Aldona from Working Beauty lived a restless few weeks as she pondered over the thought of this MAQpro Luminizing Highlight Palette designed by Julia Carta from PAM London. I am sure she weighed the pros and cons day and night. She even asked me about the palette and I, in no way, coerced her into buying it. She made that decision herself!
Hesitating no more, she put in the order. Once received, she gleefully ripped opened the package which awaited six luscious creams of shimmer. With much excitement, she immediately took many pictures and emailed them to me because she knew I would be excited too. Take a look at this beautiful palette!
Aldona assured me there weren't many swatches or for that matter none on the internet of the Le Maquillage (MAQpro) Luminizing Palette (£27.50). So, here is your chance to see the beauty of these creams and the reasons why they kept Aldona's makeup brain so occupied!
As described by Aldona, the colors are the following:
- PAM7 - orangey warm bronze
- PAM6 - a kind of platinum, beige, champagne colour
- PAM3 - a rosey shine
- PAM5 - dark reddish bronze
- 09 - Gold
- PAM4 - white shimmer (a tad silvery but mostly just white)
I will allow Aldona to give her thoughts on this gorgeous set of shimmers.
My biggest worry: it would be glittery and obviously frosty… it ISN’T at all, here are pictures of swatches in daylight.
All of the colours have a glow, however the two darker colours (PAM5 and PAM7) lose their glow a bit more and tend to come out flatter when smudged. However they are not completely matte even then…
My favourite colours are PAM6 and PAM3… But I find all of them gorgeous and versatile...However the reason I bought these is because of the possibilities I have with them: I don’t need no armani glow, becca shimmering skin perfecters, you name it… all these are HIGHLY pigmented and you can mix them with moisturiser to create your own fluid highlighter… you can of course mix it with other maqpro colours too… you can create your own custom highlighter colours etc etc etc. You can use it on cheeks, lips eyes… you can layer on top of other colours. The usage is endless… ALSO you can use it as an all over luminizer for your face under make-up… or mixing it with make-up. I find these also a lot nicer in consistency than the NARS Multiple. The NARS Multiple has a slight silicone feel to it (not sure if it has any in it, but it feels dry-ish and yet creamy) … Maqpro feels creamy AND nourishing and feels lovely on skin.
Here you see my thought process for NARS orgasm, I felt PAM 3 was too rosy and PAM 6 was too yellow, but mixed together they are ALMOST like the NARS orgasm. What you don’t see in these pictures is that the NARS has more obvious flecks of glitter (still small, but more prominent) whereas when maqpro is spread, it will give you a shine without noticeable flecks of glitter.
Here are examples of possible mixtures for NARS Illuminator in Orgasm and Becca Shimmering skin perfecter in Moonstone:
I find moonstone to be easily mixed with the GOLD, WHITE and a bit of the “Platinum, champagne” colour… as they can be layered, it is a bit trial and error, but it is just about analysing the colour you want to achieve and just mix what you have in the palette accordingly.
Thank you, Aldona for the great perspective and review on what I consider to be one of the best pro makeup brands out there, MAQpro (aka Le Maquillage). You can see the versatility in these creams and how creative you can get with these. No need to spend a ridiculous amount of money for what contains so little from the cosmetic counters. Just go for the pro brand and create an endless variety of colors to be used from head to toe!
What do you think of this cream collection of luminizing lights? Does it tempt you? I know it tempts me!
