REVIEW: Belleme Etoile Palette + Beau-make Brushes

I recently tried out a new Korean makeup brand called Belleme! Though not as well-known as other beauty brands like Etude House or Tony Moly, Belleme has a lot of cutely packaged products, but with a unique hipster-y feel that caught my eye!

Rhubarb Wild (formerly known as Abbamart Beauty), is a true hidden gem that carries 'indie' Korean makeup brands like Belleme and Beau-make for example. They kindly sent over their Belleme Etoile Palette and a few Beau-make brushes, which I will be reviewing for you guys today!

So without further ado, lets get to the review! :D

BELLEME ETOILE PALETTE

The Etoile makeup palette contains a stunning array of four divine, star-peppered shadows with a perfectly matched blush and highlighter - a truly ethereal collection that you'll reach for day and night.

The Etoile Palette is an all-over face palette that includes four eyeshadows, a blush, and a highlighter. Each eyeshadow pan contains 2.2g of product while the blush and highlighter both contain 8g of product each. Unfortunately, the box is written entirely in Korean, so I am unable to translate it!

The cover design of the palette is cute and whimsical thanks to the tiny golden stars sprinkled all over the front with 'etoile' in a pretty cursive calligraphy font -- it gives the palette a very girly, carefree, and dreamy vibe! The palette comes in a black plastic packaging that's very lightweight and sturdy. Admittedly the material the palette is made out of feels a bit cheap, but it works, is fully functional, and protects the powder pans wonderfully, so there's no complaints here! This palette does not open up all the way (180 degrees), but instead it can reach about 3/4 of the way (~135 degrees).

The palette opens with a one-touch button that makes the pans really easy to access. Plus it features a large mirror making it ideal for bringing along for travel!

Though the outer case of the palette is of decent quality, the inside part that holds the pans is where I ran into a problem. It's made out of a plastic covered foam which holds the pans in place just fine, but for some reason, it's impossible for me to keep the palette clean! When excess powder escapes from the pan, it's impossible to get it off of the inner palette -- it just spreads around rather than coming of. It's a very small flaw, but I'm just a little nit-picky about keeping my products clean and presentable.

This is the palette after I tried to wipe away excess powder after using... It looks like an explosion! :(

EYESHADOW

The Etoile Palette includes four eyeshadows and the shade selection is right up my alley! Three of the shadows have a glittery finish while one is a satin that really ties all the shades together. I tested these shadows over an 8 hour period of time without primer!

WISH - Wish is a beautiful rose gold shade in a glittery finish. It's the perfect shade to really highlight and brighten up the eyes without being over-the-top thanks to it's semi-sheer coverage. It's the only glittery shade that's sheer! Wish has a very smooth consistency and a soft velvety texture that's not gritty! The glitter is a bit chunky so there's a lot of fall out to watch out for, but overall it's a gorgeous shade that's decently pigmented and blends onto the lids seamlessly. The coverage for Wish was much more sheer on the eyes when compared to swatched on the arm, but I personally like that because it gives a more natural highlight/sparkle to the eyes. It works great to really highlight the inner corner of the eyes, or even as an eyeshadow topper to add some sparkle. This shade wore for about 5 hours before it began to fade.

VESPER - Vesper is a a rich, gold-infused mocha brown in a glittery finish. It's a super pigmented shade with a beautiful golden sheen and is easily my favorite shade out of the whole palette because it's very versatile! It can be worn to add dimension into the eyes during the day or be used to smoke out the eye for nighttime. It's smooth to the touch with a velvety feel that's gentle on the eyes! Vesper has slightly chunky glitter with a noticeable amount of fallout, but not as much as Wish. This shade had one of the best coverage out of the four shades, along with Desire. It wore well for about 6 hours before it started to fade and crease.

DESIRE - Desire is a vibrant copper hue in a glittery finish. I have to admit, Belleme did a fantastic job with the texture of the glittery shades -- they're all so pigmented and velvety soft! This shade was smooth to the touch, just like the rest of the glittery hues, but does contains chunky glitters which results in a lot of fallout when applying. It blended easily into the lids and lasted for about 4 hours before it began to fade and crease.

PRAY - Pray is described as a red-coral matte, however it's more of a satin because it has a subtle pink sheen to it. The pink iridescence gives it a unique touch that brightens up the eyes. It's a beautiful modern shade that really binds together the rest of the glittery hues. It's silky smooth to the touch and decently pigmented however it's not as intense as the rest of the shades. It can apply a bit unevenly at times and is a little powdery, but it's buildable and not super hard to work with. Unlike the rest of the shadows, there's not a lot of fallout with this particular shade! It wore well for about 6 hours before it started to fade and crease.

Here are side-by-side swatches of all of the eyeshadows:

In the photo below, I applied Play all over my lid as a base shade. Then, I applied Desire into the outer third of my lid. I used Vesper along my outer lash line and also blended it into my outer crease. Lastly, I layered Wish onto the inner third of my lid and my inner corner.

BLUSH

O ZAHIR - O Zahir is a vibrant light pink blush with a hint of peach that leans a bit warm. It's has tiny golden shimmers that help create a subtle glowing iridescence on the cheeks without emphasizing pores or uneven skin textures. It's decently pigmented with a light hand and can be layered for a more intense flush. It's a great shade that gives the face a pop of color while still being very natural looking. It's not too warm, so I do think it would compliment most skin tones! It has a very soft, silky texture, but kicks up excess powder in the pan unlike the eyeshadows and the highlighter. When applied, it goes on the skin very seamlessly and evenly! The blush wears for about 5 hours on me before it starts to fade.

Here is just one layer of O Zahir applied on my cheeks. For more intense color, apply on more layers or just use a heavier hand. I prefer a more natural flush for my daily makeup, so I used a very light hand and this is what it looks like applied.

HIGHLIGHTER
SECRET - Secret is a neutral beige highlighter that gives a very subtle and natural looking glow. There's no chunks of glitter or intense shimmers, so it's the perfect highlighter for everyday wear. It can also be layered to build up a more intense glow.  This highlighter has a smooth consistency, however it goes on a bit powdery and applies a bit unevenly onto the cheeks. Thankfully, it does blend easily and glazes over the cheekbones without emphasizing pores or uneven skin textures. Plus, it goes on a sheer, so the unevenness is hard to notice. Secret wore all day for me (8+ hours) with minimal fading.

Here is Secret applied to the top of my cheekbones. I applied the highlighter with a medium hand and it went on sheer, so it's a little hard to notice. It's also partly because I blended it out a lot for a more natural highlight haha. The highlighter is buildable, just like the blush, so for a more intense glow, just add on more layers!

Here are side-by-side swatches of the entire palette including the eyeshadows, blush, and highlighter:

BEAU-MAKE BRUSHES

Along with the Etoile Palette, Rhubarb Wild sent along some of their Beau-make brushes for me to try. Beau-make is another Korean brand I've never heard of until Rhubarb Wild introduced them to me. I've been a fan of Korean makeup products for years now, but I've been too caught up in makeup that I've never really ventured out to makeup tools! Beau-make brushes are designed in Korea, however they are physically assembled and made in China. They strive to give their customers quality brushes with a high-end feel, but for an affordable price. Most of their brushes are only $3-$10!

Pictured Above from Top to Bottom: Precision Crease Brush, Soft Sable Eye Brush, Eye Highlighting Brush, Duo Fiber Stippling Brush

All of the brushes are available in multiple different sizes all for the same price, which I find very unique! Most brushes on the market are only one-size-fits-all, but here you can pick the length of the handle from small (S), medium (M), large (L), extra large (X), and there's even some where you can choose extra extra large (XL) depending on your own preferences! X and XL is what I would consider the 'normal' brush handle length, but S, M, and L would all be ideal for traveling! In addition to that, the handles of all the Beau-make brushes are made of a solid wood that feels very sturdy and of high quality!



SOFT SABLE EYE BRUSH - The Soft Sable Eye Brush (mine is in XL, $4) is ideal for applying eyeshadows. The medium sized brush head and the wide bristles (hair length is 1.4cm) makes it perfect for applying base color. It's incredibly soft and made from black sable hair that feels very luxurious on the skin. It's gentle on the lids and doesn't scratch the delicate eye area, which is honestly very hard to find with an inexpensive brush! Unfortunately it was hard for me to really pack on color. It made my eyeshadows appear sheerer and not as pigmented as compared to swatched on the arm. This would be a great everyday makeup brush for a nice wash of color onto the lids, but not when you're looking for opaque application.



PRECISION CREASE BRUSH - The Precision Crease Brush (mine is in X, $3.50) is a rounded and tapered eye brush, which is ideal for adding accents and detailing. It features a very small brush head (hair length is 0.9cm) which allows it to add in details with precision or to really get near the lash line or the corners of the eye with ease. The Precision Crease brush is made out of goat hair that feels silky soft to the touch. Plus, it doesn't scratch or tug onto the delicate eye area when applying shadows! It does a fantastic job adding in details, like smoking out shadow in my outer v, but it doesn't do a great job blending out shadows in my crease. It's just too small and too packed together to really blend out my shadows seamlessly. Other than that, I definitely like this for detailing, inner-corner highlighting, and smoking out shadows!

DUO FIBER STIPPLING BRUSH - The Duo Fiber Stippling Brush (mine is XL, $7) features a medium sized brush head (hair length is 3.7cm) made out of both natural and synthetic hairs. It's dense, so it's able to pick up a lot of color while the long, white synthetic hairs help blend out the powders to a soft-focused finish. I used this brush with the blush and I am OBSESSED! It applied the blush beautifully and seamlessly! It's incredibly soft to the touch and it felt like I was caressing my cheeks with feathers. Seriously.

EYE HIGHLIGHTING BRUSH - The Eye Highlighting brush (mine is in X, $4) features an extra large (hair length is 1.9cm), flat, and rounded tuft made of natural goat hairs. It's huge and personally too big for me to use on my eyes, but it does work for apply all-over base color. I prefer to use this as a highlighting brush for my cheekbones instead because it's the perfect size! It's crazy soft on the skin and applies powder with zero tug or pull. It deposits color very evenly, but with a sheerer finish, which I find ideal for highlighters when you want a natural sheen!

Pictured from Left to Right: Duo Fiber Stippling Brush, Eye Highlighting Brush, Soft Sable Eye Brush, Precision Crease Brush

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was my first time trying out Belleme and I was very impressed with the quality of their shadows! Though the glittery shades looked a bit chunky, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the powders were decently pigmented and velvety soft. They applied smoothly onto the lids, but because of the chunky glittery bits, there was quite a bit of fall out.

Overall, the palette featured a wonderful shade selection! The blush and highlighter are both in universally friendly shades that would compliment most skin tones! They're also shades that are very natural looking and go well year-round. Both the blush and the highlighter applied very evenly onto the cheekbones giving it a nice glowing sheen without emphasized pores or uneven skin textures!

The Etoile Palette is definitely a decent palette to have and is great for traveling because it's sturdy. The inner packaging part could use a little improvement though, especially for the price tag! Other than that, it contains almost everything I need for my color makeup, so it's definitely very handy.

I'd also recommend giving Beau-make brushes a try because they apply powder products so well! They're super affordable and the quality is something you'd expect from higher end brands. I like the option of being able to customize the size of your brushes based on your own personal preferences. It's a nice touch that I haven't seen anywhere yet! The brushes are well made, incredibly soft (seriously feels like a kitten's tail), and I've experienced zero shedding whatsoever. They're definitely worth every single penny!

WHERE TO BUY?

The products reviewed today are all available at RhubarbWild.com:

- Belleme Etoile Palette retails for $39 and is available HERE

- Beau-make Soft Sable Eye Brush retails for $4 and is available HERE

- Beau-make Precision Crease Brush retails for $3.50 and is available HERE

- Beau-make Duo Fiber Stippling Brush retails for $7 and is available HERE

- Beau-make Eye Highlighting Brush retails for $4 and is available HERE

Check out Rhubarb Wild for more Belleme and Beau-make products!

Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for reviewing purposes. All reviews are my own 100% honest opinions.