Wednesday, March 21, 2018
*Product sent by Deck of Scarlet for review.

Hey, hey, hey! How's it going, guys? If you caught my Instagram Stories from a few days ago, then you might recognize this pretty little palette. It's the Deck of Scarlet No.7 Palette with Roxette Arisa! 

What's Deck of Scarlett, you might ask? It's kind of like a subscription box where a new palette will be sent straight to your door but instead of every month, this one is sent every two months. Each palette is curated by a popular YouTuber and is $29.95. You can skip a month at any time. They are cruelty free, paraben free and made in the good ol' USA.



This palette is curated by Roxette Arisa who, if you don't know, is a L.A. bred YouTuber that loves a glowy glam, pretty yet polished look. Her palette is giving me some fun, tropical vibes to create exotic, sunkissed looks!

So let's talk about the packaging first. The palette came with a sleeve with the same model on it just with a black background. I think it's absolutely gorgeous, sturdy and well-made. I can definitely see myself being comfortable popping this in my bag with no worries that the product would get everywhere. One of my favorite features with this packaging is the separate "flaps" they have - one for the powder products and the lipsticks.

Moving onto the shadows. The palette comes with three eyeshadows:
  • Starry Eyed - a light taupe matte.
  • Bora Bora - an aquamarine shimmer.
  • Bronzed - a metallic brown.
If you watched my first impression video, I noted that Starry Eyed and Bora Bora had a lot of fall out/kick back in the pan. After playing with it some more, I would still agree with that. Starry Eyed had a lot of kick back in the pan (what I mean by that is that a lot of the product kicks up even though you are lightly touching the pan) but was fine to work with on the lid. It was pigmented and blendable. Bora Bora, on the otherhand, was a bit tough to work with. It was sheer and the fall out was pretty intense. I found that layer the shadow seemed to crank up the opacity but again, the fall out was kind of a bummer. Lastly, Bronzed, which was the best out of them all was pigmented and blendable with no fall out. While I enjoyed the color combination, I found these shades to be just meh.
  • Roxstar - a light gold highlighter.
  • Lovesick - a matte neutral pink blush.
I loved seeing face products in this palette! It really gives it an all-around, put together feel. Something that I can pop into my purse and know I have everything for a a full face in there. Roxstar had me worried as it looks SUPER gold in swatches but with a light hand, it looked flattering, even on my light skin. Lovesick is a gorgeous pink blush that gives you a nice flushed look to your cheeks. The consistency of both of these were a bit dry but totally workable. I noticed I had to layer to get them to pop but again, if a product is worth it to you, you can make it work most of the time!


And what about these lipsticks!?
  • Smootch - a light caramel matte.
  • Swept Away - a matte Merlot with brown undertones.
With this palette, you have two lipsticks to choose from to complete your look! My favorite, right out of the gate, was Swept Away! While they're described as mattes, I found them to be quite glossy. Like a pigmented gloss. Smootch, unfortunately, didn't work with my skintone much (although it's such a fun color) but Swept Away was my jam, y'all! The consistency was smooth and creamy and easy to work with with a lip brush but again, the finish was more gloss than matte. It never "dried down" to anything but was very comfortable to wear.


If you thought having three eyeshadows, a highlighter, a blush AND two lipstick wasn't enough, Deck of Scarlet also threw in an eyeliner and a lipliner to complete your look!
  • Foxy - a light bronze eyeliner.
  • Goddess - a warm brownish red lipliner.
So, I don't use eyeliner very often but I popped Foxy into my inner corner and swooned. It's gorgeous, creamy and pigmented. Goddess is easy use to line my lips as it's creamy and smooth. Just a note that these are very fragile. I broke each pencil tip twice and thought I was being gentle!




My final thoughts on the Deck of Scarlet No. 7 Palette are mixed. On one hand, I absolutely love the idea of this subscription. A new palette with eyeshadows, lipsticks and more is sent to your door every other month? I love it. It's great for someone like me who loves trying new things. I love that they collaborate with a popular YouTuber (but hey, what about us bloggers?! 😋) as I love seeing everyone get a chance to create something fun. I absolutely love the thought and love that goes into each palette. You can tell they thoroughly think the color schemes out.

On the otherhand, the pigmentation of the powders were kind of meh. Again, nothing horrible but nothing spectacular either. I wonder if it's just this month's palette that's kind of lackluster or is it a recurring issue. Also, while I don't mind this, keep in mind that unlike some subscription boxes can be catered to your skintone, your own preferences, etc., this one is not so you may find that some colors in the palette may not work with your skintone. 
Personally, I'd love to try another month out again to get a better feel of it!

What do you think of this palette? Would you try out a subscription service like this?

 Shop | Buy ($29.95 per month)