Santa, Baby

I was wandering through CVS, and what did I see? The Wet n Wild Santa Baby palettes from the Holiday '09 collection.

At first I thought they were more new palettes, but G at Nouveau Cheap let me know that they were actually from last year. Unfortunately, these aren't new versions. I guess my CVS just brought them out of storage or something, because this one is definitely a year old. How do I know?

Before you get too excited about that coupon, take a look at the expiration date...

March, 2010. XD;;; Yes, I know, I was so excited for awhile, too.

On the upside, if you were really looking forward to these palettes last year, definitely check out your local drugstores now! The display at my CVS was full, so I'm thinking the shipments might have gotten in late, and the store just didn't put them out at all. Some places might actually still have them in stock, so keep an eye out! :D

In any case, since I'd already taken pictures by the time I realized, I figured I'd share them, anyway.

The case itself. I think it's quite pretty, although I wish they'd done something fancier to integrate the logo, LOL. I do like how the design is reminiscent of both snowflakes and reindeer, though. Cute, right?

The palette itself contains four pans of trios, a blush, a bronzer, a lip gloss, and mascara. Applicator-wise, there are two spongetips and one brush. As is customary with WnW palettes, they also included a huge mirror.

Whatever else you say about old style WnW packaging, you can't really beat them for convenience. I think the mirrors are definitely what I miss the most with the new ColorIcon sets.

I picked up the Nice palette, which is presumably the warm one. In general, I prefer cooler colors, but I took a glance at Naughty, and the trios either consisted of colors I already owned or ones that I would never use, so I decided not to get it.

Since these are pre-revamp, the shadow formula is pretty consistent with the old WnW eyeshadows. I haven't actually tried any of the new ColorIcon ones yet, so I can't really compare them, but these are very nice and smooth. The only thing I dislike is that, as you can see, there's quite a bit of crumbliness. The cream highlight on the bottom right is particularly soft, and not in the way I usually like. In addition, the green on the top left and the brown at the bottom left are incredibly sheer. What you're looking at is a solid five or six layers of the colors. I didn't expect that, since I've never had issues with WnW in either color before, so it was pretty disappointing.

Unlike the shadows, both the blush and bronzer are richly pigmented. The blush is a peach-pink with gold shimmer that looks like it could fit right between NARS Orgasm and Deep Throat. Titillation, maybe? XD

The lipgloss is a peachy pink shimmer. It looks pretty at first glance, but on the lips, there's so much shimmer that it takes on that silvery cast. It also smells a little funky, but I'm sure sitting around for a year didn't do the scent any favors.

Overall, I'd say that this is pretty par for the course for WnW pre-2010. There are some really nice neutrals in it, but nothing super spectacular. They retail for $6.99 (any stores that still have them haven't clearanced them out yet, so I'm guessing they're not likely to do it before Christmas is actually over), which is pretty good for 12 eyeshadows, a blush, and a bronzer. I'm not even going to include the gloss and mascara, because I honestly don't know if they're still safe for use. I wouldn't call it a must-have, but it's a nice-to-have, if you can find it.