Fresh • Island Reverie Face Palette • Palettes

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mixipixi on 9/4/2008 5:22:00 PM more reviews by mixipixi

Age: 25-29   Skin: Combination, Fair   Hair: Blond   Eyes: Blue    

Finally - I have been lemming this palette forever and received it as a GWP from the Fresh store! Why did I ever wait so long? The shadows are gorgeous. The first one (tiare) is a great ivory bone with goldish shimmer. Plumeria is a beautiful pinky gold - similar to expensive pink from Mac but not as intense - doesn't give me the sick pink/red eye look that expensive pink did and holy cow when I applied rum - the darkish reddish brown color wet as a liner on my lower and upper lashline did my blue eyes ever pop! The liner dries to a really pretty smoldering/shimmering brownish burgandy. Truly gorgeous. It is what I wanted rich ground fluidline to be.... a great brown that again doesn't give me that red eye look because I am so pale. I used the light color to highlight my tear duct and now its the end of the day and my mu still looks freshly applied. The blush is a nice glowy peach - called island reverie and the bronzer is nice and not sparkly at all. Surprisingly enough both the blush and bronzer are very pigmented - next time I will use a skunk to apply.
What a great wearable palette - I will be using this a lot! I am really happy I didn't have to drop the $55 on the palette by itself because that is soo much money but I have to say that if I ran out - I would do it because the palette is that great. *** For reference I am C3, PPP, blonde hair, grayish blue eyes with warm undertones.

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kohan836 on 8/31/2008 2:00:00 AM more reviews by kohan836

Age: 25-29   Skin: Oily   Hair: Black   Eyes: Brown    

This was my first purchase from Fresh, and overall I am quite pleased. This is a flattering palette for my medium olive complexion. The pale ivory shadow is a nice not-too-shimmery highlight for my brows. The dark plum is nicely pigmented, well enough to use wet as liner, and reminds me a lot of Stila's Barefoot Contessa. The mid-tone pink is a little chalky/invisible on me, although it's not too bad. The blush and bronzer are very nice warm colours, although I wish they were a bit more pigmented (so for that reason I give this palette a 4 out of 5).
Overall though, this will be great to pack away on weekend trips to the beach in summer.

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*TOP REVIEWER* northender on 6/5/2008 2:59:00 PM more reviews by northender

Age: 30-35   Skin: Combination, Dark   Hair: Black   Eyes: Brown    

PRODUCT: This palette contains three eyeshadows, one blush, a bronzer, and a large mirror. The eyeshadow pans look really small and the face powder pans are decent-sized, but there's not a ton of product.


The three eyeshadows are ivory, warm shell pink with gold shimmer, and warm chocolate brown with golden shimmer. The darkest shade looks fairly normal in the pan but, when applied wet, it's stunning brownish golden burgundy. You get a glow, rather than just shimmer. The trick with Fresh shadows is that they must be applied wet - otherwise they look like powdery cheap shadow that gets everywhere and irritates your eyes. When applied wet, the effect is like a cream shadow but without the creasing. It's incredible - like almost like using watercolors on your eyelids. It's a little tricky to apply and blend these shadows, but if you are careful, the effect is glowy, subtle, and simple stunning. I'm NC45 GGG/DDD and the colors are just magical with my skin tone. An added bonus is that I am able to use the ivory eyeshadow shade as a cheekbone highlighter, which is nice because I don't need to carry around a separate highlighter to soften the blush. I'm not sold on the dark brown color as a liner but it works OK.


The coral-pink blush and toffee-colored bronzer complement the look nicely but you must apply them carefully. If you use too much, the powder is very noticeable on your skin, and, as the previous reviewer noted, it's obvious that you have makeup on - which is never a good look. It's essential that you use the right brush - my Stila #1 works nicely to sweep the color on. These powders are also pretty sheer - so, if you want a lot of pigment, you need to pack it on, and then you run into the problem described above - obvious-powder-face. If you're OK with a sheer & subtle shimmery golden glow, these powders are OK. They warmed up my coffee-colored complexion and my skin looked healthy and sunkissed (which is great because my sunscreen gives me kabuki face). I suspect the pigmentation will be stronger on a PPP. If you are dark and want pigmentation (think NARS, MAC), you'll be disappointed. These powders are a warmer version of those in the Here Comes the Sun palette.


PACKAGING: The plastic square shaped palette contains a large, high-quality mirror. I don't feel strongly positive or negative about it. The packaging didn't entice me at all - it looks like frou-frou overpriced, junior high, Urban Outfitters stuff - not sophisticated enough for the price point of the women who can afford this stuff (unless Fresh is marketing to trust-fund teenagers, which they probably are). I like my compacts to have heft and weight. I feel like the plastic won't cushion well if I drop the palette or if it gets knocked around in my bag. Unlike other Fresh palettes, this one does not contain a brush which is a shame because Fresh palette eyeshadow brushes are really good for applying the shadows wet - they are actually pretty useful that way.


PRICE: OK, so, this retails for $55 but I actually got it for $45 because Sephora had it listed wrong on the website so I jumped in and snagged it before they realized the error. I think $55 is steep for this because it's not terribly versatile. Even $45 is pretty high for what you get (the e/s pans are teeny-tiny) but the colors work so well on me that I'd buy it again for the first time. It's not unique enough to justify a backup.


OVERALL: This is a solid little palette for me, a warm-toned GGG. It's a riff on, or maybe just a loginal continuation of, the Here Comes the Sun palette. You can get a subtle day look or smoke it up for night. I'm not sure if cooler-toned girls or PPP could rock this, but, then again, I can't use Winter Picnic of the Victoire palettes, so there. Kudos to Fresh for finally producing a makeup for us darkies. Funnily, after I bought it, I threw it in a drawer and got distracted by other things, and finally put it up for swap, BNIB, and toyed with the idea of selling it on Ebay. Then, when i couldn't find my camera to take a pic for Ebay, I just randomly ddecided to give it a go one day - and now it's one of my favorite palettes - it's great, no-brainer, makeup for those days when I just want to look fresh and glowy.

6 out of 9 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No

*TOP REVIEWER* ECMac25 on 3/12/2008 3:34:00 PM more reviews by ECMac25

Age: 25-29   Skin: Normal, Medium, Warm   Hair: Black, Straight, Medium   Eyes: Black    

Color-wise, this is one of Fresh's prettiest palettes and especially flattering on warm skintones. The bronzer (TREASURE COVE) brightens and enhances instead of being muddy or orange -- my favorite thing in this palette...I have a hard time finding pretty bronzer, the blush (ISLAND REVERIE) is a beautiful pink/coral that gives a noticeable flush but is not garish, and the three eyeshadows (TIARE-sheer champagne, PLUMERIA - shell pink, RUM - deep rosy brown) layer well together and are also versatile/neutral enough to work individually. Although all the colors work for me, I'm not satisfied with the quality. I've gotten spoiled with the silkier textures of Chantecaille, Lancome, and Kevyn Aucoin brands. Fresh's cosmetics have an aging effect on my skin -- very dry and powdery...at a distance it wouldn't be so bad, but up close it's very obvious that I have makeup on.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.     Was this review helpful to you? Yes   No