Is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Gold or Garbage? 

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Review Swatches on Dark Skin

Anastasia Beverly Hills is known for dropping hot gems on us every release so it’s not surprising that makeup junkies flock to her new products the second they’re available. After dropping 5 beautiful Glow Kits, Anastasia and daughter Norvina, whipped up a 6th one for holiday: the Ultimate Glow Kit. The internet exploded when the teaser pictures and videos went viral showcasing Anastasia’s latest shimmering Glow Kit. It was such an exciting makeup moment!

That is…..

Until the reviews started pouring in and die hard Glow Kit fans realized that the Ultimate Glow Kit was nothing like the classic Glow Kits we’ve come to know and love. The Ultimate Glow Kit didn’t have that buttery soft, smooth texture or subtle, natural sheen like the Glow Kits before it. Instead, the Ultimate Glow Kit featured a chunkier, more gritty texture loaded with glitter for a metallic glow.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Review Swatches on Dark Skin

For most die hard highlight fans, the Ultimate Glow Kit was all good because it delivered a super poppin’ dripping in gold glow that left them in the mirror every 5 seconds saying, “My highlight is on fleek!” For the rest of the world, the Ultimate Glow Kit was a little too much and a little too messy. As a self proclaimed highlight whore, you’d think I would have been over the moon with the Ultimate Glow Kit. However, I found the Ultimate Glow Kit to be a little too chunky, too glittery and too messy for my tastes.

When I received the Ultimate Glow Kit for Christmas, I was pumped because the colors were beautiful and it was marketed as limited edition so I was happy to have gotten my hands on it before it disappeared. Go figure that it’s not the best quality and still available online and in stores now at Ulta and Sephora. Which is why, months later, I’ve still decided to pump out a quick review of the Ultimate Glow Kit to warn other unsuspecting highlight junkies out there.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Review Swatches on Dark Skin

The quality of the Ultimate Glow Kit isn’t completely terrible but it still isn’t nearly as good as the original Glow Kits. The original Glow Kits have a soft, buttery texture with intense pigmentation and fine shimmer. The Ultimate Glow Kit feels dense and slightly gritty (thanks to the chunky glitter) and lacks pigmentation. So when swatched and applied, the Ultimate Glow Kit looks like pure glitter on the cheeks because the sheer bases get lost on the skin. All that beautiful bronze, gold and rose gold? Nonexistent. All you get from the Ultimate Glow Kit is a brush full glitter.

And a face full of glitter.

Because the fall out is crazy with the Ultimate Glow Kit! When applied with a fan brush, these highlighters end up all over the face from under your eyes to around your chin. Now you know I love to glow as much as the next girl. But glitter on my chin? Pass. Things got a little better when I switched gears to the new ELF Highlighting Brush (which is amazing!) as it’s more dense so it held on to the chunky glitter a bit better. However, that still didn’t stop the Ultimate Glow Kit from being a glittery mess by the end of the day. The only thing that really helped the Ultimate Glow Kit was spritzing a bit of facial spray prior to highlighting as it helped the glitter adhere better. For a $45 highlighter palette, I think needing a facial spray (an additional $10-$30) to make it work is a little much.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Review Swatches on Dark Skin

 

The one upside to the Ultimate Glow Kit is that all of the highlighters make beautiful eyeshadows. The chunky glitter may be a fail on the face but it looks amazing on the eyes as it has more of a floating metallic effect that looks beautiful. I’ve tried Amber Gold, Hot Sand and Golden Dawn all over my lids and in my inner corners to brighten my eyes and make them pop. Again, they key is to use a facial spray to help boost the pigmentation and minimize fallout.

Bottom line: The Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit may look amazing on the eyes but it’s a fail on the cheeks and requires too much effort for it to work. While the colors are beautiful, I don’t think the Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit is worth the $45 price tag.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Ultimate Glow Kit Review Swatches on Dark Skin

Snow, White Sand, Golden Dawn, Sunray, Amber Gold and Hot Sand