My friends, I did it again. I did buy an advent calendar again. But, since I had a tight budget for Christmas shopping, I got one of the cheapest that I could find (with makeup products because I can use the stuff more than just once) and I waited until I got in on the Black Friday sale. Oddly enough, it was way cheaper to buy it from the UK (even with the shipping fee) than from the Romanian online shops, so I got my hands on the Revolution Beauty advent calendar.

I got it only this week, which means I’m a little behind on opening the boxes, but it was still a nice surprise. I can’t say that Revolution Beauty is one of my favorite brands. I had some palettes from them which I decluttered because I wasn’t impressed with the quality and I decided to get rid of them after I use them for some time. But, I still wanted to give the brand a try because it’s been years since I used products from this brand and I know there are hits and misses, but the theme for this year (although not clearly mentioned) was pink makeup, so I couldn’t resist. Basically, I got the advent calendar for 25 euros and since there are 24 products in here, I figured at around 1 euro and some change for one, it’s more than decent. So, since I don’t know much about their products, let’s see what I got, starting with a highlighter.

Packaging:

This is a different size, but the packaging is all the same. Just a clear plastic case. Honestly, it can’t be so costly to make it at least a little bit cuter. I mean, other affordable makeup brands are able to make it. So, the standard size for this highlighter is 2.45 grams, but the one in the advent calendar is almost double the quantity, which is 4.5 grams. That’s interesting and It was a nice surprise to see that they made the product bigger for the advent calendar. It’s a tin container so I think it can be popped out and put into a magnetic palette.

Texture:

This seems to be a baked formula as far as I can tell, so it’s a very silky and very shimmery fine powder. There are 5 shades available and I have the shade Pink Seduction, which is a nice baby pink that shines really bright. I know it looks like silver or gold in the swatch, but it’s definitely pink.

Ingredients:

Mica, Isododecane, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Boron Nitride, Dimethicone, Magnesium Myristate, Magnesium Stearate, Silica, Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate, Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Diethylhexyl Syringylidenemalonate, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Tin Oxide, Ci 77891 (Titanium Dioxide), Ci 16035 (Red 40 Lake), Ci 45410 (Red 28 Lake), Ci 77499 (Iron Oxides).

Although it’s a powder formula, I would have loved to see some skin care ingredients in the formula, but I guess I can’t expect much from an affordable drugstore makeup brand.

Price and accessibility:

Revolution Beauty products are available in several online shops and in DM stores (although the range is very limited). The prices are different, depending on where you get the products from. Since I got the advent calendar from the Revolution Beauty online shops, I’ll go with their prices. This highlighter is sold for 6.99 euros and since I have double the quantity it would be at least a couple of euros more expensive. Considering that each item is valued at a little more than 1 euros when I got it on sale, but even at full price, it would be somewhere around a little more than 2 euros, I would say this is a pretty good deal.

My overall opinion:

This is not a subtle highlighter. That pink really shines bright and I must say that it looks veeeeery bright under neon lights which I haven’t noticed and I looked like a clown at work when I tried this one on. So it must be applied very carefully. Personally, I think I would prefer to use this as an eyeshadow, because the pink shade is really beautiful but a little too strong for the face makeup. At least how I like it, it all depends on each person’s preferences.

Now, at the price of 7 euros I wouldn’t get this highlighter. I mean, the shimmer is too much for me and the cheap packaging doesn’t help. So, for 1 or 2 euros, yes, it’s a bargain and it works, but for 7 euros no. It’s not that amazing and I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase it.

I don’t know if I should recommend it or not because it may be a good product for those who want to shine brighter than the sun, but for those who prefer a subtle makeup look I don’t think it works. This would be something that was trendy 10 years ago, but now people seem to tone down on the highlighter craze.