Pure Cosmetics Buff Collection Palette Review

January 09, 2017

Pure Cosmetics Buff Collection Palette Review

Pure Cosmetics isn’t the most talked about brand in the beauty community, but I have heard about them a handful of times and was always curious to try some of their products. I’ve never seen them in stores, so I was super excited to see that this was in my December Boxycharm. This is what beauty subscription boxes are all about, introducing you to brands and products you might not have tried before. Initially, their Buff Collections palette looks like an exact dupe of the Urban Decay Naked 3 palette. I don’t own any of the Urban Decay Naked palettes, so I won’t be able to compare this one for you. But I can tell you that there are a few things that don’t necessarily make this worth the $50 price tag.

This comes in metal packaging and one of the first things I noticed about it was that it was a little difficult to open. That could be a good thing if you’re wanting to travel with it, but I was almost scared I was going to drop or break it on accident. It does come with a good size mirror. The mirror had a film over it straight out of the packaging, which was a little hard to peel off. I almost scratched the corner of the mirror trying to get it to peel up. A double ended brush is also included in the palette. One side is like a typical flat eyeshadow brush that you would use to pack on color and the other end is a little more fluffy, but still on the flat side which makes it somewhat difficult to blend with.

One thing I love about this palette is that all the shades are named. That makes things so much easier! There are a total of twelve shades in this palette, three of them being completely matte and the other nine having some sort of shimmer or glitter finish. In the picture below, you can see a swatch of the first six shades: Quartz, Sahara, Mesa, Dune, Mojave, and Sandstone. Quartz and Dune are the only matte shades out of these six. The other four are all shimmers.

Quartz can be a little pale, but makes for a nice blending shade. Dune is one of my favorite shades in the palette and great for the crease. Sahara and Mesa are almost identical when placed on the eye, which is something I wish they would’ve changed about this palette and added more different shade options. Mojave is a beautiful cranberry and Sandstone is almost copper, but has more rosey undertones than brown.

The last six shades in this palette are Clay, Canyon, Desert, Dust, Barren, and Mirage. Taking a quick glance at the swatch of these, they all look somewhat similar although they don’t appear that way in the pans. Clay is my second favorite shade in this palette and perfect to layer with Dune in the crease to create a soft, matte look. Canyon is a nice medium brown, but this is one shade I wish they would’ve kept matte since there are so many shimmery browns placed next to it. Desert and Dust are both darker browns that look very similar, as well as Barren and Mirage which are both darker plums. Desert, Barren, and Mirage have more glitter than shimmer that could help create more dimension than just having shimmer shadows all over the lid.

The quality on these shadows aren’t completely horrible, but they’re also not super amazing either. The matte shades are very smooth and buttery, although it might take some work to build up the pigmentation on them. The glitter and shimmer shades are also very smooth, but almost too smooth to the point that they crumble during application. It has a little bit of fallout because the formula doesn’t stay together very well. With a primer, they probably lasted around 4 or 5 hours before I noticed fading which is a few hours less than some of my favorite eyeshadows and palettes.

Overall, I’m happy that I received this palette in my Boxycharm. But it’s not one that I would recommend for the price. There are many other good quality rosey toned palettes on the market now, even ones at a more affordable price that do a much better job. For example, the Ulta Rose Gold palette that I love. It’s only $20, also comes with 12 shades, and is amazing quality. To find out more about that one, you can check out my full review as well as my tutorial I featured it in.

~Mani Monday~

I am so ready for Spring and Summer to get here already! When I was looking through my collection, I kept picking out pastels and other bright shades that I love. Instead, I decided to go with Sally Hansen’s Camo Queen. It’s a muted green that isn’t too dark or too bright. This Sally Hansen Gel formula isn’t my favorite because it still chips pretty easily on me, but it’s not the worst either. This would be a better formula for those who change their nail polish more than once a week, but the color is still beautiful!