Calling all Hello Kitty lovers out there! There’s a new must-have palette in town for you.
Hello Kitty turned 40 this year and to celebrate, Sanrio released a Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Collection palette to be exclusively sold at Sephora. This palette is one of the most anticipated items from the collection.
Sadly, the quality of the shades do not live up to the standards of its original retail price of $52. However, it’s now half price for only $26 at Sephora! For a palette packaged this beautifully, it’s totally worth it.
Read on to see my thoughts, swatches and more pictures of the product.
(I will be posting a comparison review of this palette, the Urban Decay Vice 3 palette, and the LORAC Mega Pro Palette soon. Click here for my review of the Urban Decay Vice 3 Palette.)
Packaging
Yes it is unnecessarily bulky and rather heavy, but the pop-up and the bow is just too cute. As someone obsessed with all things Hello Kitty, I just couldn’t pass out on this one.
It is packaged in a cardboard container – the top part pops up, and the bottom is a pull-out drawer containing the shadows. Similar to Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows series.
The packaging just screams my name. I can’t. I seriously CANNOT.
However, this isn’t the type of palette you’d want to bring travelling with you – as cute as it is. Its width is exactly the same as LORAC Mega Pro Palette although slightly shorter in height, but it’s at least four times thicker. The Urban Decay Book of Shadows is much thicker though, so I guess this isn’t that bad for a pop-up palette.
Names of the shades are printed on the plastic covering of the eyeshadows, which I find to be a bit annoying. I actually like seeing the names of the shadows underneath each one. I dislike having to keep referring to the plastic cover just to find names of the shades.
Just a matter of preference I guess?
Shades
The palette contains 20 eyeshadows with a wide range of colors and finishes.
You’ve got everything you need in this palette – neutrals, greys, browns, reds, blues, greens and whites. Even yellow!
I’m very impressed with the wide range of colors and tones, and that it also comes in different finishes. However, I’m very disappointed with the quality of the shadows.
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| Top L – R: Happy, Supercute, 1974, Three Apples, Playdate, Friendship, Kawaii, Anniversary, Dear Daniel, Kitty-Chan Bottom L – R: The Original, Cookie, Milk, Apple Pie, Hot Cocoa, Mimmy, Celebrate, Bow, Bright, Chocolate Chip |
Happy: Medium, cool-toned bright purple with subtle pink and silver sparkles. This shade is very powdery and chunky, even swatching it on my hand required a few good strokes and layers. Never worn this shade but seems it won’t stick on the skin too well. Pigmentation is also mediocre.
Supercute: Darker, cool-toned lavender. Much drier in texture than Happy and also powdery and chunky. Super difficult to blend smoothly on the eyes. Quite a lot of fallouts too.
1974: Neutral-toned medium gray with subtle shimmers. This isn’t as chunky and difficult to blend as Happy and Supercute.
Three Apples: One of my favorite shades from this palette! It’s a beautiful metallic emerald green with slight shimmers and is one of the most buttery shades in this palette. However, it was rather chunky upon application and didn’t quite easily adhere on to the skin.
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| Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Pop Up Party Eyeshadow Palette (Three Apples) |
Playdate: Matte medium gray, warmer and lighter than 1974. It is rather sheer and is powdery.
Friendship: Frosty, slighlty shimmery warm pale pink. Color payoff isn’t too bad for something this pale, but is definitely powdery and chunky. I wouldn’t be too scared of the fallouts since the shade is very pale.
Kawaii: Another one of my favorites. A cool-toned aqua with a metallic finish and slight shimmers, this is one of the less dry and powdery shades in the palette.
Anniversary: Matte, black navy blue with beautiful blue glitter. This is a very unique shade and I can’t get over how beautiful the blue sparkles are. However, there was quite a lot of fallout and by the third or fourth hour the blue sparkles have transferred on to my undereye area. Consistency-wise, it isn’t as powdery as most of the other shades though.
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| Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Pop Up Party Eyeshadow Palette (Anniversary) |
Dear Daniel: Bright, periwinkle blue with aqua shimmers. So beautiful on the pan but sadly does no translate well once swatched. Very sheer, powdery, chalky and difficult to blend. Once blended out, the color almost fades completely. My least favorite shade in the palette. So sad as this shade looks so beautiful on the pan!
Kitty-Chan: Metallic dark-denim blue with gold-coppery sparkles. It isn’t as powdery as the other shades but sadly the glitter just flew all over the place. My undereye area was a tub of glitter by the end of the day. That was exaggerated, of course. But you get the point 🙂
The Original: Metallic dark brown with slight shimmers. Slightly powdery but the payoff is great. One of the shadows with the best quality in the palette.
Cookie: Another one of my favorites! Frosty, metallic light gold. It is one of the most buttery shades in the palette and lasted for more than 6 hours on top of an eyeshadow primer, although by the fifth or sixth hour mark it had faded a bit, but there was zero creasing. Maybe I should give the credit to my primer? But it’s a beautiful shade nonetheless.
Milk: Satin cool-toned white. Very sheer but is one of the least powdery and dry shades.
Apple Pie: Frosty, shimmery light peach. Also one of the least powdery and dry shades and was much easier to blend. Color payoff is really good.
Hot Cocoa: Matte, neutral skin-color dark brown – meant to be used as a transition shade. Dry and powdery, but did its job of being a transition color very well.
Mimmy: Frosty butter yellow with a metallic sheen. Such a unique color but is unfortunately one of the worst in the palette. Chunky, powdery, chalky, difficult to blend, and won’t adhere properly to the skin.
Celebrate: Medium reddish burgundy with slight shimmers. One of the least powdery shades, it’s actually buttery and smooth, but color is very sheer although buildable.
Bow: My favorite color in the whole palette! Medium warm red, sort of a dark pink shade, with a frosty finish. Sadly it’s a bit chunky and there were quite a lot of fallouts. For a color this beautiful I wish the quality was a bit better.
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| Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Pop Up Party Eyeshadow Palette (Bow) |
Bright: Shimmery, metallic white champagne-y gold. Great color payoff and an amazing highlight shade. Wasn’t too powdery and chunky either.
Chocolate Chip: Another one of my top faves. A warm gold bronze with a metallic finish, this is the most buttery soft shade in the palette. I love how buttery smooth it applied on the lids with minimal fallouts and chunks. However it is quite a common shade, you’d find a shade like this in numerous other palettes.
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| Hello Kitty 40th Anniversary Pop Up Party Eyeshadow Palette (Chocolate Chip) |
Overall
This palette is, sadly, only a 3/5 for me.
If not for the super adorable packaging and the shades “Bow”, “Three Apples”, “Cookie” and “Chocolate Chip” I would totally flunk this palette. At a whopping $52 I of course expected so much more. I really regret getting this before it’s on sale, but to be fair I didn’t know it would be on sale anyway. Waiting until it gets on sale is kind of a gamble, I didn’t want to risk losing this limited edition palette so I bought it anyway.
So, would I recommend this palette? For $26, yes – but definitely not for its original price of $52.
