bh Cosmetics: Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow. + Wild & Radiant Baked Bronzing Palette

Its a rainy Saturday in these parts.  I am a total pluviophile and was thrilled to wake up to the sound of it.  I have caught yet another cold, and the nasal drip has made my throat super sore.  Its hard to talk.  I would be happy to remain silent and sit in the dark, scrolling instagram on my phone and listening to the rain all the live long day, but, alas, as a mother of three, it was not to be.

But after a breakfast of my new specialty, eggs in a basket ( my secret is that I leave the eggs runny so you can sop them up with the bread,) and typical Saturday errand running,  I decided to have a Treat Yo Self moment and go to Ulta.  Surprisingly, I haven't been in kind of awhile.  One of the best parts of being a mom to a teenager is that I can ask him to watch his brother and sister while I run an errand.  So not only did I go to Ulta, I went to Ulta by myself.  Magical.

I knew exactly what I was going for: The bh Cosmetics/ Carli Babel Eyeshadow and Highlight Palette.  Check out that golden goodness!  Because if the question is, "can Halley own too many gold metallic eyeshadows?"  The answer, of course, is "NEVER!!"

I have never worn bh before, but they have been around for a minute.  I just hadn't had a chance to get to them yet.  I told think Ulta always carried them, and so, because thats my mothership, I always found something else to buy instead.  bh Cosmetics is my favorite kind of brand, because its a budget brand disguised as a luxury brand, which is really hard to do.  We have all seen budget that is budget, luxury that is luxury, the worst kind, which is luxury that ought to be budget, and then the rarest jewel of all, a product that looks and feels high end, but you don't have to go broke behind it.  bh Cosmetics is just such a brand.

Alas, the Carli Bybel Palette was sold out.  It is a super, super popular palette, and so, though I was bummed, I was not surprised.  But then I thought of my friend Melina, and how were were discussing my love of metallic shadows last week and she said that I needed to try bh's Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow Palette.  As my luck would have it, there was exactly one more in the store!!  And because Ulta is have a buy one get on 40% off on bh Cosmetics right now, I decided to pick up a Wild & Radiant Baked Bronzing Palette as well.  I've been watching a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race of late, and there is nothing like some fabulous Drag Queens to renew my inspiration to highlight to the gods!

So, the Galaxy Palette has 18- yes, EIGHTEEN- colors!   For a $16 palette that means you are paying less than a dollar per color.  And though this is a baked palette, which means the colors are meant to be worn wet, there is enough pigment to wear them dry as well, so really, is almost like 36 colors.  When I got home I could not wait to swatch all of these beauties!  As you can see in the photos, I was very sad to discover when I got home that my "sun" color was broken.  Its nothing a little mineral oil and a re-press can't cure, but I was sad because it is the most beautiful rose gold color.

Not only is it a gorgeous color, its like butter.  All of these shadows are so soft and pillowy.  There isn't any dryness or chalkiness. I thought it would be a fun change of pace to swatch the colors on someone other than myself.  I am soooo pale, and so every review on here is what colors look like on a pale white girl.  But where was I to find a model?  Did I mention I have a teenager in the house? Who is pretty much always trying to butter me up for something or another, whether its money or permission to go somewhere. Did I mention said teenager also has the most insanely gorgeous golden skin?  Yep, he has that too.

Now, keep in mind that these swatches are all dry.  The line on the top starts with "sun" at his wrist and "meteor" at his elbow.  On his lower arm, "comet" is at his wrist and "pluto" is at his elbow.  All of the colors are in order.  I did want to do a few wet swatches, just to show the difference in pigment, so here are "sun" and "pluto."

                                     Dry on the bottom, wet on top.  That's what she said.  

So, I'm pretty sure I am just going to wear this palette over and over, every day forever.  There are so many gorgeous metallic shades.  Someone was asking for advice on a matte palette the other day and literally I was like, "........" because: Metallics.  

Similarly, the Wild Bronzing Palette does not disappoint.  I had to try the shades out as soon as I got into my car.  

I cannot stand how pigmented they are.  I haven't even prepared emotionally to swatch them wet because I don't think I could handle it.  Look at my pinkie.  My son said that they looked like they were all the same color, to which I respond, "Au Contraire, baby who was told wrong."

The swatches on my fingers, his hand, and in the palette are all in the same order.  The shades don't have names that I can see, but the top left is a deep bronze, the top right is more of a rose gold, the bottom left is a pale gold, and the bottom right is a true, bright gold with maybe a tiny hint of pink.  All the swatches on his hand are dry too.  I'm barely into the stage where I can apply eyeshadow wet. Though I've improved since this nonsense happened, its still pretty unwieldy.  I'm not cool enough to apply bronzer wet yet.  You have to be way better at this than I currently am.  Also, I'm scared of how much pigment there would be, because look how much pigment there is dry.

Moral of the story: get thee some bh Cosmetics.  I literally could not be more impressed with the quality or pigment.  Its one of those brands like Colourpop where I have no idea why it is so inexpensive.  We don't ask questions though.  We just love the makeup.