What a Trip! The Balm Voyage Holiday Face Palette by theBalm Is a Trip

How flippin’ cute is this holiday palette?! I’m a sucker for retro postcards and posters, so this is totally my style. Plus, I have a soft spot for theBalm because, like moi, they’re from the Bay Area.

Yessir, I grew up in the 510, moved to the 415 after college, and now I’m just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin.

So WOOT! Bay Area represent. 🙂

Balm Voyage… Cheeky name, and fun way to tie in the trip theme. They go all out with the travel references, by golly, from the different cities on the cover, to assigning a “seat” to each of the powder eyeshadows (there are 16 of them, along with three lip and cheek creams). Even the mirror on the inside of the palette looks like a passport for “Anita Vacation,” haha! GURL, anita vacation, too. You don’t even know.

I wore this palette pretty much all through last weekend, and it was perfect for chill-axing on Saturday and Sunday. The eyeshadows apply with either sheer or medium levels of pigment, probably making the palette better for casual, natural eye makeup than bold, high-fashion looks.

You could always crank up the intensity by applying them with a wet brush, or by layering them on top of a pencil or cream base, but that could interfere with how they blend.

When I do just a straight-up simple look with one or two colors on a primed lid, the powders meld seamlessly into each other, but the second I add a cream or pencil to the mix, the lines between the colors become more difficult to diffuse.

I think the palette assumes that wherever you are, be it a fabulous international locale or your couch at home with a book (which is what I did last weekend, reading Horde by Ann Aguirre), you’re just too darned busy having fun to deal with complicated eye looks.

Balm Voyage suits simpler, not-so-fussy eye makeup — looks with one or two shadows, max, and not a lot of layering with other products.

If you do decide to take this palette for a spin in something intense with gradients up the wazoo, maybe do your eye makeup first. That way you can clean up the fallout before the rest of your look, since these eyeshadows are on the powdery side.

Oh! Almost forgot about the lip and cheek creams. Hmm… What does that tell ya? 🙂 Yeah, I guess they’re alright. They are bold and pigmented, which I like, because it means they pack a wallop, even when I don’t use a ton of product.

As blushes, I think they look very natural on bare cheeks, but they tend to go patchy on top of foundation or concealer.

I think I like ’em more as dedicated lipsticks…

PRICE: $42.50
AVAILABILITY: Available now online and at theBalm counters
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen