The Balm Cosmetics has been making waves over this side of the pond with its eye-catching and retro-inspired packaging. Having achieved somewhat of a cult status amongst beauty junkies and gurus, the Balm offers an illustrious range of multi-purpose products high in quality.
Cruelty-free, paraben-free and made in the USA, I’ve sampled a couple of things from the brand which do live up to the hype including the shimmery Cindy Lou Manizer Highlighter, which not only can be used as a highlighter on the cheeks but on the eyelids too.
A lot of the Balm’s products favour the neutral look with nude palettes a-plenty but it’s recently brought out something more up my street…and anyone who is a rock chick for that matter. It’s a rockstar themed palette called Balm Jovi (arf!) and online beauty shop Beauty Bridge were kind enough to send it to me to try.
It’s an all-in-one palette for the eyes, lips and cheeks with a running rock music theme. You can tell this started off as a great idea till they’d run out of names and resorted to desperation. I mean “Milly” and “Vanilly”? Milli Vanilli were never rock! I admit ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ is on my iPod (and yes, I know they didn’t sing it!) but come on, surely they could have come up with more rock music puns although it is very funny to insert ‘lip sync playback’ between those two. However, the other references are questionable like the Human League and disco (!)
The eyeshadows have been divided vertically into three musical genres: heavy metal, classical classique (No? Me neither) and Rock Alternative, which explains why we have REM, Blink 182, Third Eye Blind and the Strokes in there.
With the palette named after Bon Jovi, I am surprised there wasn’t an eyeshadow named after them. Metal-ica, Iron Maid-in, Lead Zeppelin and Alice Copper get a\m/ but the rest? *cough*
So while some of the names are a let-down, the products aren’t. Contained in lightweight, compact and portable cardboard packaging with a sleeve and a magnetic clasp, the thin case is actually rather robust and secure, and ideal for travel.
Inside the sizes of the eyeshadows are small but also a testament of the standard you’re getting here. After all, a little bit goes a long way here. There is hardly any fall-out with these shadows and they are rich and pigmented in colour.
A dream to blend and buildable too, there are 12 eyeshadows which can be used wet or dry. Wonderfully versatile, the palette offers a mix of neutrals and more rebellious shades in shimmers, sparkles and mattes, which are utterly buttery. Seriously the shadows are incredibily soft…softer than Urban Decay’s.
I went for REM, Alice Copper and Moderato on the lids and Metal-ica in the inner corners, and used the Solid Gold luminizer as a highlighter. I realise the purpose of this all-in-one palette is to do the entire face with it but I’m being a rock rebel. That said, the quality of the luminizer and blusher are phenomenal.
I’m not so keen on Milly Vanilly, the lip colours. Milly seems too cool for my skin tone whether it’s applied to the cheek or lips while Vanilly is a typical cherry red but lacks depth.
As the only two disappointing features of the palette, I can brush it aside as the rest rocks.
The Balm’s price point is mid-range so it sits in the same group as Urban Decay and Too Faced as the closest rivals. The Balm Jovi palette costs $39.50 (or £37.50 in the UK).
If you’re interested, the other products I used are:
Dermalogica Hydrablur Primer (review)
Benefit Air Patrol BB Cream Eyelid Primer
Clinique Chubby Lash fattening mascara
Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in bauhau5 (review)
Maybelline Fit Me! foundation in 240 Golden Beige (review)
e.l.f Blush Palette – dark
Illamasqua Gel Sculpt (review)
All photos were taken in natural light with no airbrushing. I have to stress that since I am noticing more manipulation in images on other blogs so apologies if you spot some pores and dark circles.
Beauty Bridge ships internationally and if you live in the States then delivery is free for orders over $49. To explore what Beauty Bridge has to offer in skincare and make-up, visit www.beautybridge.com.
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