Hello guys it's me, your faithful reviewer...hello. O. M. G. I cannot believe I'm holding this colab in my hands right now. I am so excited to dive in, so let's do it!
If you don't know who Nikkie Tutorials is, she's an incredibly talented makeup artist and you know what? Just go watch a couple of her videos, this blogpost won't go anywhere... You know who she is now? Good. She did some bomb colabs in the highlighter department with Ofra but eyeshadows from Nikkie has been here once. And let's just say it's one of the reasons I don't really buy from Too Faced... Anyway, no shade here, no tea here, let's look at the pallete!
The NikkieTutorials x Beauty Bay Pressed Pigment Pallete is first of all a stunning work of art. The packaging is a big YES from me. It's a 20 pan pallete with one regular mirror and one magnifying mirror and it retails for 30 Euros. It's a limited edition but if you weren't lucky or decided enough to pick it up in the first batch, there's one restock option for you. And I also hope they will keep it up and restock even more, because I believe that the demand is going to be huge still.
The packaging is stunning. One half of the pallete is the happy bright side and the other one is the dark side. Each side opens and has a mirror on the inside. People have opinions on the mirrors but I like it because I feel like it makes it a great pallete for travelling and also I am very blind so the magnifying mirror really helps me see the blend better. I like the idea overall. On the back you have the cute message from Nikkie and you can dive right in.
The shade names are super fun and Nikkie has a whole video on the name picking process and the whole story behind the pallete so I won't be repeating that here. But let's look at the colorstory of the pallete. When I saw it on the Instagram for the first time I wasn't obsessed really. I was like "Yeah, well...it's a pallete." and honestly it took her video to get me into the pallete because the photos really aren't doing it any justice. You would think that those are shades you have somewhere in your collection but in person there's so much more to them like the undertone and depth and camera just doesn't pick that up at all. Also let me tell you that the shimmers are insane and you have to see them in action to really feel like you need the pallete.
The colors are very much my vibe, I feel very inspired when looking at this pallete and I am obsessed with the shimmers. They are truly one of a kind shades. Even texture-vise I would compare them probably to the Pat McGrath shimmers the most. They are very smooth, incredibly pigmented and just unreal in person. It's a pressed pigment pallete so the mattes require a little bit of extra care when working with them. Don't be too harsh, don't overblend, don't pick up too much at once and use a primer. Because not to prime is a...? Well a crime obviously, so go and pick up that sticky base my dear.
The blendability of these is amazing. I would say they perform very similar to MMMMitchel's Beauty Bay pallete shades. They are easy to blend, combine and work really well with all kinds of brushes. They are also very pigmented. The shimmers apply way better with your finger but that's kind of obvious at this point. You can use them with a brush but I didn't manage to get the same incredible punch from them with my brushes. From my experience they last all day and the shimmers don't flake on my face. But if you pack too much shimmer onto your lid at once there will be some glittery fallout so just beware.
I was very happy about the depth of the shimmers because usually when I see orange-ish and red-ish shimmers in a pallete I tend to not buy it because they are just too deep for my liking and the type of looks I go for. These don't have such a pigmented base and they really aren't as dark as they look in the pan so I was pleasantly surprised by them.
Demo and the looooks
I filmed a video using the pallete and I created two looks to play with it a little bit and see what the shadows are all about. It was my first experience with the pallete and I was really happy with how the looks turned out.
However I still wanted to make the classical 5 looks segment of every eyeshadow pallete blog post I make so here we go with even more looks!
Look 1
I love me a brown-blue look any day of the week and this pallete is perfect for it. I started with 5AM on the outer portion of my crease and my lid to build the outside structure of the look. I blended the edges of it with Mila. Then I packed Plot Twist onto the inner portion of my lid and blended it in with 5AM on the lid. On the transition of these two matte shades I placed Mama Tutorials first but the transition between Mama Tutorials and Plot Twist was too harsh so I added Ivy onto that transition leaving the very inner portion of the lid matte as well. I then added a baby blue liner into my waterline and a little bit of black powder liner to the top.
Look 2
This look is actually kinda simple but I was really feeling the deep blue in my inner corners. To I started with Amsterdam all over my inner lid and I blended it up into the crease just a little bit. I blended the edges out with Plot Twist. Then I moved into the outer half of my lid with Blend & Snap and packed that on as much as I could. That neon pink is a vibe. On the transition between these two colors I placed Pride which looks very much silver in the photos but it's truly a magical shimmer full of color. But you cannot really capture it on camera...I mirrored the whole top on the bottom lashline as well and added Ivy into my inner corners.
Look 3
I am very much into this look which turned out kinda random but I kinda love it. I started with Redemption because I just love that color so much. I blended that over inner half of my lid and into my crease. Than I took 5AM and started building the outside of the look and I kept a gap between this shade and Redemption. I blended it into the crease and then created a V-shape on the outer portion of my eye. I kept building it up until it was deep enough. Then I took a tiny leftover bit of Redemption and blended out the 5AM edges with it. Then I took Aura on my finger and placed it into the gap that was still on my lid. To blend the shimmer a little more into the Redemption shade, I took Roxy Catan on my finger as well and tapped that over Aura and Redemption edge. Then I used a deep brown liner in my waterline and mixture of brown and black powder liner on my upper lashline and I did a baby wing. I smoked the bottom lashline out with a little bit of 5AM and then a bit of Redemption under it.
Look 4
I love the shade Slasher in the pallete and I just knew I have to do a look with it at some point. There are so many cute combos in this pallete, I love it but Slasher and Zommer is a mood. Also, sorry but I just couldn't snap a good photo that morning...even though the look was fire.
I started with packing Slasher onto the outer corner and into my crease. Then I took a fluffy blending brush and blended out its edges with Zommer. I also took Zommer a little higher into the crease and all the way near my inner corners. I cut the crease with a very pale concealer and blended the end of it into the Slasher shade. I tried placing Slasher onto the conceaer in a winged shape. Then I took Pride on a kinda fluffy flat brush and placed it all over the lid. I added a pastel orange pencil to my waterline, added liner and blended the bottom with Slasher and then Zommer connecting to the top.
Look 5
I almost forgot about this look but I'm actually glad that I took some pics of it because I love the purple/gunmetal combo!
This look is actually very simple and it mostly consists of taking Slasher on a small brush and packing and blending it into a V shape. It's really just that shade and some work. Then I just took Underground onto my finger and placed it onto my lid. I added a grey metallic pencil to my waterline and drew on a black wing and that's the look.
Look 6
Since the last one was pretty simple I decided to include this one from my little makeup play session on a Friday night. Because why not, I actually love using primary colors and I love how it turned out.
I started with Ew because I wanted to use it in a look so bad! I blended it into my crease and outwards creating a V shape again...I'm just really into my V-shapes these days. Then I took Vla on a smaller brush and packed it all over my inner corner and like inner 1/3 of my lid and crease. And I blended both colors somewhere in the middle of my lid to create a lighter green. First I thought about calling it there and making a full-matte look but I continued with Mikai on inner half of my lower lashline and Amsterdam on the outer half. I smoked both of these shades downwards and added a black wing to kinda hide the blue/green transition at my outer corners. I also put All In onto that transition between the yellow and green on my lid and then buffed a little bit of Underground below my lower lashline to add some sparkle. I also added a whispy lash because this look just really needs one.
Final thoughts
So, I would say it's pretty obvious that I am having a great time playing with this pallete and that I absolutelly love it. I cannot way anything bad about the shades, about the performance, quality, packaging...except that it's all awesome and I feel like I placed my money into a great pallete.
I throw out a lot of money for a lot of makeup and other things but this pallete doesn't make me regret a single penny I spent on it. I absolutelly love it and I am very happy that it's in my collection. The mattes are stunning and perform amazing and the shimmers are just out of this world. I have very little eyeshadows that look as foiled and as incredible. It's closing on Pat McGrath shadows by the way they cannot be photographed or described...and I love them. With my whole heart I recommend this pallete and I think you should get it, especially if it's still available.
Have you tried this pallete? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and thanks for reading!