In 2020 I tried 6 different palettes, although not all of them were released this year, I thought it might be nice to see how I'd rank them anyway. Hopefully you find this helpful!

This palette had been on my list for years before I finally got it, so I think I overhyped it a bit. When I finally started playing with it I was a bit underwhelmed. There's nothing necessarily wrong with it, I just find that all the neutral shades lean really warm on me. I have since heard that basically all Huda's palettes are pink or red and I have to say I agree based on my experience. I find that whenever I try to create different coloured looks they almost always look the same on the eye, there is very little versatility. I find the purple and the greige shades are the two mattes that are exempt from this but thats not that many considering there are 18 shades in this palette. Also this palette has a pressed glitter which I hate.

This is such a lovely rainbow palette but I do think it has some weaker points. There are some very similar colours in this colour story and I think if it had just been adjusted ever so slightly it could have been even better. This is really clear in the purple and pink sections of the palette, I would have changed some of those shades to something else. There is one shade in this palette that I really don't like and that is Blue Raspberry as it's just not pigmented at all, but thats the only shadow I strongly dislike in this palette.

I think the mattes are what really makes this palette, they have lovely formula and perform really nicely on the eyes. The shimmers are not my favourite but that more to do with that I like high impact, intense shimmers and these are a lot softer and more satin-like versus an intense sparkly shimmer. So that's just my personal preference and not really a reflection on the palette. Knowing what I know now, I would probably pick the Slush II over the Slush palette as from pictures I've seen it has more depth and only contains mattes.

This ranking was so difficult because I honestly wanted to rank this palette higher but it's up against some of my absolute favourite palettes ever. This palette has a stunning grungy-rainbow colour story that reminds me a bit of the ABH Subculture palette. It's nice to work with as well as the mattes perform nicely and the shimmers are decent but not groundbreaking. I really like this palette as it has a good amount of depth yet remains pretty blendable. I really enjoyed playing with this palette and I can see myself reaching for this often.

It was a struggle deciding whether to put this palette in third or fourth place but I decided to rank it a bit higher as I love both the mattes and shimmers in this palette. The matte shades are on the lighter side of the spectrum so if you have tan to deep skin I'm not sure if you'd find this palette particularly good but as I am pretty pale so this works nicely for me. However I do like having the option of deepening up looks so I would have loved one or two deeper mattes in this palette to round it out. What stands out to me in this palette are the shimmers, they're really sparkly and dimensional which I'm a fan of. Since using it I often want to reach for it if I'm wanting to do a more wearable look.

I am such a big fan of the Dose of Colors formula. These shadows are so easy to work with, the mattes are so incredibly blendable and offer a good amount of depth. The shimmers a gorgeous and reflective; I love that they put a lot of their Block Party shimmers in this palette as they're so intense and amazing. This is such a good palette if you like a smokey eye as well, while personally this isn't what I like wearing, the quality is impeccable. I've only been using it for a month or two but I've not reached for it too frequently but I think that might be more to do with that I've not been wearing as much eyeshadow if its not been for review purposes, which will definitely change now that I'm on a break from university!

I don't think anyone will be surprised that this is my favourite palette that I tired this year, because I will tell anyone who will listen that this is my favourite palette. I absolutely adore the colour story, it strikes the balance of being neutral and colourful perfectly. I feel inspired every time I look at this palette.

The shimmers in this palette are gorgeous, there are amazing quality and work beautifully on the eyes. The matte formula is also very good although there are formulas I like more but the colours are so lovely that I enjoy using it. The standout shade to me is Zamn, which is a breathtaking rose gold shimmer.

What was your favourite palette this year? Thanks for reading!

I've spent some time going through my collection this week, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on all the highlighters that I own. At first I want to do a definitive ranking of best to worst but then I realised that all of the highlighters have different functions in my collection. So instead of the ranking my favourite to least favourite, I thought I'd frame the ranking through superlatives, so for example something like best gold highlighter etc. I'm sure it'll make sense as you scroll down and read.

If you prefer a dewy look over shimmer or glow, the Charlotte Tillbury Hollywood Flawless Filter is the perfect highlighter for you. I pretty much use this every time I do my makeup, I usually apply this first before layering over another highlighter. I know some people are able to use this as a full base product, my skin is way too oily for that to work for me though. I just use it on the cheekbones and occasionally my inner corner and cupids bow. It's untraceable on the skin, it just gives the skin the look of being healthy and refreshed.

Next is Jouer Citrine and if you love an intense, blinding highlight, this is the one for you! This highlighter is definitely the most pigmented highlighter I own, it almost feels like a smooth eyeshadow. I have kind of moved on from the super blinding highlighter look so nowadays I only reach for this if I wanted a bright inner corner highlight. If I wear it on my cheekbones I spend a fair amount of time buffing it out to suit my tastes. This highlighter has a such a strong sentimental value to me, even though I don't use this very often I'm not sure I could ever get rid of it.

The Nars Highlighter Powder in the shade Fort de France is the highlighter I have been reaching for the most lately (alongside the HWFF by Charlotte Tillbury). I'd even go as far as to say it's my favourite powder highlighter. It has a bit of more gel-like feel to it which allows it to blend in so nicely on the skin. It's the highlighter that contains the least amount of mirco-shimmer of all my powder highlighters and can be sheered out nicely, so it's incredibly versatile in that sense.

If you're looking for a highlighter that looks great in photography, the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfectors really do pop on the cheekbones in photos. They look so glowy on the skin, less intense than Jouer Citrine but still noticeable. These two highlighters are what I use when doing other people's makeup for special events etc, they are fail-safe and looking stunning in photographs.

Personally, I prefer Opal on myself, (left) although it does look a fair bit darker than all the other highlighters I own, it looks gorgeous especially when I have more of a tan. I've repressed this twice, as after hitting pan on it (again twice), it tended to come loose and was when harder to pick up on a brush.

I don't as much use out of Moonstone (right) purely due to the fact it's ever so slightly too light for my preference. It still looks good on the high points of the face but for me it's just a touch to light.

This may seem like a bit of a weird category but I genuinely feel that if you have never owned a highlighter before, The Balm's Mary Lou-Manizer is great one to try out just to see what your preferences are. Nowadays it leans more of the intense side of my collection but it's still very wearable and can be sheered out. It doesn't enhance texture too much but if that's something you're concerned about there are other highlighters I'd recommend before this one.

I believe it's also the first highlighter I ever bought! Today you can get a mini size of it so I'd recommend buying the mini size as I'm nowhere near finishing it up and I used it everyday for years. It doesn't look as well-loved as you may expect it to, I have repressed this once or twice so

Here are how the different highlighters look on my skin tone in natural lighting. As you can see I'm drawn to a particular shade of champagne gold.

Thanks for reading!