Review: Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look in a Palette (Beauty Glow)

You may have read my July Monthly Favourites recently, in which case, if you did, you would have seen that the Charlotte Tilbury Instant Look in a Palette (Beauty Glow) was featured in it. It’s no secret then that this is going to be a positive review!

But hear me out – this is a big deal for me in many ways. For one, it’s the first palette that I can make use of 100%. The rest? You’ll have to read below!

What is it?

It’s marketed as an all-in-one palette that achieves a look in 5 minutes! It’s a straightforward, no-fuss palette that’s numbered from 1-7 which is perfect if you’re a beginner.

• 1-3 are eyeshadow shades (2 shimmers, 1 matte)
• 4 – bronzer
• 5+6 are blusher shades (CT’s ‘swish + pop’ system – see below)
• 7 – highlight

This Beauty Glow palette in particular, promotes a radiant, dreamy look. In fact, it’s inspired by Poppy Delevingne’s wedding makeup (Cara Delevingne’s sister if you didn’t quite work that out).

How much does it cost?

£49. ($75USD.) It’s expensive, but you get every bang out of your buck and more, considering how much the other CT products are. You need to also consider that this is essentially a look you’re getting from the palette with the exception of brows, mascara and lips.

To give you some insight:

• Their eyeshadow quads are £39 ($53USD)
• Their Bronze & Glow duos are £49 ($68USD)
• Their blushers are £30 ($40USD)

Note: After doing some currency conversion, CT products are actually more expensive in the US so my opinion (from a UK perspective) may differ from yours in terms of price point.

Where from?

At your nearest CT counter! I would personally recommend getting the SA to demo the look on yourself just to get a look and feel of the product. That’s what convinced me to purchase in the first place!

Otherwise, you could purchase online on FeelUnique or the CT website itself.

Who is it for?

For the person who wants something special, but doesn’t want to commit to full-on glam as it can be too heavy coverage, and/or too time-consuming.

Also for the person who likes options, but not keen on spending time to explore her whole makeup collection…as stated, this is everything in one!

What made you buy it? 

I had seen it around on the internet, and next thing – I’m researching this product which has pretty positive reviews so I’m like, ‘Okay, maybe’. Actually, I didn’t like CT’s Magic Foundation so I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt on other CT products and this has…everything.

In the end, it was really the look that sold me.

Can you talk me through the ingredients? 

Some notes on the ingredients:

• Talc is first ingredient which is what helps with the very soft texture. May/may not put you off. Involved in many makeup products, the safety of this ingredient is still quite fuzzy though Paula’s Choice rates as ‘good’.
• NOT paraben-free. There’s presence of silicons too. However, no other major red flags.
• Product may be more beneficial on oilier skin (including oilier lids) than dry skin types due to presence of rice starch and corn starch which absorbs excess oil.
• Mica is what provides the sparkle and shimmer in 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 + 7.

What do you have to say about it? 

Wow wow wow.

I’m really impressed. Where do I start?

The initial thoughts I had when the SA demo’d the whole palette on me was that the outcome was very natural and subtle yet it brought out all my features, and dare I say it? Made me glow. By subtle, I don’t mean that the shades are not pigmented but rather, they bring out tonal depth which yes, says you’re wearing makeup but also says you’re not trying too hard – it’s more like a built-from-within confidence. You want to shine but you don’t want to overpower – there is a difference.

(Excuse my foot in the shot…oops!) Swatches L-R: Eyeshadow 1, 2, 3 | Bronzer 4 | Blushes 5+6 | Highlighter 7

Even after I bought the palette (which I pondered about for a few minutes before buying), I still wasn’t 100% sure if I had made the right decision. But this only took one demo by yours truly to decide it was worth the full £49.

You should ought to know that I don’t wear eyeshadow much at all. (Or for that matter, bronze, contour and highlight but we’ll get to that later.) Therefore my technique and experience with eyeshadows are very limited. It’s not that I’m not into eyeshadows (though yes – maybe it’s down to laziness), but I have found it difficult to work with my eyelids since I don’t have a lot lid space. Also – a lot of makeup looks don’t suit me. The best are those that are natural, pared down and simple.

Funnily enough, I do own the MAC brushes 217 and 239 as means to play around with eye makeup. Normally, it takes a lot of trials and errors for me to get an eye look right but in this case, I found it really easy to work with the CT shadows. I don’t consider myself to have great technique in eyeshadow blending but take it from me – these shadows and colours are fool-proof. You just can’t get it wrong which makes doing your makeup in 5 minutes really possible.

The shadows are soft and a little goes a long way. You don’t need to dig into the palette – just a dab or two is sufficient. There is a tiny bit of kickback once you tap away the excess but nothing out of the ordinary. This eyeshadow trio helped to open the eyes and has convinced me that actually, I can do eyeshadow. 😛 What a nice surprise!

 

Moving onto pans 4, 5, 6 + 7, we have bronzer, two blushes and a highlighter. 

The bronzer looks really light in the pan but swatches really lovely on the skin. I don’t traditionally bronze or contour my face so I don’t own either products in my collection. But I do know that this doesn’t leave you looking orange or too dark (quite impossible at that)!

It adds a soft, healthy-looking glow and dimension to your face. I use the ‘3’ technique with a Real Techniques Blush Brush and it works just fine. Because of its lightness, again, you can’t go wrong – but it’s enough to make that subtle difference that’s impactful.

We are then presented with two blushes that we shall name ‘swish’ and ‘pop’ in this review. The phrase Swish and Pop is typically CT’s blush concept with swish being a base colour and pop being, well, a pop of colour on top!

Swish looks quite dark in the pan and quite intimidating if I do say so – I have nothing like it in my collection (and I love blush). But once swatched, it’s a rose-golden/bronzey shade that could be sisters with the bronzer! This would look even more amazing on sun-kissed, tanned skin. On me, it’s a tad dark but as long as I go in with a light hand and blend blend blend, it’s pretty nice and almost acts like a semi-contour shade too.

Pop is what I would call a true pink. It really balances the palette which would otherwise just be rose-golden/bronze tones. We were talking about healthy dimensions earlier and this shade is like the finishing touch – the ‘colour’. A simple dab is all I need for both cheeks and I’m happy with the result. Healthy. Glowing. But not OTT.

So far, it’s the most I’ve ever had on my face too (including foundation) and everything feels light and looks put-together. Normally, I wouldn’t use highlighter either (I guess I don’t follow makeup trends…can you tell?) but this highlighter is the perfect amount. It’s not chunky glitter. It’s not overpowering or blinding (I will never understand why that’s a thing). I would describe it as a translucent pearl sheen to the skin and it’s as subtle and natural that you will get with highlighters. If you’re a highlight fanatic, this won’t be enough but rest assured, there’s plenty to enjoy from the palette overall!

Pros:

• Extremely versatile for many occasions (casual or formal).
• Palette really does just take 5 minutes (or less)!
• Eyeshadows are soft and blend easily. Rest of palette is very easy to work with.
• Very beginner-friendly but more than a simple look. Palette isn’t intimidating.
• Super travel-friendly (don’t forget – this is essentially a look in a palette so this will save a lot of baggage space!)
• Rose-golden tones will suit a variety of light-medium skin tones and is fitting to palette name Beauty Glow.
• The palette really presents a put-together look.

Cons:

I really have nothing bad to say! The slightest con I can say is that the ‘swish’ blush is a bit too dark (for me) so you have to be light-handed but it’s very easily fixable.

Other general points that I see as a con for other people:

• The bronzer colour will be too light for deep skin tones

Overall Loving: 10/10

---

A super long post! But I felt like I had a lot I wanted to truly talk about regarding this product. If you have any more questions that this review didn’t quite cover then go ahead in asking some questions below. 🙂 ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Have you tried Charlotte Tilbury before? What are your thoughts? 

As always, thanks for reading. ❤

You can find me on:

Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | Tumblr