29 November 2018

No more customs @ Colourpop? My Thoughts on the Holiday 2018 Collection.


Hey! I've been getting so many questions every time I upload a Colourpop haul, about how customs work to order to the UK - so I thought writing a blog post about it in depth as I possibly can would be a great idea.
Alongside that, I'm going to give you my first impressions on the 2018 holiday collection (phase 1!)!


I've been ordering Colourpop since December last year and instantly fell in love with all the products I purchased. Now, I order as frequently as their collections come out (and that's like every week!) 

So let's outline with the old custom charge delivery: 
- Purchase online. 
- Don't hear anything for over a month. 
- Red slip through your door from Royal Mail saying you must pay before they release your item. 
- Pay the customs. 
- Either go to the post office to collect, or wait for delivery. 

Overall, this would take about 2 months. The custom charges depending on your order could be quite a heft amount. I think the most I ever paid was about £45 on a £120-£150 order, which is quite a lot! 

So a few months ago, when I was about to check out, I noticed a new sign on their site: 


So this now means that you're charged slightly more on check out, but from my investigations it's not as much as customs through Royal Mail was! 

For example; 

I'm spending $20.. my taxes would be $4 more which is paid on checkout, so you have the chance to decline if you don't want to pay the additional tax. 


The problem with the previous custom charge, was that you really don't know how much custom charges would be - I'm sure some people have investigated it, but I never did. 

Let's say we did a haul of $99! 


Taxes would equate to $19.80. That sounds like a lot, but Colourpop is super affordable anyway. 

 So let's do some math!

One 12 palette is on average $16. Some of the palettes with more pans or mirrors are usually a bit more, but for the purpose of this math lets say a palette is $16. 

For $99 you can get 6.18 palettes. Let's round that down to 6 palettes, and let's throw in a supershock shadow to equal $99. 

Now if you divide $19.80 by 6, you're paying about $3.30 more on a palette, one palette costing $19.30 instead of $16. This is about £15.10 according to todays currency exchange rates! So it's still only £15 for a palette, and I'm telling you, CPOP products are one of the best products I've ever used! 

So the new delivery with no system in short is: 
- Order your stuff. 
- Pay for taxes. 
- Delivery comes from Yodel. 
- Wait about a week for delivery instead of 2 months! 
- YAY. 

The best thing is how quick the delivery is now. Once I received my products in 6 days, 6 DAYS FROM LA. yesss! 

Thank you for coming to my math lesson.

Now onto the Holiday Collection (phase 1!) 

If you're not already familiar, CPOP came out with a MASSIVEEEEE sweetener-eque collection, which I'll link here!

I didn't pick up everything, as there was so so so much. But what I did pick up (as pictured above): 


Let's start with the Chasing Rainbows Shadow Palette. Here are some swatches. 


These are probably the most aesthetically pleasing swatches I have ever taken, and there are SO MANY REASONS FOR THIS. 
First of all, I made sure I didn't filter this picture at all, so you can see the true colour and pigment of this palette. You don't get this intense pigment from one swatch from all these shades, but this was after around 2-3 swatches on one colour. It builds up BEAUTIFULLY. 

So I stalk the Colourpop Instagram on a daily basis, and when this palette were announced, people were really upset this palette was called Chasing Rainbows, but wasn't your traditional rainbow colours. And was I annoyed? NOPE. I have seen rainbow palettes done over 1000000 times, and do I have any? No. Did I instantly want to buy this? YESSS. Although it's not your traditional ROY G. BIV shades, there is still an element of rainbows. 

There are some shades shades in here I honestly would not be able to repeat in my collection, as well as not ever seen by Colourpop before! 

Shade analysis: 
- The shade Woke is the prettiest pink I've ever seen and also a shade I wouldn't be able to repeat in my collection! 
- Not playing, but the shade not playing is super unique, and super vibrant, I just want to wear it all over my lids! 
- Manifest - a matte bright pink, with pink glitter - I'm literally dreaming - obsessed with this shade! 
- I AM SO HAPPY WITH THE SHADE PRISM. Instead of a traditional matte black, they've done a shade that could easily be taken as a black, but isn't a bloody black. It's actually described as a blackened aubergine, and that's just what it is. 

I love how the shades blend in this palette! Someone asked me how pigmented colourpop is, and you can tell by the swatches that they're pretty pigmented!

I am absolutely thrilled with this palette. 

Onto the Dream Sequence Palette! 

Their second supershock highlight palette they've done. If you're not aware Supershock highlighters are like a creamy, wet like consistency and give a beautiful finish. They usually come in singles, and my fave shade is Over The Moon (which I've linked).

They did their first super shock highlight palette a few months ago called the crush on you palette & naturally as I really enjoy the formula of supershock highlights, I LOVED that! 


Here's the swatches for the Dream Sequence palette. As I love the formula, there's not much to say apart from it's a very good palette! 

Comparing it to the Crush On You palette - if you like coloured highlighters, the Dream Sequence palette is a bit more you than the Crush On You palette!

My fave is Pinch Me - it's a pink highlight with duochrome violet glitter & I don't own anything like it!

Highly recommend! 



It's described as a warm pink. Have you ever seen a pink so Barbie-esque, EVER? I picked this up because I've never seen a pink like it! It's such a lovely shade! The ultra satin lip formula is a really nice formula! 
.. But this shade on my skin tone is not very wearable at ALL. I think it would really suit lighter skin tones, but on me, it doesn't compliment my skin well at all, and also makes my teeth look really yellow! 

I'll wear this, but probably mixed with a brown shade, so it's more wearable! 

Jelly Much Shadows in Sweet Dreams and No Rest For The Vivid - you ready for this? 



Best formula I've used in a VERY long time. I was familiar with the jelly much formula before as I have about 4 when they initially came out with this formula. 

I don't know why I was attracted to BOTH the pinks in this collection, but I was! They're a wet formula, and dry down so beautifully. I love that you can build them up - you can start with something quite naturally, but can build up as much as you like! 

Sweet dreams is a soft pink with a silver blue flip, whilst No Rest For The Vivid is a hot pink with an intense blue flip! In hindsight, I could have done with just Sweet Dreams, and should have got another colour, but hey! It seems like I picked up only all the pink products! 

From my previous Jelly Much Purchase, the only shades I didn't like was the White shades, as they dry clear and just leave you with glitter! I can get that kind of look with other products in my collection, but all the others were amazing! 

Overall, with the theme and packaging of this holiday collection, it was so hard not to splurge. The whole collection was so DREAMY, I couldn't sleep at night not getting this. (WOW I AM CRINGE-CENTRAL) Overall, I'm excited for phase 2, and really hope it's something the complete opposite of dreaming, that'll be cool. Like being really really awake. Like the WOKE COLLECTION. LOL. BYE. 


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