CHARLOTTE TILBURY: MUST-HAVES, MAYBES AND MISSES

If this is your first time to encounter Sharon’s blog Behind Green Eyes, you have seriously been missing out. I love Sharon’s blog. She is beyond honest and absolutely hilarious. In fact she is hands down my favourite snap chatter. Her snaps crack me up on a regular basis. When I have a long list of snaps to view, hand on heart Sharon’s are the first ones that I watch. I have even been caught in public crying laughing at some of her snaps. She’s brilliant. 

Sharon also has fantastically expensive taste in makeup, while at the same time she mixes it up with more budget brands. It blows my mind how she gets so much makeup through the door every week without her husband divorcing her!!! Behind Green eyes is a must follow. You can check out Sharon’s blog here, Facebook, here, Twitter right here, and Instagram here, but if you’re going to do just one thing; for the love of god follow her on snap chat. Her handle is @sharonleavy. You won’t be disappointed. 

charlotte tilbury collection 1editedOver the past few months, I’ve built up a small collection of Charlotte Tilbury cosmetics. I wanted to talk you through some of the bits I picked up, and to tell you what I think are the standouts so far.

First up – The Must-Haves.

Charlotte Tilbury Must Haves Maybes and Misses 2The Filmstar Bronze & Glow is my top must-have from Charlotte’s range. It has a cool toned bronzer that works really well for contouring, plus a gorgeous  highlighter that builds up into a nice shine without any shimmer. Here’s a comparison between this palette and a couple of well-known bronzer and highlighter shades – as you can see, both Give Me Sun by MAC and Luminous Bronze Light by Hourglass are warmer and more orange toned. Mary Lou-Manizer by The Balm is a much lighter, but the texture is similar.

Charlotte Tilbury Must Haves Maybes and Misses 6The Eyes to Mesmerize cream eyeshadow in Marie Antoinette is beautiful, it’s a great colour for everyday. Also on the must-have list is the Lip Cheat lip pencil in Pillow Talk – this is gorgeous, it’s a real my-lips-but-better shade. I’d recommend Charlotte’s lipsticks too – at €30 a pop they certainly aren’t cheap, but they are fantastic quality and they come in really wearable colours. The three I own are Penelope Pink, Hepburn Honey, and Confession. They’re creamy, long lasting, and feel lovely on.

Charlotte Tilbury Must Haves Maybes and Misses 3I know that it would probably be considered blasphemous in some circles to put the eyeshadow quads in the “maybe” pile, but I just haven’t gotten the usage from these that I thought I would. In particular, the Vintage Vamp palette disappointed me a little bit – the prime shade feels a little grainy, and the pop shade doesn’t have great pigmentation (if I’m paying €50 for four eyeshadows, I want good pigmentation from all four). I got on much better with the Fallen Angel palette, but again I just don’t find myself reaching for either of them on a daily basis. Same goes for the Eyes to Mesmerize in Mona Lisa – it’s a lovely shade, but there are similar ones from several different brands so I don’t think it’s special enough. I do think that you need to have a swatch of the quads in person – I think if I had considered it more, I would have gone for more wearable everyday shades. Then again – do you want everyday when you’re buying Charlotte Tilbury?

Charlotte Tilbury Must Haves Maybes and Misses 5

Finally, the two products that I don’t think were worth the money:

Charlotte Tilbury Must Haves Maybes and Misses 4Yes, that is an expensive pencil sharpener. €7 is a ridiculous price to pay for something you can get in a Euro shop. You know what they say about fools and their money……seriously, I need a kick for falling for this. Any bog standard double sharpener will do the same job, don’t waste your money on this. I think Essence do one for around €2. The second product is the Colour Chameleon eye pencil in the shade Bronze Garnet. I just didn’t get on well with this at all – it didn’t last very long on my eyes, it didn’t really do anything for me, and it wasn’t anything to write home about. The only time I liked it on my eyes was when I layered it under eyeshadow – who has time for that? There are much better eye crayons out there – Zoeva ones are fantastic and about a third of the price. At €25, this is definitely something I would tell you to think long and hard about. It’s not a must-have by any stretch of the imagination.

As with all my reviews, this is just my opinion –  don’t take it as gospel, but I hope this has given you an idea of what Charlotte Tilbury has to offer.
Thanks a million to Sinéad for having me!
Sharon x

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10 Comments

  • Reply
    makeup monster
    July 14, 2015 at 10:10 am

    Fantastic post, although I’d expect no less from Sharon! I’m in the teeny tiny minority of bloggers who haven’t bought anything CT yet, I wander past the stand and then end up wandering off again! The eyeshadows would have been my natural obsession straight away so it’s good to know they may not be quite all that for the money!

    • Reply
      Sharon Leavy
      July 15, 2015 at 10:38 pm

      Thank you Yav! The quads look so beautiful but they’re genuinely not being used, they were things I HAD to have, need to get out of that habit!

  • Reply
    CherrySue
    July 14, 2015 at 11:35 am

    Agreed with everything about this, ladies, including the intro!!

    I’m with you on your picks & misses, Sharon. Filmstar Bronze & Glow is incomparable to me, one of my all time faves that I still reach for on the daily. Yep, it’s spendy but nothing looks like it does on my skin and having been using it for over a year now, I’m only now making a dent in the pan.

    With you on Bronzed Garnet too, I just could NOT get it to work for me and God knows I tried. I use it now under my lower lash line to brighten up a smokey eye, mostly because it galls me to leave such an expensive crayon gathering dust. The KIKO offerings are far and away superior to the formulation for a fraction of the price.

    Similar with the shadow quads too, I felt an ache in my bones that only a beauty addict will know – I HAD TO HAVE THEM, granted I’m still glad I own them but, like you, I just don’t reach for them. Such is the madness of being addicted to pretty things.

    FAB post, Sharon xx

    • Reply
      Sharon Leavy
      July 15, 2015 at 10:40 pm

      It’s a disease, Magpie disease! Bronzed Garnet was such a disappointment, it just vanishes. Filmstar is the loveliest product.product, a real treat and good lasting power for the price! X

  • Reply
    Emma (fluff and fripperies)
    July 14, 2015 at 5:00 pm

    Great post Sharon – I had to pick my mouth up from the floor to see the cream shadow in the maybe pile and then the pencil in the ‘Misses’ but, now I’ve recovered a little, I remembered I did buy a second pencil after falling in love with the one I was given, Dark Pearl, and was nowhere near as impressed. I think the formulas varied so yep, a lot of swatching and checking of reviews is in order before a buy x

    • Reply
      Sharon Leavy
      July 15, 2015 at 10:42 pm

      I put the cream shadow in the maybe solely due to the shade, it’s not a million miles away from the maybelline or max factor colours! If I had to choose again I think I’d get the khaki one, veruschka, it’s a much more unique shade. Thanks Emma x

  • Reply
    YourBeauty.ie
    July 14, 2015 at 7:48 pm

    Loved this post Sharon, narrows down drastically my Charlotte T wish list. Glad you mentioned the eyeshadows, they were first on the list :).

    • Reply
      Sharon Leavy
      July 15, 2015 at 10:43 pm

      They’re definitely a luxurious treat, but I would say swatch them and see what you think then, they’re just so pricey and maybe my expectations were too high but I wasn’t blown away!

  • Reply
    Julie (JKBeautyBuzz)
    July 14, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Still have not jumped into this brand but am hoping to dip my feet in before the end of the summer! I heard amazing things about the contouring palette and heard the W7 compact is a very close dupe!! Nice to see an honest review on the eyeshadows, they wouldn’t have been my first choice anyway!

    • Reply
      Sharon Leavy
      July 15, 2015 at 10:45 pm

      The W7 would be a great palette to practice with and get a feel for it, I compared the two on my own blog last week – there’s definitely a big difference in quality and longevity but the W7 is acceptable !

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