Try Out Tuesday – Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look in a Palette

When I received this @ctilburymakeup Instant Look in a Palette in Smokey Eye Beauty ($75 on @beautylish) in my Beautylish Lucky Bag, I could hardly contain my excitement! A luxury brand that I’ve never tried in a palette perfect for travel?! I couldn’t wait to try it out!
What it claims:
🔘 Comes with everything you need to create a smoldering smoky eye in a snap
🔘 Never-before-seen shades meet cult classics for a mesmerizing look that you can dial up or down
🔘 Simply follow the foolproof color-by-numbers design to achieve a sculpted smoky look
🔘 Gild your skin in a sumptuous golden glow with Charlotte’s cult-classic Bar of Gold highlighter
🔘 Define and perfect your features with a cashmere-soft powder formula that buffs seamlessly into skin
My experience (in order of use):
👍🏻👎🏻 Face Bronzer: It’s a nice shade and works well for my skin tone. I had to use a smaller brush to ensure I didn’t dip into any surrounding colors. I wasn’t wowed by the quality, but it did the job.
👍🏻👎🏻 Cheek Pop and Swish: I really enjoyed the shade and pigmentation of the Cheek Pop, but didn’t see much of a difference when applying the Cheek Swish.
👍🏻👎🏻 Face Highlighter: The shade works for my skin tone, but it took several swipes onto my cheek to show up. It’s glittery and fairly sheer. Just like with the Face Bronzer, I wasn’t wowed by the quality, but it did the job.
👍🏻 Eye Enhance: I used this as an all over eye color and it was an enjoyable experience. The shade works well for me and the pigmentation was nice.
👍🏻👎🏻 Eye Brighten: I used this as an inner corner brightening shade because I didn’t read what it was actually supposed to be used for. It is quite bright and pigmented, so I liked it in the inner corner, but the tone of the shade didn’t seem to go well with the color story of the palette. Maybe I wouldn’t feel that way if I had applied it as a base.
👍🏻 Eye Smoke: I smoked out my upper lash line with this shade and it worked very well. It’s pigmented, blended nicely and performed just as I would have hoped.
My verdict?
I fell into the trap yet again of assuming that when something is expensive, it must be light years better than more affordable products. I was wrong. While this isn’t something I would throw away, I would have returned it had I paid full price.
I know there are so many other Charlotte Tilbury products that people rave about. Do you have a favorite from her line?