Other people can get excited about pumpkin spice flavours and oversized scarves if they want; I too love a blanket scarf, but more than anything else, the fast-approaching holiday season means that it’s time to get festive and celebratory, and nothing says festive than sparkle. As the resident magpie at 29Secrets, it’s my duty to remind everyone that each season brings a whole new format of shiny things in new colours and textures, and 2017’s fall-to-winter transition has more than lived up to its promises. Here are some products that I absolutely cannot wait to try out before the season is over.
Kat Von D’s never been the type to shy away from bold pigments, but even so, the Everlasting Glimmer Veil Liquid Lipstick ($30) line is something else. The colours are electric, the finish dazzling and the pigment quality sublime: it’s only a matter of time before some of our favourite makeup artists (and drag queens) realize that these lip colours will perform killer double duty used as eyeliner or eyeshadow alike. (Keep micellar water on hand at all times; chances are slim that even a hardy oil cleanser will remove these colours off your lips fully.)
Stila’s Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow ($31) already has a cult following as far as sparkly eye products are go, but us makeup geeks of colour have often found the colour range to be a bit flat for tan-to-deep skin tones. That is the precise reason why the brand’s Eye For Elegance Liquid Eye Shadow Set ($59) is such a complete winner: its endearing range of copper-based nudes also features a chocolate glitter and a maroon-brick hybrid that will assuredly sing on any skin tone.
While others are going for chunkier glitter, NYX Cosmetics is gunning for sleek elegance this holiday season instead: its brand new Liquid Suede Metallic Matte ($10) line shies away from the quintessentially vibrant palette NYX is known for and instead presents a range of sedate colours that only truly shine when they catch the light. Some might call it a demure younger sister to Kat Von D’s Glimmer Veil Liquid Lipstick, but do not fear: when applied, the colours more than stand out on their own thanks to the high chroma content of the metallic pigments.
Colourpop’s colour wheel seems to be stuck on summer, but that’s completely fine with us: the brand’s I Think I Love You palette is so decadently pigmented and buttery that rocking the same bronze-gold-goddess smokey eyes for two months actually even seems desirable. Canadian fans can’t wait for the brand to launch at Sephora in November, and chances are that this palette will be the first thing that sells out when that happens.
Too Faced seems to jump into overdrive every fall — (most other brands satisfy themselves with a single new collection) — but Too Faced is just about to release another format of product entirely, hot on the heels of its spankin’ new Peaches and Cream line. The Too Faced Peel-Off Glitter Liners present both a new product experience and a novel conundrum: Do I really want to tug on my eyelids to remove this budge-proof, peel-off eyeliner? But more importantly, they feature a high-saturation pigment to close off any celebratory evening look with just the right amount of pep.
Anastasia Beverly Hills is known for its hits, but it did face a bit of a miss with its summer-to-fall Subculture Eye Shadow Palette ($55); the fallout from each pan was tremendous and some colours didn’t blend as well, but man, were the colours lush. This time round, the holiday season’s offering from Anastasia’s Prism Eye Shadow Palette looks a lot more promising. With an entire row of the just-released palette dedicated to duochrome and glitter eyeshadows, even if the fallout proves similar to that of the Subculture palette, chances are high that the unique shade range will win hearts either way.