It’s happened hasn’t it. The impossible has happened — I purchased a Kylie Jenner/Kylie Cosmetics product. Albeit begrudgingly. I’m now waiting for the four horsemen of the apocalypse to appear. Well it is 2022, after a pandemic and the crazy turn the world has taken, anything is possible I guess.
Let me explain. I have nothing against Kylie; she’s got her hustle. But I’m not one of the people that will usually fall for whatever snake oil she’s selling. Especially the lifestyle, the a$$ or the fake everything. She’s as much a self made billionaire as I am the Princess of Wales.
Also, I just think Kylie’s brand is just private labelled makeup. I do not think she’s involved in the brand putting care or thought into the makeup her brand produces. That being said, I’d like to believe that I’m rewarding the person on her team that worked on this by purchasing the product. Because it’s been actually executed well.
What attracted me to it was the fact that they’ve used the cover art of the first Batman comic. Which is brilliant!
Left: Kylie Cosmetics Batman Eye Shadow Palette | Right: Cover of Batman #1 (spring 1940) By Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson – U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Public Domain, Link
Surprisingly, the hero of the packaging is actually the batman artwork and not her brand. Considering she’s from a family that is all about branding and splashing their name everywhere and on everything, it’s surprisingly reined in. “Kylie Cosmetics” appears mostly in the corner of the makeup and in small font, making the Batman branding the front and center of the packaging. Something to note here though that this could be due to restrictions placed by DC. Of course, she does make use of the opportunity to add her name to everything, which is disappointing.
Ordering & Shipping
I ordered the bundle because I was too late to purchase the PR Box and it was sold out. It took about 10 days for the order to arrive. I paid around USD 135 + 30 for shipping (taxes, shipping and customs).
Ordering was fairly easy. Since they use Shopify, I didn’t have too much trouble. It was a bit glitchy but not bad. I had to refresh once or twice after I clicked on order button to place the order.
It took around 10 days for the order to be delivered, which seems to be normal now if you are importing anything into Canada.
Product Reviews
All the products seemed to have been carefully curated. Let me rephrase that, the packaging seems to be carefully curated. The products, not so much; apart from the eye shadow palette and highlighter.
Eyeshadow Palette (US$ 45)
To me, this is the pièce de résistance of the collection: the packaging is everything.
The product is a hit or a miss. The matte shadows are dry, dusty and hard pressed. The shimmers were crumbly and soft. Let me put it this way: this is not a palette for beginners. You need to have some level of expertise to make it work.
I liked the neutrals because they performed way better than the colors. Some colors like the Green were patchy. The blues were hard to control, but I’ve learnt the hard way that blues are always difficult to control. You need to use your fingers to apply the shimmers which I hate, but considering the $100 Guerlain palette I purchased last needs to be applied with fingers, I guess I can’t complain.
Here’s a huge disclaimer: many of shadows, especially the shimmers, have fallout. Lots of fallout. Don’t make the mistake I made — I applied makeup before doing my eyes. My cheeks were blue by the time I was done, and I had to reapply my makeup. If you can’t work around that, skip this palette.
Here are the colors with my experience of the shadows I’ve used:
- Batgirl – icy white shimmer
- City Needs Me – silver shimmer. I couldn’t get this shimmer to work for me.
- Comic – yellow. I liked this shadow despite how sheer it was. It was easy to work with. You need a good primer or a black shadow under it for it to show up.
- Bold – blue shimmer. I actually liked this shadow. A bit difficult to get it off your finger and onto the eyes, but once you do, it’s stunning. It does stain your eyes.
- Riddle Me This – forest green. It was so patchy and difficult to work with.
- Hideout – light brown. Very easy to work with this, highly pigmented. Lot of kick up though.
- Batmobile – black
- Superhero – aqua blue. I liked how this applied. A bit difficult to control, but it was easier than I expected. You need to use a patting motion for this type of shadow.
- Under the mask – bronze. This shadow reminded me of ColourPop shadows. Applied like a dream, but not easy to control.
- Wham – light blue shimmer.
- Sidekick – a neutral brown. It was very pigmented and easy to use.
- The Joker – light brown shimmer shadow
- He Returns – warm brown. Easy to use.
- Bat Signal – dark brown
- Batcave – black with silver shimmer
I enjoyed using this palette. I probably wouldn’t use it on a day I have meetings because it can be temperamental, but it did challenge me to try new types of looks. I created a yellow and green look, and while the green was patchy, it was a seamless look.
Gotham City Highlighter (US$ 24)
The packaging and the design inside the highlighter is stunning. I liked the bat signal concept and that the color inside is a blue. Now, on me, the color is a bit icy. You can see the highlighter as a streak on my skin tone. It’s a bit crumbly but applies well if you buff it into the skin. It does emphasize texture though.
If you are fair and have perfect skin, this is for you.
I enjoyed using this too despite it not being an every day highlighter. I applied to my collarbones before heading out to a Halloween party. (Swatches at the end of the post).
Eyeliner Pencils (mini) (US$ 25)
It’s a set of 3 pencils in a blue tin — black, aqua and teal.
The good news is that these are minis. Which is great because I don’t think most of us finish color pencils before they expire. The bad news is that the black pencil is awful — it applies almost grey. The blue and green shimmer pencils on the other hand were easier to use (a bit chalky) and lasted a long time on the eye. This is a skip. (Swatches at the end of the post)
Lip Set (US$ 34)
I was excited about using this set because everybody I knew had a Kylie lip kit back in the day. But the formulas disappointed me.
Catwoman: is a berry matte liquid lipstick formula. It was so drying on the lips, I had to apply the blue lip gloss for some relief. It looks like Kylie hasn’t updated the formula in a while. It was transfer free till I applied the gloss. What I liked was how it looked when it had worn down a bit. If you have bought this, I would suggest applying a light layer or layer a gloss on top.
Edit: I continued to test this lipstick and applied a thin layer. When I used it like that, it didn’t feel as drying as before. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either. It lasts a long time — almost 8 hours. I like it, but I don’t love it; I won’t be purchasing a full size.
POW!: is a blue shimmer gloss. I liked how it looked on top of Catwoman. But here’s the strangest thing — it took a lot of gloss for the shimmer to show, and in one application I had finished half the bottle! Either the bottle wasn’t filled fully, or it just takes a lot for the shimmer to show.
Bat: peach gloss. This gloss doesn’t have much pigment. It’s an almost transparent gloss because of the lack of pigment. It’s a basic gloss.
Edit: I just realized that both glosses have a sweetness to them. Not only do they smell of Vanilla, they also taste sweet. Are we 17 and applying lip gloss to kiss our high school sweethearts? That’s a deal breaker for me. Especially if you’re dieting or addicted to sugar, you may want to skip this one.
I’m glad these lip products are minis. I don’t think I’d be able to finish it other wise. None of the formulas performed well. This is a skip.
Makeup Bag (US$ 20)
I couldn’t take a picture of this bag because I had kept it in the balcony to air it out. The bag has a bit of a factory, plastic smell.
I don’t like this bag. The design is okay and it’s not great quality. I’ve bought better quality products from Winners. It’s only slightly better than a dollarama makeup bag in terms of quality. The execution of this product is awful. This is a definite skip.
Final Thoughts
I’ll say this, I haven’t felt this excited in a while about a release. I love the concept and execution of some products. Are they worth the money? Not exactly. They seem to be overpriced and the quality of the makeup is hit or miss. I’d pay full price only for the eyeshadow palette.
Most of the makeup is brown girl friendly, except for the highlighter.
Should you buy it?
If you aren’t a Batman fan, skip it. But if you are, I’d suggest picking up either makeup palette or the highlighter. The rest of the collection seems like an afterthought.
If you really want it, I would suggest waiting for Black Friday. This collection is definitely going to be on sale then.