Bare Escentuals Pure Luxuries Volume 2 Kit Swatches and Review

I've had the opportunity to try another Bare Escentuals Pure Luxuries Vol. 2, and I gotta say that I think the products included were well thought of and are just perfect for the holiday. It is a 17-piece collection that includes ten Eyecolors, two All-over Face Color, three Blushes, and two Brushes. It contains the following products:

8 x 0.01 oz Eyecolors in Extreme Silver (sparkling silver), Blushing Bronze (glowing bronze glimmer), Joy (medium gold apricot glimmer), Aurora (silvery blue shimmer), Metallic Green (deep forest brown sheen), Trinity (starry-midnight purple glimmer), Nice Rock (chocolate diamond glimmer), and Hot Spot (iridescent lavender mist)
- 2 x 0.02 oz Liner Shadows in Hallucinate (midnight blue) and Suspense (inky teal)
- 0.02 oz All-Over Face Color in Citrine Radiance (warm golden-beige glow)
- 0.02 oz Faux Tan Matte All-Over Face Color (matte tan in a jar)
- 0.02 oz Blush in Promise (pink tangerine)
- 0.02 oz Blush in Rosy Topaz (dusky rose)
- 0.02 oz Blush in Secret (deep mauve pink)
- Tapered Shadow Brush
- Angled Blush Brush
- Gold pebbled PVC train case

I use a lot of mineral eyeshadows and the colors in this kit are beautiful and complement each other, and quite unique. The blushes are classic colors that can be worn year-round and go well with a lot of skintones. Here is my take on the colors and my views on each one:

Blushes and Face Colors







Citrine Radiance is a nice gold face color. It would make a nice highlighter to the cheekbones or even the browbone, anywhere you want a nice warm gold glow.

Promise is a pretty peachy pink matte blush. It would be a great blush for light to medium skintones, and the matte finish would make it look great for special events like weddings.

Faux Tan Matte- I love this; it's the perfect contour shade. The matte finish is great to contour the cheeks and the bridge of the nose. It also doubles as a bronzer.

Rosy Topaz is a shimmery plum with a hint of subtle gold glow. This would be a good blush for medium to darker skintones.

Secret is the darker cousin of Promise. It is a beautiful matte mauve blush that is better-suited for medium to darker skintones. The matte finish is great as well, especially if you want a classic look.

Eyeshadows:




















The eyeshadows are very pretty, and I like a lot of them because of the smooth application, good pigmentation and quite unique colors. One of my faves is Metallic Green. It's more of like a metallic seafoam green to my eyes, or a mixture of green, grey, and silver. It would make for a beautiful wash or crease color.

Extreme Silver does look extreme to my eyes - a very sparkly, shimmery silver that I feel will only be used for holiday or special event looks. This would make a great inner corner highlight or even as a liner, for those snowqueen looks, probably? Anyways, the uses I can think for this is severely limited by the very frosty, shimmery finish.

Joy is a gold frost, but I am not too impressed with it. Maybe that's because I already have a lot of gold mineral shadows in my stash.

Hot Spot is a duochrome, opalescent whitish lilac shadow that is very pretty especially when light hits it.

Aurora is a beautiful silver with low sheen. This is one of my favorites. This would be a great lid color.

Suspense is one of the prettiest from this collection. It is a dark green duochrome, much like the color of the back of a beetle. For some strange reason, it reminds me of MAC's Club shadow. This is a liner shadow and would make a great liner especially when applied wet.

Nice Rock is also one of the most gorgeous from this collection; I am smitten by the dark colors. It reminds me of lava, and maybe that's where they got the name from. This is another shadow liner and is beautiful as a crease or outer V shade.

Hallucinate is a metallic teal that is also one of the prettiest. I really lik the darker colors from this kit. The teal shade makes it look quite festive and great for holiday parties.

Trinity- I am drawn to those smokey plummy pink greyish shades, and this is no exception. This is beautiful as a crease or outer V shade, and can go with pinks, purples, even neutrals.

Blushing Bronze is a nice rust color. Very basic metallic bronze shade, but of course quite useful as well.

All in all, I am really liking this kit. The colors are not the usual ho-hum shades but are also universal. I like that they went outside the box and included interesting eye colors to suit the special occasion, but kept the blush and face colors subdued and classic.

This kit retails for $85 and can be bought at Sephora and Sephora.com, and BareEscentuals.com. I believe this is a good deal since you get ten Eyecolors, two All-over Face Color, three Blushes, and two Brushes with the nifty gold case. The products also apply smoothly and will last you virtually forever, since a little goes a long way, and as far as I know, minerals don't have a definite expiry date except when exposed to moisture.

The Shades Of U Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Black Friday Promo, 11/26 - 12/5
*Spend $50 and get $20 off your next purchase of $40 or more (redeemable 12/13 - 12/31)

Cyber Monday Promo, 11/29
*Receive Free Shipping on any BareEscentuals.com order

Friends and Family Discount, 12/9 - 12/12
*Receive 20% off your purchase at Bare Escentuals & BareEscentuals.com

Note: A media sample was provided by a representative of the company for consideration and evaluation. All opinions are 100% mine.