NikkieTutorials + Too Faced 'The Power of Makeup' Kit

Nikkietutorials (as she as known on youtube) and Too Faced have collaborated to bring out a small collection / kit called ‘The Power of Makeup’ – after one of Nikkie’s very popular videos demonstrating how makeup can be empowering. The kit includes the Power of Makeup palette (with 9 eyeshadows, 2 blushes, chocolate soleil bronzer, and a highlighter), a new ‘Sketch’ liquid liner (black), a pot of glitter, a mini of Too Faced’s ‘Better than Sex’ mascara (purple), and a deluxe sample size of ‘Shadow Insurance’. In Australia this kit will set you back $80AUD which is a fair price considering the amount of product that you get.

Despite negative reviews on Nikkie’s palette, I wanted to try it for myself without letting any bias get to me; I truly believe that she deserves the success she is getting and that she is a very talented makeup artist. I will support her with anything she brings out, and to be honest… I couldn’t resist that glitter!

The matte shadows are reasonably consistent in formula – they all blend well just as Too Faced eye shadows usually do, but the glittery shades were not as pigmented as I had wished for. However I still loved using ‘Irresistible’ (gold shade) on the centre of the lids; with a few layers you could build up the pigment, and it’s the perfect shade of gold – not too ‘in your face’, you still feel glamorous while the shadow still looks somewhat tamed. I found that ‘painkiller’ is the perfect blending shade; it’s a neutral brown (matte) but doesn’t pull too warm or too cool. ‘Wanted’ (matte black) was buttery enough that I could use it in place of eyeliner on my upper lash line (on days where I didn’t feel like attempting a wing). I have worn ‘Wham Bam’ as a pop of colour on the lower lash line, and I didn’t experience any problems with fallout or fading throughout the day. I swatched all of the shades and I didn’t find any that lacked pigment too badly, they were just standard Too Faced eye shadows in my opinion.

I found that the bronzer in the palette (chocolate soleil) was not as pigmented as the full size version of chocolate soleil that I already owned. The blushes were pretty spot on, but the highlighter (‘Champagne Truffle’ – a reformulated version of the eye shadow ‘Champagne Truffle’ from the original Chocolate Bar palette) was not as intense as Nikkie’s videos imply. I really had to pack it on to get it to show up on my cheekbones, but at that point it just made my cheekbones look powdery.

A huge plus for me is the glitter that is included with this kit; it is very finely milled and extremely reflective. Love it. I have not tried the purple ‘Better Than Sex’ mascara, however I do like the normal mascara and I can’t imagine it would be that different. I found that the eye shadows stuck to my lids better with the Shadow Insurance; interestingly, the shadows applied a lot better when a don’t apply an all-over base colour. No matter how weird/wrong it feels, go straight in with a glittery shadow on top the Shadow Insurance without a base shadow, it makes the shadows work a lot better!

Despite it’s hype, I’m not a fan of the ‘Sketch’ eyeliners in general – I find that they bleed easily and transfer on my lids. The formula in the Power of Makeup is no different, I just don’t happen to like it. If you normally like those eyeliners, it’s exactly the same as the rest of the line.

Overall, I feel like this palette could have included more ‘natural’ shades to better suit Nikkie’s target demographic. In the past few months Nikkie has been all about warm tones / orange and red eye shadows (like the Anastasia Beverly Hills ‘Modern Renaissance’ palette, etc.), and I found it unusual that her eye shadows were vastly different from what we often see her rocking. I feel that this was more of a Too Faced palette than a Nikkie palette, on her YouTube she has rarely mentioned her love for the Too Faced blushes or even the chocolate soleil bronzer, but for whatever reason Too Faced have slapped her name all over them.

Eye shadows – 8/10

Blushes – 7/10 (same as the normal Too Faced love flushed blushes)

Bronzer – 4/10

Highlighter – 4/10

Glitter – 10/10

Eyeliner 2/10 (same as normal 'sketch' eyeliners)

Shadow Insurance - 9/10

Look at this glitter tho