Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look Palette Review

May 5, 2016
Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look Palette Review Beauty Look Book

Charlotte Tilbury just launched a new palette called the Instant Look Palette ($75, limited-edition). It’s a palette designed for women with little time on their hands for a quick and easy polished look. She calls it her 5-Minute On the Go Palette and I was able to apply all 7 products within 5 minutes. I received mine from Beautylish and it sold out within a week – not surprising since they have excellent customer service. I asked if they would be restocking and they said most likely not since it was limited-edition which is too bad but you can still find it online at a few other places right now including Charlotte Tilbury and Net-A-Porter.

This palette has 7 products that are labeled in numerical order of application which makes it super easy to use. When I saw online photos I thought it was extremely overpriced for what you get, but the compact is actually larger than I anticipated. Even in the photo above with me holding it – it appears to be on the small side, but it’s really decent in size and the pans are large enough to dip a brush into without having to worry about mixing colors. The quality of the powders in this palette are on par with all her other face, cheek and eye products. Texture is very soft and finely milled with medium coverage. The colors are very natural for an easy no-makeup-makeup look. I will say up front that while this palette has excellent quality in terms of color, texture and design, the shades in this palette are all too light in color for my complexion and on my face they barely showed up. I played with this several different days with different bases. The result was always the same – light and almost powdery looking simply because the colors are very light in color.

It looked so natural and barely there on me that I asked my husband on several occasions to double check. I asked if he could tell I was wearing makeup and what he thought. His response was, “yes, I can tell because you look extra powdery today.” He confirmed my thoughts that the shades looked light on my skin. That being said I experimented with this more and found it to be a good starting palette for me – meaning it provides a good base but on my skin type and skin tone I find it definitely needs extra work to get it to work for me. I need an emollient creamy eyeshadow base to help the shadows be more visible and adhere to the skin. I need a cream base highlighter or bronzer to help the cheek products look less powdery.

Quality-wise it’s great. Concept-wise it’s genius. I just happen to be right at the skin tone that almost matches these shades so they are near invisible on my face. I’ve reviewed quite few highlighters that look like highlighters on my skin, but on others it doesn’t show up because the color matches their skintone. It doesn’t mean anything is necessarily wrong with the product, it’s just not the right color. That’s the case with this palette for me.

A closer look at the palette below:

The shades show up well on my arm, on the face they look a lot sheerer, colors and descriptions:1 Eye Brighten is a soft pale matte pink peach
2 Eye Enhance is a gorgeous warm champagne shimmer
3 Eye Smoke is a soft medium brown matte
4 Face Bronzer is a sheer tan with a hint of shimmer
5 Cheek Swish is a soft peachy matte
6 Cheek Pop is a sheer pink with a tiny hint of sparkle
7 Face Highlight is a shimmery pale ivory highlight

Comparison swatches Set 1:Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look (first three shades)
MAC Flounce (from the 15 Neutral Cool Palette)
Urban Decay Limit (from Naked 3, all Naked Palettes swatched here)
Urban Decay Naked and Buck (from Naked Palette, all Naked Palettes swatched here)
Urban Decay Sin Eyeshadow

Comparison swatches Set 2:
Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look Palette (first three shades swatched)
Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow Medium-Light (reviewed here)
Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector in Champagne Pop (review here)
Charlotte Tilbury Cream Shadow in Norma Jean (review here)

MAC Eyeshadow in Naked Lunch Eyeshadow
Comparison Set 3:
Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look Palette (first two shades swatched)

Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic in Ecstasy and Love Glow

For me this doesn’t quite work for an instant look because the colors are too matchy for my skintone but I suspect it will work better for lighter or deeper skins because there will be more color contrast. I do think quality-wise it’s excellent. The powders are very soft and are easy to blend. If she comes out with other more palettes like this one that have a deeper color range I think I would be 100% in love with it because it really has all the colors you need for a quick look or touchup. The design makes it perfect for on-the-go or for travel and the pans come with a decent amount of product. Based on the reviews I’ve seen online most give this one an overwhelming thumbs up which make me think I may be the one person who found this one didn’t work. I personally prefer the individual items such as her Filmstar Bronze and Glow and Cheek to Chic blushes – some of the individual products have a similar look to the shades in the palette but I find the separate colors work better for me.

 

You can find the Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look Palette for a limited time right now. I received mine courtesy of Beautylish (where it’s sold out right now). You can also find it online at Charlotte Tilbury, Net-A-Porter and Nordstrom (on backorder). Retail price is $75.

 

Have you tried this palette yet? What did you think?

You Might Also Like