Physicians Formula x Casey Holmes Review
When I first discovered the online beauty community many lots of years ago, Casey Holmes was one of the first people I watched on Youtube. That was way back before people used their names and her channel was still titled “itsblondie.” How many of y’all remember that? She’s come out with many collabs before, but I’ve always skipped on them because nothing really grabbed my attention -- until now. Drugstore makeup is my favorite and I’ve been looking for a good excuse to finally try the famous Physicians Formula butter bronzer.
Luck was with me on the day I picked this up because I grabbed the last one on the shelf at an Ulta that was “out of stock” according to their online store finder. This collection normally retails for $19.99 at Ulta, but I used their $3.50 off coupon and got it for an even better deal. Just one of the butter bronzers alone costs $15 (at Ulta), and in this palette you’re getting so much more for practically the same price!
This is technically considered a palette, but I see it more as a box. That’s essentially what it is. Although I love Casey and I was beyond excited to hear about this collaboration, the first thing I noticed in her announcement video was the packaging. I understand it comes with other products, but it still just seems a little excessive to me. I see a lot of wasted space. It’s set in cardboard packaging that feels a little more cheap than most other products and I’m not a huge fan of the plastic cover because it’s always getting in the way.
It does have shade names below each product, which is very much appreciated. Some of these shades are limited edition and some are not. I don’t really understand having a mixture of regular and limited edition products, but that’s what they did. In the palette, you’re getting a matte bronzer, a shimmer blush, a highlighter, three matte eyeshadows, one shimmer shadow, one of their Murumuru lip butters, and a new perfume.
Even though it led to clunky packaging, I love that they included a lip butter and a fragrance. Those are two things that are pretty rare in collaboration collections, especially the fragrance!
The shade names for the face powders shown below are: Deep Bronzer, Copper Cabana, and Just Beachy. Although all three of these are incredibly smooth and pigmented, they also all have a completely different consistency. The bronzer and blush are very similar, but I feel like the blush takes a little bit more work to show up than the bronzer does.
I’ve never used the bronzer before and I definitely understand all of the hype behind it now. It’s gorgeous! The blush is one of my favorite colors, I just can’t stand all the shimmer it has. It really emphasizes texture and pores on the cheeks. Some of the shimmer does disappear after applying a finishing powder over top of it, but I definitely can’t combine it with a separate highlighter on my oily skin. When you have oily skin, you know there is such a thing as too much glow.
The highlighter, on the other hand, feels wet like you’re touching actual butter. That’s really cool and all, but it has a ton of chunky glitter in it rather than shimmer dust and that’s really all you see on the face. While I love the color and tone they were going for, it’s a very unnatural highlight. I wasn’t even able to use this on my eyes because the formula is so strange. The wet consistency stayed, but the glitter fell off completely.
The eyeshadows shown below are: Do Not Disturb, No Filter, Tropic Like It’s Hot, and Palms Palms. These are all limited edition eyeshadows and Palms Palms is the only shimmer shade out of the bunch. I love that they’re mostly all matte because the more matte I can get my face, the better! However, I am a little disappointed with the shade range. No Filter and Tropic Like It’s Hot are different enough, but they’re still too similar for something as small as a quad. When I only have four shades to choose from, I’d like a little more variety.
All of the eyeshadows are incredibly pigmented, which I’m especially happy to see in a shade like Do Not Disturb. I love putting matte creams like this on my eyes, but a lot times it’s not pigmented enough to show up. This one is perfect! One thing to keep in mind is that these are all quite powdery, which will cause them to kick up color and dust powder over the other shades.
Palms Palms is a nice green touch for a pop of color. I actually don’t mind that this one is a shimmer. My favorite way to use this shade is underneath my lower lashes, which is one of Casey’s recommendations on the note inside the palette and the way I featured it in Monday’s tutorial.
I didn’t even know Physicians Formula made these Murumuru Lip Butters until I saw this one in the palette. This shade is called Pop the Bubbly and I’ve learned they have many other colors in this line. Although lip butters are one of my favorite formulas to wear on the lips, I was definitely not a fan of all the shimmer in this shade. It gave too much of a metallic look to the lips and wasn’t as flattering as a cream finish.
Every time I wore this lip butter, I noticed the strangest taste of chemicals in my mouth. I’m not one to lick my lips when I have product on, so I don’t know how it was happening. Once I realized the lip butter is what was causing that horrible taste, I had to take it off immediately. It was so bad that I even had to eat something to get the taste out of my mouth. That’s not something I’ve ever experienced before and I definitely want to get more colors from this line to see if it’s in the formula or if it’s just a shade thing. I hope it’s just this color because the formula is so comfortable!
I should also mention that mine doesn’t twist back down. I’m not sure if that’s something they did with this product on purpose or if I just have a default tube.
The scent of these butter products has been one of the most talked about things about this line. I had never smelled it before and as soon as I opened the palette, it immediately reminded me of Hawaiian Tropic sunscreen. I guess that’s what I get for growing up on the beach! I actually don’t seem to like the scent as much as everyone else, I think it’s a little too artificial.
After smelling the palette and powder products, I wasn’t sure how I’d like the perfume. Thankfully I think that scent is slightly different and something I’d like to see them sell separately within their line. It’s very strong, though, and a little bit goes a long way. Anything more than two sprays is too much.
Overall, I do think this palette is a really good deal. The quality is great (minus the highlighter), it’s just the finishes and some of the shade selections that I had a problem with. I like that it has so many different products in it to create a finished look, but I honestly don’t know how much I’ll be reaching for it in my daily routine.
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XO ♥ Christina ♥
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