Senna Gets Sultry This Season with Their Haute Nudes Palette

I never did a post properly announcing the advent of December, so I’m doing it now.  It’s almost the end of December!  And this is highly exciting because 1) I love cold weather, 2) THE HOLIDAYS, 3) THE HOBBIT!!!, and 4) Holiday Makeup, which yes, deserves a category of its own.

I love holiday makeup.  Despite the fact that everyone starts rolling out the press releases in July (something I still don’t understand) and despite the fact that they all look more or less the same (red lips!  glowy skin!  gold/smoky eyes!), I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for holiday makeup.  Remember Clarins Barocco from 2010?  Now that was a holiday collection done right.

This year, Senna’s offering two Haute Nudes palettes to celebrate my favorite time of year.  Of the two, I have the warmer rendition, Sultry.  Do check out Beautezine for a comprehensive review and some lovely pictures of both.

So, before we get into this, I do have to say that I don’t think this is really a Holiday palette so much as it is a palette that happened to be released around the holidays (after my whole spiel, I know.  I just had to get it out).

Sultry features a matte peach blush, glowy highlighter, and six warm eyeshadows:

This picture is excessively warm.  I need to stop photo-editing half asleep.

The blush and highlighter are both smooth, finely milled, and contain just the right amount of pigment.  While I don’t wear blush, even I can appreciate the quality of this one.  The color is a gorgeous peachy-pink, and it blends into the skin beautifully.  The highlighter is perfect for the holidays, iridescent and a little bit more shimmery than your everyday illuminator.  I’ll be wearing this one all winter long.

Meanwhile, I have mixed feelings on the eyeshadows.  While the bottom row consists of three beautiful, buttery-smooth browns, the top row left me feeling a little meh.  I have no complaints about the formula, which is exceptional as usual, but the shades simply weren’t for me.  I actually think they would have translated better (on my skintone, at least) as shimmers.  I often complain about too many shimmers and not enough mattes in palettes, and this one was all matte, with the exception of one shade.  While Senna’s matte formula is one of the best I’ve encountered, I feel that this set could have used at least one other shimmery shadow.  It is the holidays, after all!  

I’ve tried a variety of looks with these eyeshadows, but my favorite consists of the shimmery brown smudged all along the lashline, and then topped off with olive green winged liner.  It’s quick and simple, plus the two sort of melt into each other and make my eyes light up.  Perfect for finals week (which now that I think about it…is really more like finals month).

There are times when I stay away from palettes because when a brand puts multiple products in one case, the quality occasionally suffers.  Luckily, that’s not the case at all with Sultry, and each shade is a pleasure to use, formula-wise.  I do have to say that I’m not entirely sold on this because some of the shades just look wrong on me, but if you enjoy wearing these kinds of colors, I’d say it’s a worthy purchase at $48.  The packaging is functional and just weighty enough, while the brushes are good enough to take on the go.

How do you feel about palettes?  What’s your favorite one?

Less than a week until I’m done with finals, back in my room, and finally watching The Hobbit!

MM

Full Disclosure: The product featured in this post was submitted for editorial consideration only.  For more information, please see my disclaimer.

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