Stila Cosmetics ‘After Hours’ Palette ($52)

Review time! What are my thoughts, you ask? I’ll take mediocre for $500, Alex!
Ouch. Okay that was a little harsh so let’s start out with the positives… the packaging is nice. Simple but solid and well made. You also get a good bit of product. Each pan is 1.9 g. And… that’s about it!

Now the not so nice stuff… we started out on the wrong foot because sephora’s website catfished me. Case in point:

She’s still pretty in person but a lot more muted and cool toned than advertised. There’s only 4 mattes (Tomorrow’s Tale, Anything Goes, Last Round and All Nighter). Based on the product photo, I was expecting 5. I thought that I was getting a soft brown matte and a warm pink matte that I could use as transition shades. In reality the ‘soft brown’ is a light taupe with shitty color pay off and the ‘warm pink matte’ is a frosty pearlized pink. The only one shade that works as a transition color on my skin tone is Last Round and I need to layer it about 4 times if I want it to be visible.

The matte formula isn’t my favorite. Buildable mattes are very forgiving and great for soft looks but they’re not my cup of tea. I like a soft powdery matte with intense pigmentation and if I have to deal with some fall out, so be it. These mattes are the exact opposite. I’m sure that many people will enjoy this formula but I’m not one of them.

Next there’s three satiny shimmers (Bellini, Sunset Soirre and Pink Bubbly)…. meh. They’re nice… but nothing that’s causing me to take the lord’s name in vein. Ultimately forgettable imo.

Then we get to the real selling point… the glitter formula, supposedly the pressed version of their liquid glitter shadows that everyone loses their shit over. Idk guys… it feels like a one trick pony to me. Every shade has silver micro glitter. All 5! Can a bitch get a little variety? Some gold glitter maybe? Perhaps a bit of holographic sparkle? No! You get silver microglitter and that’s it! And you had better like that shit because you’re going to be cleaning it out yo ears for next 5-7 days!

Okay I’m being a bit dramatic but the fall out is insane. And it’s not like this is my first day at the rodeo. I did my eyes first (before foundation), prepped with a glitter glue and used my fingertip instead of a brush. An hour later my cheeks were legit covered in silver glitter. Before bed, I used a cleansing balm and then washed my face as per usual. And guess what? All that did was spread it around a bit so that my entire face had a light smattering of silver fucking glitter.

And that about wraps it up! But let’s not forget that makeup is highly subjective and this palette did come highly recommend by several of my followers. So if you’ve tried this palette, please offer a second opinion in the comments! And don’t hesitate to tell me that I’m being a miserable old troll! I won’t be offended! 😁