Charlotte Tilbury The Dolce Vita Luxury Palette

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Good morning! Today I wanted to show you something I picked up recently while out shopping with a friend- The Dolce Vita Luxury Palette by Charlotte Tilbury. My inner magpie was immediately drawn to the bronzey, sparkly shade and I thought it would make a lovely look for New Year's Eve.

This is my first product from Charlotte Tillbury. The brand was at Sephora so briefly that I had to double check with a friend that it really happened at some point and was not in fact something I dreamed up. At most Nordstrom locations, CT has but a small little place on the free standing tables, though definitely full counter worthy (here's a list of Charlotte Tillbury counters in the US).

The CT packaging look is simple but sleek; shiny chocolate case with copper accents.

Here's one thing that has me absolutely jazzed - no sponge applicator or little brush! Just the way I like my quads and quints.

Three shades have a similar formula while the fourth stands apart. Prime, Enhance, and Smoke are finely milled as well as pigmented but not unusual in any way for shadows. Pop is interesting, it feels fluffy and squishy in the pan, almost the way Colourpop shadows have that jelly-like buoyancy. The glitter particles in Pop are jagged, more like metallic flakes than standard micro glitter.

Swatches over primer, outdoors, bright sunlight.

Indoors, indirect lighting.

Prime is a mother-of-pearl sheen. Enhance is a beautiful metallic russet. Pop is a buildable, warm bronze, glitzy glitter. Smoke is a satin chocolate brown.

Here I'm started with Prime on the inner 1/2 of the lid, concentrated on the inner corner, then swirled Enhance on the outer 1/2 of the lid. I used Smoke to deepen the crease and the lower lash line, then just packed Pop on top of it all.

Consider me surprised, but the bronzey glitter in Pop actually stays relatively in place. There's some flyaway specks after application if I blend furiously, under my eyes but whatever is binding this cushion-y, squishy shadow together also seems to be responsible for its glitter adhesion properties. Much less glitter fallout than many Urban Decay glitter shades I've worked with, or my sparkly frenemy, Addiction Private Beach. There is one question that I have that only time will reveal - is this shade in any danger of drying out like other jelly-like (think Colourpop shadows) formulations? I hope not.

Just me being nitpicky, I suppose, but I think this quad should have come with a plastic insert or a velvet pouch to protect the shadows with Pop being as fluffy as it is. It's the kind of shadow that you can sort of compress in the pan. I'm planning on bringing this quad on trips and I think I'll sandwich a cotton pad inside to protect the shadows, just in case.

I wish I had paid attention to this brand earlier, like during the 25 minutes or so Charlotte Tilbury was at Sephora. I think tiny, half ass displays are doing the brand an extreme disservice. I myself walked by the little endcap multiple times at Nordstrom (on multiple shopping trips even) before I stopped to really look at the products. Admittedly, if it hadn't been busy day for checking out at the beauty counters, I probably wouldn't have been standing idly by and swatched the nearby tester palette. I'm glad that by chance I ended up finding something that I really liked.

Charlotte Tilbury The Dolce Vita Palette is $52 and can be purchased from Beautylish, Nordstrom or directly from the CT website.

Happy New Year!

Product featured was purchased by me, for my own use. Post contains affiliate links. For additional information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.