per month plus s&h (16.96$ total). Starlooks is a makeup company so the boxes contain their own products. Now the enticing factor was that the full palette is priced at 99$ on their website and, yes, you got it for 15$. So it seemed like a good idea to try.

I received my palette a few weeks ago.

The packaging around the palette was both cute and cumbersome. It was cute because there was like snowflakes like confettis... but cumbersome because I have cats and those darn confettis started floating everywhere and I had to try to catch them all to prevent the kitties from munching on them.

The first thoughts when you see the palette is "there's only 15 eye shadows!" so it seems that, for the regular price of 99$, that's not enough... but then you notice that it's actually full size shadows (vs. regular palettes that have substantially smaller shadows) so then the price per shadow is reasonable.

That being said, in a previous entry, I talked about what to look for in a palette (see Palettes - What to look for). Well, this one wouldn't make my cut: you can do some tone on tone applications with it but it's hard to make a full look and I'd probably need to supplement the colors with something else from my makeup stash.  I think that part of the problem for me is that these colors are much brighter than what I'm used to wearing. However, I can see some great cabaret looks possible with this palette but, again, you'd probably need to supplement a little with something from your stash.

I did do a makeup scheme yesterday with only the palette (and eyeliner and mascara). Here's the look! (Pardon the dazed look in my face: I was having huge contact lenses issues.)

And I tried it again today (less eye issues, eh?).

I gotta say that, when I played with the eye shadow, I could tell from the first pat that it's good quality makeup: it goes on smooth and has a good payload. As I mentioned above, I had huge contact lenses issues that day, which made my eyes water quite a bit and most makeup vanishes off my eyelids when that happens but this one stayed on.

Now the 100$ question: would I pay 99$ for the palette? The answer is: probably not. But then again I wouldn't pay 99$ for most palettes. It just seems like quite the amount for me. (See, as a makeup junkie, you need to feed the addiction on a regular basis and so that'd be the budget for quite a while. ;) Or one could say that I have makeup ADD. :p)  That being said, if you have the money to splurge and you like the colors on a palette, it may be a good investment: 99$/15 colors makes it 6.60$ for each color, which is a great price for the quality of the eye shadows.

I will keep the Starlooks subscription for at least one more month to see what a regular month is like.