If You Buy One Thing For Summer: Charlotte Tilbury Glowgasm Palette

Summer is all about the glowy, radiant and healthy bronzed look, isn’t it? And rather than buy many products in the hunt for emphasising your post-holiday tan, just go for this one…

As you guys all know, I’m a palette hoarder. I’m a sucker for an eyeshadow palette but I’m easy – if it’s a palette, I’ll want it. And despite being super picky when it comes to highlighters, I was drawn to the brand new Charlotte Tilbury Glowgasm Face Palette like a magpie is drawn to shiny things. It just looked so flipping pretty. And if anyone can nail a face palette, it’s queen of make up, Charlotte Tilbury.

When it comes to getting the right products to emphasise a summer glow, we all have our favourites. As someone who is naturally very pale, I can’t use much of the really intensive bronze and tan products as they just look really muddy on me. I need something that’s going to give me enough control over the coverage and still give me the glowy goddess look that I want. It’s not easy when you’re fair skinned to find something to make you look glowy and not ghastly in the bronze stakes! So I do tend to mix up what I go for – I’m not scared to try lotions and potions or reach for a powder – if it works, I’ll go for it. Which was my hope for the Glowgasm Face Palette.

With my honeymoon coming up, lots of fun events and more reasons than ever to get my (fake) tan on, I’ve been trying a lot of the sparkly things that have come through my door recently. This magpie for palettes has been in her element! And the Glowgasm has been much reached for since it arrived.

A limited edition launch with two variations – one light and one dark, it’s a quad palette with four products. There’s a bronzer, a blush and two ‘highlight’ shades but they all have shimmer in the pigment so they’re all perfect for that shimmery and glowy look. Plus they can all be used on the eyes too, and they have the sort of shimmer that will continue the glowy look when on the eyelids nicely.

The formula itself doesn’t disappoint and it’s very much like it looks – creamy and highly pigmented. The payoff is heavy and rich, it’s going to be perfect for creating lots of different looks through the summer. But what I like about the formula is that it adapts to the application method perfectly and gives you control when you apply it. If you use a light brush for example, the payoff is more subtle. It still packs a lot of punch and it’s by no means a ‘light’ highlight or formula, but a more dusty brush will give a more subdued payoff that you can work with if you are fair skinned or just like to vary the way your highlight works. Using a beauty blender dampened with a fixing spray or a thick, compact brush completely changes the payoff to something else altogether…it’s like having cheekbones that any Greek goddess would be proud of! It’s intense!

The way it works is to empahsise the key parts of the face in a way that flatters a tan, so the bronze shade looks nice in the hollows of your cheeks with the blush dusted lightly across the apples. Then it’s up to you which highlight shade you dust over the top of the cheekbones, but I like to use both when I’m going all out. When it comes to the eyes, the bronze tone looks great in the transition/crease and the highlights look stunning across the lid. It’s a great summer holiday palette as it could easily get you through those chilled summer evenings walking along the beach etc. Especially as it’s always nice to tone down the make up a little when you’re away.

I love the fact that there’s two variations of the Glowgasm palettes too – one better suited to the darker complexions and one to the lighter. It’s things like that in my opinion that make a brand/product stand out above the rest.

And although it’s pricey at £60, I’ve found time and time again that the quality of Charlotte Tilbury products far justifies their price. And for such a swoon-worthy palette, if you’re looking for one product as your summer face staple, then I’m pretty sure you won’t be disappointed with Glowgasm.

**This post contains some gifted items but as ever all opinions are entirely my own. Please refer to my Disclaimer page for more details.