One of my favourite brands in Western beauty at the moment is Fenty Beauty and I have been very vocal about my support for them since their launch. Since then, they have released a few different collections, all of which have been so beautiful (you can see my first impression of the Galaxy Collection on my channel) but I have been consciously trying to buy less make up so I didn’t splurge on the entire line like I did before.
For this release, which is a bit old news now because it was the summer collection, Fenty Beauty brought out some eyeshadow duos – called the Killawatt Foil Duo. They were released in three different shades and I picked up Mimosa Sunrise/Sangria Sunset which is a beautiful pink and orange duo that caught my eyes immediately. It’s been so long that I was planning on skipping this post but, with their new products launching soon, I figured that I might as well.
You’ll be glad to know that these duos are permanent in the collection and are selling for either USD$36 on the Fenty Beauty website or AUD$54 on the Sephora Australia website.
Anyway, so that’s my introduction to this post! I will be keeping this short or read on for my review!
Product Description
The product is described as a cream-powder hybrid with a hyper-metallic finish. It is marketed as a highlighter but is demonstrated as a multi-purpose product that can be used on the eyes and cheeks as well. It comes in three colour combinations, with this one that I can being described as a ‘metallic tangerine and metallic magenta’ – some of the other shades are softer and more likely to be used as a highlighter, but this one is very vibrant on my skin tone and I bought it to be used as eyeshadow.
The below is taken from the Sephora Australia website:
Just when you thought Killawatt couldn’t get better. Killawatt Foil Freestyle Highlighter Duo enters the highlight game with the same creamy texture of the original in a new, mega-reflective, foil-like finish. With intense metallic edge, these buildable, colour-rich luminizers come in rule-defying shades that look equally killer on all skin tones. When it comes to choosing a shade, there’s no wrong answer.
Killawatt Foil revs up your highlight with its intense foil sheen—and thanks to its vibrant shade lineup, you get the perfect pops of chrome colour for face, eyes, collarbone… literally anywhere you crave a touch of light.
Like the bestselling Killawatt you know and love, Killawatt Foil keeps skin lit beyond sundown with its weightless longwear formula — a cream-powder hybrid that instantly melts into skin and blends with almost zero effort. Another win: It’s loaded with extra fine, ultra-smooth shimmer to make all your hyper-metallic gleams come true.
In their description, they also state that this product is permanent and part of Fenty’s ‘core range’, but that the packaging is limited edition. I assume that this means Fenty will eventually replace these to be more in line with their usual brand packaging.
Packaging
And speaking of packaging, this is the limited edition one that I picked up at the product’s launch! This comes in a metallic rose-gold box with a very bright and summer-y design. I like how the entire collection is branded and packaged, but I do prefer the matte black and soft pink of their usual products.
That being said, the actual compact of these is essentially the same as their Killawatt Duo Highlighters. It comes in a white octagonal compact with two pans inside, embossed with the logo. It also features a full size mirror that is suitable for touch ups on the go. The only visible difference between this and the original is that it is silver inside, as well as on the clasp outside.
I also think that they improved the closure on this compact, though I can’t figure out where it is. I just find this one a lot easier to open than the original Killawatt Highlighter – which I have almost jabbed my finger into a few times.
Application & Personal Experiences
I love this colour combination the best out of the three; I’m particularly partial to bright colours to be honest, and this has a beautiful metallic magenta that’s very unique in my collection. The orange is also beautiful in that it has it lovely foiled, metallic finish (similar to the hourglass metallic highlighters) that looks so good on the skin. It is a more creamy sort of formula, so I find that you need to build it up if you want to use it as an eyeshadow – it doesn’t have the sort of powdery formula that you need for higher pigmentation.
I don’t mind this for this particular product though because it means that this is really easy to use on the cheeks. This doesn’t work as a highlight on me (though I think the orange would look great on deeper skin tones) but I like to use them as a blush! It gives me a very brightened complexion, while the metallic finish gives the cheeks a very healthy glow. You can use them alone, but I actually swipe my blush brush over both pans to create a sort of gradient.
Overall, I would consider this a buildable product – the general pigmentation is great for cheek application (whether it is highlight or a blush) but it can be built up as an eyeshadow. For myself, I find this difficult to use it alone as a shadow because I like to build up a lot more dimension on my eyes – even if I use both the pink and the orange, I feel like they’re too similar in brightness (though the colour combination is pretty).
I find that I use it a lot more as a blush – since the formula is originally a highlighter it is more suitable for this. If I am using it as an eyeshadow, I will generally use it along with another palette. The good thing with this duo is that it’s compact, so easy to carry around to touch up. You’ll also really like this if you like to do a single wash of colour over the eyes.
The formula is very creamy and easy to blend – there is no patchiness here even if you build it up a lot. I find that it wears pretty well too, especially on the cheeks, but will fade a little bit on the eyes by the end of the day. A primer will generally fix that up though.
So, here’s the verdict!
SO WHAT IS IT?
A metallic, cream-powder hybrid highlighting duo that can also be used as a cheek or eye product
THE GOOD
- Beautifully vibrant shades
- Overall shade range suits a variety of skin tones
- Improved closure on the packaging
- Metallic finish gives skin a healthy glow
- Buildable colour with no patchiness
- Highly blendable and creamy texture
- Compact and suitable to carry around for touch ups
THE BAD
- Limited colours (the two in this duo are similar in brightness so it is difficult to create dimension)
- Needs to be quite built up for eyeshadow
- Relatively expensive
RATINGS
- PACKAGING | 4/5
- PRICE POINT | 3/5
- PIGMENTATION | 4/5
- BLENDABILITY | 5/5
- COLOUR RANGE | 3/5
OVERALL RATING? 7.6/10
WOULD I RECOMMEND?
I enjoy having this in my collection and I don’t regret buying it, but I don’t feel like I get as much use out of it as I do the original highlighting formula (probably because these don’t suit my eye make up style as well as I hoped) so I don’t think that this is an essential.
However, I do enjoy the product though so I would recommend that people check this out in person and decide if it will fit well into your own make up routine. These colours especially are pretty unique so, if you’re after a vibrant blush, then you may like this duo!
WHERE TO GET IT FROM
Australians can get this at Sephora, but it is also available at Fenty Beauty.
