Too Faced The Power of Makeup By NIKKIETUTORIALS Swatches + Review

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Sure, I was excited for the BECCA x Jaclyn Hill collab. But when I heard about the Too Faced The Power of Makeup By NIKKIETUTORIALS ($56.00 // Sephora) launch I learned how excitement can reach a whole other level. I’m not a fan girl by any stretch of the imagination, but I do really appreciate good artistry. While Nikkie may be what some call an “insta-artist” there’s no doubt that she is an artist, and an incredibly talented one at that. She’s got good technique and an excellent eye for color and trends. Of course I wanted her collab! Buy alllll the things!

All that being said I’m going to be real with you guys about this collection of products. I’ve had it for a few weeks now and really took some time with it. I played around with everything in here far more than I have with any other product that I’ve ever reviewed. Why? Because I wanted to be absolutely sure of how everything performed and how I felt about it – since the reviews online seemed so love/hate.

Starting off the packaging is love. Because I love leopard. The fact that they threw in some pink and mirrored gold accents. Honey, sign me up. The palette itself opens up like a thin book (and I do appreciate it being thin, which makes it an easy pack for travel) without a mirror (which saddens me because it sort of ruins that perfect for travel vibe) and inside you’ll see 9 x 0.004 oz eye shadow shades, 2 x 0.36 oz Love Flush Long-Lasting Blush shades, 1 x 0.11 oz Highlighter, 1 x 0.11 oz Bronzer, 1 x 0.035 oz Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment, 1 x 0.17 oz Shadow Insurance 24-Hour Eye Shadow Primer, 1 x 0.17 oz Better Than Sex Mascara and 1 x 0.015 oz Sketch Marker Liquid Art Eyeliner.

Let’s start in the palette, with the eye shadows, since they’re the main feature here. You’re getting 9 shades in Painkiller, Frosted Yum, Sugar Coated, Wham Bam, Makeup and Chill, Ivy, Wanted, Mystic Hour and Irresistible.

Ivy is a matte, pale white shade. A lot of pigment and perfect for under the brow. Love.
Sugar Coated is a frosty pale pink with a silvery look to it. It’s beautiful to look at and to swatch and it’s ok at the inner corner of the eye… but it’s pretty sheer when you wear it. It didn’t do what I hoped it would pigment-wise. This one could have been the star of the entire collection. Not a love.
Frosted Yum is a metallic silver. This one was also a shade that swatched beautifully but was a lot more sheer than I thought it would be (not as much as Sugar Coated). It works best pressed onto the lid with a firm, flat brush (think MAC 239) or blended into other shades. It was a like.
Irresistible is a metallic gold. Like Sugar Coated and Frosted Yum it was also a beautiful swatch but more sheer than I thought (yet not as much as Frosted Yum). It also worked best pressed to the lid with a firm, flat brush or blended into other shades. It was a like.
Painkiller is a matte, medium tan that is my most perfect transition shade. The pigment was fabulous and it performed like a dream. Love.
Makeup & Chill is a matte, warm brown with fabulous pigment. It also performed like a dream and was, shockingly to me, the star of the palette. Love.
Mystic Hour is a metallic deep teal and probably my biggest disappointment. Swatched it’s the color of my dreams. On the lid it faded out into a mostly light blue shade. I didn’t use it over any other color, just the primer on my bare lid. I used it to create a halo eye for the Meghan Trainor concert (side note, I did get to meet her in person and the first thing she said was that she loved my eye look, so at least it DID look okay lol) and the look didn’t crease, but it wasn’t the effect I envisioned for such a beautiful color. Not a love.
Wham Bam is a bright, metallic purple. Normally this is a shade I’d stay clear of. I love my purples but this one just looks so bright and almost flashes a blue when the light catches it right. I found the formula on it to be a bit dry and I had to press two coats of the shade onto the lid with a firm, flat brush to make it even and fully opaque. The color did fade slightly which ended up making it more wearable, which made me happy but likely won’t make you happy if you’re wanting that in your face purple. If the formula would have been easier to work with, for me, this would have been a love.
Wanted is a matte black. It was really easy to swatch and felt very smooth. On the eye it isn’t as pigmented but did work well blended into other colors. It’s not the best matte black out there, but it’s absolutely not the worst. It was a like.

Also in the palette are four cheek products – I Will Always Love You and Justify My Love Love Flush Long-Lasting Blush, Chocolate Soleil Bronzer and Champagne Truffle Highlighter. I found the blush shades to be very pigmented and on par with the full sized versions (full review on those here) and I also really liked Chocolate Soleil Bronzer and Champagne Truffle Highlighter.

There are some reports of the bronzer being dry and hard to get color from – I personally didn’t have that issue and liked both the bronzer and highlighter. I can’t say if the bronzer performs the same as a full sized version, since it’s been awhile since I’ve owned that (I have another small version here that I use quite a bit), but I was able to swatch, wear and use the palette bronzer without issue.

In addition to the palette itself you’re also getting a little bag of goodies which holds the Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment, Shadow Insurance 24-Hour Eye Shadow Primer, Better Than Sex Mascara and Sketch Marker Liquid Art Eyeliner.

Right off, if you’ve been around here for all the years (hayyyyyy) you know that Too Faced Shadow Insurance doesn’t work very well for me. My lids are incredibly oily and I’ve found with this primer that my shadows will crease within a few hours. For the sake of the review I did try it again and had the same results. I did find that it worked well at holding the Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment on my eye look. I did a halo eye using Mystic Hour and Frosted Yum then lightly dabbed a bit of TFSI over Frosted Yum, immediately followed by the glitter. It held all night.

By the same token, if you’ve been around awhile, you know that I am a fan of the Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara formula. The shade you’re getting in this collection is a limited edition, not available anywhere else color called Purple. It’s purple and matches the shade of the Wham Bam eye shadow perfectly. I found that this mascara was on par with the original formula and did well with lasting volume and thickness. With colored mascaras I tend to like to wear them only on the tips of the lashes and/or the lower lashes.

One of the main reasons I splurged on this collection was because I’d wanted to buy the Too Faced Sketch Marker Liquid Art Eyeliner – which retails for $20.00 anyway and you are getting the full size product in this collection. You’re getting the shade Deep Black but, while that’s basic, it’s very much the most popular shade of liquid eyeliner and the one that Nikkie does use the most of. Stephanie Nicole had stated that the marker performs well over shadows but bleeds when on just your skin, which may or may not work for people that wear a cat eye – it just depends on how far you’re extending your eye shadow. I found that to be true but because of her review I made sure that I extended the shadow out a bit further than usual then cleaned up after I applied the marker so that the line wouldn’t bleed but would still look sharp.

I love the applicator on this eyeliner. The tip is perfect for precision. I’m not normally someone who does an extreme cat eye (my eyes are hooded and it’s a real PITA to do it) but this marker made it easy to get the exact shape I wanted with a precise looking tip at the wing. The liner dried quick enough so there wasn’t transfer above the lid and it stayed in place all day. I want them all now.

Finally, in this bag, you’re getting the main reason I bought this collection. Yes, friends, I did it all for the glitter. The Too Faced Glamour Dust Glitter Pigment is in the shade Glitterally (which is so much fun to say) and it’s a beautiful combo of gold, pink, blue… just *sigh*. It adhered well and lasted all day using TFSI (you’ll definitely need to use something to adhere it but it doesn’t have to be TFSI… I think any eye shadow primer or glitter glue… anything sticky…. will work well). My eyes are extremely sensitive and this glitter didn’t cause any sort of reaction and I had no issues with it falling into my eyes throughout the night (and I wore it to the Meghan Trainor concert). The only thing I don’t like is that there is no sifter. You don’t know fear until you’ve opened a glitter in your home with no sifter.

In addition to all of the above there is also a Glamour Guide which features three looks all created by Nikkie herself.

In short – it’s true… I don’t love everything, but I do still think that $56.00 is a good deal if you’re a fan of Nikkie and also love the shades/products in the collection. I’d absolutely buy it again even knowing that I may not be crazy about a few eye shadow shades. Everything else more than makes up for it.

I bought the Too Faced The Power of Makeup By NIKKIETUTORIALS during a pre-sale at Sephora where it sold out online. Please call your local Sephora and ULTA Beauty for their availability or check toofaced.com in case there is any more info. I suggest if you see it and you want it, you snag it – this collab is limited edition and will absolutely sell out completely.