I’m so excited to show you three of the make up palettes by Catrice from the Big City Life LE today. Ever since I saw the preview photos I was excited about these. Every make up palette contains six eyeshadows, two cheek blushes, an eye pencil and an applicator. Lovely! Every palette is named after a “big city” – hence the name of the collection. Every palette has a description and instructions on the back. There are four cities represented: Sydney, Berlin, London, New York. I only have three to show you today.
Review and swatches:
The New York Collection make up palette contains six eyeshadows in green, blue, grey, purple, mauve. All the colors are smoked out. The colors of the blushes are a bit more intense to give some color, freshness and life to the face.
The Sydney Collection make up palette is a mixture of brown, nude, taupe and rose colors. At first glance the blushes look similar to the blushes in the New York Collection. Especially the shimmer blushes look extremely similar. The almost matte ones are definitely not the same. The one in the Sydney Collection is darker and a touch more rose, while the New York one looks pinker.
The Berlin Collection make up palette and finally the palette I also have swatches for you. The Berlin palette is the only palette I chose for myself, because from the photos it looked like it’s the only palette that has enough warm toned eyeshadows for me. Well, it still has a good amount (read: too much for me) of cool toned eyeshadows in it, but it’s a very nice palette nevertheless. There’s a very lovely highlighter shade that flashes gold. Theres a very good dark brown almost matte eyeshadow, which I love. There is also a light brown, cool (blue-grey) and a bit warmer (brown-grey) toned grey and a taupe shade. The palette is a nice mixture of cool and warm toned shades. The blushes are also nice. The dirty pink one is almost matte and the gold(ish) brown is shimmery. It looks like there’s a lot of shimmer, maybe too much for some.
The swatches are all made over an eyeshadow base (NYX High Definition). I was surprised how good these eyeshadows are. The dark brown is incredibly pigmented and others are also very good quality eyshadows. All applied very nicely. For me the blushes are always very hard to swatch. On the swatch photos they always look either almost invisible or dirty or uneven or … well, I don’t like to swatch blushes. And these were no exception. They look dirty and uneven in the photos, while on the cheeks these are quite nice.
The Berlin Look
I followed the instruction on the back of the palette.
- Eyeshadow base – all over the lid.
- Checkpoint Charlie – all over the lid.
- Berlin Wall – all over the movable part of the lid.
- Black Eye Pencil – near the upper and bottom lashes.
- Brandenburger Tor – applied to outer corners of the eyes and bringing it upwards in the crease and blended it in the outer corners almost to the brows (like it’s in the photo on the box).
- Am Alex – near the lashes and some in the crease to give more drama to the eyes.
- Siegessäule – on the cheeks.
- Mascara.
- Black Eye Pencil – on the waterline.
Video
The verdict:
First I have to say that I only tried/tested the Berlin make up palette. The other two are not mine, that’s why there’s no swatches of them. As far as the Berlin make up palette goes, I’m impressed. I mean the preview photos looked very nice. But we’ve all seen a lot of nice preview photos and were all excited about the products but then when they actually came out, we were disappointed. I’m pretty sure we all have already learned our lesson by now. So did I and that’s why I didn’t expect much from these palettes.
The quality:
I know that Catrice can make very good eyeshadows, but there are also some meh ones that are just “what the heck were they thinking?!?” And I’ve also tried some of their make up palettes from the regular line and yes, the palettes look very nice, BUT … in each and every single make up palette I found at least one (out of four) eyeshadow that’s either too shimmery (read: glittery) or too hard or not pigmented or … well, there’s not a single palette that I would completely like. That’s why I was actually sure that it’s going to be the same with the limited edition Big City Life palettes. But I was positively surprised by the Berlin one, because there’s not a single eyeshadow that I wouldn’t like. The quality of the eyeshadows is good. They are easy to apply and the pigmentation is very nice. (Note: I always apply eyeshadows over an eyeshadow base.)
The packaging:
The packaging is cardboard with a magnet to close the palette. It’s nice, but the cardboard on some of the palettes already started to tear, which is not nice. I guess the packaging isn’t very durable. And a mirror would be nice.
The price:
In Slovenia 8€.
For 8€ you get 6 x 1,5g eyeshadows, 2 x 2,5g blushes, a 0,28g (mini) eye pencil and an applicator. Just for the record: full sized eyeshadows by Catrice are 2,0g or 2,5g and cost around 3€ and the full size blushes wight 5g and cost around 3,5€. (I don’t know the exact prices.)
All in all I think the 8€ price tag is OK.
Congratulation if you actually made it through this ridiculously long review!
If you by any chance have a another minute or so, please write in the comments what do you think of the Big City Life make up palettes? Which one is your favourite?
Jaz že nekaj časa iščem Berlin paletko, ker je Berlin moje najljubše mesto, pa me je toliko strah da jo bom falila :/ Barve so super mimogrede! Kje si jo pa kupila? :)
Samo v Beauty World drogerijah jih imajo: http://www.parokeets.com/sl/2011/11/catrice-big-city-life-le-in-slovenia/ :yes:
Od torka sem ponosna lastnica Sydney in New york. Zahvla gre moji Maestri. HVALA :rose: :rose: :rose:
Ker mi moj sonček zadnja dva dni nekaj nagaja, jih tudi nisem uspela preizkusiti. Se pa že zelo veselim uporabe :party: :party:
In Italy we only had Berlin and London. I wished I could find the Sydney one :(
Anyway, the Berlin is still closed. I used some of the London colours and I am quite happy although they are not very pigmented :(
Lep pozdrav Maestra in hvala za ta članek.Res mi je bilo v veselje ga prebrati,saj sam ravno danes kupila moj prvi (in upam,da ne bo zadnji) izdelek od Catrice.Kupila sem si paletko -020 Go Green-Take Me!- .Kupila sem si jo predvsem,ker ima notri lepo sivo barvo,ki se mi zdi zelo pigmentirana.Se oproščam,če toliko pišem o tej paletki,vendar jaz v Kopru te LE od Catrice nisem videla.Če pa bi jo…bi si verjetno kupila -Berlin-.Tudi cena se mi zdi ok,saj zanjo dobiš res veliko stvari.Tako…lep pozdrav in seveda vesel december :cute: … XO
Žal mi je, da sem zamudila tole LE, v Ljubljani je ni bilo, toliko si je pa nisem želela, da bi letela ven iz mesta ponjo. Itak naj ne bi več kupovala senčil. :blush: New York mi je izjemno všeč, bi se z veseljem igrala s tistimi barvami. Lepo je tudi prebrati, da so senčila kvalitetna, vsaj pri Berlinu. Zdaj ko imamo končno Catrice tudi v Ljubljani, bom šla stojalo malce pobliže pogledati takoj, ko se vrsta pred njim zmanjša (danes nisem mogla do stojala, brez heca).
they’re beautiful pallets. i have berlin & new york, Berlin is definatly a favoutie!
Imam Sydney, pa sem kar zadovoljna, sem bila enako presenečena nad kakovostjo senčk. :)
Jaz tudi nisem ljubiteljica palet, ker vedno najdem pol odtenkov, ki mi niso všeč in potem se mi sploh ne splača kupovat, ampak mi je tale Berlin še najbolj všeč, ker je nevtralna in na tvojih slikicah izgleda make-up čudovit
not bad :D a bit to much glitter for my taste of eyeshadow :silly:
Upam, da uspem dobit Sidney :nervous:
I got two of this as a Christmas gift for myself and my sis. Just don’t tell her, lol!! They only had two of them. I merely tested the pans on display at the store and colour payoff seemed good.
I wish Sydney :wub: was available in Poland… We had only Berlin and London. I bought Berlin palette for myself and I really love it.