Are you guys ready for the most crazy picture heavy post that I think I may have ever posted? Awesome, let's dive right in. I decided to jump on the Divergent Collector's Kit from Sephora since I'm VIB Rouge and it was originally only open to Rouge members (I think it's open to everyone now). The kit comes with 12 eye shadows, 3 transformer eye shadow shades, 4 lip glosses, 2 blushes, 1 highlighter, 1 bronzer, a dual ended brush, and several "get the look" cards (I forgot to shoot these, sorry). All in all, that's a pretty massive assortment of things and it all came in at a reasonably priced $59.50.
As a disclaimer, I've never read the Divergent series, so aside from what I've seen in the movie trailer, I don't know anything about anything when it comes to this series.
L to R; Natural Virtue, Fear Not, Temptation's Choice, Supreme Ritual
Let's start by talking about the lip glosses. I'm going to break each section down to "facts" and "opinions" sections so it's easier to follow.
Glosses - The Facts
Amount of Product: .13 fl oz.
Shades: 4 - Temptation's Choice, Fear Not, Supreme Ritual, and Natural Virtue
Shades and the product itself: All of the glosses are at least somewhat sheer, but Temptation's Choice and Supreme Ritual are much more sheer than their counter parts. Natural Virtue is almost milky and very nude, but on the lips, it doesn't show up as much, just giving a bit of a lighter tinge. Fear Not is also slightly milky, but much warmer than Natural Virtue and again, doesn't show up much on the lips. Temptation's Choice is the sheerest of all the colors and just leaves a golden sheen on the lips. Supreme Ritual, the darkest of the shades, actually doesn't show up very well on the skin since it's so sheer.
All of the glosses are incredibly minty, so if that's something that you can't handle, then I would recommend staying away. I don't mean that it's a subtle mint; I mean that it's like a strong toothpaste scent.
Does the packaging remind you of anything? Like... perhaps an Hourglass liquid lipstick or gloss? It should, because it's essentially the same packaging. I looked into it and Sephora used a a company called HCT and they do packaging for loads of cosmetics companies. I'd have to guess that Hourglass has no sort of restrictions or copyright on their packaging, so it's up for grabs. All of the glosses are doe foot applicators, but not much products comes out on the foot, so you have to put the applicator back in several times.
Wear Time: Nothing impressive, but then again it's a gloss, are you surprised?
Opinions: I think that these are the worst part of this kit. I think I understand that in Divergent, makeup isn't a big thing, so perhaps that was the idea behind three very sheer, very similarly colored glosses? These aren't horribly sticky, but they also just aren't very good. The mint smell is completely overwhelming and doesn't fade all that quickly.
The Brush
I don't really need to do an entire section for the brush, so I'm just going to write a few sentences. I didn't use the brush and it's because it's synthetic. I think that synthetic is lovely for face products and that they are even useful for very pigmented powder blushes, but that's about it. This set didn't come with any cream or liquid products, so the brush is slightly useless in relation to the palette. Also, the face end seemed nice and soft, but the eye end seemed a bit scratchy.
L to R; Transform, Altruistic Almond, Golden Honesty, Intrepid Moss, Bold Espresso
Eye Shadows - The Facts
Amount of Product: .059 oz./each
Shades: 15 total; 5 in each palette, transformer shade is detachable
Shades and the product itself: I'll talk about each palette on its own and then give a general consensus at the bottom. This palette contains the shades Bold Espresso, Intrepid Moss, Golden Honesty, and Altruistic Almond with the transformer shade of Transform.
**All shadows swatched over NARS Smudgeproof Eye Shadow Primer**
The shadows are surprisingly creamy! This palette is incredibly neutral and Altruistic Almond almost blends into my skin completely (which means I could use it as a base shade and that's about it). Bold Espresso swatched not so well, but it was easier to apply to the eye with a brush. Intrepid Moss and Golden Honesty are the two shimmer/pearl colors and are both very pretty and easy to apply. They're both a bit sheer, with Golden Honesty being the more sheer of the two. Transform... is almost a waste of space to me. No, not almost, it is a waste of space. When you apply it dry, it can't stick to the other shadows and it's still almost as bad if you try to apply it wet.
L to R; Diverge, Serene Vanilla, Erudite Sapphire, Abegnation Stone, and Dauntless Ink
Shades and the product itself: These shades are also all surprisingly creamy and apply very nicely to the skin. Serene Vanilla is another very light shade, that unfortunately, blends in with my skin fairly well. Not quite as well as Altruistic Almond, but it would definitely be another base shade. Erudite Sapphire was the hardest of all the shades to apply and was a bit sheer, but it was another one of the shimmer/pearl sahdes. Abegnation Stone is a gorgeous shimmery taupe and is almost the bread winner of this set of shadows. Dauntless Ink is your typical matte black; it isn't as pigmented as Lorac's matte black, but it does decently. However, the bread winner in this set is definitely Diverge! Look at that shade, it's gorgeous and it applied like a dream (unlike the other transformer shades). I wouldn't even want to use this over the other shadows, I would just use it on its own.
L to R; Choose, Humble Sheen, Peaceful Shimmer, Radiant Initiation, and Burnt Mahogany
Shades and the product itself: The five shades in this palette are Choose, Burnt Mahogany, Radiant Initiation, Peaceful Shimmer, and Humble Sheen. Again, the shadows are very creamy feeling and apply nicely in the swatches. This is the palette that I've used the most, so I can actually speak the most about it. Choose, again, is a throw away shade, it didn't work over the other shadows when dry or wet; waste of space. Humble Sheen showed up better on my lids, but is still an incredibly light shade and is shimmery. Peaceful Shimmer swatched beautifully, but I couldn't get it to show up on my lids very well. It definitely cannot be applied over Humble Sheen, it just falls off. Radiant Initiation is a fantastic crease color, definitely buildable and transitions nicely. Burnt Mahogany applied better to the eyes than it does in a swatch, but isn't a remarkable color on its own.
Opinions: Overall, the shadows swatched very nicely on my hand, but in practice, it was definitely hit or miss. Unfortunately, a lot of the shimmery shades are somewhat sheer, so they take quite a bit of product to build up. The mattes are all very nice shades, but aside from Radiant Initiation, none of them seem that unique to me (and I'm pretty sure Radiant Initiation could be duped). The only stand out shade when it comes to the shadows is Diverge. Everything else feels like it's almost there, but it failed to cross the threshold into awesome.
I may feel this way because I own a lot of eye shadow and at this point in my life and collection, I feel that I need to be incredibly picky. If something isn't going to blow my socks off, then I'm just not really impressed at all. However, if you don't have a lot of shadows and are looking for something that would be a great transition into using shadow, then these might be perfect for you. No scary colors, lots of neutrals, and nothing so wildly pigmented that you'll mess up.
L to R; Obscure Coral, Misty Rose, Gleaming Pearl, Intelligent Bronze
Face Palette - The Facts
Amount of Product: .11 oz./each
Shades: 4 - Obscure Coral, Misty Rose, Gleaming Pearl, and Intelligent Bronze
Shades and the product itself: Again, very neutral, very safe shades to use on the face. Obscure Coral is a coral shade (it is not an Orgasm dupe) with gold shimmer, Misty Rose is a matte dusty rose, Gleaming Pearl is pretty much the exact same thing as NARS Albatross, and Intelligent Bronze is a light bronze.
Meh, these are not the most fantastic blushes and I think that Milani's Baked Blushes blow these out of the water. The winner out of this group is definitely Gleaming Pearl which is a definite color dupe for NARS Albatross, but the wear time is definitely not a dupe. I applied three of the four shades late in the afternoon on Sunday and they were off my face (which wasn't even oily) only a few hours later. Misty Rose feels a bit chalky, as does Intelligent Bronze. Also, the bronzer isn't going to show up well on anyone much darker than NC/NW 20 and it is a bit orangey. Obscure Coral isn't a unique shade since everyone and their mother produces a shade that is coral with golden shimmer.
Final Verdict: If you are new to makeup and want to get a lot of product for your buck, then this might be a great way to do it. Like I've mentioned in the post, a lot of the items tend to run a bit sheer or aren't super pigmented. However, if you are an experienced makeup user and have a somewhat larger collection, then there are better options than this. For me, I don't ever see me reaching for these items because none of them are unique and I have better quality shadows in similar colors (see: Naked palettes, Lorac Pro palette). The lip glosses, the blushes, and the brush are all useless to me since the quality just isn't there for those items. Sadly, although not completely unexpected, this item is going back to Sephora. For $60, I want quality and could get a much better palette with that money.
