Burberry Sheer Summer Glow Palette - Summer 2012

I've been using my Burberry Sheer Summer Glow Palette for about a month now, and I love it.  It's quite a shame that it's limited edition, as I've found it to be versatile and high quality.  I'm considering a back-up.

Burberry Beauty Sheer Summer Glow Palette

More details and photos after the jump!

Burberry describes its Sheer Summer Glow Palette ($50) as an "effortless, all-in-one highlighting compact."  This description is spot on.  There are four squares in the palette: a deep tan, a medium beige, a soft dusty pink, and an ivory.  The powder is finely milled, although not quite as silky as Burberry's other face powders. 

At first I wasn't certain how I felt.  It was very difficult to swatch; I had a hard time getting the ivory and pink shades to show up on my arm, and a swatch of all the colors swirled together was impossible.  The only shades that would show were the tan and beige shades.  I scrapped the idea of an arm swatch and instead swatched the shades on my fingers.  This is taken in daylight.  As always, click to enlarge.

L to R: ivory, pink, beige, tan

I also tried using the shades as eyeshadows, as Burberry recommends.  If I were you I wouldn't bother; they are incredibly sheer and I felt they looked chalky on the lid.  I'll be sticking with Burberry's dynamite Sheer Eye Shadow formula for my eyeshadow needs, thankyouverymuch.

But when the palette is applied as a finishing powder, the effect is lovely.  It gives a satiny, soft-focus luminosity to my skin, much like one would expect from Guerlain's Meteorites, except without the shimmer flecks when viewed up close (I'm not a fan of the Meteorites for that reason).  You can concentrate on one side or the other, depending on your coloring; as I am pale, I use more from the pink/ivory side and swirl just a touch of the beige side in with it.  Medium skin tones can concentrate on the deeper side.  I don't know how well this palette will work for dark skin tones.  For light to medium skintones though, the color is nicely customizable.

It's worth mentioning that my skin is normal/combination.  I tend to get a bit oily on my t-zone throughout the day, but the rest of my skin is fine.  I have a pressed powder and blotting papers that I carry around in case I get too shiny.  This powder does not combat oiliness, and it's not intended to do so.  In my experience it doesn't accentuate oiliness either.  I find that the Burberry palette lasts several hours despite my oily t-zone.

The photo below was taken in direct light to give you an idea of this palette's luminosity.  It doesn't come across as shimmer at all.  It's a lit-from-within glow that translates beautifully onto the skin.

Burberry Beauty Sheer Summer Glow Palette in direct light

The palette also works nicely as a contour and highlighter.  I use the individual beige shades to contour my face, and the ivory or pink shade to highlight.  

The pink square makes a nice pale, dusty pink blush on my skin.  It perks up my face when I am going for a subtle-yet-glowy day look.   I don't think this will work across skin tones, as I am pale and it just adds a hint of satiny color for me.  If you are pale, the effect is very pretty.

This palette was a workhorse for me when I was traveling earlier in the month.  I had a highlighter, contour, blush, and finishing powder all in one compact.  I highly recommend this palette, especially if your skin is on the light to medium side of the spectrum.

You can see other reviews at The Beauty Look Book, Cafe Makeup, The Ultimate Makeup, Messy Wands, and The Non-Blonde.

Burberry Sheer Summer Glow is available at Nordstrom, which has free shipping and returns on all purchases as well as a top notch return policy.  As I said, it's limited edition, so I wouldn't wait too long to think about it.